Shoji & Shoji Sushi

07/30/09

A Potentially Good Restaurant Ruined by Incompentant Managem

by bitingtheapple

If you don't have time to read my admittedly lengthly review, let me sum up by saying, average, overpriced food, disresptful, poor service, and management that knows not the first thing about the principles of any business, let alone the restaurant one.

I went into Shoji tonight and ordered simply (or so I thought): a saki and a fotomaki roll. I explained to the waitress, who had noticeably limited English skills, that I wanted a roll with eel. Could she please recommend either the fotomaki roll or the dragon roll. Based on her rec (get the fotomaki if you enjoy tamago) I chose the fotomaki. Not difficult in any language: "I would like the fotomaki."

Never at any point did either of us utter the word "salad". Yet not a minute later a huge salad was delivered to me, about which I asked the bus boy twice and the waitress, twice, if it was somehow included in my meal. All the waitress could come up with in response was "The portions here so big - side does not look like side." So I had about 3 bites of the salad, as she smiled and shrugged.

Then came the food. I would learn only after finishing my meal that this woman had ordered both the fotomaki and the dragon roll. Because both were made from brown rice and contained eel, they looked virtually identical, like the same roll. (Having only ordered 1 roll, I had no reason to look any closer.) I said something like "Wow, that's a huge roll" to which she again grinned and shrugged.

My bill came with the unordered salad and unordered additional roll. When I tried to very politely inquire about the "misunderstanding" with my waitress, she turned in a huff and went straight to the hostess who had sat me. The hostess then lied to my face, insisting she was in fact, the manager. In actuality, I had just spoken with the manager, who wore a suit and tie, and had visited my table just moments earlier.

I therefore asked to speak with this young man in the suit and tie, specifically. He actually claimed that he had not heard anything about the situation from his employees. Could I please explain to him from the beginnning? I did so, patiently explaining every detail and also noting that there may have been a problem of a deficit in English skills on the part of the waitress. He then looked me straight in the eye again, and said, that contradicts everything the waitress, hostess and busboy told me.

Was he really so vapid (or perhaps stoned) that he did not realize that he had JUST claimed to me he'd be told nothing about the situation by his employees. I honeslty have never been so insulted and embarassed at a restaurant in my life. All this, over the price of a $10 roll, when in any other situation, my tip alone would have been close to that, not to mention the potential of return business.

With this kind of service, no wonder the restaurant was all but empty, save a loud table of drunk people, one of whom was what I only have to wince and assumer were walrus noises as he let his chopsticks dangle from his lips. Again folks, you just can't make this stuff up.

• Pros: Good location, nice decor
• Cons: Mediocre, overpriced sushi, Poor management

04/30/09

BEWARE OF SCAM ARTISTS

by ATL79

My friends and I wanted some good sushi on our last night in South Beach. On a referal by our hotel, we headed to Shoji. While the food was quite good, the service and management were beyond terrible. The first thing that happened: one of the girls I was with ordered a sushi roll that came with a sauce that was so spicy, it made her physically ill. The only warning she received was from the waiter telling her that he would put the sauce on the side for her. The second thing that happened: We received the bill and noticed we were charged for the second most expensive saki bottle on their list. When we confronted the manager about it, he simply said that we made a mistake in ordering and there was nothing he could do. He also said there was nothing he could do about my friend getting sick from their spicy sauce, and even stated that it was her fault for not tasting it before dipping her sushi roll in it. Finally, the icing on the cake: we had them run 7 separate credit cards for the tab. I had calculated out what everyone's total would be, yet when we received the checks, everyone was charged $6.00 more than what we should have been charged. I confronted the manager about our being overcharged; he argued with me for a while, with the server standing right next to us, and finally, the server handed over a server's book with $42 (the exact amount we were overcharged was set already set aside -- he didn't even have to count it out before giving it back to me!!!) and said: "Fine, here's your $42 dollars!" My friends and I don't usually complain, as we are all in the restaurant industry, but this was just too much! They are scam artists, BEWARE!!!

• Pros: Good Food
• Cons: Terrible Service, Poor Management, Unreasonably High Prices

11/02/08

Great Food!!

by bballca

I have been to South Beach alot of times but this was my first time having Sushi. With that said the dinner we had was great. We started out with the Seaweed Salad and Ceviche and those two items will be something I must order when I go back. We orderd about 8 different rolls and all of them were very tasty!! I hope to see you all again for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Also ask for Victor as your server he gave us great service.

• Pros: Ambience, Valet Parking