Happy Sushi

An impromptu dinner arrangement on a Friday night usually equals busy restaurants, which equals long wait times. And so, we ended up at an all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant: Happy Sushi. I have been to this restaurant before and I didn't like it. However, I believe back then it was under a different name.

Being a party of 7 we expected a bit of a wait, so a server gave us menus and an order sheet so we wouldn't have to wait even longer for food. Their all-you-can-eat (AYCE) menu consists  of three parts: A, B, and C, and you have a choice of having just the A section, combination of A + B or all three. Each section has a nice variety of items. A has the typical AYCE items such as California rolls, salmon sashimi, teryaki chicken and etc. and an item that I found to be really random in a Japanese restaurant: Roti Canai. B had a few more exotic choices of sashimi and rolls such as Tai and Geoduck sushi. I don't recall what was in section C besides Kaki Pon, raw oysters. We chose to order from sections A+B.

Fortunately for us, we didn't have to wait too long. After around ten minutes we got a table - right next to a giant fish tank. It was kind of an awkward place to put a table. You just don't feel comfortable eating raw fish next to well, fish. Anyways, sure enough, we got our food as soon as we sat down. I did not get a chance to try everything that we ordered, but what I did get a chance to try was... meh, nothing great. Our first dish, beef sashimi, was doused in a vinegar based sauce that completely covered the taste of the beef. All I could taste was sauce. Same problem with the Ebi Sunomono. It was so sour and vinegary, I had goosebumps and cringed after my first bite. The fish sashimi - tai, salmon, tuna, and hokkigai - were decent, nothing special. The nigiri sushi though, was disgusting. Not so much because of the fish, but because the rice, in addition to being flavorless, was warm - which made the raw fish on top semi-warm. For me, the words raw fish and warm in one sentence sounds and tastes like food poisoning waiting to happen. Rolls were a bit better, but again, nothing special. The calamari was pretty good; cut thick, crunchy crust, and tender with a bit of a bite. There were also ribs on our table and those were really oily/greasy, but at least they were chewable.

Happy Sushi was not horrible but it wasn't good either, especially for $23 a person. My opinion of this restaurant remains the same despite the name change. At such a high price, I could name so many more cheaper AYCE sushi restaurants with the same, if not even better, quality of food - such as Ninkazu or Tomokazu.