Starfish Sushi

Horrible service, missed an order and didn’t even apologize, rude attitudes, food isn’t what it used to be.

This place is so slow! Everytime I come here the food takes at least an hour to come. I placed a phone order for pick up to v avoid the wait. I was told it would be ready in 20 minutes, it was an hour wait from the time I placed the order. I had to wait 40 minutes in the restaurant for a to go order on a seemingly slow night. Ridiculous, I need to find another sushi restaurant asap!

My wife a and I had dinner at this place last night, g good was not like it used to, service was very bad. Could of got faster SERVICE at the local Denny’s. NOT GOING BACK FOR SURE.

I got a spicy don based on the good reviews on it and I am disappointed. They substituted a lot of my tuna with TOMATO because they’re cheap like that. On top of that, I asked for avocado, which I willingly was paying extra for and they gave me two measly pieces. Cherry on top, it took them more than half an hour to make it. There were countless tables waiting more than an hour for their food. They only had two waitresses whom I felt bad for during such a rush hour.

Good sushi. Very bad/​slow service. I had to ask 4 times for some spicy mayo. When we asked for more water they only filled 1 empty glass out of 4 empty glasses. It takes 30 minutes to get a few rolls of sushi.

Customer service is dead here too. I waited 45 mins for salmon teriyaki and some miso soup. You got to be kidding, it’s cant take that long to grill some salmon and put some soup in a container. I keep trying them cause I think they’ll get better. Disappointed in the service every time. There was 6 tables with people in the restaurant. SIX. #bruh

Slow service. Bring a flag if you need to get waiters attention for something like water. Or bring your own. And bazaar how they have a table out front cordoned off as a office space. Kind of tacky. Food is decent for Riverside. This was a review from a long time ago just getting around to posting cause I’ve been waiting 40+ minutes for takeout.

Great spot if you aren’t looking for a long wait, service is great and everything is fresh and bomb. Crunch Dragon Roll is my go to at the moment!

The star is for the taste of the food. I like coming here with my family until today… Ordered food to go and he said 20 min should be ready. Returned after 40 min and the food is still waiting to be pack in the counter. Top it all off, the server is giving me only 2 items when I ordered 3. Now he says he didn’t charge me, whereas before I left he repeated my order. So, yeah… ZERO FOR SERVICE!
Bad part is, they just lost a regular customer!

Great service on our first visit tonight! We enjoyed all three rolls we ordered, including the specially made roll! Will be back.

Okay. I haven’t tried every single thing on the menu yet, but I’ll list what I think are good, what are «meh», and what to stay away from.
In terms of service, the waiters and waitresses do a good job. If you’re expecting spectacular service like from a 5 star restaurant, you’re in the wrong place. Remember that you’re in an area where college students are generally the dominant makeup of the area. Be more direct with what you want.
I like the servers, especially Angela, and the one that likes to draw fish, seaweed, and stars on the receipts, and another one that knows my brother pretty well for his spicy tuna bowl orders. As for the guys, they tend to keep things formal but check up on us quite often. It might help to know that I’m usually there before dinner rush or after dinner rush when I get great service. If it’s in the middle of a dinner rush… yeah no surprise service quality can waver when you have a full house.
Onto the food. So the GOOD:
— Sashimi salad
— Spicy tuna bowl (make sure to clearly say bowl as its easy to be misheard as «roll»)
— Salmon teriyaki
— Cold Soba w/​tempura (this takes a long while to make though, so heads up)
— Chicken teriyaki
— Edamame (can’t really mess that up… can you?)
— Yaki Udon w/​Chicken
— Sushi
— Sesame Chicken!
The MEH:
— Spicy albacore salad
— Curry Udon
— Octopus salad
— California roll
— Spicy tuna roll
The STAY AWAY!:
— Chicken curry rice
— Udon soup
— Ramen soup
— Beef teriyaki
So… if I didn’t mention a dish, it’s because I haven’t tried it. Anything in the GOOD category is worth getting at least for the experience. My FAVORITE would be the sesame chicken, sashimi salad, cold soba + tempura, and spicy tuna bowl. Seriously, the sesame chicken reminds me of Honey Walnut Shrimp!
Anything in the MEH category = it’s alright and really up to you if you want to try it. They don’t taste like anything outstanding and/​or the price may be alright.
For STAY AWAY, either they suck… or they tasted good but you can find better elsewhere for the price. The udon… tastes almost exactly the same as a package you can buy in Asian markets like HMart or Mitsuwa Market.

