AYCE Sushi SCM

When AYCE Sushi SCM opened in Santa Ana back in 2019, we were fans: Located near South Coast Plaza, the all-you-can-eat sushi selection was solid, with good service and reasonable pricing – a half-price deal for kids 9 and under mades it ideal for young families. We went in a few times before the pandemic, and despite limited protein choices (a common issue at AYCE sushi restaurants), gladly would have recommended it to anyone.

Everything changed here after the pandemic: Service suffered, prices went up, and the quality of items we sampled sank. When we succeeded in getting seated, we had particularly mediocre meals with multiple “out of stock” items, but hoped these were isolated experiences; Yelp reviews from other people suggested otherwise. After making two more attempts to visit, only to get stuck waiting outside in seemingly endless, poorly managed lines, we gave up and haven’t returned.

A second location of AYCE Sushi is available in Huntington Beach, but we’ve never visited, and as both spots have continued racking up complaints like ours over the past few years, we’re not planning to return to the South Coast location. Thankfully, there are much better places to get AYCE sushi in Orange County.