Jungle Sushi and Teppanyaki — Restaurant in Gauteng

Went to go meet a friend for dinner on a Tuesday night. Not sure if we caught them on a bad night, because we saw they had a 4-star overall review, but it was certainly not a 4-star experience.

We reserved a table, and it appears that they seat from the back of the restaurant, around the grills (which weren't being used this particular night). It was sweltering, even though there couldn't have been more than 20 people there. Maybe their aircon was broken? Eventually asked if we could please sit at their (only) table outside.

I ordered a milkshake, and was two thirds done before I landed up with something in my mouth that a chunk of something that came up the straw, only to find that it was a fly (I am still trying to figure out how a whole fly made it into ice-cream, or milk, both of which are refrigerated). When I pointed out to the manageress, she offered me a fresh milkshake, and when our dinner arrived she gave me a portion of spring rolls on the house.

My partner and my friend ordered Sushi (which was on special). They knew from the beginning of the evening that that is why they were there, and told our waitron. I ordered a few portions of Dimsum.

They were slow. I got my dumplings 45 minutes, and they looked lovely on the plate. However, two were burnt at the bottom, and a few of which had their filling falling out the bottom (I think the bottom dough must have stuck to the pan?). The spring rolls came, and they were also on the dark side of "golden". Eventually my boa buns also arrived. At this point, it had been just over an hour since ordering. My friend and partner still had not received their first order of sushi... 15 minutes later, my partner went in to ask the manageress where their sushi was. The manageress said she would find out. 10 minutes later, after still receiving no feedback, and seeing the manageress walking back and forth several times, my partner again caught up with her and asked where their sushi was, and was told "3 minutes". It then arrived 3 minutes later (about 90 minutes after it had been ordered).

I believe the sushi (once it arrived) wasn't bad, but wasn't amazing either. And the boa buns were at least fresh and flavorful (which is why this is more than a 1-star).

I don't think we'll...

Navigating restuarant recovery in a post Covid world

This past Sunday, my family and I had a very unpleasant experience of dining at Jungle Sushi & Teppanyaki located at Bedfordview.

This was meant to be a Mother’s day lunch. We had reserved a table for 6 at 12pm, and arrived on time. Having planned on eating Teppanyaki, we requested use of the teppanyaki table but were told that a booking was already made for 12:30pm and that should the guests not arrive on time, we could be moved to that table. At 1pm, the waiter informed me that the booking was actually for 1pm. At 1:30pm, the waiter informed me that the booking was actually for 2pm.

At this point after having ordered R883.00 of starters and beverages, I requested to see the manager. The manager then came up to me, was extremely rude, unpleasant and didn’t want to listen to my issue at all. He then said there’s nothing he can do and attempted to shake my hand as if the issue was resolved. I was extremely disappointed, immediately requested the bill and left the restuarant where we then drove through to a competitor nearby, Yamitsuku Bedfordview restuarant where we proceeded to teppanyaki mains and beverages to the value of R1740. (More than double our spend at Jungle).

What the manager and owner of Jungle Sushi need to realize is that customer service is not a nice-to-have, it is an imperative. Customers have endless restuarant choices, ratings and online reviews matter, and that poor customer service will be the detriment to your restuarant in the long run.

I would not support Jungle Sushi and Teppanyaki going forward and agree with all the negative reviews on Google that the service of this restuarant is below average and unacceptable.

The quality of food and beverage was satisfactory but the cappuccino machine was not working and took 20 minutes to make a regular coffee for my mom. This was not quite the Mother’s day restuarant experience we had in mind....

This used to be, hands down, my favorite restaurant back with the old owner, the two-for-one sushi was amazing, and even with the variances in sushi quality, I ALWAYS left satisfied.

Unfortunately, the new owner has decided to try adding a massive amount of new food options (almost none of which are even Japanese), and doesn't seem to be able to get any of them to taste how the food used to taste. Miniscule portions of proteins in the sushi, no more two-for-one sushi (except on Wednesdays, for some reason, when this was a MASSIVE reason Jungle was successful), average ramen, and mains that are not only half the size that they used to be, but less spicy, less crispy, just less in almost every way. This isn't even touching on how the new owner reacts when asked if there's a new owner, which is a whole other kettle of fish. Not to mention, for some reason all of the old staff seems to be gone, and generally, bad service can be laid at the feet of their "leader".

Jungle is no longer a place for good quality, affordable meals, but rather a place to take pretty pictures for Instagram and to be assaulted by music that doesn't fit, and prices that are rising far more than they obviously had to in the past.

Good-bye Jungle Sushi...