I rarely write bad or average reviews, but I was left rather disappointed after a Sunday lunch at Sapporo.

I ordered sushi and miso soup. While the soup was good, the sushi was sadly lacking - it had quite a strong fishy taste and the nigiri in particularly was not made properly, with the fish being too long for the rice (picture attached). I have eaten sushi at different price points across the UK and Asia and this experience felt comparable to supermarket sushi in quality. I understand that Sapporo is known for Teppanyaki rather than sushi, but they should consider adopting Yuzu’s approach, which is to avoid adding sushi to the menu because their chefs are not trained in sushi making.

The other major issue was the service. I would have raised the problem with the sushi to our server as I believe restaurants should have the chance to improve, but she was rarely present or available despite only two other tables being occupied. No water was offered or brought nor did she check in on whether we enjoyed the food, even when bringing us new dishes. We kept waiting for her to appear to order more drinks and dessert, but even when she was nearby she would just walk past our table despite us having empty glasses and plates - we had to actively work to get her attention. We were unable to spot her to flag her down and had to resort to asking other waitstaff for our bill.

It did seem that other waitstaff were more well-trained as the other two occupied tables did not seem to have the same issues with finding their waiter, but I can only speak to our experience. At this price point, you expect at least semi-interested staff but sadly this was not the case. We actually considered asking for the service charge to be removed - which we have never done before - but ultimately decided we did not want the other wait staff to be impacted.

I will say that my partner really enjoyed the Teppanyaki - the chef was skilled and pulled off some difficult tricks, and the steak was cooked exactly as requested. Hence the three stars.

I was really looking forward to the food given the good reviews, but there were glaring issues that meant I won’t be returning.