[JEFF_CHAN]

So my roommates and I decided to try out that new AYCE (all you can eat) Sushi place down Main Street (where Charlie West used to be). The experience... well... "disappointing" seems to be putting it lightly...

I've already had a friend try it out and gave me a really brief review. In short: food was good, service wasn't. I wasn't really willing to go, but my roommates insisted on trying the place out. Plus it's much closer than the AYCE Japanese place we usually go to (August 8).

I can't really comment on the prices. Dinner prices are pretty close to that of Sapporo and August 8. I mean it's give or take a dollar or so (I haven't been to Sapporo in 2 years so I can't remember the exact prices). Service charges were not included in the bill (some AYCE places do that), which is a plus. You can control how much or how little you want to tip them.

The atmosphere wasn't bad. I'm not going to go into details with this. I thought the food was pretty good. There were a few ups and downs (I'll get into that later) but there wasn't anything that tasted comparatively awful to other AYCE places.



The service was basically the real problem with the experience.

Now my friend already told me that the service wasn't that great before I tried it myself. He blamed it on it being a new restaurant and the servers and cooks still needs to take time to 'adjust'. Which I would understand if it was just a few forgotten orders or some slow service. This was pretty mindnumbingly bad.

Five of the seven members of our group might not look like it, but we can eat, well, a lot. At this point I'm used to going to a Japanese place and having the first thing we order be at least 60 pieces of salmon sashimi or something. Well this time wasn't any different.

Now, I've worked at an AYCE place before and my family owns one. Even if it wasn't a Japanese place I still have a general idea of how many AYCE places operate. I mean it's pretty obvious why it's a bad idea to serve food to people if you don't think they are capable of finishing it. I've been told to deliberately slash or mark down orders before too.

We ordered at least 80 pieces of unagi sushi. We got a plate of 8. It's one thing to maybe cut the order in half, or maybe even 3/4ths if the customers have been seated long. It's another to give us about 10% of what we ordered when we haven't even eaten anything. It's not like they could've misread it; the second digit was pretty clear. It also seems like they threw out arbitrary numbers of the stuff we ordered and called it a day. 60 pieces of Salmon sashimi somehow got changed to 8.

Quantity wasn't even as much as an issue as the speed of the service itself. In the first hour that we've sat down, only about 8 plates of food actually arrived. And again, it wasn't as if it they were large quantities of food. Sushi and sashimi came in 8 pieces each. Stuff like the chicken skewers came in fewer numbers than the amount of people we had. In the first hour we sat there, some of us were lucky to have more than 4 pieces of anything to eat.

Another group of people sat down after we did. They had more people in their group. They got their food before we did.

It wasn't until my roommate complained that we weren't getting our orders that the manager (I think), came, apologized, and said he would handle it.
After that we got some food. It still wasn't enough to fill anyone in the table up. We also got a ton of misplaced orders and stuff we never ordered.

At around the 2 hour mark, none of us were full either. I think they were really trying to push us out at this point since they started taking orders for ice cream or whatever. We still haven't gotten most of the food we ordered or a decent explanation of why or whether or not it was actually coming. The manager (I think) wasn't anywhere to be seen. We finally left after being there for 2.5 hours.

Now as far as the actual quality of the service, some random observations included:
- We only got offered refills for water once. In the entire 2.5 hours we've sat there.
- The "second group" I mentioned earlier kept calling for a server. Some server kept going to our table to take away plates but completely ignored the other table. I tried to point it out that the table next to us was calling them twice. It's not part of my experience but it took five minutes for someone to realize a table needed something despite passing by them twice.
- They took our ice cream orders, but completely ignored my roommate before leaving
- When my roommate asked to have his order of ice cream taken. He asked for three scoops. They gave him two. In separate cups. Then left before he can ask what happened to the third one...

[Mazer]

KASA SUSHI - where you're lucky to get 25% of your order.

Going here marked the first time in history I did not tip at all. KASA Sushi simply does not take their customers seriously. Even after issuing specific complaints 4 times, and being assured that we would be taken care of, the vast majority of our orders were still ignored. We received food so rarely that when something DID arrive, it was consumed barbarically in less than 3 seconds (this is not an exaggeration). Unless of course it was some bizarre dish we never ordered in the first place (which happened a lot). Servers clearly have no respect for or interest in satisfying their customers, and you'd better talk quickly because they have a habit of disappearing while you're in mid-sentence. Getting what you want at KASA Sushi is like pulling teeth; difficult and painful. "All You Can Eat" is such a disgustingly inaccurate label for this restaurant that they deserve to be sued in court for false advertising.

