Up until three years ago, we’d drive out to Layton from Magna to eat at Tony’s about 3 times a month on average, until my business interests drew me away from Utah. Now I’m back and where did I want to go (out to eat) first? Tony’s of course… but it’s not the same Tony’s I remember from a few years ago.

Before, we’d show up with a party of 2, 6, 10 or 12 and everybody would order the “all you can eat” because we just love sushi and Tony’s used to be one of the best places to enjoy ourselves and enjoy some really good sushi. Tony and the crew always made us feel like family, and we always tipped the waitresses and sushi chefs very generously.

This time though, my friend accidentally ordered more sushi than he could eat. To make matters worse; the nigari was made with twice as much rice as we were accustomed to. To make a long story a bit shorter; my friend could not finish what he ordered and as we were preparing to leave, something extraordinary happened.

The young (white kid) who was pretending to be a sushi chef (or the sushi police) confronted my friend quite rudely and accused him of stealing because he couldn’t finish what he ordered… he actually said “you’ve got your pockets full of rice!” which wasn’t true at all.

The fact is that my friends and I have spent thousands of dollars at Tony’s and other all you can eat sushi establishments, and from time to time, we’ve ordered more than we could eat. We’re happy to pay whatever the price is for our meal and additionally for anything the managers feel is “wasted” but we’ve never been subjected to such rude, unprofessional treatment by any establishment we’ve chosen to patronize.

Once upon a time, we felt like Tony’s was “our place” and we bragged it up to all our friends. We’ve treated many people to their first sushi experience at Tony’s, and most of them became repeat customers.

Sadly, now when somebody suggests we grab some sushi at Tony’s, I’m going to say “not a chance in hell… I’ll never spend another dime in that joint; they treated my friend like a common criminal and embarrassed not only us, but I’d imagine themselves as well.

We’ve never had a problem paying for what we ordered, whether we eat everything on our plates or not; what I won’t abide is the way that low-rent piece of work posing as a sushi chef treated my friend, without any provocation at all. If they wanted to charge us double, but the experience was otherwise a pleasant one, we’d have paid the bill and happily returned another day with more of our friends. Now though; they’ll not only lose our business but all of our friends business as well.