Mei Sushi Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Fair Lawn

We’ve picked up and dined in here several times and usually had a good experience. Not tonight, and we are never going back. I placed an order for pick up and was told 20min. I arrived as the order should have been ready. It wasn’t, it’s Friday night, busy, that’s a good thing! What’s not good is that I stood there waiting for another 30min for the food. When I finally got home, I discovered that they left out part of my order. I call to report this, and the woman tells me that they don’t offer sushi appetizer on the menu (they do, look it up). It was the first thing I had ordered. So after arguing with me about the existence of the item she concedes she made a mistake and offers me money off the bill. With respect I explain that’s kind but that I don’t want the money off, I want my food, I’m hungry! So she says she’ll make it for me and I can pick it up and it will be $5 (a $3 discount). I might be wrong, but when a restaurant makes a mistake, it’s my belief they should make it right. Deliver it and don’t charge me for the item. She yells at me that I want her to drive my food to me for free and the food should also be free? And says no, you can come pick it up and pay. For the record, the sushi is decent, not best I’ve ever had, but I do prefer it to Green Dragon in town. But after such rude customer service, I will never go back. If you don’t mind waiting for twice as long as you’re told for your food, having your order be wrong and screamed at about it, and having to pay for your replacement food, then by all means go to Mei Sushi. I’d rather drive to my standby in Lodi than deal with their horrendous...

This place used to be good prior to the pandemic. I want to like it, but it's difficult to recommend due to lackluster food and atmosphere.

I ordered three rolls: the futo maki, spicy tuna, salmon skin. My son ordered Special roll combo A: tuna roll, yellowtail roll and California roll.

The futo maki was large enough, however, it did not have the signature tang of pickled gobo/burdock that's characteristic of these rolls. The spicy tuna was not spicy. The salmon skin tasted ok, but it was chewy. I found the dressing for the salad unusual: a creamy ginger dressing. In my experience, sushi restaurants give you a choice of either a creamy or ginger dressing. Here, it's both.

Before Covid, Mei Sushi was a nice place to dine. During Covid, it was take-out only. These days (late Aug 2024), it seems like they barely recovered from that practice. I don't blame them too much -- I imagine that running a small business can't be easy, but it doesn't seem like they expect you to stay. There's a pandemic-era sign that says "Dine in with to-go container, NO service!". Despite that, we did receive plates and decent service. The middle of the dining area is used as storage.

Normally, I would say that if you don't care for the atmosphere, just order take-out. However, the food was just middling. I sincerely hope they...

We picked up a sushi order and no one in the establishment was wearing a mask, including the two people making sushi at the sushi bar. In a rush to leave, feeling unsafe, we paid and left. When we got home, we were too uncomfortable and disgusted to eat the food. We called to tell them they should be wearing masks and they were extremely rude to us. They sent someone to pick up the food at our house, and he rang the door bell and started yelling at us, called his manager, who also yelled at us and accused us of trying to take the food and not pay for it. They blatantly lied and claimed that they do wear masks when we saw it with our own eyes. Never have we been so disrespected by restaurant employees. They are unfit for business and it is surprising that they are still open. They are risking lives and part of...