But having read and heard such great things about Shibuya at the MGM Grand, and operating under the assumption that their menu would have more than enough non-sushi items to choose from, I took the leap anyway.

The restaurant is dramatic in presentation, with soaring ceilings and low-slung furnishings in various shades of charcoal, slate blues, and browns in the main dining room and warm caramel colors in the adjacent teppanyaki grill area. A giant LCD screen hangs over the sushi bar, showing colorful and whimsical screensaver style representations of aquariums.

As mentioned, raw seafood is their specialty with literally dozens of selections on the menu. Sushi and sashimi includes yellow tail, snapper, mackerel, shrimp, scallop, king crab, octopus, squid, and many more while tuna (both spicy and regular), California, and other rolls round out the offerings. Move beyond that to the cold and warm plates and you have choice of things like Shibaki tuna tartar, Kobe beef Tataki, tempura, and black pepper tuna steak among many, many more.

Unfortunately for me, the non-sushi selections were very, very limited. Only about a half-dozen beef, poultry, and seafood entrees were available unless you move up to the teppanyaki grill selections, which were prohibitively expensive in my estimation ($60 and up, although that is for three courses).

I sampled the Kobe beef filet, and while expertly prepared, crazy-tender with a hint of ginger soy, I would’ve thought it was too small if it had been half its $55 price tag. A beef tenderloin and the aforementioned black pepper tuna steak were also sampled, both perfectly fine (with much larger portions and more reasonable prices) but nothing that sent us running for the sidewalks to rave about.

But again, I’m not the target demographic for this particular restaurant, so all I can really tell you about the food is that sushi lovers rave about the place. Despite the high prices (a full meal will easily set you back $50-75 per person with wine, tax, and tip), everyone I know who has eaten here says it is absolutely worth it.

What I can speak to, however, is the service, which I found to be severely lacking and the one major thing they need to work on. Our waiter tried to steer us toward what he thought we should have and when we politely declined, his demeanor changed perceptibly and he eventually stopped coming to the table at all, replaced by what I believed to be the secondary server.

In addition, for the first 20 minutes of our meal, the staff was busy rearranging tables and chairs right next to us for what I thought was an incoming large party. It turns out the party wasn’t coming in until the next night and all of this scooting, scraping, and commotion was merely advance planning. Seems that could’ve happened when there weren’t people sitting three feet away eating.

Perhaps we just drew the short stick in that category, because as I always do when I eat at a restaurant, I try to pay attention to how the servers react to people who aren’t there to review them. What I was able to see was a professional, but cool, staff.

I’m going to leave this one to the sushi fanatics who swear by Shibuya and direct the rest of us raw-fish averse elsewhere.