Yoshi Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Brewer

Submitted a fairly straight forward pickup order (1 soup, 5 specialty maki, 1 spring roll, and 1 ice cream) at 5:30 PM on this Friday night. Received a notification that the order was ready at exactly 6:30 (which was in line with the estimated prep time) as I pulled in to their parking lot. Went inside and was told that our order wasn’t actually ready, that “DoorDash just sends out the notification that your order is ready based on the estimated time, we don’t do anything to trigger the notification”, and that it would be a while longer. The person at the register desk offered to bring it out to my car when it was ready if I wanted to wait there. Went back to my car and confirmed with my partner that we didn’t order via DoorDash, but through Yoshi’s own website. At exactly 7:00 PM, after waiting in my car for 30 minutes, the person brought my order out, apologising under their breath for the wait. I let them know that we had ordered an hour and a half ago and that it was through their website, not DoorDah, to which they replied “oh yeah, I say DoorDash, but I mean it is a partner vendor, and I have talked to my boss and they’ve talked to the vendor, and there’s nothing that can be done [about when the notifications go out]”. I asked about the wait time and they said “we’re just really busy”. I asked if the people sitting at the tables inside are also waiting upwards of an hour and a half for their food and they smiled and said “we’re just really busy”.

I checked the bag before I left to make sure we received all of our items and found that they had crammed all 5 maki in one container, which is problematic given my partner and my toddler have allergies and dietary restrictions, meaning my rolls have ingredients (mainly sauces and tempura flakes) they shouldn’t eat. As far as the food itself, compared to other sushi restaurants like Ichiban, the maki and Tom Kha Gai weren’t anything special, and the individual Saba portions were actually smaller, despite being similar in price.

The entire experience was especially frustrating because we had planned to take our toddler on a walk along the river before they went to bed (ahead of a rainy weekend of mostly being inside) but because of the extremely long (unexpected) wait for the order, it was now getting dark and it was too late to do that once we finished eating without having an overtired toddler. Had we known the food would not be ready at 6:30 but rather at 7:00, we would have gone on the walk before picking up our food. I understand it was not the host’s fault that the order took so long—or apparently that the “your order is ready” notification is not connected in any way with your order actually being ready—but their almost flippant apology for the long wait with no offer of a discount (on this or a future order) is a very poor way to run a business.

Some would argue the restaurant has no idea what your plans are before or after you pickup your order and I would say that is all the more reason to be accurate with your estimated prep times and order ready notifications. In this day and age, using an online order system (on their own website, not a third party app), there is no reason to have customers waiting in their running cars (so they have A/C in the heat) for 30 minutes. Or having very limited seating inside for those waiting for their pickup orders.

If you check my account, you’ll find I have submitted very, very few reviews over the past 15 years I have had a google account and, even then, they have almost all been five star reviews for excellent experiences.

But this entire experience was bad from start to finish, and I think it warrants this review. This was the first—and perhaps only time—we will be ordering from Yoshi as they don’t seem to value their customers’ time, and don’t even have particularly great food to excuse their apathy.

If you can’t give accurate prep times, order ready notifications, or fulfil orders in a reasonable timeframe, don’t offer pickup. Or, at the very least, have your vendor indicate an accurate prep time on...

So as I sit in this restaurant I am already going to start the negative review. Upon walking into the restaurant, the waitress looks at me and says hi awkwardly, kind of like what are you looking at? So I said oh I’m sorry do we seat ourselves and she’s like no, how many?!?!?! Ok so I say one, as I’m here on business, and then she basically dismissed me by trying to get my to sit at the counter. However, I requested a table, so she sits me at a table with one chair, facing the wall?!? Seriously?!? A table I got to sit at for approximately 15 minutes without a single acknowledgement. On the 8th time a server passed the area I was sitting in, without a single acknowledgement or greeting, I finally had to stop one and ask if anyone was going to help me. Then upon ordering, I am told they are out of bubble tea. How are you completely out? Maybe you’re out of a flavor but all of them???? It sounds like it’s a product they are no longer carrying and should be removed from the menu as to not waiste patron’s time. I ordered the Pho, which is normally a very quick turn around dish, as the broth and noodles are already prepared and everything just needs plating. Apparently not at this restaurant. As I sit here 20 minutes after ordering, no pho, no water, no server checking on me, I finally received my pho. I have to say, the bowl of pho is large and chock full of beef, the flavor is good, not the best, but for Bangor Maine pretty good. All the usual accompaniments were very fresh and there was plenty of them. My server, who’s name I did not get, but was a cute blond girl, tried hard, after the crowd died down, to make up for the poor service. I hope the owners read this and make the necessary changes because I think this COULD be a very good restaurant.

