Dono Sushi — Restaurant in Lethbridge

Today was the first time I had tried Dono. The food was....fine. I quite liked the Zebra roll that was recommended by the nice lady who took my order. The salmon was a little tougher than I’d like, but very edible. It’s covid so I ordered ahead for pickup. I had my two kids with me and we stopped for a couple errands to kill the 30 minute wait time. Considering my order was 6 pieces of sushi and one (one!) roll I thought a half hour was kind of excessive but hey...it’s covid, and this was well over an hour before any of the other sushi joints in town opened. I placed my order at 2:45.

At the 30 minute mark, in I went. I was apologized to profusely due to their sudden ‘rush’ and was assured my order would be quick. Maybe another 25 minutes Max. (WHAT??) I had another errand to run so I somewhat grumpily paid for my order and went towards the door. I heard ‘oh 5-10 mins but we’ll call you’. This may not have actually been directed at me but I decided to wait just in case. No dice. Another half hour later I went back in and my order (6 pieces and one roll) was still not done. I left to go on my other errand. 15 minutes later I was informed my order was ready. That’s 75 minutes. An hour and a quarter. For 14 pieces of sushi. Most of which was uncooked. (Yes, sushi is supposed to be mostly raw, I know. The point is that this was 60 minutes longer than it should have taken.)

On my way back to pick up, my daughter (5) informed me she needed to use the washroom. I took her back in with me and when I asked was told the public washrooms were closed. I said you just took 75 minutes to make my order. We need a washroom. I was quickly ushered into the back hotel hallway so she could use it.

I dono what could have been done differently, I guess. I know it’s COVID and restaurants have born a great deal of the weight of carrying us through, but I just think that if a small order like that is drug out to the length of a kids movie (true. That’s what they did while we waited.) that something needs to be addressed.

So why five stars if the food was just ok and it took long enough to prepare that my late lunch was forced into an early supper? Because the lady I interacted with was very nice and was very apologetic. She did get us into a washroom when she could have said no. I hope they can find some room to improve reactions to a sudden influx of orders, especially these days. Busy is a good problem to have but not if it’s to detriment. I don’t know when I’ll have the chance to try Dono...

Only one star due to one server's disappointing service (I believe her name is Alisa). We chose the restaurant because of great reviews/star rating and unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to really taste the food. Once inside, our group was divided into two. When we were seated, we asked if we can still order the lunch menu and were told we still have five minutes. However, it took more than five minutes for the next server to take our order and no longer allows the lunch menu. While looking for substitute order, I saw her chipping her nail polish, which I find it unhygienic and showing boredom. After a long wait, we received 1 order of sushi roll then nothing else followed. We then realized, it's been an hour since we were seated and the other table in our party already got their food, almost done with their meal. Only until we follwed up did we found out that our order has not been rung. Alisa admitted her mistake as we cancelled the order. At this point, we were ready to leave even though still hungry. To be fair, she did say sorry although I did not feel her remorse and rather, she laughed (almost sneer) while saying she was surprised how one of our orders came about. When she gave the bill for drinks after we asked, she made a comment: "at least it's only cheap".

It may not paint a good picture on the business but they probably need to train...

My husband and I came here for dinner for my birthday. We are from out of town and thought we would try it out. We were greeted right away, the waitress was very friendly and showed us to our table. She brought us our waters right away and dishes. She took our order within 5 mins of us sitting down and looking at the menu. She rang in our order and another tables order straight away! It took under 10 mins for our appetizer to arrive and not too long after that for the rest of our food.

The flavor of everything was incredible and was all very obviously fresh! The only thing I had a small complain about was that the sushi pieces would fall apart real easy which made it a little hard to eat but just also shows that everything was truly fresh ingredients and the flavor of everything over ruled all of that so I didn’t even care. The waitress checked in on us often, refilled our drinks and took away our empty dishes as soon as we were done with them. We were also given a free piece of tempura cheesecake for my birthday and that was one of the best things I have ever tasted! Overall excellent experience, some of the best sushi we've ever had. Will definitely...