DH Anonymous

HA! Well I guess I've had more lopsided greetings. You're welcome.

Clay213, the passion that rating food ignites must have its roots all the way back to the cave.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Clay213 Anonymous

People on this site sure do take restaurant reviews way too seriously.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

DC Anonymous

I have no special interest in the place other than it's another nearby sushi joint.

I'd agree with you that the volcano roll wasn't that great.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

DH Anonymous

I'll be happy to oblige with specifics. The tuna wasn't as fresh as it could be. It had a definite "fishy" odor which I never get elsewhere. The volcano roll was hardly deserving of the name. Not covered in "lava", just sort of sprinkled with something forgettable. The rice was more al dente than the sticky that I like.

Seriously, I'm surprised that someone with your obvious culinary experience bothers to defend the place. Am I treading on a site's sacred cow? (Pardon the mixing of metaphors)

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

DC Anonymous

Interesting. What was your problem with the place? I agree it isn't mind blowing, but for mid range downtown sushi, they've done well in our couple of visits. Specific fish? Cut? Temp? Rice?

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

DH Anonymous

Food: 3/5  Vibe: 3/5  Service: 3/5  Value: 3/5  Overall: 3/5

Hopefully you all won't jump the "new kid" for pulling this thread back on topic.

I don't have a comment about the take-out policy but I am a little disappointed in the quality of the sushi. To my taste it was just average. Frankly I'd rather have the Williams Chicken store back in that space but I do understand that the overhead was probably a little much for them.

I think it's a crap location for a place that doesn't rank in the stellar category. It's a shame because downtown has little enough in the way of good eateries within easy walking distance.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Billusa99 Anonymous

Picking 'EmilyPost' would be a stupid coincidence. Picking 'EmilyPerson' and talking about downtown Dallas sounds "hmmmmmmmm..." to me, too.

BUT... There's a really easy way for Peg to confirm if EP here is just blowing smoke that she isn't the EP from downtown Dallas who now posts here: http://emilyjanepearson.wordpress.com/

EP at that site says she has been in Australia for the past 3 days. She registered here on the 24th and posted in the past 2 days here. Just "WhoIs" the logged IPs and get back to us, Mikey. 'K?

Maybe this can be another "Gregory's!"
;-)

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

DC Anonymous

Well, in the interest of investigative eating, I had one of my minions call them for some take out just now and specifically ask about the take out surcharge.

The report: Sushi Ya staff state no charges for take out.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

xdavidwattsx Anonymous

Hmm..suspicious.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

EmilyPearson Anonymous

Yes, I followed your link and got the same result. It is a funny coincidence. I pulled the user name for this site right out of the air, trying to think of the most unlikely one I could imagine. Maybe some kind of wierd karmic conection.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

EmilyPearson Anonymous

Oh, my! Sorry, not me.Thanks for asking, though. Guess I should be more careful picking a user name.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

EmilyPearson Anonymous

Don't worry, Scott, I don't feel picked on and I don't intend to be a veteran on this forum.

My intent is to provide an alternate opinion to one that I found suspiciously effervescent and to complain about a practice that I feel is petty.

As an owner since before Downtown was cool, I welcome any and all to come down and visit. We enjoy watching the lines form anywhere they may and appreciate the business as well as the entertainment.

Anyone interested in competing in the Downtown sushi market, come on down, the bar is pretty low. Or maybe the game is Limbo.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

DC Anonymous

Good, good, keep going with this. Without the inflection button on the site, it's hard to know if EP is serious.

It's not that no one's commented on a review before, it's just been a while.

Since EP's not familiar with the other nearby similar priced Sushi places, I suggest she check out the kitchen at Sushi Japan for a comparison of hot space. I like Sushi Japan, too, but I think they'd do better with a larger / renovated kitchen.

I am fairly certain I didn't have a 20% charge on my take out as I do look over my bill each time. I would protest the same. However, it's not unheard of to charge on take out no matter how stupid. Check out Ten for a downtown example. I also suggest EP never visits Miami.

As far as my opinion of Deep Sushi goes, my review stands and looking at the other recent user reviews, seems not much has changed.

