I like this place but like you said it’s extremely uneven. It’s been around for a while but it’s always empty due to a number of factor’s.

1. Almost everytime I vary from the dinner special menu, I feel like the food is not good value. For example the shoyu ramen is basically noodles a few veggies and broth, no egg, no meat… so it’s really not a good value. The seafood salad came with three tiny pieces of seafood and the salad greens are iceburg but the price is $5.50. The sunomono is one shrimp with a small portion of noodles for $4. The don rice bowls are extremely small portions.

2. The portion sizes vary far too much, sometimes the chef is generous other times the portions are microscopic and this is with ordering the same thing! There is no rhyme or reason to it though. I remember ordering the salmon terriyaki dinner box once and it was only two small chunks of salmon terriyaki (not even a full salmon steak, it wasn’t even a quarter of a salmon steak, just two small chunks). It was odd.

3. So if you do go I recommend the tuna terriyaki appetizer, it’s three pieces for $3.50 and like the reviewer says the tempura’s are a strength here. Although be warned my friend ordered the seafood tempura, and then returned on another visit and said the tempura portions were much smaller.

4. The seafood is NOT fresh here, beware of eating raw stuff here. Because of the few customers there is too low of a turnover here. I’ve been served not fresh california rolls which is ridiculous. The california roll filling itself tasted old. I once had a seafood salad here which wasn’t fresh either. I just don’t eat raw stuff here.

5. The large tip platter beside their cash register irks me, the service there is so uneven, their prices are so all over the place that sometimes I just wonder how they justify what they charge, sometimes the food is not fresh… and yet they want tips. It’s just bizarre.

6. The bathroom is icky, it’s one of the worst bathrooms I have ever seen at a restaurant. Plus there is no running hot water. Why don’t they renovate it!

7. With their bizarre practice of uneven pricing and uneven portions and not fresh seafood they just turn off patrons, I liked going here but there is no point. Ki Sushi is a better value and at least it’s consistent. AND Ki sushi has the best tasty huge pieces of SOCKEYE salmon sashimi for such reasonable prices. I also love Ki’s generous chicken katsu that is plated with a side salad and their salmon fried rice is garlicky goodness.

I agree the chef is sort of freaky. And to gain business I just don’t see why they don’t have an before 4pm california roll for #2 special or something. I mean they are so deserted they should have daily specials to attract customers. I just think that Ki Sushi is so dominant in that area and offers much better value, if Rikka were in another area it might have done better. Plus the AYCE is over at the New West Quay so they need to offer better quality food at a better price.

Dan, I will admit I really wanted to like this place. But, alas, I must be objective. Don’t let my description discourage you (or other readers), I am willing to bet it was my expectations, specially due to my visit to Shima-Ya. Compared to other sushi restaurants, this place is way better. For completeness sake, though, I think I should visit Ki Sushi and then make comparisons.

About visiting places like this, well, what can I say! Although I could go to places west of Main Street, I think, to make it interesting, I should go to visit places not in most people’s radars.