Hapa Sushi Grill and Sake Bar — Restaurant in Denver

I love Hapa, but I recently found out they require servers to tip out 9% of sales. If the average tip is 20% of sales then servers only keep 11% of their tip before taxes. If someone tips less than 18% then support staff are given more than the sever for that table. I am completely disgusted by this practice. Hapa should pay their employees appropriately with a fair tip-share, which is typically between 3-5%, perhaps 1-2% higher in specific circumstances. I waited tables in various restaurants ranging from breakfast to fine dining, and 3-5% is the standard. Support staff is a critical component of the restaurant and should be compensated well to ensure a quality dining experience. That being said, 9% is outrageous. Before serving, I worked as a busser and host in upscale dining with a 5% tip-share distributed among support staff and still made 20 to 30 dollars an hour (that was with more support staff than servers working in a night). I don’t understand how they can keep quality staff with this practice in place. Thank you to all the good servers that have stayed, I don’t know how you do it!

Update: Response from the owner was inadequate and did not take responsibility for their unethical business practice. There is no reason for tip share to be that high, period. Pay your employees and stop taking advantage of servers. It’s disgusting and you need to evaluate your business practices. I don’t care if it’s been 23 years. People are too afraid to say anything (I spoke to multiple servers and none of them are happy and they feel taken advantage of… they told me they just force themselves not to look at the amount they actually made). It makes me wonder if anything illegal is going on. Switched my review to 1 star for your pathetic response. Normally I’m super chill and try to help restaurants out - this is the first negative review I’ve...

For dinner we went to Hapa Sushi. Hapa Sushi came on to the radar for paring weed with sushi. It was a promotion that they were running. They do not sell weed there and I do not consume it so it didn’t bother me at all. The place had a really modern feel to it. I went against one of my major rules here. I usually only consume fish in regions near coast. Chicago gets a pass for me since it’s on one of the great lakes and is also a big hub for just about everything.

For appetizers, there were the veggie dumpling s as well as the veggie tempura. You couldn’t complain much about these as the batter was crisp on the tempura. I would have liked for the sweet potatoes in the tempura to be blanched a bit more as they did taste just slightly underdone. That aside it was decent. I wanted to try one of the Happa Appetizers as well so I went with the Happa sliders. They were good sandwiches but I don’t see how they really fit in with a sushi restaurant, unless you are looking for a dish that could please someone that doesn’t like sushi. I’m not saying that it wasn’t good, it was just a pulled pork slider that tasted as though it had a bit of sriracha mixed into the barbecue sauce though.

I can’t say too much for the sushi. I ended up going with the XXX roll. It wasn’t very memorable. It was one of the signature rolls they make there, but it suffered for me for having too many ingredients such that you couldn’t taste the fish almost at all. I can’t complain too much though it was a...

Service was really lacking when our party went here last week.. Luckily the food saved it from a 1 star review. The two ladies working the front seemed depressed, i'm not saying you have to fake happy but don't show that you're miserable your job.. First issue was the waiter brought me a soda when I asked for a beer, and walked away too quickly for me to correct him (this was an on going theme for us and the table next to us) he came back a few minutes later with the beer and didn't say anything. Our appetizers arrived and we didn't have any plates yet and the waiter walked off before we could ask for any, we ended up asking the waiter of the table next to us to grab some since we didn't see ours for a few minutes. The appetizers were fantastic, great food. When our sushi came out they quickly set down the tall sushi platter and before asking if we needed anything else quickly walked off, leaving us without plates again. We waited a couple minutes they came back and ask if we needed anything and reminded them about needing plates. Sushi was great no complaints on the food. The table next to us had similar issues with their wait staff as well, we heard the table ask for a certain side 3 times before receiving it. They also had the same issue with the waiter running off while trying to ask for something. I hope this was an off day, or new staff because the food was great and I would like to return...