BarChi Sushi — Restaurant in Austin

An absolute disappointment! I have been there SO many times. The happy hour has good food for a good price. The service has never been out of this world, but today, I went there for happy hour lunch to celebrate my friend's bday and it was SO disappointing... So, I imagine, like most people, when they go for happy hour and order whichever "white wine you have in the happy hour" you expect for them to bring that, right? Well, the waiter, came back to tell me that they didn't have any white wine to serve as it wasn't cold yet. We asked him, can you suggest something else then? And, as he was thinking, so was I, and I jumped to say, do you have any rose? He said yes. Perfect! Problem solved! However... guess what!? He never told me that there was no rose in the happy hour menu which we had already given back. I was then trusting that waiter would have told me something if what I had originally ordered was "whichever white wine you have in the happy hour". Well, he never told me that... he just got me a rose, and I didn't know it wasn't in the happy hour menu. Ok then, so I asked for the check. The check came, and saw that the wine was not in the happy hour price. I asked the waiter and he said, well there is no rose on happy hour. Ok...? So, I told him "you never told me that"... otherwise, I would not have ordered it... He called the manager on duty, Michale. To by BIG Surprise, Michael started arguing with me... he would not let me speak and he was abruptly telling me that it was my problem because I should have checked it in the menu myself... hello? I have been to MANY restaurants in my life, and have been a waitress and manager myself... NEVER in a million years I would have reacted that way to a customer. Excuse me, Michael? But when a waiter comes to a table, and says that they don't have something you have ordered from the happy hour menu, whatever they suggest or whatever I ask for is still regarding the happy hour menu. You are a terrible manager, and definitely do not know much of customer service, blaming the customer for not having checked the menu? You should really go to take a class on Customer service 101 and then become a manager at a restaurant. It was your waiter's responsibility to make sure to tell me that whatever I order was in the same range of price as what I had ordered previously, or at least show me the menu or tell me that what I am ordering is a different price. Otherwise, it is called stealing, or taking advantage of the customer. What a BIG disappointment. On top of that, it was my friend's bday, which I mentioned several times and they didn't; even bring a candle with the dessert....

Leaving a review because their management is either dense or continuing to intentionally misunderstand the issue.

I was dining in the party of the previous review, where we had issues with parking validation. The management has been insisting that we parked in the wrong garage, and we did not. There is only one Austin City Hall Garage.

It seems that BarChi isn’t aware or playing dumb that the Austin City Hall Garage will sometimes switch their parking to Event Parking, where you’re charged $10 flat at the entrance, not given a receipt with a QR for validation, and must leave your parking ticket on the dashboard of your car. There is nothing you can bring to the restaurant for validation in this scenario. The shadiest part is that it’s not clear when event parking is active, because Austin City Hall Garage hides the event parking sign in the garage (and not on display on the street). By the time you reach the attendant, there is no way to get out and you’re stuck paying for event parking.

Leo mentions that they went to the parking garage to confirm for themselves and didn’t see event parking - which provides literally no insightful information. Event parking probably ended when they got off their shift?

I honestly don’t care about the actual logistics of their partnership with Austin City Hall Garage. Saying you validate for parking without being clear about the circumstances in which you do, then pretending that event parking doesn’t exist and gaslighting the customer is simply anti-consumer. Figure out your parking situation - and yes, this reflects on the business as it’s their choice to partner with X garage for their parking. Previously this was AMLI, and there was no issue there.

Besides parking, food is alright here. The service is questionable and varies by the day, but this day was insane. Some family of 9 brought their 5 kids to jump on the booth, throw ice at others, and sprint around the restaurant running into waiters. After mentioning this to the server and her mentioning it to management, all that was given as a response/action was “yeah they’re crazy, right?” Uhhhh, okay - I didn’t realize we were eating in a McDonalds...

My husband and I had a kid free day so we went to 6th street and walked around and decided we wanted sushi for dinner. We looked at a few places that were walking distance and chose Barchi based off the reviews. We walked in and the music was so loud we couldn’t even hear each other talking. But decided to give them a try anyways. We got an appetizer of calamari which took about 10 minutes to get to us. But it was really good. My husband ordered 2 rolls off of their happy hour menu and I got the bento box with salmon. The bento box came with nigiri (chefs choice) I asked if I could get the crab and shrimp nigiri since I’m paying $30 for my meal I would like nigiri I will actually eat. The waitress said “yes” then brings me my salad and then tells me I can’t substitute. I was asking to substitute anything. I wanted something I was going to actually enjoy but ok. Then she brings my husbands 2 rolls. We go out to eat together so we can eat together so he waited for me to get my food, and he waited, and waited, and waited some more. About 25-30 minutes later my dry burned salmon came. I just about choked on the salmon it was so dry. I got two pieces of nigiri that I didn’t like. The waitress filled our glasses once. We got our check and it was $79. We only had $20s and $100s and despite the long wait for our food, not filling our drinks and the terrible food we still wanted to leave a tip but I was not leaving her a $20 tip so we waited for her to come back so we could get change. She never came back. We waited over 10 minutes for her to pick up our check so instead of getting change and leaving a $10 tip we left $80 and she got a $1 tip. Not a place I would even consider...