Amami Charcoal Kitchen — Restaurant in Napa

This was probably the worst experience I’ve ever had at a restaurant. My review is long but goes into every detail as to why you should avoid this place at all costs. Moral of the story, it took 1.5 hours to get food, the staff is rude and doesn’t communicate/care, and the food is not worth it. Do not go here!

My experience:

My friend and I were not told a wait time when we got to the restaurant, which ended up being the least of our problems. My friend had even told me that the last time she was there that she had watched another table next to her have a bad experience but chopped it up to the place being new.

When we finally got sat after 20 minutes, it took another 10 for someone to bring us waters. When we asked for the wine list, our server sassed us like we should have known that they don’t have their liquor license yet. When we asked where the tables next to us had gotten theirs, she said “obviously they brought their own”.

We then had to waive her down to take our order. Meanwhile, my friend went next-door to buy a bottle of wine because there is no corkage fee (the only positive of our experience). By the time she got back, we still had not received any of our food or appetizers.

The gentleman next to us, who seemed to be a regular, said something to the servers, bussers, and manager about the lack of attention towards us and how he and his family had gotten all of their food when they had ordered after us. Still, nobody checked on us or even told us that our food was on the way. Our server was more interested in playing with the baby at our neighboring table than checking on us.

By the time we had finished our bottle Of wine, It had been 90 minutes (yes 1.5 hours) without any food and without so much of a “your food is coming, so sorry for the wait”.

When some of our food was FINALLY delivered, we found out they had run out of sushi rice at some point but nobody had bothered to ask us if we were okay with the wait while they went and got some more. We would’ve gone somewhere else if we knew we would be there over 2 hours!

I was tired of the lack of communication and service that I asked to speak to the manager and the guy Who dropped off our food said that I could talk to him. I didn’t want to speak to him… I wanted to speak to the person in charge, but he insisted he was “part manager”. I was honest and told him about our experience and he seemed surprised that I insisted on some sort of compensation for our experience.

After agreeing and approving a full comp, our server finally found the time to speak with us… but with attitude. She came up and said “so I hear you want a refund for your food… Well, if you want us to make the rest of the food that you ordered you’ll have to pay for it”. I responded “what do you mean? I ordered that at the same time as the food we have on the table and I’m still hungry from waiting almost 2 hours”. She responded “Well, I'm going to tell them to not make it unless you agree to pay for it.” As you can imagine, I was livid. What do you mean you’re going to keep the food that we ordered from us when your manager already approved full compensation???

When we had finished the rest of our food, after waiting another 20 minutes, the guy that had seated us (a bald/ buzzed cut, tall man) was the one to come up to us and let us know that our entire tab - even the portion our server “threatened” to charge us with -was taken care of and that he was so sorry we had a negative experience. That is the only server in that facility that had any bit of hospitality. I wish I had gotten his name.

Our server and the manager ignored us as we walked out.

I could go on about other things but those are the main things. It goes without saying, I will never go back here and will be sharing the truth about my experience...

Do not expect this restaurant to care about the quality of food when you place a togo order… I placed an online order at 7:30pm where the confirmation said it would be ready by 8:30pm which was confirmed by the app. I arrived at the restaurant, promptly, at 8:30pm to which they said the order was almost ready. Over the following 25 minutes, I waited at the counter, asked twice if it was ready, and they assured me that they were making it and it would be out soon. By 8:55pm, they finally gave me the togo order and made my way back home, which is a few minutes away. The hot items I ordered (Japanese fried chicken, gyoza, miso soup) were all as cold as the sushi, which I think we can all agree is not what you want. When I called to ask about it, they said that the sushi bar was backed up so I had to wait for the roll before getting that rest of the order of hot food that was sitting in the togo containers for the 25 minutes. I said I understand why the sushi counter might be backed up but I asked the manager on the phone if they personally like Japanese fried chicken after it’s been in a container for 25+ minutes and if that’s how she would prefer it to be ordered. To which she said “no, I wouldn’t” so I then asked why would they fire hot items for an online order before the sushi was finished knowing that the sushi counter is backed up? Without remorse, she just said that they have no way of predicting when an order will be picked up so they prepare all items as they’re ready so it’s on the customer to not only know this, but expect it. She offered no remorse outside of a less than convincing apology and didn’t offer any reason for me to come back, didn’t offer to refund the order or give a credit of any kind and was ultimately more worried about her own pride and attitude than feeling actually sorry for my dissatisfaction or consideration for my feedback as a first time costumer to a new restaurant. I don’t leave reviews online, yelp or google, for things good or bad but this really, really upset me. So the crux of the story is, don’t expect your hot food to be hot when placing an online order, and don’t expect this restaurant to care about how you feel. There was one nice server that felt bad about my wait and offered me tea, but that was it. It’s truly astounding to me that a five week old restaurant would go to extraordinary depths to make sure to let me know that they do not care about how their food leaves their hands. Order online as you wish but remember, it’s on you, the customer, to expect that they will willingly let hot items steam in a togo container until it’s cold while they work on your sushi and serve it to you with less than a smile, 85 minutes after the order was placed. Also, the double tuna roll I ordered said it had tuna inside and on top, the roll I got had crab inside with only tuna on top. So don’t expect the right roll that you...

DO NOT ORDER TAKEOUT. So I got there at 11:30 this morning when they opened and put my to go order in. I was the second person in the door. I ordered two rolls and an order of goyza. I was told my order would take 15 minutes. This makes sense as once again I was one of only two people there. I waited, almost an HOUR for my food. Unfortunately, they prioritize eat in orders over to go orders. Even though people coming in to eat in the restaurant we’re getting there 20 to 30 minutes after me they were getting their food before my to go order. When I asked what was going on, I was told they only have one sushi chef and he needed to get the in-house orders out first. However, I was the second person in the establishment when they opened and my order should have been made, and I would’ve been out the door before any sit down orders came in. By the time I got my food and went back to work my goyza was ice cold and gummy. It had clearly steamed after being fried in the to go box and then gotten ice cold while waiting for the sushi chef to make my sushi. I will say that the waiters kept approaching him, asking him when my order was going to be ready. They were very apologetic and kind so the service from the waiters is good. However, they need to prioritize the orders in which they receive them. Some of us have to get back to work and do not have a long lunch breaks. I will never ever order to go from this...