Sumo, Winter Park - Closed

I ate dinner at this Japanese steakhouse on Saturday. It is on the corner of 436 and Aloma. I believe it used to be a diner. I had a selection of sushi that were all around $2 per piece. I think some are on the menu for under $2, so, check your bill versus the menu if it bothers you. I didn't catch it until now. I had escolar (alias white tuna), tuna, salmon, yellowtail, conch, red clam and scallop. The escolar was soft and a little "stringy". That was a first. The tuna was dead. Really old and tasteless. The beginnings of a fish smell. The salmon was good and fatty. The yellow tail was good. The conch was turning spongy. The scallop was cold from defrosting. The red clam was ok. A little dry. probably frozen. All the cuts were long and fat. I had to eat them in two bites or risk gagging. The rice was pretty good. Very unadulterated. I'm not sure if lack of vinegar, etc is a punishable offense in the guild, but, I'll take it over the other end of the spectrum. The rice was packed a little to loosely or was the result of the way the rice was mismanaged. It crumbled in the soy sauce. And I'm sure not all of it was a result of my lack of dexterity with the chop sticks. The soda tasted funny. The glass was sticky. My waiter looked like he just came off a twelve hour shift in a rice paddy.  He was was obsequious and nice though. Well maybe he craved my death, but, his servile manner made my simple mind categorize him as a non-threat and as such - a nice guy. They still don't have any kind off booze after opening on February 14. I think it would really help their Yelp score. The place looks like one of those $40 motel rooms that they modernize with some new electronics and wall paper. It looks new when you first enter and slowly gives up its secrets as you sit there start smelling the fifty years of cigarette smoke that two coats of paint can't corral and the water marks and rug (hell everything) stains that would have busted the budget (or just be repeated a few months later). In the motel room of course. I was still remembering a nightmare motel on Jekyll Island.  The restaurant is cut in two. There is a hibachi room and the sushi area, The sushi area is about seven tables and a bar counter and a sushi bar counter. My eye line had a view of the dividing wall and the bathroom and two kitchen swing doors. In other words, every seat in the house looks on an eyesore. Plus the swinging doors are one of those areas where they didn't upgrade and that just makes the effect all the more sinister. The parts they did upgrade were done up in gold with green backlighting. I'm not sure if that is a Chinese or Thai affect and if it could lend any information on why this place falls short as a Japanese place. The mish mosh of wait staff also confuses the inner detective. The hibachi room looked really dark. So, it is a mixed bag here. Six to eight tables. They could hit another gear and make it to (this hurts to say because it shouldn't be an aspiration) Mikado or Mt Fuji level or they could just become an all you can eat sushi place like Koy Wan. I'm not sure if the cooked food was anymore consistent. Hopefully, it is because they need something to hang their kasa on.