Tried the saba sushi today too. Unfortunately I have to agree the rice cooking was inconsistent and even the slicing of the fish was uneven, some pieces were wider than others by almost twice as much. Kinda seemed like someone just threw it together which is a shame for the price I was expecting it to at least give me some sense of nostalgia to eating amazing saba sushi in Japan but was quite letdown.
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Yup. What a shame. Was the rice overcooked to you?
This is the word to describe an inordinate number of bites I’ve had here. Yes, certain dishes do shine, but the food here is too 'hit-or-miss" for a restaurant of its caliber (exhibit A: Good saba, but subpar rice). Drinking here is fun, though. Maybe after the pandemic…
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The hint of citrus in the eel is probably sansho powder, which I don’t see a lot of on yours.
I love me some Shibumi when she loves me, but she’s a very inconsistent lover. I had a few of those kind of affairs when I was a single man, and it was a very painful way to play the game.
a classic Sergio-in-the-house issue?
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It may be a Sergio actually not quite Sergio-level issue.
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Last night, I emailed Shibumi and gave them feedback in regards to only pure technical problems @JLee and I encountered with their rice consistency, rice falling apart, and uneven fish slices. This morning, David Schlosser personally responded and was very apologetic. Here’s a copy of his response:
Hi moonboy403,
I am completely responsible for not monitoring enough the quality of each dish leaving the building. After training with Masa Takayama I am very embarrassed you had this experience. I would like to fully comp you and your friends food. On Monday, I will look further into the matter.
Being closed for three months is no excuse. I deeply apologize and hope to remedy this as quickly as possible.
Thank you very much for your feedback,
David
I’m on the fence about the refund since they must be struggling financially as is. What are your thoughts FTC’ers? Also, @JLee can PM me and let me know if you wanna go ahead or give me thoughts on your refund.
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What a gracious note. You can really respect a chef with that response.
I forgot to mention that one of my saba slices had bones in it. I was mildly displeased and forgot all about it when I wrote my notes.
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The beef here is very good!
A sincere and timely reply - that was nice of Chef Schlosser.
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Im not interested in a refund, I’d rather know that he will make it better and give us an amazing product. I’ll wait and see.
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We incurred some of the same rice issues as you. Pulling out the first 2 pieces proved difficult with it falling apart.
Agree on the tomago being the best of all the items ordered.
The ginger we got didn’t look anything like yours. Our were more dark in color.
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Gotcha. I’ll let him know that we’ll simply look forward to seeing better products in the future when we return.
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Ha! I was trying to scrap together and salvage what I could with pile of rice that fell onto the table in the park!
Yeah, that’s no good. So sorry that your expectations were let down.
No bueno
Yes, but I don’t think we had fish slicing issues. If I was going to compare, I was much more excited and impressed with our Sushi Ii experience.
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Just a perspective.
It depends on how much each of you care about Shibumi (or other restaurants in your area going through the same predicaments) and whether you want them to / they succeed or not through this crisis.
Quite a few of you out there are and/or consider yourselves influential, and there are also people who lurk on this board, from folks who do wield influence and/or are connected to the restaurant industry and read what we all say.
So sometimes what you say or do (e.g. how you react to unpleasantness in your food) or do can make or break someone’s success and morale.
If this is the first time they are launching takeout, they are probably not used to this transition just yet. Maybe they have never made bousushi to go ever, unlike for example Sushi Ii’s Sergio who has been doing it for years at Kasen Fountain Valley at the prior restaurant (and probably something chef learned when he was training in kappo ryori / kaiseki or sushi in Kansai) so even if he closed shop in between, he still has memory and experience from making it. At Kasen, if I remember correctly, battera was something that the Japanese expats always ordered for takeout in advance, some even buying it to eat on the plane (bousushi was something I don’t think was available at the time, but for someone who understands the basics, it’s not hard to transition to offer that as well and make it to a pleasing degree).
There are also places that while they have transitioned to takeout, can have an off day…even if Sergio is the only one doing it. Naturally it is always going to be night vs day when even daring to compare dine in vs takeout (and in many cases apples to oranges). Sergio will always have an occasional or more off day. In that case, what does one do? It’s also harder to get good fish from Japan, but hopefully that will improve. For the places I truly care about, I will continue to patronize them to build morale, and to help keep them afloat, even if the food is not stellar that day, or at times notably not so good (heck I can always try to find a great wine or sake to make it more enjoyable together to an extent). For the days they are really off, I feel bad for them… sometimes a preparation goes wrong, or the fish didn’t turn out good but they still need to make money and pay the rent and their people. Move on, or come back another time.
I personally would not take the refund, and wait a little bit and come back again to retry.
If there has been improvement, I’d come back to the board and repeat it to spread the good word, especially if there is upward bound consistency if there is visit #3 and more. But at the same time I’m not downplaying the lack of attention to detail for rice preparation, bones, scales, or the aged pickled ginger being far too fibrous. Sergio deserves the feedback, at least to build longevity and as a baseline to keep customers returning. What he does with it, and how, is entirely up to him.
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Well said.
Yup, I hear ya. I already replied and thanked him for his gracious response and that I look forward to my next experience there.
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