Sake Sushi — Restaurant in Madison

Sigh. I was really excited to come here for my birthday, so it was a bit of a bummer for the day after not to count, like it would at most any other restaurant.

But okay, fair enough, fine. Their restaurant, their rules. Unfortunately, though, this wasn’t their only issue, or I’d probably not even mention it. Ordering was kind of hectic and took awhile, maybe 20 minutes or so to get menus and order. It took forever to get our drinks. People’s food came out with large gaps in between so some in our group just had to sit and wait while others in our group were eating. This was the first round, during which an ordered salad never came, ordered waters never came, and one’s hot tea FINALLY arrived super late. Multiple times the wrong food was almost given to us, or they didn’t know what item they were trying to serve. With multiple menus involved, they should keep track of what food goes to whom. It was not as if we all ordered one large order together.

Fast forward to round two, where again a salad was ordered, and again it never came. It took an HOUR in between ordering and when the food came, again with large gaps in between people’s food coming out. We were at the two hour mark at this point, and we had to leave for a show. Our server informed us that we had to eat everything or be charged, which I understand is typical for AYCE, but we argued that it wasn’t our fault it took such a long time and we had somewhere to be. Thankfully he obliged and we were not charged anything extra. And we still never even got everything we ordered. 🫠

Overall, a very underwhelming experience and a very subpar one for a birthday outing of eight people. Thankfully, the silver lining is that we were actually generally pleased with the food itself, but the service (and chef staff?) needs serious work. It’s great we have an AYCE experience in Madison, but in its current iteration I would not be able to recommend anyone go here. I hope to be able to give it another try later down the road, but there are serious kinks that need to be worked out first.

Addendum: I forgot to mention the unwelcome, surprise credit card surcharge, which is unfortunately becoming more common but still deserves to be called out. It should be part of the cost of doing business, and dealing with cash is more cumbersome, less secure, and leaves room for error. Credit cards are not strictly for the customer’s convenience. The business benefits too. And lest I forget the suggested tips on the receipt, which were based on post-tax amounts, instead of pre-tax, which has traditionally been the...

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!! If I could give no stars, I would. I'm not even exaggerating when I say this was THE WORST dinning experience of my life. From the moment we where seated, things began going downhill. We where a party of 7 to celebrate my sister's birthday. On their menu it says the birthday guests eats free in a party of at least 6. What it does not say, is that you have to show ID that it is the exact day of their birthday (we went Friday, her birthday was Sunday).. Well.. Okay.. Fine.. But that should be in the menu blurb.. But we found this out after already reciving TERRIBLE service. There where at least 4 items ordered that never came.. Everyone had to ask for their beverages multiple times, the food was all brought out at separate times. So some people where already done eating by the time others got even part of what they ordered.. One item came out about 10 mins after requesting our bills, and we all had out coats on and where ready to just GTFO of there. We had to keep asking what each roll was, as they would say nothing, just set them all at my end of the table so we where never sure which roll was for who. Honestly.. I feel like there where more issues I'm missing to list.. But before we got our bills, I "lost" my meal in the bathroom (and I have a strong stomach). And the male server that was mostly tending to our table went through and looked at each paid bill as we got up from the table, and started basically demanding my mom tip. Saying, "So I work for free for you?" There where at least 4 of us that I know did not tip because our experience was just that aweful. I have never not left a tip. In fact, I always tend to try and "over"tip because I work in the food service industry myself and understand how much tips help. When he began demanding a tip from my mom, that was the last straw for me... I don't make a seane ever.. But I raised my voice and told him that tipping is optional, and their food made me sick. And all he would keep saying is, "talk to my boss" and "I work for you for free". Granted there did seem to be a major language barrier, but there is also no excuse for someone to demand to tip for such an atrocious experience. I honestly just can't stress enough how bad the...

Awful Awful first time experience 😟 We had a table reserved for 8:15 as they close at 9:30 and we want a bit late around 8:30 , put our orders and said we are doing All you can eat and waited for the food, they started serving some food and we were waiting for rest of what we ordered and we were a party of 7, 3 adults and 4 kids, then the waiter came around 9:20 and said we realized that you ordered alot of food so we didn’t prepare everything and now you can order again what you need because you have to eat the food ( what the heck) we ended up putting orders again and we forgot what we added on previous order so started doing it and don’t know even if there is in preparation for us, one of the adults asked if her order is ok and they working on it and waiter said yes so she didn’t order any thing in the second time and what happened that nothing was in preparation for her and she ended up not eating. Then waiter came back after 10 minutes already after 9:30 with no food even after we ordered again saying because it is late there is no food. I can not believe it really . So they did not prepare the initial order because they judged the we ordered a lot and won’t be able to finish and then when we ordered again they didn’t prepare as it was too late, so we ended up paying 120$ for the All you can eat scam and leaving restaurant hungry , can you believe that . And the rest of the crew we coming defending the situation and to make it better they prepared a sushi plate for us with 15 pieces for a party of 7 people to eat. we love sushi and that was our first visit to the place and was planning to make it our favourite place to go every month for sushi but we also know how clients should be treated and that unfortunately was the worst experience for us in all restaurants...