Philadelphia hand roll
Steppe 1 - braised beef with a twist!
MENTAKO PASTA
After a long wait, raw meat is served
GALBI CREAMY UDON PASTA
Mermaid (scallop crudo)
TEMPURA COMBO
Seoul Night Soju
Mix and matcha
Inside
inside area
Beer
Interior atmosphere and vibes.
outside
sashimi, sushi, sushi and sashimi, food
sushi and sashimi, sushi, sashimi, food
Lobster Buns
Janae B.
Feb 9, 2025
A great spot to eat and chill! the skewers were so yummy! And the sushi was also fresh. The salmon nigiri was buttery Staff were super friendly and attentive! Definitely coming back!!
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Junhee K.
Feb 12, 2025
Very good food! Great service. I would come back again. All skewers are good.!! Near old town pas.
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Wendy L.
Feb 26, 2025
Finally we get an ACYE skewer place here in LA! Wahoo!! I was a little trepidatious about this place after reading the early reviews but I think they have improved because my dinner went fairly smoothly and did not experience issues what others encountered. The ordering screen tableside worked and my party of 3 ordered as much skewers and sushi as allowed. It is max of 10 skewers each round (each order comes with 5 sticks) before you can order another round of meat but you can add on your banchan and sushi. Speaking of sushi, love love the hand rolls here! They balanced the fish and rice ratio just right so it doesn't feel like they're skimping you. There is a sushi chef cutting so you know they're freshly prepared.As for their main gimmick, the skewers were pretty good! Barbecued and seasoned with cumin and pepper and salt, I thought the chicken skewer was the tastiest of the offered proteins. You can order beef and lamb as well. For veggie eaters, there are mushrooms and eggplant skewers available. Overall, we liked the food selection and the price. We would come back. The only downside is that it is in the heart of Pasadena where parking payment is required and since this is ayce, it kind of sucks to be here too long.
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Brittney L.
Feb 26, 2025
Their $25 AYCE skewer is good value but not good quality. Their skewers are pretty inconsistently cooked. The beef skewers were charred towards the top of the skewer and tough towards the bottom of the skewer. That was the worst for me. The chicken and pork wasn't bad. Their steamed egg is salty and not very fluffy. Their corn cheese is pretty runny. It feels like they use nacho cheese. There is a self-service bar for some appetizers and sauces as well as a soup. It was our first time there so we didn't know there was a self-service bar. Would have been great if the waiter informed us when he asked if it was our first time there. There was a lot of people waiting as I was leaving but I don't think it's worth it if you have to wait a long time.
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Gil B.
Feb 21, 2025
Awful experience. Waited 45 minutes to get the first skewers and another 45 minutes to get the second. Many things we ordered never arrived. The system is SO DISORGANIZED I couldn't believe it. When the food finally came it was dry and bland.Absolutely would not return.
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Henry T.
Feb 6, 2025
Decided to try this place after seeing it on social media, which I've come to learn is typically not a positive sign if they need to push influencers to promote the establishment.And based on my experience, it definitely needed the boost. Upon arrival, was greeted by an employee who explained their various menus and options and gave us time to decide which one to select. After some thought, we choose the standard AYCE option. We were shown to a table, and then realized that this was more of a takeout/fast casual style restaurant in which you served yourself in regards to water/utensils/sauces. This is something I think they could do a better job of explaining up front. Once seated, ordering was done via a tablet, which is where the problems began. While the system itself is smooth and seemingly easy, the trouble comes in the tickets being relayed to the kitchen and timing. You are limited in the items you can order per round, which is understandable, though there is only a short 3 minute window in which you have to wait to order more. This is where things begin to fall apart. After making 3 rounds of orders for both skewers, appetizers, and sides, we expected the food to take a bit as everything is made to order. One side arrived, though with no sign of the other ones. Then the skewers arrived, and finally some appetizers. When we asked about the missing sides, we were told they would check on them. We decided to order more skewers after finishing off the initial round, and this is when orders really started becoming convoluted. After about 8-10 minutes, we received double the skewers we ordered, and even some others we didn't. Being a bit perplexed, we just kept them and tried them out since we were hungry.After ordering more sides/appetizers to replace some of the original ones that never arrived, again we received some items at random times, yet not everything we ordered. At this point, I figured their ordering system was completely inaccurate and not relaying accurate orders to the kitchen, unless the staff was just completely not paying attention. After asking another employee yet again on missing items, it seems they finally figured out something may be wrong and they finally delivered the original appetizer ordered (fries) after over 30 min. The fact that an establishment cannot serve fries in under 30 min. should tell you there is problems with either the kitchen or ordering system since that is enough time to peel, cut, and fresh fry them. And from the looks of what I received, that is exactly what they did, minus the actual cooking part.While I think they have a good concept going, they seriously need to work on throwing out their automated ordering system and hiring additional people to actually take orders or process them as this was a serious issue for EVERY table, of which there were only 10-12. For what are $1 skewers as advertised, they were about expected quality, though the sides and appetizers left a lot to be desired.All in all, this a definite skip until they fix their service/kitchen issues, then it may be worth a try if you have patience and go in with tempered expectations.
