Shima Japanese Restaurant

The atmosphere was the best thing about my experience and even then, it was sloppy. I gave this review an additional star for the fact my friends enjoyed their meal. I, myself do not eat fish or sushi so I know what I am getting myself into when I go to eat out with friends and family at places where it’s mostly fish so I always make sure to take a look at the menu beforehand so I know what my options are. When we sat down we were immediately greeted which was nice but set a false pretense to our dining experience because after that everything just started slowing down from there. It took about 10 minutes just to get waters for the table, the hot sake was even longer and the third jar we ordered was left in the microwave way too long because we burned our hands grabbing the bottle and then not to mention how nuclear the sake was we burned our mouths taking the first sip. In the meantime, my friends start chowing down on the dishes of sushi coming out of the river boat and I can already foresee I’m going to be the one left at the table eating while everyone is ready to pay up and leave, but I didn’t expect our server to take another 15 minutes to come back so I can at least put an order in, in the chance I would be able to enjoy having dinner with my friends. Bad decision. When the server finally came back and took my order, I explained I don’t eat sushi but I was looking at the menu and asked her opinion between the yakisoba noodles and the okonomiyaki since that was on their specialty menu. She had a tough time helping me decide (maybe she’s new and I’ll chalk it up to that) either way, we came to the order of okonomiyaki. Guys, when I tell you this food took about 40 minutes to come out… I would have appreciated a heads up that this menu item was going to take that long to make because I would have happily ordered something that takes a little less time to make so I can, once again, have dinner with my friends. It was either that the food took long, or (as a server I have also done this in the past) she forgot to put my order in, and then put it in when we followed up about the dish 20 minutes later. Dude, I seriously am not a stickler about food order and time to the table, but this was just beyond ridiculous and embarrassing at this point. More time keeps passing by, and at this point everyone has started slowing down and you could see the food comas starting to set in and they’re ready for the check. At this point, I don’t even want my order and I have lost my appetite, so I tell the waitress to cancel the order AND THEN she says “oh but they’re working on it, it’s going to take about another 10 minutes”. So now not only have I waited an hour for a meal after ordering, but now I am made to feel guilty about accepting and paying for the order. I tell her to put it in a container at this point because I am not going to go back and forth about an order I do not want anymore, because clearly, it’s easier for me to spend money on an order I have no desire for anymore after waiting an hour for my food, than to explain to the server that the entire dining experience and lack of service and wait time was absurd and it should be voided from the check. Dude… when I get this order prepared in a takeout container I am even more disgusted. Thank you for putting all the sauces separately, that I do appreciate… but the appearance of this food when it’s supposed to be like a pancake is chopped up like dog food, this was the topping of the cake. How could an already terrible experience get worse? I might give this place one more try just in the chance it was a bad night, but that’s a fat chance at this point.