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2008-07-21
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A brand new Itacho Sushi opened in the newly renovated Jusco Department Store here in Quarry Bay. With the recent health scare and several other new establishments opened on the same floor as sole competitors for the lunching crowd, Itacho made no mistakes locating upfront right next to McDonald's. Aside from its tacky black and red decor, I kept comforting myself that it couldn't be THAT bad, even though reviewers on Openrice has been slashing out its reputation into worthless places to eat. At
At 1 pm of a weekday, there are still tables opened for walk-ins. This couldn't be good, but we take no assumptions. Having been led across the dining room through narrows pathways between tables, we edged into our seats, staring at the same lime green plate settings staring back at us. Perhaps that's a new style for up and running sushi bars. It's ok. It's the food that matters, right?
Opening the menu, make sure you keep your eyes OPEN as each order you place has ONE piece only, unless notified in advance. For the rest of the time (including waiting), feel free to keep your eyes closed. The hectic hurrying of the waiting staff are like bulls in a china shop, and funnily enough, raging bulls. Most of the staff are not very well trained and instead of using words, they simply stopped writing, or gave you an icy stare in the eye to put you into your place, which by my personal experience, it's not a place where customers' are right. In fact, do not attempt to cross the staff.
Soft-shell Crab handroll is a bust. The crab is neither warm nor cold, it tasted of nothing remotely crab-like, in fact Crab-sticks made of white fish may have tasted more like crab than this soggy piece of fried 'thing', enrobed in a tough piece of seaweed and a lump of rice, with no sauce or anything.
'Scallop' sushi is butterflied and spread across a small lump of rice. I could feel the trembling of my own skin on contact with the fish with my lips as the icy chill of the meat melted into sogginess. The rice was loose and if wasn't for the wasabi, wouldn't tasted of anything either. The Itacho Omelette, proudly presented warm, was also disappointly bad. Not only did the layers of egg separately upon the first bite, some layers in between were actually burned and didn't taste sweet nor salty. When inquired at the manager the explanation was "That's what they are supposed to be" with a kind of grin so challenging that you wish you would never have asked any questions.
We waited a total of 25 minutes for our last two orders to arrive, and when we finally couldn't wait any longer and made an inquiry of it, it came so matter-of-factly that we didn't see it coming.
"We don't have ark-shell clam and uni" said the waitress, clueless.
To press her any further would be in vain, as we could imagine her sweating in her palm hoping that we will leave and get another bunch of people in so that they can have a celebration of their opening and introduction of a collection of new breeds of fish -- ones that look just like their predecessors but tasted of nothing remotely fish like or perhaps anything at all. The pricing is beyond my discussion here, but rather for any sushi lovers out there, aren't we all seeking after the taste of freshness and ocean sweetness before we order anything? It's not so difficult to look for good sushi out there, and often times branded chains can too provide some good sourcing for their customers. Itacho has clearly failed that, instead the PR must have been overly involved in making the resturant look good. But that couldn't bring up the ill-treated food source even inside the resturant here in Quarry Bay, as you can see portions of fish lying around behind the counter untreated....And the staff too, quite contrary for its anti-hospitality staff that think the customers are always wrong no matter what, Itacho is certainly driving their customer's away for their new operating strategy.
I wish them luck. But let's not forget that they are not going to close down or anything, it's just that more people will realize the publicity of it all is only publicity in matters of time, and when it all came down and digested after, they hopefully will realize how unappetizing Itacho Sushi really is.
Poor.
张贴