Lava Rock Grille & Sushi — Restaurant in Edmonton

Went for supper last night to lava rock with my family. Was taken out for my birthday but it wasn’t much of a treat. The evening started off with a very rushed service as we sat at a table for five when we made reservations for a table for six and when that was mentioned to our host he basically spread the cutlery around and said just use this, then pretty much took off and didn’t come back to our table for over 25 minutes...he didn’t ask us if we wanted drinks other than the temperature room pitcher of water that was already at our table. When he came to take our order we had to explain to him that it was our first time there and we weren’t really sure how things worked, he basically just read what was on the menu so we all ordered the “all you can eat” again we waited for very long time and as the food was coming out it was cold and it wasn’t what we ordered and he failed to mention that the amount of food that we had ordered was being brought out in thirds so as we ordered 30 chicken wings he only brought out 10...still we did not get a chance to order any beverages and like I said food was coming out in increments.... so by then we were starting to not want what was coming out because when it did it was cold and unappealing... then when we tried to get a girl’s attention because water had spilled, three of our family members noticed she looked right at us then turned away leaving us to deal with the glass of spilled water dripping off the table so we just helped ourselves to whatever napkins we could find at an adjacent table. When this was brought to our servers attention he seem to just shrugg it off. We all ordered the steak which none of us could eat because the meat was tough and chewy. Not a good quality steak. That was our first experience and definitely our last....I would definitely not recommend...

I'm not all for giving bad reviews but here we are, I came here at 630pm on a Tuesday with my Fiance & upon walking in we wern't even greeted and eventually when the man at the counter does say something its "password" and when we go "oh shucks I don't know" he doesn't laugh or say anything for another minute or so making the whole situation very awkward then he asks us if we have a reservation to which we reply no (it's a Tuesday...) and then he says that there are people they are waiting on to make their reservation so we say okay and we will come back in an hour or so to see if anything has changed and he says "yeah not today, maybe tomorrow"

So I didn't even get to eat there and I understand it could have been really busy but you can always say "hey if they dont show up I can give you a call and let you know we have a seat available for you" or literally anything other than.... no, like I said, it's Tuesday at 630 and your booked fully until 9:00?! Okay then...

UPDATE, we came back after 2 weeks, called to make sure there was available room and when we arrive, we wait a solid 6 minutes for someone even to realize we are waiting (note they arent busy they have 3 tables full... that's it) so he hands us a menu and no explanation or how to do anything.. i'm confused so we wait. We are sitting there clearly unsure he asks what's up so I say I need help but you can seat the people first and come right back. He doesn't come right back, instead hes going to all the other tables who already have their food. They had 1 person running tables and he honestly does an awful job at it.

I would not recommend coming here, we waited for almost 20 minutes total with hardly any acknowledge to our existence and decided...

This restaurant failed us on many fronts. Firstly, upon sitting down at 7:30 (with a booking), we were surprised that we started to be served our food around 8:40, which was frustrating, especially given that it was by no means busy and we had children with us. Secondly, my family asked for the all-you-can-eat option while our friends wanted bento boxes. They refused our request claiming that those with the all-you-can-eat would share the food with those that ordered bento boxes, and so they told our friends to move seats to "prevent sharing of [said] food".

Furthermore, after we accommodated their request and decided not to order all-you-can-eat, they came back and said that they would not serve us bento boxes because they did not have any! We were then asked to order rice bowls and a la carte items, which happened to be more expensive for a large party such as ours. The waiter/manager returned and said that they did not have enough rice to fulfil five rice bowl orders (only three) and said that they would substitute fries for the other two rice bowls!

One of our family friends grew very annoyed and asked the manager how an asian restaurant well-known for their sushi had no rice on a Friday night, and she responded with the term "whatever". Needless to say, the experience was dreadful and we will not be returning. The lady was more interested in boasting about how she was a very successful businesswoman and that her restaurant was unique and special, etc... As owners of businesses ourselves, one of the first lessons we learn is that it's never about us and it is always about the customer and their experience. If she keeps up this attitude, I forecast hard times...