Willy's Steak House and Sushi Bar
Shrewsbury, MA
We most recently went to Willy's Steak House and Sushi Bar in spring 2011. I went with a friend of mine who also adores sushi. She explained that even though she'd lived in Shrewsbury years prior, she never tried Willy's because she was unsure what type of a restaurant it was. She looked forward to this opportunity!
We met in the parking lot, having found the last two spots available in the next door bank area. We were there before six, so you would hope there would be parking, especially since many people came into the restaurant after us. Be aware that parking is extremely tight in this neighborhood.
The restaurant has polished wood floors, which aren't great for people who have just walked across snow. My friend almost slipped and fell. Be aware and wear shoes which grip. The polished wood also makes the room extremely loud - lots of hard surfaces for the noise to bounce off of, and the tables are fairly close together. We were hard pressed at times to hear our own conversation over the voices from the nearby tables.
We were provided with both the steak and sushi menus, which is great! You can mix and match based on your party's needs. I looked over the wine list and asked our waitress if they had any sake, since we were going to have a sushi meal. She said sure, it's on the list. I looked again and couldn't find any. She took the menu from me and looked - sure enough, no sake! 'Oh well,' she said, 'We have large and small.' Hmmmm, that's an unusual way to categorize sakes! I asked for a small, and asked to know what it was just for my own curiosity. It turns out it was Geikkekan and she told me I had to have it hot or it wouldn't taste good. Hmmmm again. I said I'd rather have it cold, and she seemed to think I was a little crazy, but she did bring it out that way. I would say that a restaurant serving $9 sashimi really should have some good quality sakes on its menu to go with them. I've reviewed pretty much every sushi restaurant in the area and even the really cheap ones have sake options.
We both had miso soup, which was lovely, and my seaweed salad was brought out with a delightful presentation in a martini glass -
Then came out our various rolls and sushi items. I realize I'm starting to sound a little curmudgeonly here, and I don't mean to, but I guess I did feel let down with this sequence of events. Willy's is a fairly high end restaurant and I'd really looked forward to this meal. My friend and I go to all the various sushi restaurants and I was looking forward to this as being one of our pinnacle evenings. Instead, the presentation was more blah than pretty. I can page back through photos from other restaurants we've visited recently and find really lovely presentations. Willy's presentation this evening just wasn't up to the standards.
The sushi was nice enough, if more pricey than competitors and not noticeably any better. The gold fish maki, for example, was tasty but not a "wow" experience.
Then on to dessert. She brought out a tray and we asked about the items. It turns out they don't make any of them here - they just ship them in. Maybe this is just an interest of mine, but when I go to a location, I want to see what the chef has thought up! A lot of the delight in going to some of the restaurants in the area is seeing what delightful dessert of the days the chef has invented. Here they were all shipped in in a truck. Again they were tasty enough, but not exceptional.
I imagine if the prices had been moderate and I hadn't built up my expectations that I would have found the food and ambiance to match well to the expense. However with the prices being fairly high, and the reputation being so high, I found myself let down. The waitress was not a good match for the restaurant - she interrupted us, she would ask us how a food item was when clearly we hadn't even had a chance to sample it yet, and when I asked for a port with dessert she didn't know what a port was (the restaurant offers several). A waitress should be familiar with what is on her location's menu. Food items were brought out where they didn't know which item went with which person, which you don't expect to happen at better restaurants. The food was good but the price was high for what was offered. If we return again at least I'll have lowered my expectations and would probably enjoy the experience in line with what they have - and at that point I'd feel the prices were too high for what we experienced.
We purchased our meal at Willy's Steakhouse with our own funds.
Previous Review
Willy's is a fine dining restaurant with two halves - the formal steak-and-potatoes half, and the half with booths and a sushi bar, where the emphasis is on great sushi and other Japanese delicacies. You can get either one on either side, but it's good to go with the side you're intending to eat. We of course went to the sushi side this evening, to try out all the great sushi!
Probably the only down part of the evening was that two of our party were in jeans, and the waitress seemed to be a bit arch-eyed at this. Most people in here were in dresses and slacks. Just something to keep in mind!
We'd hoped to get a Champagne with the meal, since that's the perfect pairing with sushi, but the cheapest one on the menu was $40. So instead we went for a Geikkekan draft sake. It was actually pretty fresh and fruity tasting, served in a martini glass. Our miso soup was also fresh with interesting textures, seaweed, tofu, crab. Very tasty.
The Yakitori was only 2 chicken skewers on a large plate, but had a GREAT sauce with it. The bread served at the beginning was tasty, and be sure to ask for extra roasted garlic! It's the perfect way to start the meal out.
We had to wait quite a while before our sushi boat was done, even though we started our meal at 8pm. Be sure to get lots of appetizers to tide you over! When it did come, it was great. A graceful butterfly made from carrot sat at once end, and inside we enjoyed salmon, octopus, tuna, eel, shrimp, rolls with orange, red and black roe. We had smoked salmon which was a bit on the salty side, but in general all the sushi had generous cuts and was very good.
The waitress downside was apparent here, we went for very long spells without water or any other drinks. We couldn't even flag her down.
The sauteed spinach we had on the side was great, with onion strands on top. Again, very fresh tasting, very delicious.
We fed 3 people rather well on the boat, but decided to get more food to taste test things. The Willy's roll was very good, tuna, yellowtail, salmon, cucumber. The Shrewsbury roll was deep fried and very tasty. An unusual flavor combination compared to normal sushi!
The dessert offerings here are simply wonderful and we went with the sweet potato pecan pie and the chocolate cake. Both filled up 2 people each, and by 9:30 we were done. The place was emptying out about now, so if you're OK with a late dinner, that would be the time to come.
We enjoyed Willy's quite a bit, and the sushi was great. Just be sure to dress nicely, order appetizers, and be quick to order extra water or drinks when you have the opportunity.
We purchased our meal at Willy's Steakhouse with our own funds.
Address
2 Grafton Street
(Route 140 on the Common)
Shrewsbury, MA
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