Nagoya Japanese Restaurant

 Almost everyday I pass by this place. Sure, I've heard about it on the radio and seen it's ad in the newspaper, but I've never really had the intention of trying it. No reason at all, but due to the many other places that offer AYCE, I totally forgot about this place. We were shopping at the fairly close Pacific Mall one day, and once again I was given the task of choosing where to go for dinner. The first place that popped up in my head was Nagoya. I guess the foodie gods thought it was about time we tried this place out.

It was only about 5:30 pm and the small
restaurant was already jam packed. When I
mean jam packed, I mean jam packed like a can of sardines. There was barely any room for the servers and patrons to get by. Anyways on to the food. They were having a Lobster Sashimi (3.5/5) special.

The lobster was sweet and tender and our whole party enjoyed it. The tobiko added a nice crunch. We got an order of Takoyaki (3/5) and it was fairly average with a bouncy piece of octopus inside. The Sashimi was decent, our favourite being the Ika (Squid) (4/5).


It had a nice buttery and bouncy texture which we all enjoyed. The Salmon Sashimi (2.5/5) was cut thick but unfortunately, it didn't taste very fresh.




There was a slight fishy taste, which sucked because it was cut properly. The Octopus (3/5) made up for that in a way as it was  decently chewy with a snap. The Crab Meat (2/5) and Surf Clam (2.5/5) were both average.



We got 4 different rolls, such as the Spider Roll and California Roll. When it arrived to our table, we were immediately confused as to which roll was which. It was poorly constructed as piece was falling apart. I understand that I'm at a AYCE, but this was honestly very disappointing. We noticed other patrons weren't exactly satisfied with their rolls either. The Spider Roll (2/5) had no sauce on top which made it really dry. The California Roll (2.5/5), was topped with a little too much tobiko, and fell apart really easily.

We ordered the Salmon and Avocado Handroll (2.5/5) and there was no avocado to be found.
It was stuffed with so much rice which was gummy. At this point, we were quite unhappy,
especially because the service was lacking as well. For a small restaurant, it was super hard to flag down one of their 5 servers and they mostly forgot to help us check up on an order.


I did like their system of us telling which dishes to order instead of patrons writing it themselves on little sheets or scrolling through an ipad, but unfortunately some orders did not come through.

 
Their desserts were pretty typical for a Japanese AYCE. They had the Mango Yogurt (4/5) which was the highlight of the night due to it's creaminess and slight mango flavour. The Green Tea and Red Bean Icecream were creamy but tasted average and nothing special. The Coconut Pudding (3/5) had a faint coconut taste, but was enjoyable because it was creamy and silky.
Overall, our experience here was not the best, and since there are so many more new AYCE places, I would suggest trying those before coming here.