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

Is this a very good restaurant or a very average one? Well ... it depends.

by Contributor

In Short
Take your pick from two different scenes. One is the dark and dowdy dining room, enlivened only by chefs working at the sushi bar and a bank of TV sets playing cheesy Japanese cartoons. The other is the sunny, nicely appointed patio, where you dine under white canvas umbrellas surrounded by tropical plants. There seem to be two kinds of food, too. One includes bland, muddled-tasting spicy lobster and Shoji rolls, tasteless tuna tartare, salty and mushy (frozen) king crab sushi and limp, greasy shrimp-veggie tempura. The other includes a delightful crispy oyster roll, delicate local grouper, sea-sweet (fresh) Alaskan king crab sushi and exquisite salmon ceviche, the creamy-textured fish perfectly paired with crunchy cucumber batons and salty bursts of salmon roe. Desserts are more consistent, at least if you finish with the sexy ginger ale float, the ginger ale made in house and infused with the bright flavors of lemongrass and chilies.

06/16/06

Good food, bad service

by mswsxy

I loved the ambiance and food at this place, and aside from our service, I highly recommend it. We had a female server who was spaced out, lied to us, brought us things we did not order and then insisted that we did order them, it was ridiculous. The manager did help us out and took the things off the bill that our moron of a server put on there. All in all it was very good, I will go back, but if I saw that server again I'd ask for a different table, or run screaming.

• Pros: Good food, Good atmosphere
• Cons: Stupidist server I've ever encountered

06/09/06

THE BEST...

by asmithy11

In response to the review posted by 'the dog75'...I am completely astonished!!!

I have been a regular patron of Shoji Sushi for many years and have always been impressed by the standards maintained by this establishment and which is constantly improving!

I travel to many countries on a regular basis and have eaten sushi everywhere...but always look forward to return to Shoji. The staff is always warm and friendly and make you feel at home. I would classify this restaurant as the best sushi in South Florida because everything is always fresh and appealing.

I would recommend Shoji to anyone who appreciates good sushi.

A message to 'the dog75'.....Judging from your grammar and spelling...I am not suprised that you could not recognize Class!!! So please stick to food that dogs are familiar with!!!

• Pros: Lovely Ambience, Great food

05/24/06

Bad time

by thedog75

My friend is a VIP at this terrible restaurnt, when I came in from out of town he insitead in having dinner there. The apps. came with are main course after waiting for one hour, they apoligze to us but that was it, so the main course was cold. We ordered from there sister restaurnt Memo and they could not time the food (do not do thing you cant m anage) our bill was $600 for 5 people with no discount after are terrible experince and my frioend goes there all the time. Lack of respect and terrible service. Never will be seen there again.

• Pros: None
• Cons: Expensive, Bad service, Rude

08/10/05

A bit strange

by waltersun

Strange experience, some foods were good while others not. Portions too large served on plates too big. Not very Japanese where volume just right and presentation just as important as taste. Example; tamago sushi had tiny bit of rice plus portion of egg equal to 6 portions in normal restaurant, toro sushi was good for 1x sushi plus 1x sashimi, chicken yakatori was 3 huge chunks of dry tasteless meat. Compensate lack of taste with volume? Service needs help; left $50.00 (>20%) tip because girl looked overworked but not a smile or a "thank you". Bar needs help; we returned glass of stale OJ and bar tender had 10 minute discussion with waitress over issue, we were then served a watered down new glass of OJ. Cramped seating. Lots of other Japanese restaurants in Miami South Beach to choose from.

• Pros: large volume, interesting dishes
• Cons: service, bar, large volume

06/03/05

better than maki sushi

by myriamh

tried maki since it was top on the msn guide list. sucked. has been to shoji already very good food, flavor, service, ambiance, variety.

07/19/02

The Best

by g

For those that appreciate good sushi - shoji is the best in Miami. Fish is always fresh and great quality. I eat there as often as I can and am always impressed with the food and service. Try the specials and ask for recomendations from the staff.