Bondi Sushi — Restaurant in New York

This place was clean and well decorated but the food was awful. The fact that the other hand roll restaurant across the street (KazuNori) had an hour wait and Bondi Sushi was essentially empty should have been the first red flag. The menu itself was a bit strange, it seemed to be the chef trying too hard to be different and edgy with the flavor combinations, which fell very very short. Now, onto the details.

I ordered the "build-your-own-box" which comes with your choice of 4 rolls, 4 pieces each. I ordered a spicy blue crab roll, yellowtail and scallions roll, tuna and avocado roll, and a spicy tuna roll. My colleague ordered a salmon bowl and a miso eggplant roll with cauli-rice. My box; it quite literally came in an annoying flimsy and awkward cardboard box with three plastic containers containing two tiny pieces of ginger in one, about a pinky fingernail size of wasabi, and some soy sauce. The presentation there was horrendous, put the food on a plate, I didn't order it to-go. But that was just the beginning.

Out of the 4 rolls in my box, the spicy tuna roll was the only one that did not have a funky fishy flavor to it, indicating that the fish in the rest was not even remotely fresh. I am sure the spicy tuna wasn't fresh either, but the spicy mayo, or whatever they mix it with, overpowered the fishiness. I rarely don't eat all of what I order, but in this case it was so bad that I just ate the rest of the spicy tuna roll (the only palatable one) and closed that cardboard box.

Additionally, I made the mistake of trying one of my colleagues miso eggplant roll with cauli-rice. Oof, that was an absolutely horrendous combination of flavors and textures. I am generally not a gagger, but this one almost did it to me. It was so bad it almost had a rancid type taste to it, mixed with the mushiness of the entire roll it felt like I ate a sushi roll made out of vomit. I have no idea what the chef was thinking putting that one on the menu. I didn't try the salmon bowl,which they brought out a good 15-20 minutes before my food, so I can't speak to that. In the end, we ate about a third of our food and left the rest there.

Originally, I wasn't going to write a review. I was just going to chalk that one up as awful and never go there again. But, as a result of the past-its-prime fish, I woke up this morning to my stomach warning me that I needed to paint the inside of the porcelain throne brown. Because of that, it pushed me to the review section to detail my experience. Bottom line, this place really needs to rethink their menu and think twice about serving fish that is beyond its prime. I hate seeing small businesses fail, but I feel this one is...

Have been here for omakase, regular dinner and to-go. Omakase is a good value for midtown and the pieces were tasty. Coming here outside of omakase, I didn't see the value. Felt like something was missing in the menu to tie everything together, only having handrolls, nigiri (and cripsy rice option). Because of this, you are trapped ordering the same variety, but without the sunk cost feeling of participating in omakase. I would have liked some other option, maybe karaage, soba, udon, or some thing else with salt (miso soup/edamame isn't enough) to give depth. Additionally, Kazu-Nori is across the street and having two hand-roll bars chains next to each other cheapens the image. Bondi caters to the yuppie crowd, take that how you will; expect to hear pop music and your waiters will be American (nothing wrong with this, but giving you the vibe). Beer and sake were great, cold and good prices. Finally, you can only order regular rolls from the to-go part of the resturant. That is something I did not know since looking up Bondi on google maps shows all sorts of menu options and even regular roll 'boxes'. They should separate them into two different pages. The to-go sushi tasted clean, but un-remarkable. Possibly I wasn't feeling that style, but I will try it again another day to confirm. TLDR: Bondi is great for Omakase in midtown and beers are cold, but otherwise, I felt like it was a...

I'm editing my review of Bondi Sushi - originally, I had a bad customer service experience at the Takeout Counter.

The girl who took my order wasn't the most enthusiastic or helpful, and clocked out after she took my order - and ultimately forgot to give the kitchen my order? I stood there for 10-15 minutes waiting for my food. Various staff members kept checking in and asking what I was waiting for, and when I'd repeat my order, they'd go off and I assumed they were preparing it.

Finally after 20 minutes of standing there, they realized no one had made or recorded my order and a kind lady finally made my California rolls. It’s a tiny takeout counter so it’s an awkward and obvious place to be standing for so long.

Overall my review was that the sushi was top notch, but the customer service less so.

Once I left a negative review, I had someone reach out and try to fix my customer service experience. And not just like "Hey we're sorry, here's a 10% discount" but actually a back and forth email chain where they really went above and beyond to make it up to me. I appreciated that, especially because I really do LOVE the sushi so much.

I'd definitely still recommend the sushi and I've ordered delivery from Bondi numerous times; I'd be excited to...