HOCKEY SUSHI

Been there twice, the first time my girlfriend and I had a 35 min wait, not too bad considering the place was packed, so it must be good.

We sit down, order drinks. Er.. Attempt to.

"Can I have a coke and my gf will have a gingerale"
Waitress: "1 coke...one... what was it again?"
I repeat myself
Waitress: "Got it, 1 ginger ale, 1 sprite"
No, I wanted Coke
Waitress:"Ohh ok ok ok 1 coke 1nd 1 gingerale"
Yes

She brought us two sprites.

We didn't care, but it was a bad start to the evening.

The service was very sketchy and they would often ignore us. When we did order however the food came very quickly and tasted amazing.

The cost was $19.99 each for all you can eat, drinks included.

Very tasty quality food. We were very satisfied. However, be aware; you pay for uneaten food at regular price.

An elderly couple that were situated near us had a lot of left over food, their bill was suppose to be only around $40-$50 but because of all the uneaten food the bill was $100-$110.


4.5/5 because the food is what makes the restaurant. Service is a bit spotty and the bill is sketchy so you need to be aware.

Hockey Sushi is a good place to go for dinner when you want to stuff your face. The atmosphere isn't too amazing,and I've been to nicer sushi places.

It's always really busy, and waiting for over 20 minutes isn't unusual. I'm pretty sure they take reservations, but I actually have never considered doing it, because we always go when we have a craving.

One time we went for lunch which has an all you can eat menu for about $15. Don't go unless you don't like sashimi. Sashimi isn't on the menu for lunchtime. We actually didn't even stay.

The all you can eat menu is $19.95 and is usually worth it if you fill up on expensive items like sashimi. The chicken teriyaki is pretty good, along with the mushroom beef rolls, fried chicken u-don, and shrimp tempura.

The main problem here (like the other menu) is that some of the servers do not speak English very well. I sometimes ask 3 times for something before getting it, or it will come 2 minutes before we want to leave. Tea sometimes doesn't come for awhile.

The all you can eat comes with dessert which is your choice of vanilla, red bean or green tea ice cream. The one time I actually wanted it they were out of both vanilla and green tea. I wasn't up for red bean that night, so I was a bit disappointed.

They do add a gratuity onto the menu, like stated in the other review, so be careful for that.

Pros:
Decent food, if you can fill up enough.
Good variety for sushi lovers and maybe not lovers alike.
Always busy (I suppose that's a good thing!)

Cons:
Always busy (make a reso)
Takes awhile sometimes/some confusion with servers
Sneaky with payment

Note: They will charge you for food that you don't eat! This has never happened to me, but I've heard that if you say order 5 pieces of sushi and don't eat it, they will charge you for the 5 pieces on top of your regular bill, so watch out!

OK, now that I've got your attention, here's why I ask.

* updated June 22 -- see below *

The servers don't seem to understand much English. None of them, it seems. We ordered 3 salads, and none arrived. When we asked where they were, she brought us extra dressing. For no salads.

The food is prepared fresh, and there's a big selection of Japanese food. I don't eat sushi, and there was plenty for me. Except for the eggshells in the fried rice, it was all pretty good.

Here's a good one. They offer chicken fried rice, beef fried rice, or shrimp fried rice. I asked for plain fried rice without any meat. Nope. They can't do that. Just like Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces. No toast!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Easy_Pieces

Every server there does the one most annoying thing I hate about any restaurant - they're literally walking away while you're giving your order. Like whatever you have to say is not as important as what they want to do. You tend to even forget what it is you're trying to say.

So, for service, I rate 1 star. For food, 4 stars. For value 3.5 stars

== UPDATE ==

We went back, this time for the dinner buffet. Our server did speak English, so that was better (she might be the only one there). Still, service not so great. They forgot to bring us many things we ordered and we had to ask again.

Another funny moment. Asked for steamed white rice. Nope not available. Not on the menu. OK, how about Chicken Teriyaki Don, then? Sure, no problem. What is it? Slices of chicken teriyaki ... ON STEAMED WHITE RICE.

But the place was packed. So the food is good. And in the end, that's often what's most important.

One annoyance: it did say in fine print on the menu that they would charge 10% service charge, but I would have expected it clearly on the bill. Instead it was simply lumped in with the taxes as an add-on, so if you weren't careful, you'd tip 25% instead of 15%. Watch your bill and find that calculator function on your cellphone.

I'm upping the rating to a full 3 stars because the service was better this time.