Review: SHO Sushi Bar & Kitchen
SHO SUSHI BAR & KITCHEN
7212 Macleod Trail S,
CALGARY, AB T2H 0L9
http://www.shosushicalgary.ca/
Right across Macleod from Kinjo
- Food rating 4.5/5
First off, I will say I usually eat at Kinjo or Sushi Ginza in Willow Park, so my rating of the quality of food will be in comparison to those two places. The food was good, I would say better than both Kinjo and Ginza, but only marginally. The rolls were more complex than I am used to, for example my favourite, the dynamite roll, was topped with smoked salmon, avocado and black tobiko, compared to at Kinjo, there is no additions to the roll. I didn't care for the additions. I felt as thought the selection of rolls was fairly limited as well.
- Ambience 3.5/5
Nice decor, as you would expect from a brand new building. I got a tense vibe from most of the staff. Atmosphere was decent at best, hard to describe, other then saying I could feel the tension. Only a small room on the main floor was open as the rest were under construction still. I would say currently it would sit about 50 people, but when completed upwards to 150 persons. They let us check out the upper floor, which is finished, but not currently open. It was really nice, with a big fire place and a couple big screen televisions. The second floor patio would be cool to sit on, although it only would sit about 10 people, and with very small tables.
- Service 2.5/5
Hard to judge this, but I am going to be harsh'ish. I say it is hard to judge because we went on Saturday, only SHO's second day open, so there are going to be some kinks to work out, but this was bad. It was hectic. From what I saw, I would place the blame on the manager, or what ever the lady in charge's position was. She didn't seem to have a clue, which in turn made the door hosts job really hard, along with the kitchen staff and the servers. When we showed up there were 2 couples in front of us on the wait list, no big deal. Door host said 15min wait, I am fine with that. In the mean time, the first couple was called and brought in to be seated THREE times, the first two times they were returned to the lobby to wait because tables were not ready for them for whatever reason. I don't know whose fault it was, but that is bad service. Also while we were waiting a group of 8 showed up, and they appeared to be the manager lady's friends/family, they went right in, only having to wait 2 minutes. This was frustrating because it didn't appear as though they had a reservation. I am not sure, but I also think that in order to seat us quicker, they moved already seated people to other tables within the restaurant in order to accommodate us. We ended up waiting about 25mins. Our waiter was pleasant and friendly, best service of the night, but the food took a long time (we got our last plates about 45 min after we were seated.).
Cost per person: Including tip (15%) we left exactly $100 this was for two people with zero drinks (we drank water). In comparison for similar amount of food, at Kinjo we usually spend about $75 including tip. The prices are listed on both SHO and Kinjo's website, for 5 pieces of dynamite rolls at SHO it costs $7.50, for 4 pieces of dynamite rolls at Kinjo it costs $3.50. That is just one example that stood out to me. Prices are listed on both websites, so you can compare.
I will not be going back to SHO anytime soon. I would consider going back once I hear more things from others who have gone. But for the money, I would way rather go to Kinjo.
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