Matsu Yama: User Reviews

We order Philadelphia maki, soft shell crab maki, grilled steak (hot dish), and lobster and scallop for the entree. Both of the maki had no flavor and the rice was so dry. It must have been left over rice from the previous day. The beef was grilled so long it tasted like cardboard. The entree arrived and again, the lobster had no flovor. There was only 4oz of lobster meat. The scallops were old. When I bite into them, they would fall apart so easily and fluid gush out of them. Scallop should be somewhat spongy.

They should have taken one of the order off the bill or gave me a credit of some kind. After spending $55.00 ($8.00 beef and $26.00 lobster and scallop) on crap, I was piss. I don't mind paying for good food but the food was aweful and is overprice. I couldn't wait to come home and sign on to MetroMix and give my review. I hope this review would stop someone from experiencing my misery.

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This place used to be great, it wasnt expensive, the food was awesome and with time and I guess an award or two, they decided to nearly double their prices. I am sorry, if I am going to go to an expensive Sushi place in the city of Chicago, I am going to go to one with alcohol and one that is in River North. This coming from someone who lives not more than a quarter of a mile away for Matsu yama. I will do my takeouts from a place on Clark. If you are looking for pricey Sushi and dont mid the Lakeview area, go here. If you want good Sushi, go with a place with a better name.

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Good BYOB sushi place w/ nice ambiance. Service was a bit slow - but we were w/ a group of 8 so didn't mind the extended dinner. The sushi was good for the price. The staff was extremely accomedating - we changed our reservation twice in one day. Plus, they take reservations which you don't find too often for a BYOB sushi place.

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My girlfriend and I love going to this place, the sushi is great, not amazing, but for the price it's very very good. I've always had great service and it's BYOB with a nice liquor store right down the street. Also the ambience is great, I've never seen any kids there and it has a nice view of Belmont. Overall great place, can't wait to get back.

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Let's get one thing out of the way: I have never been dissapointed by sushi in my life. I can eat sushi from the Dominick's at lunch and be content, knowing that while it isn't the best sushi out there by any means... it was still a decent option for lunch that would leave me satisfied. That being said, I now come to my review of Matsu Yama.

It was awful. So awful - in fact - that I actually signed myself up on metromix to be able to warn other people about what I had experienced. How can I possibly explain this without getting mad? Let's start with ambience, and segway from there. It is a nice looking place, but it all went downhill when we received our food. I was with a party of four and we ordered separate sushi, and the good folks at Matsu Yama felt it logical to cram all of our sushi into one large bowl, and point at sushi and tell us once what each roll was. Couldn't remember a thing she said and the lights were so dim we couldn't see well enough to figure out what was what. We also sat there and waited for an hour for our sushi, which is absolutely absurd especially when there were about 6 other people being served food... I cannot imagine the restaurant operating at full capacity.

The sushi was awful! The rice was dry, and it became painfully obvious that most of our rolls had sat for a while as the 'skilled chefs' prepared our other sushi. Isn't the main idea of sushi that it must be served fresh? Not sitting on the side for 40 minutes? Sushi 101 social faux pas!! Also, I had to ask the waitress which one was the firecracker, and it turns out she forgot to bring it out. I got it, and it was cold (firecracker is a tempura sushi) and worthless. I can't think of anything that tasted good... I would have been better off eating a head of lettuce. I'm serious. A head of lettuce would have been better than this. I will never go back to that restaurant again, and I strongly, strongly discourage others from going there as well.

Factor all this with the price they place on that garbage... and you can understand why I signed up to write this review.

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We tried this place after going to a few others time after time. The rolls took a while to come out, and a few came out at a time, with others arriving after a longer wait. The order was messed up, and when I asked about it, the waitress backed away from the table and told me that what I got was the order she put in. I told her I would try it, because she didn't offer to exchange it or bring out the correct dish. Gratuity was included on a 5-person table. We had several people come to our table, so I'm not really sure who our wait staff was, and the sushi was not great.

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The hostess (one of about 3 that doubled as waitresses) told us it would take 20 minutes for us to be seated. We were seated after an hour and the hostess made nothing of it! The sushi was good, not great, but the timing on the food coming to our table was bad. We got our first round of rolls quickly and then waited about 30 minutes for our next round. We were told that our food could not be made because the chefs were currently preparing food for the "big groups." I think there were 2 big groups. A restaurant should know how to handle multiple sized tables at the same time. Maybe it would be a good place to go in the middle of the day when it's empty, but I'll never go back!

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Throughout the years, Matsu Yama was my mainstay. It had never let me down...until tonight. Definitely one of the worst dining experiences in quite some time. My appetizer, the dumplings, fell apart when I picked them up. But I said, must be a fluke, wait for the sushi. Sushi came - missing 2 rolls of our order, and the existing rolls were mediocre and fishy at best. And 20 minutes later, our ordered rolls were still missing. The worst was the lack of customer service - no apologies from the manager nor the waitress, no communication. I was so disheartened. With all the restaurant competition in the city, Matsu Yama cannot afford such a lapse in service. An off night is one thing, but customer service is a standard to be upheld. So, thus, never again...

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If you're needing a nice place to take friends from out of town, this is a great little hip spot on Belmont. The sushi was quite good, not terribly expensive, and the BYOB option is always nice. The atmosphere is more upscale, but isn't uber-hip. I found it to be a good middle of the road, nicer sushi place. Try it out!

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One of the best sushi places in the city! BYOB loveliness. Sushi is always fresh, prepared well, and delightful. Their non-sushi dishes are equally as good. I will continue to frequent this glorious place!

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