B.C. sushi chef refuses to provide extra soy sauce — even for $1K

A northern B.C. sushi restaurant’s storefront has been turning heads over the last week — and not just because Kitimat’s Sushi J has a variety of sushi rolls on display for reasonable prices.

It’s because of a very direct disclaimer on the front door.

“We never serve extra soy sauce, rude people, intoxicated people,” the sign proclaims. The line about extra soy sauce is highlighted in red.

Sushi J’s refusal to provide extra soy sauce on request has prompted bemusement in the local community, with social media users joking about smuggling in their own condiment packets.

But the issue is no laughing matter for Sushi J owner Philip Kim, whose lengthy social media post justifying his position has prompted debates over whether the consumer is always right about their food choices.

“Most of the chefs [have] this strong opinion, but they don’t want to fight with the customer so they don’t mention it,” Kim told CBC News of his soy sauce refusal.

“But I’m not, because I want [to] serve my food to them in the right way. So that’s why I care about the amount of soy sauce.”

Kim argues that, as a condiment, soy sauce is packed with salt and drowns out the flavour of sushi — something he’s worked to perfect over two decades of training.

“When you take your meal, just drink half a cup of seawater. What happens? Your kidney will be destroyed with the sodium,” he said.

“I’m just thinking about their health. I don’t want to feel guilty [and] destroy their health,” he added. “That’s why I don’t serve them any extra soy sauce.”

The chef, who has operated Sushi J for seven years, said he used to provide extra soy sauce on request when he first opened.

But he realized that any customers who asked for extra soy sauce never came back — theorizing that was because they only tasted salt, and not the sushi that he had carefully worked to develop.

“Sometimes I worked 20 hours in the kitchen and [slept] there, and woke up and training again,” he said of his career.

“That was my life. But … they reject my life with their soy sauce.”

Kim also dismissed the notion that he was being stingy with the condiment because of how much it costs.

He said he wouldn’t give his patrons extra soy sauce even if they paid him $1,000.

“The soy sauce is [the] cheapest ingredient what I use. That’s not the cost matter,” he said. “That’s about my food matter. And their health matters.”

Shiva Reddy, a sommelier and the food and wine columnist for CBC’s On The Coast, says that Sushi J’s sign on the door may seem intense and abrupt.

But she says it does a good job of setting customers’ expectations up front, and that any soy sauce fans could always take their business elsewhere.

“That idea of, ‘I’m a customer, so you’re going to do whatever I want,’ it doesn’t work like that,” said Reddy.

“You can’t go into somebody’s home and boss them around.”