Sushi Naper — Restaurant in Naperville

I'm writing this review 2 hours after being seated. I came here for a birthday event that had a reservation made multiple days in advance (so they were informed and were expecting a large party). When placing our order, we were told it was easier for them to put everything on one sheet rather than separate orders. Okay? We have 19 people (and this is after a few people could not make it), but sure we'll put everyone's order on one sheet. 1 and a half hours later, only 3 rolls finally come to the table. And then we had to track down our server because they were actively avoiding eye contact for plates. The 3 rolls lasted about 10 seconds among 19 people. 30 minutes later while trying to ask our server where the rest of our food is, maybe a 4th of our nigiri order comes, all of the same fish. The nigiri had such an absurd ratio of fish to rice. You could see through the fish it was so thin, and the rice was the width of a fork. Are you kidding me? 2 hours in, we're so starving and furious that we don't even want the food anymore. The owner has not said a word of apology even just for the long wait, despite us making it known that this is taking way too long. And we're a group of pretty respectful adults. She then comes to the table to tell us that a couple of the things we ordered were not available. TWO HOURS IN. She then proceeds to tell us that making nigiri is hard and takes a long time, so if we want, we can replace our order with more rolls. So this ayce sushi restaurant says making nigiri is too difficult. Makes sense. Many of us left rice on our plate because we like to taste fish when eating sushi, the manager then comes to tell us that we have to eat our rice. I understand it's a policy to not leave rice or you'll be charged, but in this situation I think that's absolutely ridiculous. I tell this to the manager because at this point we're all still starving and we just want to leave so we can grab mcdonalds or something (for our birthday celebration). And still absolutely no word of apology and just a reminder to eat the rice. I then explain to her our frustrations and she just tells us that 2 hours is not a long wait and that because we're upset she won't charge us for the rice (still absolutely no apology and riddled with excuses and explanations that this was a normal amount of rice and wait time). She then walks away saying "you guys are so difficult." EXCUSE ME?

TLDR: Rude owner, unacceptable wait times, and shouldn't even be considered a sushi restaurant with the amount of fish they include and apparently it's "difficult to make nigiri". My recommendation? You can get better sushi from a convenience store.

Edit after owner's response: we saw multiple tables come in after we ordered, who ordered their food, got their food, ate then left and then had other parties seated before we got our food. Our group has been to multiple ayce sushi restaurants and have NEVER had this issue. You specifically asked us to put our order on one paper. Our group filled 7 different tables and had we put in our orders separately by those tables like we originally were going to, I assure you that it would have been much more efficient. Had you treated our group like 4 separate groups like we tried to in order to make your life easier, we would have very easily gotten our orders in a timely manner. But due to YOUR request, our order was delayed for two hours, so your difficulty fulfilling your duties as a restaurant is at no ones fault but your own for poor planning and management. And our problem is not eating rice, it's the sheer quantity of rice with a sliver of fish that you're trying to pass as nigiri that was the issue. Again, we've been to multiple ayce sushi restaurants and your ratios was by far the most ridiculous I've ever seen. Your response still has absolutely no tone of apology for the wait and our treatment and I question how you've made it this far. It is astounding to me how poor your customer care...

Our family’s first time here and we enjoyed the appetizers, sushi rolls, sashimi, hibachi, and desserts options. Among our favorites were the miso soup which was quite tasty and flavorful with seaweed and was not just broth. We also like the ika salad, fish cakes, shrimp tempura, coconut shrimp, chicken yaki, fried oysters, and even sesame balls for dessert. They had so many options which was great.

Our sushi favorites included Jojo, Rainbow, Sal-fornia, and Mango Tokyo, with its delightful crunch. If you aren’t into too many sauces overtaking your sushi, we recommend these rolls. For sashimi, we always get some tuna, salmon, eel, tamago egg, and kanikama crab and they were generous on the slices. We also liked that the rolls were decently portioned and not overly stuffed with rice.

Overall, the food here was delicious and they have a big selection for the price ($33/adult). They were also great at refilling water all through the night and taking plates away to help us make space at the table. There is also a robot that comes by to deliver some appetizers which made it fun for the kids. The women’s bathroom also included a diaper changing table which makes it family-friendly.

The only improvement I’d give is that we didn’t know that the hibachi bar and desserts (ice-cream and mousse cake options) were included. It would have been helpful to know about the hibachi earlier because we can make some hibachi for the kids while waiting for our sushi orders. After seeing some people at the hibachi bar it prompted us to asked a staff and we found out it was indeed included in our AYCE meals.

Now expect a little wait here if you dine. So upon walking in, we saw they had a sign that they were short staffed which helped set our expectations. I think we waited about an hour for our sushi order which was on the long side. The appetizers did come within 15 and another at about 40 minutes before the first sushi orders. We would have liked the staff to mention which rolls were which when they dropped off the plate but we know they were busy so we just tried to figure it out ourselves. I will credit that we’re able to get all our orders in and didn’t miss anything we had marked from our menu selections.

Other than that, the staff were friendly and courteous. We ordered a Pokémon chopsticks and they gifted our kids a couple small toys which was such a nice gesture. It made our experience happy as we also enjoyed the food here and left with happy stomachs. And we got to top it off with delicious marble chocolate ice-cream and mouse cake deserts.

What’s unique about this place is that they display menu drawings from customers on their walls which our kids were excited about 😀 This place is family-friendly and offer many delicious selections for their pricing. This made our drive down to visit and dine in worth it so I’d be up for coming back!

P.S. Also, if you’re a fan of Sushi City in Downers Grove, this place share similar rolls on the menu (many rolls are of the same name as they are partner locations) but this location have hibachi option and the other...

First time visiting Sushi Naper with family of 4, but unfortunately that likely would be our last time.

We were here for a supposedly casual, fast, Saturday night all-you-can-eat Sushi dinner. We paid $30 for adults. Any children over the age of 12 are charged as an adult (seriously?!). It was even $17 for our 10-yo (who normally fills his stomach with 2 pieces of chicken strips) who ended up eating 4 pieces of Tamago and called it a night.

Overall, it was a nearly 3 hours of TORTURE waiting for our food to arrive. Mind you, we have a typical family with 2 children. The amount of food we ordered was in fact on the low side. Not knowing how much food there would be, our food was placed over 3 separate orders. So yes, about 40-50 mins for each order to arrive. A few of the items were also missing from our order.

The manager did come by our table to apologize for the long wait. Her excuse was short staffing and 2 chefs were in training, blah blah blah. But when we entered the restaurant the hostess did not mention the long wait. Had we known about the staff issue we would not have sat down. What got us really furious was when she used the tactic of “normalization” by stating that “all the other customers had also been waiting, not just us”. We didn’t really care about how long others had been waiting. That’s their customers, their business. We just wanted our food!

Our waitress did come by our table a few times to check on us, to refill our water and ask how we were doing. With hungry children and a table with no food on, we didn’t really know how to respond……

The food quality was ok. Not super authentic Japanese sushi and nigiri but the taste was not too bad, just lacked the taste of freshness. I noticed that they used a significant amount of the sweet/salty eel sauce and also mayo perhaps for covering up.

When it came to requesting the check, they also make sure YOU know, and repeatedly remind you that, there is a $1 charge for every single piece of sushi you left over. They would NOT give you the check until they see every piece of sushi is gone.

All in all, very unpleasant experience at Sushi Naper. We will not...