No, really, don’t even go there!
I don’t normally cross-post my reviews from Yelp about restaurants, but I think I’m just so traumatised about tonight’s experience that I need to complain to just about anyone who’ll listen!!
AGH! Where do I even start with this place? It’d seem that I’m one of the few who did not have a pleasurable experience here at all.
How NOT to run a restaurant:
Friday night, we’d booked a party of 45, I think it’s best I make a list…
The good:
– Pineapple mojito was delicious, great happy hour prices. Would definitely re-order that!
– Hubby adored his lobster ”mac and cheese”
The bad:
– Hubby and I ordered Tori age to start, it was pretty much battered chicken – any time I’ve had this, it’s served with a chilli, garlic, sesame and soy sauce, here, it was served with a ketchup dipping sauce. It was like chicken nuggets and ketchup. Disappointing start!
Gimme a plate of Wagamama’s Tori Kare Age any day!!
– The fire alarm went off shortly after we were all seated, it proceeded to go off for over 40 minutes. It was awful. The manager DID bring around a bottle of wine per table to ‘keep you distracted for a few minutes til the alarm goes off’ (but with 10 a table it didn’t go very far) and it was red only. A waitress was told (right behind me), ‘if anyone wants a glass of wine, give them one’ however, when people asked for white wine instead, they were denied (pretty rudely) and asked if they wanted the wine menu.
– The staff were totally clueless. They forgot who got what, they took everyone’s order bar two people and had to come back. Service was utterly disgraceful, I asked our server (ONE server for a party of over FORTY by the way? Are you FREAKIN KIDDING ME?!?!) for a diet coke, not once, not twice, but 3 times, then I grabbed a guy who was serving another table (4th time asking for a drink), he ignored me and went back to his own table. I FINALLY got a third server who just happened to be passing (FIFTH time asking for a drink) and she brought me one – over ONE HOUR after asking for a drink. I was about to crack up, seriously, it was RIDICULOUS!!!
– The food took FOREVER and all came out at different times.
When one of our group mentioned to the manager that she and a few others were waiting for their food – after EVERYONE else in our group had long finished, the manager was incredibly rude and said, ‘well what do you expect? you DO have a party of 45!’ A lot of what was missing, was sushi which could have and should have been done in advance of such a large group coming in to the restaurant.
Two people ended up not eating at all because the wait was so long!!!
If you cannot cater to a large group, DO NOT TAKE THE FREAKIN’ RESERVATION!!!!
– Most of the food came out STONE COLD or tepid at best.
The only food that was hot was the lobster mac and cheese – which, for the record (since I’m on a ranting roll) was a lobster cheese risotto, NOT mac and cheese!
A number of people had to send theirs back, and, upon the return of their food they discovered it was COLDER than when they sent it away.
I ordered the katsu chicken, I asked the server if it came with curry sauce, she said ‘yes’. I got my food and there was no miso soup as advertised, they didn’t give me my rice (and when they eventually did it was overcooked and cold) and the chicken (which was just O.K.) came with the same ketchupy sauce that I had with my appetiser, SUCH a shame, I had high hopes for my food and they were definitely crashed by a cold, mediocre meal.
– Service was terrible, glasses laid empty, we didn’t get refills, and, like I said above, we had one server who wasn’t particularly attentive – we sat for a good 15 minutes after we received our food, seeking someone to bring some salt, the aforementioned diet coke and to attract their attention to the fact that the food was cold.
– They had at least two other large groups booked in shortly after we arrived, so they were clearly over capacity and under staffed.
I’ve also just had a text from one of my friends who were there for dinner, ‘Not going back to Azuma, have food poisoning! Stomach cramps unbearable :(‘
We’ll definitely not be back, it’s probably good if you’re just a couple, but holy crap that was awful service.
The people we were with, were definitely the highlight of the night and we spent the night laughing at the awful things happening, cause if we didn’t we’d have cried! We had a great night and Julie did a wonderful job organising the get together, it was just let down by shoddy service!
Had I been there with only a couple of people, we’d have left not long after arriving!!!
I reckon you should have all just stood up and walked out without eating a thing and not paid the bill – it’s no wonder one person got food poisoning if the food was served cold! Vote with your feet.
I don’t think that was quite in the spirit of the night, plus then there’s logistics of finding where to move a party of 45 on extremely short notice on a Friday night! The atmosphere and craic were great, I had a fab night, but none of that was due to the restaurant! LOL
A shame you had such a bad experience. I can’t say its been perfect each we have been but it sounds like they didn’t plan at all for large parties!
Just wanted to say that it would be worth letting your friend know that there are a Coupes of tummy bugs going round and one of them gives severe stomach pains. I had it on Wednesday. Not worth being accused of libel!
Hope it was a good evening otherwise…
Yeah it was a fab night, just not much of it was thanks to the restaurant! lol!!!
I’ll mention it to her, but she’d been feeling fine before and she’s fine now that it’s out of her system…maybe it wasn’t the restaurant, but timing was a bit suspicious! Either way, even without the being ill part, the experience was horrible!
Any time I have been to a restaurant with a large grouping of people they have 2 or 3 servers for that table. One takes drink orders as they arrive, two bring the drinks to the table. Then food orders are taken. While it’s true they may come out at different times depending upon the food ordered, there are multiple servers bringing it so the food generally comes out in groupings, so everyone is eating at some point, and no one is finished before anyone else starts.
I would ring the manager and blast him, or go over his head to the store/chain owner and complain largely about this. It isn’t like you just showed up with 45. You had pre-planned it and made a reservation. Definitely no excuse for shoddy service.
I gave them a bad review on Yelp and the C.O.O has contacted me to apologise 🙂