Godai (1604 Location)
Recently, Godai opened up a new restaurant in The Ridge shopping center off of 1604 and Lockhill Selma. This is the latest restaurant of Mr. Goro who is a staple of the sushi scene in San Antonio having opened Goro’s (since sold) and the old Godai on West Avenue. This restaurant was to capture a more sleek and upscale feel, and in talking with our server we learned that he was going for more the Asian Fusion feel on his entrees and rolls. I went with some friends to check it out. Please note this review is specific for THIS location as they are very different.
First and foremost, I should be fair and state that we went during their Soft Opening. The three of us completely realized this and knew that there would be a few minor bumps in the road as they work out their kinks. This is completely understandable, but… Well, we will get to that in a moment.
The meal started out promising as we were given some bread with a pureed edamame dipping sauce that I really liked. We decided to order drinks and chose three different ones: a cucumber drink (don’t remember the name), Geisha (an Asian themed cosmo), and a Zen-tini (lemon flavored with a popular zen green tea liquor). The ladies I was with also ordered a spinach salad as an appetizer.
The drinks came out and looked nice, but man, two of them were pretty rough. I liked the cucumber one as it was rimmed with a chile limon seasoning that caused you to pucker up and then be quickly relieved by the cool (as a cucumber) concoction. To be quite honest, the Zen-tini that I got tasted like I was drinking Pledge and the Geisha smelled like some sort of bodywash and didn’t taste much better. My friend couldn’t finish the drink, so I tried to gulp it down because I am not going to leave $7.5 on the table!
From left to right, Zen-tini, Cucumber, and Geisha.
We decided to order four rolls so we could sample a variety. Since one of my friends is allergic to shellfish, we had to be careful in what rolls we chose. I was interested in one of them that had shrimp, so we ordered it and she planned to avoid it. We went with the California roll, Scorpion roll, Longhorn roll, and the Heart Attack roll. One of the rolls had eel sauce on it, and my other friend (who is not as adventurous of a food person, but who will try most things at least once) exclaimed, “That’s friendship right there, eating eel sauce.” We made sure to throw in an order of pomme frites just in case the sushi didn’t sit well with her.
The order came out and was impressive looking. Our server placed the rolls on the table, and it was at this time the meal started to go downhill. We had asked her what each of the rolls were and, with a little hesitation in her voice, she went through and named them all. We said thank you and started to eat.
As we were eating our rolls, I noticed that one of them had this pink sauce and I was pretty sure we didn’t order anything with a pink sauce. We she checked on us, we pointed out this one plate of rolls and again asked her to confirm it. She said that it was the Heart Attack to which I questioned the pink sauce on it (also the Heart Attack was fried (hence the name) and this clearly was not). She decided to investigate further and found out that the rolls were incorrect and promptly brought us out the right rolls at no charge. I was really pleased with the customer service and how our waitress handled the situation.
Let me divert from the experience and write a note on the food. I have to say I was underwhelmed. I have enjoyed Mr. Goro’s food in the past, but this just wasn’t that good. It was as if they decided to simply pile a TON of stuff on the rolls purely to pile a ton of stuff on them. The rolls were unmanageable and extremely difficult to eat. When you did finally get one in your mouth, it was as if it just tasted like a bunch of mush and you weren’t able to really tease out the flavors. I couldn’t really tell all that much difference between the rolls, which kind of plays into what happened next…
We couldn’t remember what roll had the shellfish in it, so we stopped another server and asked for another menu so that we could make sure that the friend who was allergic to it stayed away. From the menu we identified the roll with shellfish as the Scorpion roll. My picky friend was trying to eat part of the alleged Scorpion roll and was trying to half it (again, way to big to eat) and noticed something in the roll. She picks it up on her chopstick and asks us what it is. My other friend took a stab at it and replied it was a mushroom. My friend was like, “There is no way that is a mushroom, it is an eel!” Now, she is adventurous, but she definitely has no desire to eat or even try eel. While this was happening, I was eating another roll and found a fair amount of fish bones.
