Aiki Japanese BBQ — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

My wife and I have had mixed experiences here. It isn't the food we have had issues with, it's the service. It seems like some of the wait staff is lacking training on basic waiting skills.

We once told the server that my wife was allergic to mango when we ordered a roll that usually comes with mango - asking for it to be removed. That message never made it to the chefs, and the roll made it out to our table with mango on it. When we discovered the mango, they offered to remake the roll - no other compensation for almost killing us. It seems like food safety training should be the minimum for the servers at Zen, but it isn't guaranteed.

Like many restaurants, they have specials that aren't printed on the menu. When we asked what they were, our server told us that they are written on a whiteboard in the front of the restaurant and we could go take a look. Maybe they don't feel like memorizing the menu or specials, but it is pretty important for severs to be able to tell customers what is in food and how it is prepared.

When asked what the fruit of the day was, our server told us this almost verbatim, "Um, it changes every day. I'd have to go ask the kitchen." Our response was, "Would you, please?"

Finally, we were the first in the dining room and while we were waiting to place our order another family came in. We sat patiently waiting for our server to take our order, but she took their order first. We sat waiting - drinking our drinks until they were empty. I finished my drink first, and the waitress asked if I'd like a refill. "Yes, Dr Pepper, please." No refill came. My wife finished her drink. "Would you like refills?" the server asked. "Yes, Dr Pepper, please." we said. When she returned, she had brought us Coke. And when my chicken teriyaki plate (grilled chicken with steamed rice) had still not come in 30 or so minutes, I asked if it was being prepared. She said it should be out in a couple minutes. She walked to the kitchen and immediately returned with my food. When I took my first bite, I could tell that the food was hot and fresh 5-10 minutes earlier. When we told the server, she said she'd talk to the kitchen. When she came back, she told us, "I told the kitchen about your food." What likely happened is that she didn't pick up the food and deliver it when it was ready, so it got cold. There was no apology or compensation offered.

I'm not sure what the markup on sushi is, but maybe they can afford to have wait staff that endangers their customers, doesn't know the menu, and doesn't perform the basics of service correctly. They just won't be getting business from us in their dining room...

I am modifying my review of 5 stars from about a month ago as I visited again last week and was sad to see they were under new ownership. On previous visits the service was outstanding, ambience inviting and food incredible. This may be off but I'm going to number my disappointments with the new ownership as they are plentiful.

1)The new menu lacks ramen. The ramen was one of the best items on the menu and I was sad to see it go.

2. Service was atrocious. It took a good 10 minutes to get a drink order completed, another 10 to get the drinks and another 10 to get our food ordered. The waitress came by about 15 minutes into our visit to get our order, my friends baby bonked her head on the table and started the cry, the waitress got flustered, stopped speaking and then immediately took her attention to seating a new group that came into the restaurant. While I admit this was a strange circumstance with the baby bonking their head, it was poorly handled.

3. Attempts to parent the customers children. I brought my friends from out of town because I told them this was the best sushi place in town. They have 4 children ages 8-1. The 1 year old was restless and started walking around a little. The parents were watching the child, she wasn't touching anything and was only a few feet from the table. Our waitress asked my friends to pick up their child as she wasn't safe. This was off-putting for sure as the baby wasn't being disruptive, was not nearby any other customers and was in no immediate danger. Funny enough, the head bonk mentioned above happened about 2 minutes later because the child was restless and wiggling around due to the parents not letting her down to walk now.

4 )The sushi and food as a whole wasn't very good. It wasn't bad mind you but it was only ok and with so many other options in town, I'm not interested in paying for just ok sushi.

5. food itself came out at various times. I'm used to sushi coming out slightly sporadically but the timing was so bad that my friend and I who were eating sushi were done before his children got their chicken teriyaki.

6. Finally the ambience was much less inviting. It was very bright inside. This is the least of my critiques but still something that damaged my experience. The old vibe was more dimpy lit and felt like a romantic candlelight dinner when my wife and I dined there.

Overall it was a terrible experience and ruined my friend's evening. I was sad to see my favorite sushi place run so differently/poorly and don't intend on going back...

This is going to be my first 1 star review in years, but some of what happened needs to be said. I always want to give new restaurant a fair chance, and I understand growing pains when you just open, but not like this. They advertise that their lunch AYCA was starting at 25, figured dinner would be up to 35, like most places, but nope. Turns out the basic dinner option is actually $45, for almost the same menu. So the price almost doubles, which they don't have it listed on their menu or on their FB advertisments, so you don't find out that price until you've already been sat down and ask how much it is. Now you're given 90min to order/eat, we ended up being there for over 2.5 hours. When we would put in our meat order(raw meat that we cook, they just bring it to us) it took on average almost 20min just to have it brought to our table. So if you do 3 orders, which isn't a lot for AYCA, that's an extra hour of just waiting for the food to come to us. Our grill kept turning off, they had to redo the grill probably 6-7 times for us, and the same thing was happening to the table next to us. Which drastically slowed down cooking times. The part that bothered me the most though? Our table was 2 Caucasian adults, 1 Caucasian child, and 1 Asian adult. When they came to check on us, they would directly speak to the one Asian person at the table. They came by, looked directly at them and asked "so how are you liking it?" And ignored the rest of the table, except for when it came to refilling or drinks( honestly, they were very prompt on the drinks) but it bothered us enough that it was brought up amongst our group after the meal, because it was not just one time, but several times. Overall, I'm really disappointed because I was EXCITED for this place to open, but was heavily let down. After 2.5 hours, we were still so hungry when we left that we got a large pizza on the way home. For 3 adults, and 1 child our bill (with a 20% promotion discount for the grand opening?) Still came out to over $150. But Google has them listed in the $10-20 price range because apparently they took over the business, completely changed it and changed pricing, but kept the same name instead of changing it. Overall a very poor experience and nobody in our group wants to ever go back. If you plan to go here, and try it out, that's totally up to you, just expect a long wait for food, and account for basically...