My favorite part of this comment was when she tells me that I try to subvert the topic to price, but in the next sentence complains about surcharges. Greatness.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

EmilyPearson Anonymous

A hundred is not billions and they are less reviews than amusing anecdotes.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

xdavidwattsx Anonymous

"Well, you don't do many restaurant reviews, so it's not unusual that you haven't been called out. "

Hah, is that a joke? Cause it's funny even if it's not intended to be one. Pretty sure DC has about a billion more reviews than EP.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

EmilyPearson Anonymous

Well, you don't do many restaurant reviews, so it's not unusual that you haven't been called out.

1) How does a tiny hole-in the-wall take out chicken place translate into a spacious kitchen? It doesn't sound like you have been in many of the kitchens downtown. Maybe when you've been around longer.

2) For someone who admits they don't think Dallas has much of a restaurant scene, I'm surprised you've been to Deep Sushi at all. Your comment will surprise many who have.

For someone who complained about the prices at The Porch, I find your ad hominem comment about my pocketbook quite amusing.

I reiterate, if Sushiya wants to establish precedent by being the only restaurant downtown that adds a 20% surcharge for takeout, then they ought to display that fact prominently on their menu.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

DC Anonymous

I like this - it's been a while since someone's called me out on a review.

1) there actually is an advantage to the place being a former chicken joint: real kitchen space. Look closely at a few other places downtown to see what the chef is working with on the hot stations.

2) Deep Sushi? Seriously? Well, if there's been some radical changes there, I'll have to give it a second look, but according to previous visits it was bad to mediocre at best and as such never returned. I really don't even bother keeping them on the radar, so if there's something excellent there, I'll check on it.

It appears EP's problems are largely pocketbook related; sign of the economic times, I guess.

3 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

EmilyPearson Anonymous

Food: 3/5  Vibe: 3/5  Service: 3/5  Value: 2/5  Overall: 3/5

I am not going to comment on the above comment other than to say it smacks of fraud. The restaurant is built into an old Williams Chicken location and they made the best of what they had. As for the sushi, it is average at best and not a good value for the price. An all around better restaurant is Deep Sushi a few blocks to the East. You'll be especially disappointed when you order take-out and suffer the 20% surcharge for your effort. If I'm expected to tip the chef for preparing my food, then I will take my business to a place that pays their help a little more.

3 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

DC Anonymous

Food: 4/5  Vibe: 4/5  Service: 4/5  Value: 4/5  Overall: 4/5

We had each been on slightly different itineraries, so when she got back in to Dallas, it was time to re-organize. She was flying in later on a Thursday night, so I thought that I would pick up some snacks. My initial thought was to call Oishii, but excessive wait, you know. Instead I thought what about Sushi Ya? Yeah, that’s the ticket. I mean, if you do Sushi -space- Ya, it says sushi store right in the title. What we found was that all you middle priced sushi joints, yeah, that’s you Zen, hell even Oishii, have now been put on notice.

Back to Thursday night, though. I pulled on to Elm and snagged the single meter right outside the door. I presume you can park in the City Park Tower that is immediately next to the restaurant, but I felt wary about that somehow. I really can’t say why, but whatever, here I was parking my own car. No stupid valet. Hmm…this was looking up.

The restaurant is shaped like a backwards L, with the sushi bar on the short end and a long drinking bar on the right. The back wall has a gold tinted covering textured with kanji that I really cannot make out, but it looks pretty cool. I toss myself on to a seat at the bar. Strange. Either it’s a short seat, a tall counter or I shrank. There’s also a big screen TV across the bar. I wish at least one place in Dallas could do without the retarded mandatory TV, but it is on Euro 2008, so I can deal with it.

Looking around, I see the wait staff are just how I like them: Asian girls with irregular teeth and interesting tattoos. Things are looking promising.

The menu is a stain proof laminated deal. I’d call the selection acceptable if not necessarily mind blowing. The sake list is reasonable – maybe even a little thoughtful. Sure, there’s an 18 liter box of hot sake at the bar, but no sense putting Junmai Daiginjo into your sake bombs.

I order up a few items to go: spider roll, scallop hand roll, salmon and one cliché the TUNA TOWER! While the chef gets to work, I have a friendly chat with an Asian man who presumably is the owner/manager/who knows what. He offers me some rice crackers and an Asahi black while I wait.

