1 /5 Ahlayia Goines: I’m writing this review because what happened to me at the Shogun in Temecula was deeply upsetting and completely unacceptable.
I dined here on Saturday with three other people. We are frequent customers and have eaten and ordered from this location many times. On this visit, I paid my bill in full by credit card and left the restaurant with my group.
Once I was fully outside the restaurant, a server named Jackie, who was not our server and was assigned to a completely different table, ran after me and publicly accused me of not paying. There was no attempt to verify anything internally, no checking of the POS system, and no discussion with our actual server before confronting me. The accusation was made loudly and publicly, which was humiliating and shocking—especially since I had done nothing wrong.
When we immediately went back inside to address this with the manager on duty, Ali, we were told she had “just clocked in” and that she “didn’t know what to tell us.” There was no investigation, no apology, and no effort to correct the situation. We were essentially dismissed after being falsely accused.
The accusation was completely false. I paid. There were witnesses. This could have been resolved in seconds by simply checking their system, but instead I was chased outside and treated like I had committed a crime.
As a Black woman, being falsely accused of theft in public—without verification—hits differently. Whether intentional or not, the lack of care, professionalism, and accountability in this situation was alarming.
Mistakes happen. But how a business handles them matters. Chasing a customer outside, accusing them without proof, and then failing to address it afterward is not acceptable. I hope management takes this seriously and reevaluates training and protocols so this doesn’t happen to someone else.
Until then, I cannot recommend this location.
