So, Camille from Archives of Our Lives made a post about sushi and I was inspired to write my own recent sushi story.  Conveniently enough, Camille also sponsors Saturday Steals, which invites bloggers to write about a recent deal that they came across.  And though I didn't make my own, like she did, my sushi experience still most definitely was a steal.

I've never really been that into sushi.  One day, back in Vegas, I was at Trader Joe's and they had a little sushi four-pack.  I had never had it before and decided to try it.  That was probably my first mistake.  To make my first sushi experience a ready-made packet from Trader Joe's.  It was not good, and I ended up throwing most of it away.

I didn't try sushi again for another several years, until last Thanksgiving when I went to the Chinese Buffet (you know, the one that served chicken feet?) and I liked it way better than the TJ's crap.  I decided that if this weirdo buffet had decent sushi, then an actual sushi place must have some pretty darn good stuff.

I put that on the back burner for a while, and then last weekend I got a flyer in the mail for a place that opened last year, called Sushiya.  There was a menu and a 15% off coupon.  The menu had a variety of items, including sushi and cooked meals, sort of an Asian-fusion type restaurant. Matt and I were feeling adventurous, so we decided to try it.  We went over there and, since it was getting late, decided to order take-out instead of eating in.

Then things started to go wrong.  First, they gave me another person's food, and I would have left with it had another waiter not caught it in time.  A little while later, they came back with presumably the right food, and I went out to meet Matt, who went to Albertson's next door to buy some drinks, and we went home.

When we got home, we started putting the food out on the table and realized that part of our order was missing.  We had ordered orange peel beef and should have gotten two bowls of hot and sour soup but had gotten only one egg drop instead.  Since the place was close to where I live, we packed everything up and drove back.

I'm working on my confidence building in confrontational situations, so I went in alone to talk to them.  I didn't really have to do much, though.  They had realized their mistake and brought out the rest of my food as soon as I walked in.  This time, I took a look at it and saw that they gave us chicken instead of beef.  Thinking about the confidence thing, I decided to tell this to them, and they made me a new one right away, while also letting me keep the chicken one.  I also had to tell them about the soup, and they got that for me as well.  While I was waiting for them to cook the new food, a waiter came out and gave me a $25 gift certificate and apologized again.  It just goes to show you how being polite but assertive can result in good things.  I need to remember that.

Anyway, we ended up with a ton of food.  It was actually kind of ridiculous how much we got.

hot and sour soup

Seafood Tempura (shrimp, salmon, crab, scallops and vegetables in a flour batter)

Sushiya (this is just something random, whatever the sushi chef decides to make at that moment, and it is awesome)

Orange peel beef

And the extra mistake, orange peel chicken

Everything was really good.  We'll definitely be going back, especially since we now have $25 free.  Everyone makes mistakes, and the manner in which they were corrected made all the difference.