Orders up and time to go. Back home, in the fridge and out to DFW. She and I made our exact pick up, but I wasn’t watching on the way out and went to one of the ‘non Toll Tag’ booths. Never done this before – I guess I just thought there’s a reader at all of them, sort of like on the actual tollway. Nope, $17 for an 85 second trip through the airport. There’s some number to call, but not like they’re answering.

Despite about 40 minutes fridge time, the food’s decent. I mean, the spider roll has the requisite crab, but comes with a mild oyster style sauce. The crab itself is lightly fried and still retains some meatiness.

The chop-chop also was really well done. The scallop came across despite the slightly spicy sauce. I think that they managed not to kill the thing with mayo which really helped.

Even the usually stupid tuna tower is really tasty. I appreciated that despite the take out, there were 4 kinds of roe in the package. I think it was simply a lack of imagination that I ordered this in the first place, but like high grade toilet paper, it was a pleasant surprise.

It was looking like we’d need to make an excursion.

The next night we threw together a crew for a downtown event. Six of us packed clown style in to a Saab and left the car by the federal court house. Proposed activity: ride bus thing to City Arts Festival, see what happens.

It’s hot. Really. Considering we’d recently been in cities like Minneapolis and Chicago, the sting of the heat bouncing off the cement felt like having your skin peeled off tangerine style. Perhaps it would be more concise to call Dallasites “Human Donairs”.

Oh well, we sweat and drink some Farhenugenoggin Froot Loops flavored beer while checking out some twenty dollar spoon rests. Pretty awesome. We saw some Reverend HH, but I don’t think I heard “Bales of Cocaine.”

We jumped back on the short bus for the trip back down Field, when it was time for SUSHI YA. It’s much better when you yell it: ”SUSHI YA!” It certainly seemed so at the time anyway.

We took a table across from the sushi bar and started perusing the offerings. The sushi chef basically leaned over and yelled out at us something like “HEY WAT YOU WANT?!” I was loving this place now. We start throwing back orders to him and he gets to work. Our waitress actually had a total of zero eye rolls during this process. We had several sushi pieces and a combination plate and each piece came across as fresh: hints of the sea without a back story involving the dead fish tank of a gulf coast shrimper. Nicely done. The sushi chef has some reasonable knife skills, too, as I see the flakes of each fish carefully displayed and managed for both aesthetics and easy eating.

Details work out, too. The sushi rice was excellent. It’s slightly sticky without being chunky and it well compliments each slice of sea creature. I didn’t get the feeling it was in the rice cooker on ‘reheat’ for the last couple of days.

The volcano roll wasn’t really up to par with the rest of the meal, I’ll say. The crab wasn’t really there for us and the sauce needed some work. Back for a re-write on that one.

Hell, I even go for a tempura udon. A few of you may all ready know this, so I might as well say it outright: I’m working on my Kyushu style ramen skills on a serious level and I hope later this year to study more extensively in the mountains again.

So, I’m a little hypercritical about noodles overall. However, this bowl at SUSHIYA!!! was actually pretty decent. The tempura wasn’t corn dog style like some other places I won’t mention here, but it was actually crispy outside of the soup. The broth was a mild to moderate soy style, that although not my personal favorite type, was nicely done. If you’re downtown and have been doing some moderate imbibing, this soup would be a good choice. Sure, you’d probably enjoy it sober, too.

We conclude the evening over more local politicking and general bawdy behavior and settle our tabs. Damages? About $30 a person including drinks. You could probably have a decent snack here for $20 and go home happy.

I like the place. The staff is friendly, the food’s good and the overall vibe’s pretty relaxed. I’d suggest they turn off the stupid top 40 and maybe throw on some Armin van Buuren or DJ Krush to top it off.

So, the gauntlet’s down for another season of Dallas sushi wars. I don’t put SUSHIYA at Teppo level mostly for the expansive sake and robata that SUSHIYA just isn’t at, but let’s say ZEN – you’re a prime target. She and I have been threatening to do the definitive ZEN dinner, so it looks like it’s going to have to happen before we’re back at DFW departures.

3 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )