Sushi Cruise — Restaurant in Edgewater

I visited this place on March 2nd at about 2:30pm

In brief: The food was good, nice views, the service was unwelcoming.

Details: I came to this restaurant to have a quick bite before my spa day across the street at The amazing SoJo Spa. It was my first time in the area and my friend wanted to go to Trader Joe’s to grab some lemons, so I told her let me grab some food first because I was so hungry. We went there and ordered sushi to go. I left a tip despite not staying for service, because I ordered a hand made roll. We told the lady at the front who took the order that we would be right back. While the manager next to her said ok, she simultaneously began yelling at us and getting frustrated that they closed for lunch at 3pm. I took it as a cultural thing and paid it no mind.

So we decided to stay and wait for the food. The food took about 20 minutes to be ready, so we eventually decided to just stay and eat at the (sushi) bar since it took longer than anticipated. As we sat down to begin eating our food, a girl with blue hair came from behind the bar and said, “excuse me, you cannot sit here and eat unless you tipped to stay.” !!! WHAT!? While I was completely shocked and appalled by this rule, I continued to unpack my food and sit down while letting her know that I tipped already. She then asked me, “You tipped TO STAY? Are you sure?” I again, repeated myself with fewer words, “I tipped” obviously annoyed. She then proceeded to the front register where we paid to CONFIRM that I did in fact leave a 15% tip on my TAKE OUT food! (Are you serious!?)

After confirming that I tipped, she simply walked back to her corner behind the bar, walked right past me and didn’t even apologize or make any gesture whatsoever for the discomfort that she has caused me while consuming my food at this place. This left SUCH a bad taste in my mouth over this business. The waiters and other male staff then came and asked us if we wanted anything to drink (water), we said no. They came by again and asked us how was everything, my friend who didn’t leave a tip was just happy that she didn’t get embarrassed for not tipping so she responded to their inadequate gestures happily, but I was not moved nor did I respond to any of their inquiries on how the food was. We both felt very uncomfortable and she began to rush through her food and ended up throwing half of it out just to get out of there. NO ONE apologized for the embarrassment or discomfort of that situation. Everyone just kept on smiling like it never even happened.

It seems like this place would be nice if those women did not work there. I am sharing this review with...

I am not one to review places very often online. However I had one of the worst customer experiences ever at this restaurant.

Summary: Extremely Inappropriate/Rude Manager. Excellent and kind waitress. Food was fine.

Our food appeared to be taking much longer than expected, so when we enquired about the delay, the manager told us we had to be patient in a very condescending tone. He proceeded to tell us that all Koreans need to learn to enjoy family time besides rushing for our food. (He himself is Korean). After an unpleasant exchange at the table (which we were invited guests of), the manager proceeded to openly curse and swear about us from 2 metres away. Our host who invited us to dinner was utterly embarrassed, and if we were not the ones invited to dinner, we would have gotten up and left.

At the end of the dinner after everyone had left, I proceeded to approach the manager to leave feedback that we could indeed hear him throughout the entire dinner, spoiling our meal. Having worked many years in the restaurant industry myself, I understand restaurants are stressful. However I wanted to leave constructive feedback and was WELL AWARE TO KEEP A NEUTRAL SOFT TONE OF VOICE and even began by explaining my intent to provide ONLY INSIGHT with NO ILL INTENT, that we as customers could hear his rants and swearing CLEARLY from our table.

Unfortunately, all that came was him ranting to me about his own perspective and how he "didn't need this bullsh*t" and "he only has these problems with Korean guests". In fact I stopped the conversation midway saying forget it we cant have a calm conversation. He was so set on explaining his point of view and why he was JUSTIFIED to behave the way he did. He even asked me what I would do in his position, to which when I answered, he would retort "and thats you" over and over again. I was embarrassed for him, there is no doubt the entire restaurant overheard his yelling.

On a positive note: the waitress was excellent, she was very kind. I felt bad for her, as you could clearly tell she was embarrassed. The food was fine I'm sure, unfortunately our thoughts were pre-occupied trying to ignore...

Used to be a nice restaurant but now it is really badly managed. I believe it changed hands.

Here is a few helpful things for the potential customers...They have outside tables (6), but you cannot make reservations for them. In the past, it was possible, now it is not. This is ok. You cannot sit more than 4 in a table outside...even if all of them are empty, they cannot put two tables together for groups of over 4 people. And, they will rudely reject your request...very rudely...this is quite unreasonable.

They close at 9:45 and they literally kick you rudely out. Once awaiter came to my table outside, and told me that they are closing at 9:45. I then asked them to pay immediately and sit and finish my dinner without such a rush...but he said he has to remove the table at 9:45....Come on folks! Have you heart the phrase "customer is always right!"...in here customer is always wrong.

Food is average...and since it is NOT Japanese owned, (used to be Korean owned, and it was acceptably friendly. I do not know the situation now that seems like a change in ownership or management) they miss the fine points of Japanese restaurants...they are very rude....this is enough...The host is a rude clueless guy who can't tell you anything positive...always a "no". Most waitresses are really bad....service is really bad!

It is so simple to make it a better restaurant but now they have enough customers, they do not care...they will however see what is going to happen to them soon! I, for once, used to go twice a week...but after a few unpleasant encounters stopped going there altogether...and took my time to write these...

There are a lot of better restaurants around... I will...