Sumo Sam, The Sumo Master of Deception

*jonokuchi (序の口) is The lowest division of Sumo Wrestlers, Sam must be one.

**To Sumo Sam and to the ones who still enjoy eating there, this is your wake up call.

Imagine being held hostage, your kidnappers asking for a huge ransom. As you gulp down your food, measly in terms of both quality and quantity, you feel a profound sense of bitterness since you know you’ll be surrendering wads of your hard-earned cash to criminals who can’t even feed you a decent meal. If you’re having difficulty imagining the scenario, I have a suggestion that will help: Have a meal at Sumo Sam. The experience is no different. 

The Sumo Sam management has fooled a lot of customers, and I'm ashamed to admit  I recently became one of them. After my dining experience with them, for the first time ever, I left a restaurant feeling ashamed -- ashamed because I knew that I'd been had, that I'd fallen into their trap. And while there may be other restaurants that fool their customers the same way, how blatantly this restaurant does so is just plain shocking. I guess it's out of a longing for revenge that I'm writing this entry. Yes, Sumo Sam, you may have fooled me, but you're not going to get away with it just like that.

California Roll, Php258
Rating:

The only part of this dish that needed to be cooked was the rice, which is most probably why this dish tasted pretty decent. What upsets me though is how the dish was prepared and priced.

Deception: Only tiny bits of mango and cucumber were in the roll and were topped with probably 1 or 2 pieces of pulled crabstick drizzled with a lot of mayonnaise. Cost cutting strategy, perhaps?

Tofu Steak, Php289
Rating:

This is not how Tofu Steak should look! And just 3 short strips of fatty beef for the whole dish? To make matters worse, the tofu they used had a sour flavor and a coarse texture. Obviously, they settled for low-quality tofu and had the guts to charge a high-quality-tofu price for it. And excuse me, flooding the tofu with sauce won't mask its substandard quality.

Deception: The serving size can make customers feel that they’re getting a bang for their buck. But in reality, Sumo Sam can afford to serve larger-than-usual portions because the poor-grade tofu they use obviously costs less.

Ebi Tempura, Php410
Rating:

Having survived two disappointing dishes, I was pretty surprised, when this arrived at our table. The pieces were pretty sizeable, a bit bigger than those from other restaurants. But as soon as I looked closely, I kind of had a bad feeling about the dish. What I found were clumps of tempura bits with a teeny tiny bit of prawn.

Deception: Although it was fried well and the breading tasted okay, it was two-thirds breading and one-third pulled and extended prawns. Unextended, the tempura would have been a quarter and three-quarters. To think, they were charging Php80 for each piece! Geez!

Japanese Fried Rice, Php 110
Rating:

We were held up here. What you see in the picture is already almost all the meat there is in this buttery tasting dish.

Deception They use a large bowl of rice to make you think that the serving is big, but actually, only a very small amount of meat and vegetables are in it. Did Sumo Sam think I came to his restaurant for a session of “kain karpintero” (a small amount of viand partnered with loads of rice)?

I noticed that they have a lot of new items on their menu, most of which are those that are popular in other restaurants (tonkatsu, Japanese pizzas, ramen and pepper lunches). Instead of riding food trends, why can’t Sumo Sam expend energy on improving their sub-par basic dishes? Just a thought.

My Ratings

Food:		For a minute there I thought I was dining at Tokyo Tokyo.
Service:		They knew a lot about their dishes, but when they’re spoken to in Filipino, maybe they shouldn’t answer back in English. I was actually kind of doing them a favor.
Ambiance:		Nice place, has that modern Japanese feel. Another form of deception?
Price Level:		Even if the prices were at ¥(Yen, Php1=¥2), it's still overpriced.
Overall:		Never Again!

Better Alternatives

Seryna:		Priced almost the same, quality is far better. Best Nabeyaki Udon I've had.
Kimpura:		Very good Japanese food at almost the same price (if you dont order the steak).
Nihon Bashi Tei:		Gives you a feel like you are dining in Japan.

Don't tell me I didn't warn you!

 

Hoy Sam, kung ayaw mong mawalan ng customer umayos ka, sabihan mo rin yang mga kaibigan mong si John, si Yoko yung boss niyo, si Mr. Kurosawa. Pati yang mga Chinese at Italyano mong dabarkads, sabihan mo rin, sila Komrad at si Marciano. 

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