First bad experience. Not going back. Came in 15 minutes before lunch closing. Servers just wanted to leave. Service was poor. My food came out, not my wife’s food. However, what won’t bring me back is the cockroach on the wall next to me. Ewww. If they’re in front, they’re in the back. Stay away. Sushi Station is much better.
Figured my wife would go back again. Same poor customer service. Severe seem rushed and hover, but bring food out inconsistently and don’t tend to the customers.

This is the closest sushi bar to my house, so naturally it was my first choice. The sushi chefs are so awesome and the fish is very fresh and served in a good sized portion. I love the food and chefs, but the servers are slow and unattentive.
Still, the good outweighs the bad, so 5 stars.

Ordered California roll today and there were very little amount (paper thin) of avocado in these roll :(
Disappointed!

The only thing that looked worth the price here was their lunch boxes! Considering it is a sushi restaurant, you can’t really expect cheap prices, but their lunch boxes are worth!
My sushi experience here was mediocre. It wasn’t amazing, nor was it disappointing. It definitely satisfied my hunger. I came here wanting ramen, but they don’t have the ramen I was craving for so I ordered udon which was good, but not amazing. My boyfriend ordered chicken Katsu curry and he said it was pretty good and fulfilling. We also ordered a baked salmon roll and that was pretty good, but very creamy and filling!
Customer service is good, pretty chill! I went at a good hour so there wasn’t many people, so the workers were attentive!

I’m not a resident of Riverside, but with my strong appetite for specialty rolls, this sushi bar caught my eye. My two specialty rolls for to-​go took a bit longer than 15 minutes. But it’s fine, because the server was cute so it totally made up for it! He was cool, I noticed he kept checking up on my order. So it’s the thought that counted. ~
I got two rolls. I’ll rate them individually.
Red Mango Roll — ***** (heaven on earth)
Ichiban Roll — **** The cucumber makes the eating part so complicated.
I’m glad to see that there’s a location closer to home on Wilshire!!! I’ll surely check it out soon!

Where to start:
I like how the restaurant places their menu folder outside on a podium; it gave my Fiancée and I some extra time to think about whether we wanted to step into the sushi restaurant or not. (Great idea!)
We ordered the «Red Mango Roll” – that was delicious! Not only that, we ordered the «20 pieces combination (chef’s choice, which was $ 29.99)” – we expected a bit more from the chef. This combo was basically «a slice of fish over rice.» It would have been nice and better if there were at least eight sushi pieces that were seasoned and decorated and the other twelve pieces were basic. Or, either that, the customer (s) should be able to pick his/​her/​their one special roll.
After these orders, it was not satisfying but it was fulfilling.
Note:
**Free refills for Hot Green Tea**
Overall,
Service: Friendly
Environment: Casual, Low to Moderate Noise Level
Price: About $ 10.00 per eight sushi pieces
My rating of «most likely to return» (1 being least likely and 5 being most likely):
2.5 somewhat likely to return, but won’t guarantee it as a priority choice.
I saw how hard the chef worked – I appreciate the effort though.

It’s incredible that I continue to come here. The service is simply unacceptable. Not one single time have I left this restaurant satisfied with the service. Each time I Ieave frustrated thinking I’ll never come again. Unfortunately I keep giving them another opportunity to redeem themselves because the sushi is decent and it’s in a convenient location.
This latest bout of horrible service was actually comical. We ordered the dynamite appetizer and they brought out the dynamite roll. Then they realized it and took it away. I told them it was okay but they continued to take it back and remove the roll and throw the roll away and scrape the top portion onto the plate for us. So now we have a sloppy blob of food that they call a dynamite appetizer. Unacceptable, illogical and quite frankly unprofessional.

I am having a lot of trouble with the 4 and 5 star reviews. A friend and I had lunch here not too long ago.
The service was horrible. We wound up waving our arms to get some service… asked for water with lemon –got 2 glasses of tepid tap water, no ice no lemon!
The food was mediocre and we BOTH pointed out the CHIPPED plates.
Will not be returning

This place is great! My boyfriend and I got the baby lobster roll, rainbow roll and the shrimp tempura roll. All amazing and fresh.
Only thing I didn’t like was that it closing at 2 and opening back up at 430 (felt kinda rushed to eat) and there’s not really any specials for the rolls.