Tokyo Express — Restaurant in St. Albert

I read the reviews for Tokyo Express before I ordered take out on a Friday evening, and thought I’d take a chance. My spouse wanted to grab a meal from another restaurant close by, and my tastebuds wanted sushi. Did I expect amazing sushi? No, but I expected my order to be relatively on time and taste okay.

I know restaurants pay a hefty fee to a 3rd party ordering platform, and Tokyo Express has their own online system, so I chose that method to place my order.

My order was pretty simple, Mini Roll Combo and yam tempura. It was submitted at 6:22pm and confirmed a minute later. Pick up time was between 6:40-6:45pm. I got a text message at 6:36pm saying my order was likely ready. I went in, and yes there were a few people and some 3rd party people waiting for their orders, but it wasn’t insanely busy.

I asked when I arrived and the gentleman at the cash said he said it would be a few more minutes. I waited 10 more minutes and went to ask again. Again, the guy said it would be a few more minutes. I sat back down and a few more orders went out while I was waiting. I went back up 5 mins later, now 6:50pm and again the guy said a few more minutes. At 6:58pm my order was finally ready.

I looked at the receipt and they hadn’t even entered my order until 6:51pm and it was ready 8 mins later. So either their online ordering system doesn’t work and they want to give extra money to the 3rd party platforms, or they just completely disregarded my smaller order.

The food was okay. The tempura tasted like it was deep fried in old oil. The mini rolls were fine.

Since then, I’ve tried Sushi Park on very busy Saturday night and it was a huge difference in quality and customer service. The prices were comparable for what you get, but the quality from Sushi Park was 100% better. Save your money if you plan on ordering from TE and just go to Sushi...

Worst experience of my life with a food place, tonight went to go and pick up dinner ordered a chicken rice bowl no veggies extra meat and extra sauce than my girlfriend ordered the same thing but with no extra sauce somehow that equal three chicken rice bowls with extra veggies and no extra meat or sauce. so whatever we got a roommate we can give the extra one to him so we get home go to eat it the rice tastes like its been cooked 3 hours before with the lid left off it was the worst food of my life. so we take it back tell the guy that we will take three rice bowls still and just get the right ones so he gets out his calculator and starts calculating that we owe him 5 dollars for opening up the bowls really? so i wanted my money back he gave it back but didnt want to. I grew up in the food industry and this isnt how it is ran i would advise you guys check in with your franchise owners and make sure everything is supposed to be the way you want it because right now this location is hurting you badly. i will never eat there again i have used tokyo express for my work lunches coming in to a total of 400 dollars on a saturday once a month i will never again use this restruant or any of its locations horrible food, horrible...

I emailed the company about my experience but never heard back. So I'll share my email here..... To whom it may concern,

Tokyo Express in St Albert AB has been my go to place for sushi take out for awhile. I always order the same thing; dragon eye rolls, Mexican rolls, and a spicy tuna cone. Well I noticed some changes were made to these items, and not for the better. First the dragon eye rolls used to come with a little cup of this amazing sesame dipping sauce, which was the best part of the previously frozen rolls. Now they took away the cup and pour some sauce directly on the rolls, and the sauce has changed. It's no longer the delicious one from before, it's now some weird orange one. Perhaps it's siracha mayo? Second my Mexican rolls were very off putting because they were more than 50% tempura crumbs, and had a mystery green sauce coating it. I couldn't even taste the spicy tuna. Lastly the spicy tuna cone. I would love to say that this was fantastic but sadly the cone I paid for wasn't put in my to go bag. Dinner isn't something I'm willing to compromise on and this experience has turned me off from ever eating at tokyo express again. But perhaps my comments can help satisfy...