itsu — Restaurant in Cambridge

ITSU in Cambridge is a disgrace to the brand, I'm sorry. I used to work in ITSU and I love it ever since. I have worked in four shops in London. Now I never miss the chance to take friends to ITSU wherever we are, taking pride in having worked for the chain. Cambridge shop disappointed me with one thing - customer service, total fail, here's why. When we went in, I knew that my friends would choose longer as they were not familiar with the menu. To avoid being rushed (like the customers before us), we stopped far away from the till, allowing other customers to order, if any, however there weren't any at the time. While choosing though, the person at the till stood staring right at us with hands on the counter, despite the long distance and that we obviously were NOT READY to go to the till and order. That made us feel quite uncomfortable and, as there weren't any other customers at the time, we felt forced to step forward and make the order anyway. And so we did, choosing quickly and keeping our choice to a minimum to just break free from the awkward situation. What made it even worse, much worse actually, was the attitude by the same person at the till. The shop was busy with customers talking, so we were struggling to hear what he was talking about, he made no attempt to speak up after a few times us asking him to and to repeat. In the end of the whole pulling teeth communication, he went off doing things without telling us that the terminal was ready for us to pay, we stood there feeling like idiots and I just noticed the display so we paid and moved to the side. Being hot and building up frustration of the whole bad impression this guy made to the otherwise always praised by me ITSU to my friends, I tried to look around and find the cutlery etc. Probably someone was standing there, so I wasn't really seeing them, when suddenly I noticed the good old spork (spoon+fork) in a tray near the till, so in line with the whole atmosphere, I thought I was being silly thinking it would be elsewhere; took one gently and this same guy, who had just been so horribly incommunicative by now and doing his thing, flew to me to stop me (not quiet anymore) and to tell me that these were sporks "customers have to pay for". I didn't even get the chance to realise that the thing in my hand was made of metal, so obviously not part of my order, but his attack left me no time to process anything, it all happend in a stretch of a few seconds!!! I could have been more than happy to pay for the metal spork, conserving that ITSU is so dear to me that I even keep my PLASTIC spork at home and wash it after use, can you imagine??? All he had to do, was to say something polite and I would have tapped my card for at least 2-3 of these, I don't even care how much they cost! Anyway, embarrassed by the looks of people around and feeling being treated like a person who just attempted shoplifting of a £1 spork after paying £30 for some sushi, I dropped the spork back in its place, apologised, the guy turned his back around and carried on with his obviously dreadful job, resulting in some disgusting and a reputation-damiging attitude towards customers.

On top of that, one if the things I had praised ITSU as top of the world for to my friends - cleanliness or hygiene, was another serious fail in this shop in Cambridge. It was disgusting all around the tables and worst of all - on them. I remembered how we would clean the hell out of the customer area when I worked in ITSU, so it literally hurt my feelings that my friends will probably never repeat the experience. Sadly, cannot blame them, I can still feel the sticky filth on that table.

Overall, my personal experience was extremely bad, if not traumatic. It seems that staff in ITSU Cambridge are not up to any standard, ITSU's or otherwise. That alone also speaks clearly of poor management as well, probably starting with recruitment and ending with day-to-day management...

Favourite place!!! I love itsu so much i cannot put it into words! My favourite is the chilled chicken teriyaki on a bed - I recommend eating in as the restaurant is lovely and feels clean and comfortable with chargers and bottles of soy/ teriyaki at every table 😋. I love the sushi options also , as well as the warm food (paradise rice with soy😩) I am so grateful that cambridge has an itsu and will be heartbroken when i have to leave the area next year 💔. not to cause havoc but itsuwasabi. every single time i have been to this itsu, the staff have been so kind and welcoming!- i almost applied for a job here but i think i would have been fired for eating the food 😳😊As of last week, i have eaten chicken teriyaki on a bed of rice at every itsu in existence 🎉 my favourite has got to be either cambridge (👑) or stratford although none have been anything short of outstanding. Itsu should be number 1 on trip advisor for every city it populates ! every time i have the opportunity to make a wish (birthdays etc) i wish for an itsu black card ❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️🖤I love you Itsu...

First time trying Itsu... And I think I might actually like it more than Wasabi!? The veggie sushi box tasted very fresh, there were a lot of flavours there. I also liked there were sauces on the tables - Teriyaki and a spicy sauce (can't remember what that one was called) as well as soy sauce on tap and seeds. I added some seeds to my sushi (perhaps odd to some people) but it actually added a nice crunch. There was mint in some of the sushi which also gave a fresh taste, I also liked the crunch of the green beans. I wanted to try all the different sauces, seeds etc with my meal, however I think it would have had plenty of flavour without and I did regret putting quite a bit of Teriyaki on at one point! The staff were friendly and didn't misgender me. The place was really clean and not too busy. It looked like there weren't tables accessable via wheelchair but I may be wrong as I didn't look around the whole shop. I need to go back and see what other veggie/vegan dishes they do! I also...