“Shogun Sushi” is an “all-you-can-eat” sushi and seafood restaurant that opened late last month. Located on north Dale Mabery Hwy in an unobtrusive black building, you could almost miss it if it weren’t for my many flags and banners outside announcing the so-called “soft launch,” of the restaurant. It’s also worth mentioning that there is another seafood restaurant located on that street called simply “Shogun,” of which the former is not affiliated.

Walking into the restaurant relatively early Friday night, we were seated rather quickly as there were many open spots to be filled. Looking around the restaurant, I noticed that the decor was pleasant, if a bit jumbled. Whimsical hanging glass sculptures of fish and sea ambiance littered the ceiling, yet the walls and other features of the restaurant floor were much more modern and industrial, overall providing for a very bright dining experience.

I had opted for the $30 all-you-can-eat menu as that was the main advertisement for the restaurant. My friend and I placed an initial ‘warm up’ order, simply a few pieces of sashimi and a roll, and sat back in wait for our food to arrive. 30 minutes later, our table was still empty and our waitress approached us again asking us if we would like to put anything else on our order as “it would most be a while.” We did so, ordering six more rolls, and went back to waiting. Eventually, at the 40-minute mark, my sashimi came out, and 30 minutes after that the rest of the food hit the table. The original roll my friend had ordered never arrived at our table.

Now while the food was good, the rolls were rather large for an all-you-can-eat deal, and the toppings were generous, the wait overshadowed these factors by a large amount. It was especially jarring as the restaurant as far as we could tell, wasn’t even that busy, and many times it seemed they prioritized larger tables or tables who had opted out of the all-you-can-eat option which was incredibly frustrating as we watched several tables come and go in the time that we were seated.

I ordered the Butterfly, New York, and Sunshine rolls, all of which were fairly good. I got the shrimp, roe, and spicy tuna sashimi, which were all very cute and High quality. My favorite roll of the night however was the featured “shogun” roll, which had tempura shrimp, krab sticks, and eel sauce which all came together in a delectably savory experience.

Personally, my recommendation for this restaurant would be to go for regular dinner prices. Unless you have the patience to wait an hour or more for your food or can easily eat four rolls of sushi, the all-you-can-eat menu is hardly worth it. While Shogun Sushi has a promising future, they need to work on their service before I would consider going back.