Saturday, October 3, 2009

Japanese Times Two!

While my friend was visiting we ate Japanese not once, but twice. (And two days in a row, no less!)

Johnny's not a sushi or seafood fan, so we never go out for it. I took advantage this past week!

The first restaurant was in Naperville and even though the food was delicious, the staff and service (besides the awesome sushi rolling man) were HORRIBLE, so I won't be repeating their name. I got the salmon teriyaki box.

Upon being seated, the waitress handed us menus and we ordered. We ate, we talked, all was enjoyable.

Then I was handed my bill.

The $13 price listed on the menu translated to $24.99 on the bill. I was shocked, but flagged the waitress down and very politely and calmly asked what happened.

She turned pretty defensive and rude, telling me that I had ordered off of the lunch menu, but since they are no longer serving lunch I was given the dinner size and dinner price.

We argued civily back and forth for a few exchanges with me trying to make the very valid point that I did not know that she handed me the lunch menu. Therefore, I should not be charged almost double the price I had expected my bill to read.

After going in circles, a herd of waitresses walked over and became defensive, rude, and argumentative to the point of telling me I should have asked if it was the lunch menu and the lunch size portion. That's when my friend and I had to bump the bitch up a notch.

I then sat patiently while they corrected my bill and the nice sushi rolling man politely apologized over the glass and shook his head in disgust at how his co-workers handled the situation.

Restaurant two was in our town and I was excited because the place just opened up in August and I feared I'd never have a chance to eat there!! I also love the name! (Any Office fans out there??)

Inside was absolutely beautiful! Cushiony seats, hardwood, beautiful curtains and fabric! Also, our table had a bamboo heart plant!

My friend got beef negimake. Thinly sliced beef rolled with green onions served with teriyaki sauce. She also had various sashimi and a ginger salad, unphotographed.

I had unphotographed ginger salad and the above shrimp and vegetable tempura. Sorry the lighting is so bad!

My carrot was carved into a beautiful little flower!

I also had a Philadelphia roll (shout out to my cuz!) with salmon, cream cheese, and avacado. Delicious!

Johnny (who joined us this time) had unpictured miso soup and Beef Teriyaki. It was plated beautifully and he ate almost every bite! Only a few veggies were left!

Bottom line?! If you serve me good food, it isn't enough to keep me coming back - you also have to be relatively civil to me too!

Would you ever return to the first restaurant to give them a second chance?

10 comments:

live pura vida said...

If it was only ONE staff member who wasn't polite, I might go back...but MULTIPLE staffers arguing? Heck no. I have no problem ex-ing a place with crappy service off my list.

Anonymous said...

Hell NO!!! I agree with the commenter above. A whole hord of staff defending each other being a jerk? No way! I would have screamed at that waitress, but thank god you handled it the more civil way.

On a more positive note...I'm REALLY craving sushi these days, and I'm blaming you. ;-)

Mara @ What's For Dinner? said...

See, this is why you need to come up by me and have sushi :)

Laura said...

Oh hell no! You did not just ask me if you should go back did you? NO DO NOT GO BACK. You have enough choices to pick some place else. Plus personally I tell people the name of places that piss me off. I also let the place know that their BS will be talked about. Maybe not on my blog but if someone asks me where to eat I will steer them the other way. I'm not sure we can be friends, you are much too nice. :)

Jenn@slim-shoppin said...

Yeah I agree with Sophia. No one should be treated like that at a restaurant. It's their fault for giving you the wrong menu!

You did the right thing by sticking to your guns!

Glad you had fun with friends though!

c said...

As the friend who accompanied her, I should thank Christina for painting my behavior and comments so civilly--perhaps they were, but as I said there it was a good thing that it was not MY bill that was screwed up or cops would've been called because...I'm AWESOME! Fellow "Office Fan"!
I will concur that anyone in the area should definitely make it a point to check out BigTuna--my only criticism was in our waiter's lack of information: were you out of brown rice or was the menu wrong? All in all, excellent experience!

Nowheymama said...

Good for you for sticking to your guns!

Alisa - frugal foodie said...

Good for you for not rolling over on that bill! Sheesh, in this economy, I don't think the waitress should be taking her chances by being so rude to customers!

On another note, Japanese is my absolute favorite; glad you got out to enjoy some!!!

Anonymous said...

Sorry the first experience was so bad!

Food and service to me, go hand in hand. If the food is good, and I see that my server is trying to get to all her tables, its 20% tip, no questions asked, even if we have to wait a bit for our drinks or food.

However, if I see my server hanging out in the back, sneaking out for a smoke break, that just pisses me off! I won't go back, and have sent letters to restaurants telling them why I won't come back!

Glad you had fun with your cousin! :D

Anonymous said...

Oops, totally misread - the cousin referance was to the roll you ordered - um, its kinda late and I have had a couple glasses of wine! :D