Review of SumoSam, a Japanese restaurant in Ayala Center, Cebu city

SumoSam in Ayala center, Cebu city

SumoSam Crafted The Japanese Way

I don't know about that... but at least that's their slogan. I was there and unfortunately not impressed. But more about the negative later. They serve a wide variety of Japanese dishes with beef, chicken, salmon and other seafoods. I tried the Seafood Teppan Platter. A little bit pricy but it looked good. Two kinds of fish, squids, large shrimps, oysters and scallops.

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The interior was nice

But I had to wait

I was looking forward to my meal. But after 20 min waiting I remember I was thinking, hmm (!) but maybe it's good it takes a bit time to to prepare the food after all. After 30 min the waitress obviously noticed that I was beginning to look impatient because she told me that I just had to wait a few minutes more. Well she was observant at least and I was thinking: The one who is waiting for something good is never waiting too long. We have that nice saying in Sweden to comfort yourself when you are waiting too long for something.

There were many tempting dishes on the menu

I ordered the Seafood Teppan Platter

Warm and cold

Finally I got my food and it looked good actually. It had also probably been good if the different pieces on the plate had been equally hot. The temperature ranged from "fresh from the grill warm", lukewarm to cold. The fish was "fresh from the grill warm" and the oysters were cold. The oysters had also a little bit strange fishy taste, so no thanks!

Seafood Teppan Platter

Conclusion: too long waiting time and too much rumble

Waiting time
The food had probably been perfect if everything had been "fresh from the grill warm". But it wasn't. When I pointed out for the waiter about the cold oysters, he actually offered me new fresh from the grill. But at that point I wasn't in the mood to wait for another unspecified time again for the oysters to be grilled.
Rumble
The ambience in the restaurant was nice aside from one thing. One of the AC:s there, obviously needed some kind of service because it was by far too noisy! There was a constant loud rumble in the whole place which made it very tiring to be there. I felt sorry for the staff who had to work in that environment but hopefully the management would fix that soon.

Rating:
​1-5 where 1 is terrible and 5 is excellent
3 Food 
4 Service
3 Value
2 Atmosphere

SumoSam
G/F The Terraces, Ayala Center Cebu, Philippines
Phone: +63 32 401 0643

And finally a link that might interest you:

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