Toyo sushi was recommended to me by a local sushi chef. A look at their website had me excited. It claimed “Sushi Like in Japan”. The menu and everything else looked good so I booked it and made sure to specify we wanted a seat at the sushi bar. If the sushi was like Japan, that’s where you want to sit. Things went wrong from the moment we arrived. They had a table for us. When I told them we wanted to the sushi bar, the lady who greeted us went to have some discussion with another lady, and then came back to say they would clear/clean a spot at the bar. After finally being seated, without any greeting from the chef behind the counter, I saw the fresh board which excited me to eat at this place again – temporarily.
We started by ordering omakase and a bottle of sake. When the sake came, the server put the bottle down in front of us and walked away. No opening the bottle no pour. Very odd. Then we watched the chef prepare the omakse. The problem was the place serves it all at once on a tray. Not piece by piece like they do in Japan or any other top sushi place I have been to outside Japan. Many chefs take pride in explaining each piece, making sure you eat it at the right temperature etc. This cannot be done well if it is not served piece by piece. Its not “sushi like in Japan”.
When the order was done, it say on the counter for a long time even though the chef could of just passed it to us. The chef called for service and it was ignored. I finally asked our server if the sushi sitting on the counter was ours and she said yes. To my surprise, she still did not pick up the order. After some time, she finally went to the trays, took a long time to wipe them down and then served us.
The rice was ok, but not everything was fresh. The scallops did not taste fresh at all. The blue fin tuna and uni WERE good. The rice was just OK. The place did not use real wasabi. There was no explanation of whether we should add soy sauce or if they had already added it. There was no tamago at the end or other items which typically signify the end of an omakase sushi meal. THIS WAS FROM FROM “Sushi like in Japan”. The torched abalone had no torched flavor and the abalone had a lot of tendons. We also ordered two of the uni nigiris from Japan to do our own tasting with the local uni.
After we finished our meal, we waited to see how long it would take to clear our setting. Eventually we got tired of waiting and just asked for the check.
This place has some potential, but in its current form, is good if you live in the neighborhood and not as a destination. I would not go back. Only the blue fin and uni were good. Those are hard to screw up. The service is non-existent. I think that if someone is ordering uni and omakase, the chef and server should pick up on that and take it as an opportunity to showcase their food to someone who is going to appreciate is. From a business point of view, they can also ask if you want more alcohol or push higher end/fresh catch ingredients to make more $. I dont understand places that go into business, and then have zero passion for what they are doing, and dont even have interest in making more $.