Sumo Niku — Restaurant in Quezon City

I came here with my hubby in its first few days of soft opening during off-peak time. So we had our field day going over the meats & side dishes. I checked google maps & it's not yet on it. Having enjoyed our meal, put it on the map & posted pics. Our second time, there was already a queue so we went down to the other resto serving Korean food. But comparing the menu, we decided Sumo Niku got better dishes; though without lettuce, they have free miso soup, ice tea & wagyu. So we went back to Sumo Niku & devoured grilled meats, side dishes, etc. I loved the miso soup, potato in sweet sauce, coleslaw, cucumber, crab/cheese balls, seaweed, fries & of course, the beef wagyu, US marinated beef, pork belly, teriyaki chicken. All for P499 only. Don't be discourage of small servings. The resto is making sure you can only order what you can take. Bcoz of our good food experience, I asked my sister for us to dine there on a sat lunch. Unfortunately, they're not taking any reservation even if my sister & her family were already there. I & hubby came in late. We had no seat. Fortunately, the manager Jefferson accomodated our request to be prioritized &seated next to my sister. Glad too that the couple with little kid exchanged seats &transferred. Hope the resto will adjust their policy on seat reservations. As to the staff, they're trying their best especially during peak hours. For those with nega exp, just ask them for several orders in one go & remember their names. Call them by names & surely your orders will come asap.😊 For the food & service, 5 stars.😊 PLS BRING BACK FREE ICE TEA (at least a pitcher) & CRAB BALLS. If possible, add some JAPANESE SUSHI. 😊

Tips for dining customers: Come early. First come, first seated. Check the menu & order everything you like (2 or more orders). Order once for those you have not tried yet & if you like them, repeat the orders. Eat slowly. 3 hours stay policy. Remember your server (his name). Follow up your orders with the same server. You may ask for bigger portions. For first timers, ask everything on the menu (to sample) & tell the server to suggest the best seller. Have a miso soup first to warm your stomach before the entry of grilled meats. Be gentle to the staff & surely they will serve you well & take your pics. Leave some monetary tip. This is a seated unli buffet. It wont hurt if you give a little...for not walking & getting the food yourself. 😊

Disclaimer: I am not connected in any way with the company of Sumo Niku or its...

I'm an avid solo Sumo Niku diner at many branches nationwide and I can confidently say that this branch is the worst: food wise and staff wise.

For the food, first off: they serve so little compared to other branches. They won't even allow me to get more portions: I can get four in other branches even if I'm solo, but they only serve two here. Okay, fine. I'll let that one pass, I can always order more later. But the food in the trays they give, whether it'd be a side dish or meat, is very little. Second, some of the side dishes have a weird taste. The taste of corn I ate was reminiscent of nail polish, but I ate it anyway because I was really hungry and haven't ate for a day. Thirdly, this is more of a staff concern instead of a food concern, but sometimes they never give my order at all or when they do there's always something missing: whether it'd be the quantity or a dish itself.

For the staff, they looked like they were NOT happy to be serving us. I actually got really irritated because they kept looking at me, seeming to be judging me just because I'm a solo diner. I have never experienced this in any other branch whatsoever. Even if I wanted to eat more, I just billed out and left. I didn't want to endure that any more. Please, treat your customers right. We are paying for good food and good service. Funnily enough they wanted me to answer a satisfaction survey. Unsurprisingly enough, they got all low marks from me. Too bad. By the way, saw a small cockroach scitter scatter on the table in front of me as I was eating. Gross!

There's a reason my last visit to this branch before this was in 2019 and I never came back: their whole restaurant = terrible. Never changed after five years. Never go here, I'm telling you; even as an avid fan and eater at Sumo Niku. Go somewhere else, this place is NOT worth your time and money. Management take notes, you have so much bad reviews but you turn a blind eye to them and never improved...

Nothing was clean here. Everything was dirty.

Where do I begin?

First thing you'll notice is the sticky floor as you walk to your table. They never clean the floors. Nor do they clean the sides of the seats or legs of the tables so they're getting covered with a layer of oil and dust.

Second thing you'll notice are the trays they serve silverware on. The tray where the forks are is covered in months/years? of oil. It's visibly very dirty. Stay with me, it only gets worse.

Third, I tried to eat here, I really did. My wife was so excited, so I overlooked the filthiness and put my fork in the kimchi thinking, "At least this is vinegar and will sterilize the fork." I put it in my mouth, but there was no trace of vinegar, it was like tasting water and feet. You know the way feet smell? It tasted like the way feet smell. Kim chi doesn't taste like that with any recipe. Trust me, it gets worse.

At this point I put the fork down and a look of disgust washed over my face. I couldn't help it. I tried not to look disgusted, but it was a look of horrifying disgust plastered on my face and it wouldn't leave.

Fourth, my wife asked for chopsticks from a very unhappy female server. She handed us the chopsticks with her bare hands touching the metal chopsticks directly. A large piece of dried on food was clearly stuck on. I handed it back to her and told her it was dirty. She went somewhere and when she came back she gave us equally dirty chopsticks a second time. How do you screw that up?

Fifth, they served us the meat in large and small trays. The small trays were laying directly on top of the meat in the large trays. So the bottom of the tray was coming into contact with the meat... considering there was 0 redeeming qualities about this place- everything was filthy- it made me question how clean the bottom of those trays are and where they had been sitting before being put on...