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Chelsea C.
Feb 3, 2025
Not sure if this is still in soft opening phase or fully opened. I really hope this is still in soft opening because there is A LOT for them to fix. The ordering system and staff was disorganized. It looks more like an inexperience staff issue than an understaff issue. There was a long wait between orders and orders keep mixing up. We went around 8pm on a Sunday. Came for the AYCE Skewer promo. There's also an upgrade to include "sushi", but it's only handrolls and nigiri when we went. The promo video on IG made the food and the deal look really good. Unfortunately, the real deal was a disappointment. We ordered the beef, lamb, tofu, and mushroom skewers. We even ordered it with the mala sauce which was an extra 25 cents per an order. The mala sauce was actually pretty bland. The tofu was fried tofu and was dried out after they grilled it and doesnt look like the photo. The mushroom was pretty good, but it's more like oyster mushroom slices. The skewer items are mediocre. It includes one side per a person: rice, chaomein noodles, fries, fried rice. I like the fries. The sidebar contains: malatang soup, soy sauce, cumin spice seasoning, pickled veggies. The soup was surprisingly good. It's Pasadena, so there's pay street parking and public parking lots. Overall, not worth the trip. I left super disappointed :(
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Peter H.
Jan 28, 2025
There's a monitor displayed off the side of the restaurant on Union St. that incorrectly has 9pm as their closing time on Friday. The actual closing time is 10pm, so it was suggested that they were still figuring out their business hours. Our group arrived around 7:45pm and opted for the AYCE option. This wasn't the usual grill-it-yourself kinda place, so I wondered how efficiently food would arrive.We quickly ordered several rounds of skewers and sides on their tableside tablet which included cooldown between ordering. While waiting, we enjoyed the malatang which had a nice kick. Time passed by, and it was then a staff member told us that there was an issue with their system. Essentially, except for the very first order of skewers and sides, none of the other rounds of skewers showed up on their end, so we had to order them again. To make it up, he gave us two hand rolls and plate of crudo free of charge, which was usually not part of the AYCE option. While I appreciated the gesture, if I'm not mistaken, the rolls and crudo had been sitting out for a while. Tasted alright though.It was close to the hour mark when we got our first skewers, and honestly they're pretty tasty especially the pork and lamb. A friend and I each got a beer as part of their B1G1 deal, and later on the staff member threw in a free bottle of soju. That's when our order of fried rice and chow mein came in. While they were all piping hot, the textures were mushy, especially the fried rice which seemed hastily made. Fortunately, as they got going, the rounds of skewers came out a lot quicker to the point where we able to build a respectable skewer stick tree. Also worth mentioning was the tofu skewer, which I thought had a rich, toasty flavor despite its saltiness.Ultimately, a cool concept bogged down by an iffy ordering system. Their skewers, which were the main draw, would be worth returning for. As we were ending our meal, for some reason the song "Tom's Diner" kept playing on repeat. At the same time, a DJ came in and got set up to spin his own dance music for the night, overlapping with the restaurant's speakers. It was surreal. Speaking with the waitstaff, it seems the space is hoping to be a venue for music and community events after hours which sounds like a great idea. Looking forward to seeing this place find its footing.
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Carmen H.
Feb 13, 2025
NOT WORTH THE HYPECame here with some friends after a video I saw in IG. Definitely NOT the same as what the video showed. We waited an hour to be seated. Opt for AYCE and also ordered one item from a la carte. The system was down so we had to order through a server and can only order 4 items at a time. Food took forever to come out, at least 20 mins. Lack of seasoning and side dishes had no flavor. I feel that there was some language barrier between our server and us because the a la carte item never came and we kept asking and they kept saying "let me check with the kitchen" Then they said there is no such item but clearly it is in the menu. After about an hour of back and forth we cancel that since we figured it will never come out. Towards the end they rushed the rest of the meat out and it was undercooked!! Left somewhat unsatisfied.
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Luis J.
Feb 16, 2025
Food was great ! Definitely recommend getting the unlimited skewers ! Make a reservation because this place stays busy! Well worth the wait though
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