Sakana House — Restaurant in Barrie

WARNING- ABUSIVE!

• The food was very fresh (Salmon Sashimi was excellent), nicely plated and very fairly priced! • Service was exceptional; we didn’t have to wait at all even though the place was quite busy - our preference was to be seated at a particular table and they had no problem letting us sit where we liked. • Staff were very attentive, friendly and the atmosphere was warm and welcoming - note: they don’t accept Amex. • Keep up the great work Sakana house, we will be coming back frequently.

WARNING!:

Re All-you-can-eat Sashimi & Abuse

We did return 3 more times. On 2 of the 3 occasions I ordered mainly salmon sashimi and my partner ordered other things.

On my second visit, the order limit for salmon sashimi was reduced from 12pc per order to 6pc per order on their tablets. I suspected the reason may have been the great prices for the high quality sashimi, but I couldn’t know for sure. I had read a prior review on google that indicated that this place was very slow to bring sashimi orders and that is consistent with my observations.

My partner and I noticed that on our third visit, they were extremely reluctant to bring salmon sashimi orders at all. We waited at least 15 minutes between 6 piece salmon orders and they even altered the contents (by dramatically increasing the rice and charging 5$ ea, even though they told us not to worry about it before we accepted the orders) of any other that contained anything other than fish (likely, to reduce the cost)

We visited this afternoon and were shocked when we were falsely accused of having “disrespected the staff” on our prior visit and, as a consequence, had to order “from the a-la-carte menu but not all-you-can-eat” as a consequence of having “disrespected the staff” previously.

My partner was so upset by this very public and undeserved repudiation that he left on foot. I stayed and ordered three Sapporo beers as I reflected on the terrible abuse we had just been subjected to.

The manager who made the false accusations of “disrespecting the staff” said he had “watched video of your behaviour many times” when I suggested that there must have been some misunderstanding.

While I sat alone in the restaurant, several staff came up to me with great kindness and explained that this particular manager can be “very mean” and that he cares too much about the bottom line.

The staff member that we were falsely accused of having disrespected was exceedingly kind and went out of her way to tell me “this is not your fault”.

Having been humiliated in public and slandered by the apparent manager of this location, I was struck by the kindness of the staff whom I was falsely accused of disrespecting - I discreetly offered a 100$ cash tip, which they actually refused (the staff are good people).

I paid for my 3 beers with a tip and left.

Conclusion:

It’s plain and obvious that the manger of this location was not happy with the prices he set for salmon sashimi on the all-you-can-eat menu. Instead of taking ownership of the pricing issue that he caused, he elected to abuse myself and my partner by making false accusations in public of a defamatory nature - he humiliated us both and insisted that, as a consequence of “disrespecting the staff”, I could only order from the a-la-carte menu rather than the all-you-can-eat.

It doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to note that, had staff disrespect been a good faith concern, rather than the cost of sashimi, a patron would be refused service entirely rather than granted service but denied all-you-can-eat pricing.

The use of false pretences, abuse and public humiliation in bad faith is unacceptable.

The food at this restraint is quite good, the prices for sashimi on the all-you-can-eat menus are obviously too-good, the staff are very kind and the relevant manager is a terrible human being.

Make of that what you will. But don’t penalize the staff, they’re lovely - I would go back but for this experience because, as I have already noted, the food is excellent.

This experience was...

I have never been so embarrassed with poor customer service like this.

My husband and I have been to Sakana House before and thought the food was very good. We appreciated the fact that the server came to see if there were any allergies that they should be aware of. With that in mind, we invited dear friends (super kind and selfless people) of ours to join us for dinner with our recommendation. We have been out several times with them where restaurant protocol is to have a manager visit the table to accommodate these special needs.

This visit shocked me. Not only because it was so incredibly rude but also because they took advantage of my friend’s handicap and charged her for it. Even though and especially since they put her in tears.

As every other Sushi restaurant in Barrie accommodates her allergy to sulfates, she knows exactly how and what to order. Sakana House waitress explained that she would have to order from the “a la cart menu” and be charged full price for each item ordered instead of ordering from the “all you eat iPad menu” . We asked politely and thought that perhaps she didn’t understand us. So we asked if could speak to someone in the food prep or a manager. We had several people come to our table to tell us that it was their policy that on a busy night that food allergies need to be ordered “a la cart”. We could not comprehend how putting in one order with an allergy, even though it was on the all you can eat menu, could be charged individually.

The embarrassment and stress of this situation tightened back pain in my guest. My suggestion was to leave this restaurant and go somewhere else. My friend explained that if she was to leave, she would have to go home since her back could not tolerate a move to another restaurant. While 4 of us ordered all you can eat, my girlfriend ate half of what we did and paid double the price. Why? She was charged individually because they needed to put on gloves to avoid cross contamination when she was prepared to place her order in one shot.

I’m horrified that they took advantage of an allergy. I waited till our company left and asked my husband to wait in the car so I could talk to the manager, explaining how I hope this comes up in a meeting with staff and owner. I also explained how this behaviour shook up not only my friend but her family as well. With a saddened heart I walked out without even an apology for their behaviour.

I am not a complainer by any means. I recognize the importance to lift people up, not tear them down. I write this review in hopes that I can prevent this happening to...

It breaks my heart to write this review. I have been holding off writing this, hoping that things would improve so I would have more positive things to say. My family has been coming to this location of Sakana House for over 5 years. We have always loved it, but have noticed that over the course of the last year and a half or so, we have NOT had the same experiences as we have in the past. I will say that the quality of the food has been good for the most part. We are usually satisfied with the actual food. That said, there have been times when we've gone to the AYCE and the portions are super small, or haphazardly put together (i.e. messy handrolls, maki that fall apart, brown avocado, etc.).

My main issue is the service, and the state of the place. There used to be very friendly staff who worked there. Now, the staff seems miserable, rude, and not attentive. Every time we go there, we are rushed to order and eat as fast as possible. The food either comes flying out all at once, or takes forever to show up. Yet no matter what pace the food comes at, you are made to feel like you must get out as fast as possible. Feeling rushed to eat is a terrible feeling, especially when you are paying quite a hefty price for the meal. I understand that times have been rough, and prices have gone up everywhere. However, paying $27 per person for lunch on a weekday, and $35 for dinner...at these prices I'd rather go somewhere comparable and get better service.

Coming for lunch with 45 minutes left in the lunch time frame, but being told that we must order off the dinner menu is ridiculous. The floor is disguising, as are the washrooms, and very often the glassware is dirty. The corners floor in the restaurant looks as if it has not been washed in weeks. Since we have young kids, we like to come for lunch closer to the opening time. At this time, it seems that the staff is always running around doing "opening" type tasks such as washing windows, sweeping, pouring soy sauce in take away containers, and setting out cutlery. All things that should be done before a restaurant is actually open for business, or should be done somewhere not in the middle of a dining room. These are not tasks that customers should be seeing (unless there's an emergency).

Sakana House has the potential to be amazing. They need to stop acting like they are a cheap, fast food place, and start treating their customers like they value them. The food can be amazing, but when your servers are grumpy and the place is not immaculately clean...you will lose customers. Whoever runs the place needs a...