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Sushi Tokyo, Disappointed at First, but a Believer Once Again!by Jennifer Ordway |
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I have lived in the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle since arriving in the city in February 2005. Shortly after moving here, my fiance and I discovered a delightful sushi restaurant on Roosevelt Way named Sushi Tokyo. At my first bite, I was in love! And not only was the sushi was amazing, but the service was attentive and the price more than reasonable. The cozy restaurant seemed to be family-owned and run, which contributed to a friendly atmosphered that I enjoyed supporting. We frequented this restaurant at least once a week even as my fiance moved briefly to California. Towards the end of summer, my fiance moved back to Seattle and our love affair with our little sushi joint began to turn for the worse. First, our normal waitress, the one that was so nice and anticipated our every need, abruptly disappeared. The new waitress was not nearly as helpful and we were forced to reward this decrease in service with higher prices on the menu. To make matters worse, our new waitress charged us over $10 more than the amount that the prices had increased! Given this experience, we were a bit disconcerted, but we loved the sushi, and it was so close to our place, and it had been so consistently wondeful in the past. We continued our regular sushi eating patterns. A few months passed, and the new waitress got a bit better. She was not up to par with the original waitress - we were oftentimes left with empty water glasses, and our order was sometimes a little off - but we aren't too picky. Starting with when we visited Sushi Tokyo with some friends, the service began to get increasingly slow. Still, we continued on. We then arrived at the restaurant one evening to discover there was a new chef training with our usual sushi master. What had stayed consistent throughout all the turmoil of the previous months, the quality that kept us coming back, was the skilled hand of the sushi chef. Throughout all the troubles, the food had remained delicious! I was a little suspicious of this new chef, but he was training with our guy. No one could have been a better example. The last good thing about the place was the food and now it was being threatened! The next time we went, the sushi had all the wrong flavors and it seemed as though important ingredients were missing. I couldn't believe it. Then, the final straw: we went to Sushi Tokyo tonight, December 8, 2005, and our chef was gone, no doubt having fallen into the same abyss that swallowed our waitress months ago. Our service was slow, the waitress was rude and the food was horrible. The rice was similar to "supermarket sushi" rice, the meat tasted old and rubbery, and the sauces were completely different and artificial-tasting. Perhaps I should have expected as much, but I was shocked. Tonight I decided, then and there, to end my affair with Sushi Tokyo. UPDATE: One day, in the summer of 2006, my husband and I walked by Sushi Tokyo since we live in the neighborhood. We peeked inside and saw our favorite chef! We decided to give the place a try again. Afterall, we loved it so much before all the problems began in 2005. We were a little nervous as we walked in, but thankfully, our service was ok and the food was great! I don't know what happened during those few bad months in 2005, but Sushi Tokyo is back. I began recommending the sushi to everyone I know and it has become one of my favorite restaurants again.
Sushi Tokyo |
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