When the server stopped by to pick up the menu, we decided to ask him what the names were of all the rolls. He proceeded to name one as Roast on the Coast (the one with the red sauce that we knew was wrong), the Heart Attack (the one that we got back that was corrected), the Yum Yum (one we never ordered), the California roll (of course, easy), and one he wasn’t sure of but thought it might be the Widowmaker (the eel one, again we didn’t order).
Our original rolls, only the back left California Roll was correct. Don't know what the other three are? Don't worry, neither did anybody else.
At this moment all three of us were kind of laughing because we knew that of the four rolls we ordered, only one of them came out correct (California roll). We also were just munching away and couldn’t really tell the difference. One thing I will say for my friends is that we are a pretty easy going bunch. I know that people make mistakes; heck, I make them all the time. I want you to know that we were not being tacky, rude, or jerks in anyway. We just let him simply know that 3 out of 4 entrees were screwed up.
Later, we were asked if we could have the plates picked up, but we wanted to wait until we got to talk with one of them so they knew we weren’t making a story up. In all sincerity, we knew it was a Soft Opening, and if this restaurant is going to be successful they needed to know about this error. After a while, no one had came to talk to us, so my friend stopped Mr. Goro. We asked him to identify the rolls, which he did with the exception of the eel one (I thought this was curious that the owner didn’t even know what roll that was!) and apologized profusely. He told us he would make it right and again, I want to reiterate that we were completely cordial while letting him know.
The restaurant manager later came over to apologize and to visit with us about the meal. In this conversation, he said something like, “So we made a little mistake.” Yes, we had been cordial and friendly and joked how know that no one could really identify our rolls. However, at this point in time, I kind of felt like he was taking advantage of our friendliness and young age because he would have never said that to a staunchly dressed 40-something from Alamo Heights. In a jovial manner (but wanting to make a point) I retorted, “Little mistake? I kind of see messing up 3 out of 4 entrees more like a major mistake.” He immediately got defensive and said something about it “not being intentional; it’s not like we were in the kitchen planning to mess up your order.” I was kind of taken aback that he wouldn’t just let that slide and fess up to a mistake.
Soft Opening or not, you have to know your product. That is the one thing that has to be right. You don’t go to a soft opening at a steakhouse and order a filet mignon and are brought out a New York Strip. The fact that 3 of the 4 rolls were screwed up was a pretty major infraction in my mind.
He did right the ship and said that he was going to cover the ENTIRE bill. I have to admit, I was shocked. I mean, I was hoping we could a little something but not the ENTIRE bill. So I guess when it came to the rubber hitting the road, they really were interested in making sure they corrected the situation. Major props in this area.
Soft Openings and screwed up orders aside, I have to say that I don’t plan on returning to the 1604 location. While the location was sleek, it was pricey, and the food and drinks were not up to the quality that the price commanded (although the pomme frites were really good). I’ll tell you what to do instead. Save a little money, get better tasting food, and make the drive down to West Avenue and eat at the old location. Hopefully they remain as good as they have been in the past in spite of this new location.
Value: 5/10 (thought it to be overpriced for the quality; $7.5 for drinks; specialty rolls in the $15-$22 range; go to the original Godai for value)
Atmosphere: 10/10 (Sleek and hip; they really got this right from the furniture to the holders of the bread and pureed edamame appetizers; captures the feel of an upscale sushi restaurant)
Service: For the first time ever I have to actually split this area out into two sections:
Service (Friendliness and Correcting Problems): 9.5/10 (really friendly and nice people; reacted to a bad situation quickly and made sure we were taken care of; for this I can’t thank them enough; would have been a 10 if not for the “little problem” gaffe)
Service (The Nuts and Bolts aka Getting Orders Out): 2.5/10 (really dropped the ball here; to this day I STILL don’t really know the name of the roll with the eel; they screwed up 3 out of 4 entrees, so they lose 7.5 points…)
Taste: 5.5/10 (edamame and bread, pomme frites, spinach salad kept them above 50%)
Website: http://www.godaisushi.com/
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