De Japanner West — Restaurant in Amsterdam

It's a shame I have to leave a negative review as the food was super delicious and the place itself is very cosy. However, I am still trying to process what happened to my friends and me there last Saturday. Without an exaggeration, this was the worst customer service I have ever experienced in my life. We had our table booked until 8 pm. Around 7.30 pm the waitress who was serving us came to us to take the last order-- by the way, she was very nice and polite-- we ordered several more dishes and she left. Immediately after my friend realised that she would like to have one last drink as well so we asked the waitress if that was possible. The waitress told us it wasn't as we had already made our last order. We thought ok, fine. Then it all started. Her colleague, who was already visibly irritated by something, came to our table and asked if we wanted to order something else. The name of this person was Jessie or something similar, she was blonde. We replied that actually, one more drink would be great since we were still waiting for several dishes to come and my friend would definitely be able to finish her drink in 20 minutes. To which she replied with an attitude "Fine by me but you have to be gone by 8 pm," and left. She came back 2 minutes later bluntly attacking us "What don't you understand? A no is a no!! You've already had a discussion with my colleague." We tried to reply that we didn't perceive that as a "discussion", we just tried to order a drink explaining that we had plenty of time to finish it together with the food. To which we heard comments like "I'm standing here for 5 minutes so it is a discussion for me!" and then "I am not your slave!" Such an inappropriate thing to say in this day and age. Finally, right before 8 pm, they brought us our bill and we were waiting for someone to come out with a payment terminal or to tell us where we could pay. Instead, we got Jessie marching at us with comments like "Still here?? It's time to go! Stand up and pay inside!" and my favourite one "I don't see you walking!" That was just jaw-dropping, haha. We did speak with the supervisor of the shift, he apologised and gave us a discount card. However, I would strongly suggest you guys look into your staff and make sure those people actually enjoy working in customer service. Nobody was expecting a 5-star service but the place is not a cheap one and you do expect to at least not get bullied when you go for dinner...

Food Shared dining Asian fusion concept with a good range of options. Nice use of different textures, seasonings and sauces. I do prefer a stronger ponzu sauce. Everything tastes fresh and they used to have an amazing bone marrow dish, after a few changes the menu has been the same for quite some time now. Asian fusion done right by what seems a very mixed team. Also a nice range of sake is available which they pour generously like old Japanese custom.

Service The staff used to be great, something seems a bit off for the past 12 months. I'm not sure what it is but it almost feels like you need to earn their attention and smile first? Due to covid hospitality has been hit hard so it might be that, I do hope they can convey the original culture back into their restaurant.

Presentation Very cool place, nice lighting and action figures hidden here and there. The owners seem to have a passion for anime such as Dragonball Z, I like how they subtly wove that through the decor. Food is presented well and when the music is not too loud (which it sometimes is for me) they have very nice playlists. Cool vibe, you can go on a date, hang out with friends or take your co-workers out. No baby chairs available though.

Price Bit pricy but not too crazy, some dishes do seem to not take much effort though. Depends on how much they do themselves and what is delivered by a supplier. Like the bao buns or the battered squid. However, the food is super tasty so I'd say it's worth it.

Consistency Quality of the food is consistently good, we have eaten there more than 15 times and only once I didn't like something. Quality of service is heavily fluctuating.

Anything out of the ordinary Owners seem to be young, passionate people with a great sense of pride and unique restaurant identity.

Would definitely recommend...

I have never left a restaurant review before in my life, but after tonight’s experience I felt I had to. I have never EVER experienced such rude service as I did tonight here. We were celebrating my friends birthday and the night was totally ruined by the person who was “serving us” - I believe her named was Jessie. She was incredibly rude and basically started insulting us for NO reason - maybe she thought that we were tourists (we all live here for a long time). We asked for a final drink and she started yelling at us aggressively that the final round was over. Next time she came to our table (15 min before our reservation was even ending), we heard comments like: “oh you are still here”, “just leave and pay inside”, “I still don’t see you walking”, “no is no”. It was just unbelievably rude for no reason. Too bad as my previous experiences were good here (and food was very tasty). I will however never return to Japanner, and won’t suggest anyone I know to do so either. I would suggest you look closely into your staff and...