REPLY TO THE OWNER: bad decision to try to defend poor service from your establishment. Patrons appreciate when businesses can own their mistakes and make them better. I do see many good reviews on your food, which is what brought me to your establishment. I also see quite a few negative reviews regarding your service, even some “good” reviews talk about how good the food is but how service is lacking. Instead of trying to defend it, fix it. I have been to MANY Asian restaurants, of all origins, in all of the 44 states I have visited and Asian restaurants far nicer than yours have been seat yourself. You conviently skipped right over your rude employees attitude towards me which led me to believe it was a seat yourself place. That’s greathat your bubble teas are so popular, might I suggest doing a better job at ordering so you are not completely out in the future. And it’s excellent that your pho is prepared fresh however, again, you conveniently skipped over the fact that I sat there for 20 minutes without my server checking on me or updating on my food, with a glass of water that had maybe a sip left. You also conveniently left out the fact that none of your employees greeted, acknowledged, took my order, never even looked at me for 15 minutes until I had to request service. Think that is ok too? Going to defend that? Unfortunately this will never be a great restaurant as the owners do not understand that food is not everything, good customer service is just as expected...

Hello there- I'm not typically one to complain- especially about my favorite sushi place, however, I had a terrible experience last night at this restaurant and would really like it corrected.

So far, I have called and still not had any luck, anyone I speak to just takes my name and number and nothing is resolved.

Last night, my boyfriend ordered take out at 5:30pm, and when I came to pick it up at 6pm, the waitress refused to give me my order because she had "spoken to a man, who's name was Tristan" and mistakenly written down "Tristan" instead of my name, Trista. I told her multiple times that the order itself on the slip was correct, I apologized for my boyfriend who mumbles on the phone, that my name is Trista, and I would just take it. She proceeded to argue with me that I was wrong, and it was not mine. Finally she took my card, to what I assumed was- pay for my order, however, she paid for the other order that I had TOLD her was not mine, because it was a womans name on the slip, she was firm that it was mine, even after a ten minute argument that it wasn't. So at this point- my debit card had been charged $18.31 for an order that was not mine. After telling her AGAIN that it was not mine, and that my order was $49.85, she finally realized her mistake and completely walked away from the situation and passed me on to another man who called somebody on his cell phone and disappeared.

When he came back out, they struggled to get my card to work because of the previous hold on the card and I was told multiple times there was nothing that could be done. The man behind the counter did not believe me that my card had already been charged, I have online banking and could see the money taken out instantly. Eventually I handed him my card and paid for both orders in hopes of having it taken care of this morning by management, because after being in there for 45 minutes, not listened to, and charged $68.16 for an employees mistake, that they were completely rude about, I just wanted to go home and eat my food.

This whole ordeal lasted from 6pm-6:45, ending with me paying not only for both orders, but taking home freezing cold, disgusting old sushi that had been sitting for nearly 2 hours and could not be eaten. I want a refund.

This is the most frustrating and ignorant situation I have encountered at this place. The only one, actually. I'm unsure why the customer needs to argue to have an order corrected, by a waitress who argued with me over a simple "N" being added to my name, and now nobody will take responsibility and I'm the one who loses money over it. I will never be back here, and that makes me sad, because Ting is a genius, Andrew, Tiffany, and Jen are some of the BEST staff that establishment could ask for. You should truly educate your staff about how they need to be speaking and dealing...