[Cliu91]

I simply re ordered and reordered until last call. I eventually got all my food.

[gOOCHTOPHER]

ive been to kasha twice on weeknights
i havent been to a whole lot of these ayce places, but at the last one i went to you ordered the exact number of pieces you wanted
so the first time at kasha we tried this and all they did was send 1 "order" of everything in which the type of order dictates the number of pieces you get generally being 4-8
they tried to explain this to us a couple times until one guy who could actually speak decent english came along

i only went on weekdays when it wasnt so busy and the service was still clearly subpar
it took 30 min for 13 people to get icecream

however they do have some fantastic deepfried rolls that are worth a 2h+ dinner

[Cliu91]

Oh, and I went during lunch... at $13.99 mon-thurs, I go with my girlfriend and everything is good

[Haddadios]

I agree with your review, it's pretty well done. However, that was at the beginning, I live in building itself and being a lazy bum I often go for dinner at Kasa, in the beginning I must admit, the service was horrible, and it would take an hour to get one or two things that you ordered the moment you sat down. Since I eat alone, the servers usually know me by now, but from what I've noticed around the restaurant, there are new servers now, that's for a start, and the food is served much faster than the beginning, as you mentioned water refills I've also noticed that there is at any given time at least one server with a jug walking around to fill glasses of water, and that wasn't available at the beginning. It has gained in quality of service, but still needs more work.

[fat~fat]

One of the worst restaurants I have ate at, and the staff always bring food that you didn't even order. Plus, the service is non-existent, the waiters don't even respond when you call for them. We had a coupon which I just downloaded from Valpak.com before heading to the restaruant. However, the staff went to discuss about the coupon for at least 5 mins and kept making excuses to make the coupon invalid. The coupon is suppose to offer $5 off (we got it per person the other time we went). In the end, after giving us four different excuses, the guy promised to give 1$ off per person. But then, when the final bill came, NOT EVEN A SINGLE PENNY OF DISCOUNT. Honestly, I really dont care about the discount, but it is their false advertising that pisses me off. I have been tolerating their customer services everytime I go. I go very often with my friends like at least 6 times a month. But this time, it went over the limit....... Dont go to this place, or else u will regret for sure.

[alh24]

Every time my friends and I are going out to eat and I suggest trying this place, they share an awful experience from a time they went there. Thanks for all the reviews, guys. It sounds like I should stop suggesting it.

[JEFF_CHAN]

I went to AUGUST 8 again a few days ago.

We sat down, ordered 80 pieces of unagi sushi.
They came to us, confirmed our order and that we knew we'd have to pay extras for leftovers
gave half our order
came back and confirmed whether or not we still want our other half
then gave us our other half


That there, is good AYCE Sushi service. Not this Kasa bullshit where they tell you nothing, confirm nothing, give you basically nothing, and slash orders before you've actually eaten.



@Haddadios, it's good to know that their service is improving. Frankly, though, I don't think I'm ready to try Kasa again for at least another year (if at all, I've boycotted places for less)... Let alone any of the people I went with.

[TheCheese]

I live just down the street from Kasa, so I go there quite a bit with my girlfriend. In my experience, the best way to get around the horrible service is to complain a little bit about the slow service near the beginning of your meal. We've done this a few times (out of honest frustration) and they tend to pay more attention to you after that. They'll actually bring you all your food (more or less) at once! What a concept....

If you're thinking of going out for sushi and you have time to kill (ie. weekend sushi dates), take the time to go to SPRING SUSHI on Upper James. Excellent service, much better sushi and a larger and more varied menu. Plus, they are the same price on weekends and weekdays and actually CHEAPER THAN KASA! (How to get student attention 101: put "Cheap" in large letters). Take the bus: 05/10/51 to the downtown terminal or Main @ Hughson, walk to the stop on James street and hop Route 27 up the mountain. Get off at Upper James @ Regina and bam, its right beside you. Take my word for it, you won't regret the trip!

[Dopematic]

If you're craving AYCE sushi, don't settle for this place. Go to August 8 or Sapporo if you don't mind taking a quick bus ride (or driving). Otherwise, this place isn't that bad. The service is a little shady but the food is pretty decent.

[AgentTMa]

i been there recently a few weeks ago. its pree decent. was there at around 8:30pm after working on a group project all day with some friends. price is decent and food is not bad. really liking the oriental atmosphere

[renomonae]

it's aiight!

[natevee]

everyone hates on kasa but its close and its decent so whatever