Sushi Roku — Restaurant in Newport Beach

Came here for dinner a few nights ago and was pretty disappointed in the experience.

To start, service was both slow and inattentive. For starters, the restaurant is already at reduced capacity due to the COVID regulations, but beyond that it was only at maybe 1/3 of the new-allowed capacity. Yet we had to ask for nearly everything multiple times: menus, waters, napkins, chopsticks, checks — asking for some items at least twice and others about four times. And when the items we asked for were finally brought, our server just left them at the edge of the table and told us that we could disburse them amongst ourselves. Is this not a nice restaurant? Are we not supposed to actually be served? Having our waiter tell us multiple times to figure things out for ourselves is extremely rude, and does not fit at all with something that should happen in a restaurant charging these prices.

When it came down to the actual food and drinks, it was fine but by no means good. The cocktail I ordered was very disappointing, especially when paying $15 for it. The description had maybe six or seven different juices and flavors which should be in the drink, but when drinking it all I could taste was the booze and maybe one juice mixed in. No complexity at all.

Several of us ordered the sushi plate, and the pieces of nigiri were for the most part good and tasted fresh. However, you are given the option to choose between a crab hand roll or a spicy tuna cut roll when you order the sushi plate. For those that ordered the crab hand roll, it was presented to us having been cut into four pieces. Why would you cut a hand roll? Both because it is literally described as a “hand roll”, and also because it is wrapped in soy paper, not seaweed. Just a bizarre choice (and inaccurate with the description on the menu). In addition to that bizarre plating decision, the roll was simply not good. There was so much rice and so little crab that you couldn’t even taste the meat, roughly 3:1 rice to crab. Someone in our party who had ordered the crab hand roll before said that this roll wasn’t even half of the one they previously had.

I don’t know what’s going on over at Sushi Roku, but every person in our group was very disappointed in our experience. From drinks to dinner to service, none of us could understand where our money was going and honestly felt very let-down. I understand that this is a tough time for restaurants, but you shouldn’t re-open a restaurant unless it is prepared to offer both a good experience for the money they are asking you to pay, as well as a good experience in comparison to the dining experience offered...

From the moment my girlfriend and I sat at the bar, Nick the bartender stood out. He was incredibly helpful and knowledgeable about the menu, making our dining experience even more enjoyable. Despite being very busy, he remained friendly and engaged with everyone with some funny quick wit humor might I add,

showcasing excellent customer service skills. It was evident that he truly went above and beyond to make our visit memorable.

But there is more to say about bartender Nick, my girlfriend and I were so impressed by his exceptional service that we were going to call the general manager over to acknowledge it. As business owners ourselves, we understand that when someone asks for a manager, it's usually to share a complaint. But when someone takes the time to point out exemplary service, it means that much more. What made the experience even more remarkable was that Nick made a mistake with one of our orders. Instead of making excuses, he walked out from behind the bar, came over to our table, and said, "I offer you a gift." He then explained that the sushi roll I ordered was entered in by mistake, and he had the correct one on the way out. He said, "I present this to you as my gift, on me if you will take it?" I assured him that I was going to call the general manager over to commend his exceptional bartending skills and added, "Don't worry, I'm going to tell Robert about this situation, and he's going to appreciate this even more Nick!" and Robert loved it haha...

And lastly, I must give a special mention to the general manager, Robert Zucchini, who leads the team at Sushi Roku Fashion Island. His leadership is truly reflected in the exceptional service provided by the staff. It's evident that the high standards set by the management are being upheld and exceeded. We were thoroughly impressed by the level of attention and dedication exhibited by the entire team. Kudos to Robert and the entire staff at Sushi Roku Fashion Island for a memorable dining experience. We can't wait to return!

We now are regulars there and they never miss a...

We stopped in after a nice afternoon at Fashion Island, drawn in by the dessert sushi photos online. The space is bright, with plenty of parking, though the floors throughout the whole restaurant were oddly sticky—especially near the bathrooms, which seemed otherwise clean. It was so sticky , my shoes got pulled off my feet.

Service was visibly uneven. Our waitress left mid-order to attend to another table, she said was receiving VIP service, and didn’t return much during our meal. Other staff brought our food and helped with the check, and we appreciated their effort. The dessert sushi we saw online was never offered. We truly liked the food, buzzers, and male waiter who stepped in as we needed attendance. Our food came later than the "ViP" tables food , even though we ordered ahead of them. Some of our dishes came so late that we already put our chopsticks and napkins aside as we assumed they forgot about it.

The bill ended up significantly higher than expected because a gratuity was added by the waitress without our input. The waitress handed her the device and requested a signature. My friend, visiting from Germany, wasn’t familiar with tipping here and didn’t realize what had happened. But she asked me in germany how the bill the male waiter brought was different from what this lady now wanted. When I looked at it , I saw that she had added a 20 tip. We would have gladly tipped according to effort—especially the other staff—but clarity would’ve gone a long way. We wanted to love it , and the review would've looked different if we weren't placed into the waitresses' two class service. The experience fell extremely short. Hope this helps improve...