Sushi Iyo — Restaurant in Ventimiglia

Have tried sushi restaurants across several continents and this was the first place I ever felt like I was being monitored & measured from the moment I walked in. It’s an ‘all you can eat’ place (order off the menu, not a buffet), and as is typical for these kinds of restaurants, drinks and desserts are extra. I made the mistake of bringing in a water bottle and, before welcoming me to the restaurant, they started warning me that I couldn’t ‘drink that in here’. Fine … was a mistake … whatever … put the bottle away. We proceeded to order our meal and, as we listed our selections, were sternly warned that we ‘have to eat everything on our plate’. OK no problem—again, this is typical and we know the drill—not a problem. Maybe the waiter is just having a bad day … We got our first round of food—good edamame, ok sushi, very rice-filled hand rolls, very nice tempura … good salmon carpaccio. No ginger or wasabi though. Tried to order round 2 … but were told “you can’t order the second round until you’ve eaten everything on your plates”. Starting to get a bit weird …. OK … plates clean. Waiter comes, takes our order … we requested a second salmon carpaccio. “Wait” says the waiter, and goes to check the cash register for something …. Comes back … “you’ve already ordered one … since there are two of you you’re only allowed two orders maximum”. By this time it’s becoming clear that the waiter – Italian guy named Frederick …. And another Chinese waiter named Joseph – could use a primer in ‘customer service 101’. People sitting next to us started commenting to us on the lack of service in the restaurant … it’s their second time there. Second round of food arrives. We had ordered sweet & sour soup – my wife is of Chinese background and she takes one look at it and it looks more like some sort of ‘sweet & sour chilli’ (TBH it looked to me like they had dumped all the leftover vegetables into a bowl of sweet & sour soup!). Quick consultation with our new Filipino friends confirms that this is more like chili than soup … and they have tried it on a past visit and did not like it. My wife calls the waiter and expresses her concerns that this isn’t anything like traditional sweet & sour soup, nor does it look anything like the photo on the menu. The waiter takes the soup back to the kitchen, and we proceed with our meal. At this point we decide to order a few remaining dishes before heading home, and this is where things entered the twilight zone. We call the waiter, who promptly informs us that since we didn’t order enough drinks and deserts, and since we rejected the soup, we’re banned from ordering anything more. It was time for us to pay and leave. We tried to reason with the waiter and re-explained the situation concerning the soup, at which point the waiter just walked away. Joseph and an unknown Chinese lady at the cash continued to look in our direction and snicker, as they had done throughout our meal. By this point I was trying simply to get the attention of any of the four staff on duty – all of whom seemed to be avoiding me intentionally – in an effort to politely speak with the manager. Chinese lady was red-faced and seemed ready to explode. Other staff stonewalled us, saying ‘it’s a restaurant and of course we don’t have a manager’. So I asked for the owner’s name and once again was stonewalled. “Perhaps you can get the name from the police,” sneered Frederick. We paid, left, and will never set foot in that restaurant again. There are plenty of good sushi restaurants in the region – especially one that rhymes with ‘sushi ran’ in Camporosso – and we will point all of our Expat and French friends away from this place and advise them strongly to go to the others. Never had such a bizarre and insulting treatment as here. If you’re reading other reviews, start at the one star ones and work backwards … should have done that myself before setting foot inside … seems to be largely a staffing issue. One...

The food was ok. The toilet, though, was not kept clean... The restaurant has 2 AC units but the restaurant owners refuse to turn them on. I was there in April and it was already hot but they did not turn the AC units on. I was there again last Saturday, August 12 . The temperature 🌡 was 38, 39 degrees C in Ventimiglia. It was extremely uncomfortable inside the restaurant at 210pm. Again they refused to turn the AC on. I paid, complained about the heat and the fact they give a rat's ass to the well being of the customers. As I left, I looked back and saw the Chinese couple, owners, and the non- Chinese server poking fun at me for complaining about the heat. THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE. I will not go back there ever again. I felt very uncomfortable with this behavior. A PLACE TO AVOID! There are better places in town than this establishment run by Chinese people who do not know what customer service...

Pranzo di sabato, senza prenotazione, accoglienza eccellente, tavolo per 4 con un bambino, servizio impeccabile, siamo stati a tavola per 2 ore senza metterci fretta come in altri locali che siamo all you can eat o pizzerie e ristoranti ormai quello che conta sono i numeri soprattutto in località di mare. Cibo ottimo, non mangiamo sushi o sushimi, abbiamo preso involtini primavera crocchette, spaghetti con verdure e gamberi, di soia, in più modi, spidini di gamberi, di pollo, manzo, gamberi/verdure in pastella, insalate, tutto molto buono, in fine il dolce, anche se non preparato da loro comunque buono, in più abbiamo preso il mango, ottimo. Prezzo irrisorio, 16 euro a persona escluso il bimbo, bibite/frutta e dolce a parte. Titolare molto educato ed attento ad ogni nostra richiesta. Tappa obbligatoria...