We had been meaning to come here for quite a long ...

We had been meaning to come here for quite a long time but we just had the darnest hard time to match with their schedule. They only open for 3 hours a day, plus they close every Monday and Tuesday too and then they have a tendency to close the restaurant for 2 weeks at a time. Case in point a little while ago, we were looking for a light but filling dinner and decided to try our luck here; we saw on google and yelp that they closed at 8:30. We arrived at about 8:10pm, tried to see if they would still take us as late customers. I know it was cutting it really close but Helen still made us feel welcomed and seated us promptly. And toward the end of our meal we asked and discovered that they actually closed at 8pm not 8:30pm - meaning when we entered it was already 10 minutes past their closing time, but they still took us in because it was their last night before a 10-day break.

To be honest, when I stepped in the restaurant I secretly was surprised to see that inside the restaurant looks pretty rundown and decorated with old wicker chairs and tables that need to be replaced. In spite all these, the place was still packed. 90% of the tables were still occupied and the sushi bar was full. Reading from the reviews here, it seems that for the 3 hours they open their door to business everyday, they are always consistently super packed and the service could be quite poor with the long wait. Most of the customers that night were regulars.

The busser promptly brought us our water and warm green tea. The green tea tasted authentic. Complimentary homemade miso soup and cold noodle salad were also brought to our table. The cold noodle salad tasted a bit weird but bland for my preference so I put a dash of soy sauce in mine lol. Husband didn't like the cold noodle salad and didn't eat his. We ordered Negi-Toro roll (diced Fatty Tuna) which were very fresh. then the Unagi Maki (eel) and Spicy Scallop Maki (scallops and ebikko with avocado, cucumber, green onion in spicy mayo). I'm a fussypants about unagi and their Unagi Maki is truly juicy and delicious. The Spicy Scallop maki was also super fresh! Plus I believe the sushi came with REAL wasabi, oh yeah! We got the Jimmy's Special sushi too which is an Inari Tofu pouches with spicy tuna and rice inside then fried. Husband really really liked the Chef's Jimmy Special.

I do agree with the other reviewers here that since the chefs are trying to keep up with the orders coming in, their rolls tend to be sloppy. The seaweed of the rolls was also pressed against one and other, became sticky and would unroll the sushi when we tried to pick it up with our chopsticks. And glancing at their menu, most of the items tend to be on the higher side of price. Combination dinner menu items are like $22 and up, as well as their specialties sushi. So we did end up ordering the lower-priced items and our total came about $43 and we were very full (but we weren't that hungry to begin with). He seemed to enjoy his time here and did mention that he wanted to come back again.