Watari — Restaurant in Edmonton

My girlfriend and I have been here a couple of times before and liked the food. Service was never especially good but it was ok, until we went there again the past weekend. Edit: just to note that this review is not about the food. We still like the food here, it won’t blow your mind, but it’s decent. The basis for my review at 1 star is purely because of the service we received. I might add that given the all-you-can-eat nature I did not go in with a high expectation for the service.

This particular time we went on a Sunday night. The place was not too busy, but there were still quite a few tables full of people. We sat down, ordered some sashimi and sushi, and waited. Waitress came and asked for drink order and we just ordered water. The sashimi came quickly, so did the hot dishes that we ordered. Food tasted good, sashimi was fresh, no complaints there. Then a waitress came and gave us another order sheet, I told her that we still had some sushi coming, and that we will wait until all of our food arrived before ordering again. The sushi never came. I asked the waitresses to check a few times as we didn’t want to waste food by ordering too much. Eventually (after about an hour) a waitress said there were no more food orders in the kitchen so we should just order again. I’ll admit I get a little grumpy every time I go to a restaurant and they lose our order. But I didn’t complain, and just wrote up another order form.

Once again the sashimi came quickly, fresh and delicious. Once again no sign of the sushi that we ordered. I was tempted to ask if they ran out of rice in the kitchen but refrained. Another hour later, we got tired of waiting and was ready to ask for the bill when finally our sushi came. Keep in mind that we didn’t place a massive order, it was 2 maki rolls and four individual pieces of sushi, and I can’t figure out why it took them an hour to make.

I will also add that over this two-hour period of dining, we had to repeatedly ask for our water to be refilled. There are many times when a waitress would walk over to our area with a water jug, check on every table but ours, then look over at our pathetic and empty water glasses, and walk away. I reflected hard on what I could possibly have done or said to offend the waitresses, and I can’t think of anything.

I usually tip 15% to 25% when I dine out. This time I actually thought about tipping 5% or nothing. But then I felt bad and left them 10% tip, needless to say we will not be...

This place used to be my go to for AYCE sushi. They have a decent menu for all of your Alberta sushi needs. If I had to pick, I would get the hand cones, tempura, and sashimi. Food flavour consistency wise, I would say it can be a hit or miss. If you can, I would recommend ordering a little less to taste what's good then order more once verified.

Recently, 4 friends and I decided to come here to dine and catch up since it was a while since we saw each other. We arrived there at around 9 pm. As their last call was at 9:30 pm, we ordered all that we thought we could eat as we could only order once. Not going to lie, we did over order.

We stayed there until we had closed and did not get a chance to finish all our food. So when we had to take stuff home in take out containers, it was an extra $25 due to having a lot of shrimp tempura and sashimi. It wasn't that big of a deal since there were 5 of us, it was only $5 each.

Service wise, I would say it was your average interaction: seated us, took our order form, served us our food (there was no beverage refills or asked how our food was), took away plates, and gave us the bill.

Speaking of the bill - this is where our group left a little upset. They never let us know that tip was already included in the bill. It wasn't until one of my friends spoke up and questioned it that they mentioned it was included. So, when some of us had already paid prior to my friend that spoke up, we paid an extra tip on-top of the tip included bill.

There were questions and curiosity from factors as to why we were never communicated about the tip. we only had 5 people at our table. a heads up if it was due to us staying there until they closed. if tip was included, why didn't the waitress hit skip when the tip option came up before passing the debit machine to the customer?

As frustrating as that was, our group just cut our losses. We understood that they had wanted us to leave, as we're sure it was a long day for them and that they just wanted to get home. So, we tried our best to clean up our leftovers, pay, and leave as fast as possible.

Although I have been here in the past, the service was usually fine. In summary, just expect basic interaction as mentioned above. This was the first interaction that caused a little distress as we felt a little sketched out by the service. Some trust points were lost in this recent experience.

I would most likely come back, only...

My review mainly focuses on the manager of this restaurant. I will briefly cover food later on in the review.

My table had late-comers who wanted to submit an order sheet to add in what they wanted. The manager refused to take the form until the first order was out. This is a reasonable policy, but he was rude, berating, and condescending when he explained this to our late-comer.

We had a copy of our order sheet and were tracking the food as it came out. We received no tempura after over an hour, and asked about this to follow up. When an employee raised this to the manager, he loudly complained about our table having "endless orders" and that we "probably ate it without knowing". At this point in time, we had submitted two sheets, and had finished all food that had been put out. These complaints were made in Cantonese and Mandarin, in hopes that we wouldn't understand (we ordered in English, but had multiple fluent speakers in attendance). He also said many other rude things in these languages that I won't bother to transcribe or translate here. Key point here, the manager is not a nice fellow and I do not wish to support his business or livelihood in any way, shape, or form.

The servers were decent, and very attentive with refills. However, some of them (not all) also decided to engage in disparaging the tables and customers in Cantonese & Mandarin when chatting with the manager. At least the servers were professional enough to be polite when directly interacting with customers.

If any employees are reading this: We can hear you. You are LOUD behind the bar. Just because we order in English, doesn't mean we don't speak other languages.

The food was average, with nothing that stood out exceptionally. At this price point, there are better All You Can Eat places in Edmonton. One nice aspect of Watari is that they don't overload their sushi and rolls with rice.

For downsides: I found pin bones in about half of my sashimi (Salmon & Mackerel) The beef tataki had plastic wrap cut and stuck to some of the slices The chicken karaage had bits of a tooth pick stuck in and deep fried

I personally would not come here again, and would recommend against...