Jo-Ji's Sushi & Teppan Grill — Restaurant in Espanola

Service was bad. Food was a mixed bag. Order was a tad slow to be taken. Ordered gyoza and "tempura" apps. Gyoza was good and the sauce that was with it was good and spicy. Out came panko-coated vegetables and shrimps instead of typic tempura. Not what you'd expect and not really that good. Asparagus spear didn't have the base cut off, so couldn't finish it. Ordered teriyaki chicken bowl with miso soup and gosan roll with miso soup. Later, after my water glass sat empty for 5 minutes, out came the chicken bowl. Decent flavor on chicken, but veggies were mushy. Asked about the roll. Chicken bowl got cold while we waited another 15, yes, 15 minutes for the roll. However, the roll was really good. Nice mix of flavors and heat. Someone else nearby sat down and ordered, and mentioned miso soup. Oh yeah, we didn't get our soups! When waitress came by 5 minutes later to check on us, I asked for the check and if we could get our soups To Go. She said yes, returned with the check and two Styrofoam cups with what we hope is miso soup. No explanation, no apology for what was an obvious Oops on the roll and the soups.

If all the fast food restaurants in Española happened to be closed simultaneously, we might come back to Jo-Ji's. Very...

So the food is definitely good, but the service is definitely lacking. If you don't have plenty of time to spare this is not the place to go. Our drinks and appetizers were served promptly, but we waited 50 minutes for our sushi rolls. Our server rarely checked in with us. As I looked around, the lobby (waiting area) was full of people waiting and there was open tables. You would see servers walking around but not engaging with their tables. Servers would make contact with the chef preparing the sushi constantly and at times seemed to have attitude with him, mainly one. I saw a customer get up to retrieve their own to go box. This place is locally owned but from reading other reviews it seems like they are too prideful to address their employee's lack of customer service. I whole heatedly love supporting local businesses, but it just seems like this establishment has fallen behind from what they once were. As we were driving through town, we saw that the New Denny's Restaurant had opened and commented that we should have had dinner there instead. Good food yes, terrible customer service. I guess if you are willing to sacrifice one for the other then this is the...

Horrible experience. After all but one of our nine-person party showed up at the reservation time, we were made to wait for our table until she showed, meanwhile our table was given away. When we were finally seated, it was at a teppanyaki table that hardly accommodated our party size. We then asked to speak to the manager about our predicament. We pointed out that our initial tables were not yet occupied, his only response was that was his and his father's "rule". Since he had no intention of accommodating us, and his attitude about the whole matter was 'take it or leave it', we left. I suppose the hostess was doing her job, however unprofessionally, but the manager was just downright nasty and uncompromising. Well, they lost quite a bit of business as we were sure to have ordered extra appetizers and drinks as we waited, had we been seated. We all vow never to return. Sadly, if their business sense does not promote even a semblance of the old motto "the customer is always right", people should tire of the poor dining experience regardless of the food quality, and...