Iwa sushi — Restaurant in Inver Grove Heights

First impression when you sit down, the booths feel dirty and the floors are slippery with very noticeable layers of dirt. I don't believe they mop the floor because we came to eat at 12 PM, they open at 11:30 AM on Saturday.

Second impression, the waitress had no customer skills at all. Except when she was waiting on her White customers, she was animated, smiling, and talked very nicely to them. I'm obviously Asian. I found it prejudice for an Asian waitress to treat her Asian customers so poorly.

Third impression, the food and drinks, which was mostly good. We ordered the strawberry margaritas. They were very sweet, so I'm glad they filled the glass with ice because I kept moving the ice around so they would melt and dilute the drink. The salad I did not care for because the dressing was clumpy looking. I did taste the dressing, which tasted like chalky thousand island dressing. The miso soup was bland, and looked grossed. Then we had the gyoza, which was probably the best I've ever had. They tasted great. I'd come back just for those. Finally, we had ordered the Chef's Choice, which came on a boat that was delivered by the Chef himself. He was a million times nicer than the waitress. The sashimi was delicious, especially the mackerel which I complimented the Chef on later. The special rolls were typically what you'd find at sushi buffets (i.e., Americanized sushi), so I'd give them an average rating. And the nigiri were noticeably different from other sushi restaurants I've tried in Minnesota. Their nigiri had smaller beds of rice, but larger pieces of raw fish on top. Definitely better nigiri because other sushi restaurants will thinly slice the fish and place it on a large bed of rice, so they'll filling you on the rice instead.

Overall, I had to remove 2 total stars because of the cleanliness of the restaurant, the service, and some food items not being up to par. However, the restaurant has some great food items like the gyoza, sashimi, and nigiri. I would recommend the restaurant, but caution others to not expect great customer service if you're not White, the restaurant is not clean, and do not eat the salad...

As a lover of sushi I went to this place in hopes of finding a local place that had quality fish and unique maki. There was promise for Iwa when I saw that it wasn't all you can eat, which is what you mostly find in this area. I was wrong. Entering the place I should have known the mistake a made. It would have been more lively if a tumble weed or two had rolled through it. My partner started our meal with some cocktails. Upon asking the waitress what soda products they had for mixing she informed me they had Pepsi products. Finding this out I naturally ordered a Bacardi and Pepsi. As the drinks were served I came to find that the soda was coke. If I would have been told accurately the soda selection I would have never ordered Barcardi. But this is a mistake that can be stomached unlike the sushi/maki. We ordered three different specialty rolls the Inver Grove, Pink Lady, and Paradise. Each rolled sounded like it would be delicious with its pairings of tempura shrimp and fish. One even had my favorite seafood in it, eel. Presention of these rolls was gorgeous but the first bite told me that looks was the only good thing about these rolls. The fish which was salmon and spicy tuna were room temp and had no flavor. My partner literally choked down their bite becuase of the nausea it caused them. We left with food left on our plates unsatisfied...

I heard so many favorable things about this place but the night we went the first time they were understaffed and we had difficulty getting our orders placed. The maki rolls were very good but the octopus nigiri was awful, the worst I’ve had (I had to spit it out). Then we were not given an itemized bill but I paid and got ready to leave and one of the waitresses ran over and said she hadn’t included the kids’ desserts. Well who would know since there wasn’t an itemized bill?! We were late from their poor service already so she let it go but wasn’t very apologetic about it, making it seem like I was in the wrong or wanted it free for some reason. We might try it again but I was very disappointed. Not a well run restaurant operation!

Edit: July 2023, visited a few times since my original review and it is so much better. Still could clean up the place more, moving the tables for take out so they are not so obvious and moving the cleaning supplies next to the sushi...