Jean Y.
Yelp
First, undesirable location.
restaurant is located at one
of the least desirable street corners in center LA where a long-standing camp of homeless tents is settled less than 100 feet away, you can constantly smell human feces and urine along the pavement.
Second, horrible interior.
As many of you fine dining lovers, you would have a clue on how a nice restaurant should be renovated and decorated. Sushi Zo is nothing of what you expect . The front door is like the gateway of an inner city subsidized housing complex which by the ways is almost identical to its back door, and they keep both door shut at all time so you can't even tell which is which. Anyone who's ever been to a real fine dining restaurant will feel shame inside like a knife if they called the interior of this establishment a post modern design. The inner spaces are dark, besmirched like scorched warehouses. Weird and whimsical white buckets are placed between each two tables as "decoration". A yellow slippery-caution sign was standing in the middle of the walkway as if it is a public restroom during maintenance. A cheap, aesthetically repulsive pop-up objects stands between the front door and the tables as a "wall." The bar design consists of nothing but stainless steel with absolutely no aesthetic values.
Third, unprofessional staff:
In a well-mannered, highly professional Omakase restaurant with class and taste, The chefs usually don't talk to the customer. But not for Sushi Zo. The two chefs here were constantly chatting with the customers like nightclub bar tenders in a Pub, maskless, nonstop. It seem like the care more about maintaining the interaction with the customers than carefully preparing food, which was why we witnessed their sneezing As for the waitresses, it's strange that they happened to be wearing masks all the time while the chef didn't. We believe the only reason the waitresses wore masks was to prevent unfavorable facial expressions. Instead of politely and carefully walking us through the food and serving with a good manner, all the waitress cared about was their refund policy. She didn't bother spending time over and over again explaining that there was no refund for us if we cancel, which brings us to our next topic, the food.
Fourth, oversimplified, duplicated food.
If you are thinking that spending $275 on only sushi can get you some extraordinary experiences , you're wrong. The 25 course tasting menu of Suzhi Zo gives you nothing but sushi with exactly the same shape. From a personal perspective, with a strong stomach like me I can stand until the fifth course while my wife couldn't. In fact she was disgusted by the interior design of this restaurant the moment she walked in, and she would like to cancel this instantly. But after being repeatedly threatened by the waitress that there will be no refund for our $400 deposit, she couldn't do anything but to acquiesce. Eventually my wife couldn't stand and forebear another fish sushi, and then something bizarre happen. The waitress actively came along and asked if we need to stop. Again she made it clear that taking away food which we couldn't finish was not acceptable by the restaurant, and more bizarrely, she even "offered" a solution package, pay 200 dollar each and get out, something I have never heard of in my life. And she said it was with the consultation of the chef. We felt like we were dining in the restaurant of a thug, this is not even a restaurant it's a mafia trap of extortion. If this is what the chef said, we are seriously considering filing a report to the owner.
Fifth, duplicated charges and fraud.
The restaurant charged a nonrefundable 400 dollar deposit the moment we made a reservation. And they charged us another 400 dollars plus tax and tips after that strange "solution package" arrangement without even mentioning how the deposit would be refunded. When we got back we found that the original deposit was already posted, which means they have charged us twice. This whole experience is so twisted , disgusting, and provocative. We were furious.
We dine at these in restaurants almost on a weekly basis all around the world and I have never experienced anything like this. We would never libel or defame any services, and we always live our most direct honest opinions, which is why we are so serious that we even posted our credit card transaction details regarding this restaurant on this review. For Everything with Sochi Zo Los Angeles downtown, it's a disgrace, it's a shame, and it's even perhaps a crime. See