For my latest restaurant adventure, I went to Mr. Shota AYCE Sushi in the unincorporated town of Spring Valley in the Las Vegas Valley.
To start, I got salmon and yellowtail carpaccio with ponzu and truffle oil.
Next was the seafood salad.
For my third dish, I received a sashimi roll with tuna, salmon, whitefish, and crab wrapped with cucumber and topped with screaming orgasm sauce. At other restaurants, this roll is often called the Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Following that was seafood aioli with assorted fresh fish topped with fried onion and drenched in creamy aioli and eel sauce.
Then came towering sashimi poke with assorted fish and crab on wonton chips with ponzu, spicy mayo, and eel sauce.
Next was an oyster.
After that was amaebi, or sweet shrimp.
My final plate consisted of salmon belly, ocean trout, salmon, and sea urchin.
For dessert, I got ube ice cream… but more on that later.
If you look through my photos, you’ll notice that this is substantially less food than I usually have at all-you-can-eat restaurants. It’s not because I wasn’t hungry… it is because Mr. Shota had the literal worst service I have ever received at an all-you-can-eat restaurant in my entire life.
I spent about two and a half hours at the restaurant and the waiter came to my table six times. The first time was to give me water and take my first order. The second time was to bring me my first round of food. Then nobody showed up for about an hour, before I managed to flag someone down to put in my second round of food. My second round took over half an hour to show up, during the waiter’s fourth visit. The fifth visit wasn’t even a real visit, but I flagged someone down again to get myself some dessert. The sixth visit was to drop off a small container of ice cream. I went straight up to the register to pay, then left.
Decent waiters at AYCE restaurants will check on you once every ten to fifteen minutes to make sure you have all the food you want, or at the very least, show up once they notice you’ve finished eating everything on your table. I understand that some AYCE restaurants have policies in place to intentionally place delay in food ordering and delivery, thus trying to make you feel more full and encouraging you to eat less food to cut costs… but Mr. Shota has done this to an unacceptable extreme.
The reason the table in the background of the ice cream photograph is different is because I took it back with me and ate it at home, because I was way too frustrated with the restaurant and didn’t want to stay any longer.
Never go to Mr. Shota.