Asahi Sushi Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Orem

My trip to Asahi, Sushi Bar & Restaurant:

A friend and I had set out to go to a different sushi restaurant, but it was closed on Monday's so we had heard good things about Asahi and since we were already in the mood, went here instead. A fortunate happenstance as it were. We were the first patrons of the day and as we entered the restaurant my friend commented on the smell of cleaning products mixed with food/fish, which was unappealing. They must have just wiped down the tables or bar, but the smell quickly dissipated and it was nice to know that they had just sanitized. The wait staff greeted and seated us right away, offered menus, took our drink and appetizer order, and returned quickly with the beverages. We decided to start with calamari. You can usually tell a good restaurant by the calamari and it has become one of the standard "tests" we use to rate a place. In this case, you could tell the calamari was of the frozen quick serve sort. It was very rubbery and not very good. Fortunately, this was one of the only negatives in our meal. We ordered five rolls for the main course of our meal. The rolls were, California, Sweet Yuzu, Roman, Asahi, P2. The California roll is another standard test we use, as everyone has a California roll, it doesn't get smothered in sauce, and you get a good sense of rice quality and freshness. The rice here was okay, just a bit on the dry side for my taste, but not distracting. We both noticed the crab salad was a little salty. It was a good start to the meal. My review of each roll is as follows: California - Good, but a little salty. Sweet Yuzu - Good, not as sweet as I expected. Roman - Good all around. Asahi - Very good signature roll, P2 - My favorite. The sweet potato flakes give a good texture and taste uniqueness.

I would say overall very good. They seem to like jalapenos more than the average sushi restaurant, but I like that bit of heat, so I enjoyed it. The flavor profiles of every roll were great. I would come back anytime. It easily fits within my top ten sushi spots in Utah. The only loss of points was the salty crab salad and the cheap calamari. If I were being extremely nit-picky I would also note the very faint fishy aftertaste on the Sweet Yuzu. I don't know that most people would taste it, but it was ever so slightly there. Not enough to lose points over. One other critique, the bar was stacked with dishes or equipment. It didn't affect the food, but it was not pleasing to the eye and made the restaurant seem cluttered. If you are looking for an excellent sushi experience, I suggest giving Asahi a try.

The total for the Calamari and five rolls...

Surprisingly terrible service. The food was acceptable but not for the price. Should have gone to Rice Wok next door.

Feedback to management(this is on you, not your people) :

I ordered using the app that didn't work, had to call in order. Chase was nice to talk with. Waited about 20 mins then drove to Asahi. I walked in and waited and waited nobody came to talk with me. Another couple just left because they got tired of nobody coming to seat them. By the way only 7 tables were sat at. Doing brief math there was 1 staff member for every 2 customers. You were not busy. I would have just left too except my wife and I were very hungry and already ordered.

Employee A came and finally asked if I needed help after I flagged her down. She left to see if my order was ready. I never saw that employee again.

10 mins later employee B came out and as if I needed help. I told her I was waiting for my order. She went to check on it.

Meanwhile a doordasher came in and left because he couldn't get anyones attention. He came back and literally just walked back to the kitchen area and the employee that finally helped him, employee C, asked me once again if I needed any help. She took my payment and I waited another 10 minutes before my food and payment were brought out.

When I was handed my food Employee B said "sorry about the wait, we were waiting on that house salad" (really the cold thrown together side was the hold up?)

So anyways I take my food, I gladly leave, but when I get home and unpack the food. An entree is missing. I call Asahi again and talked with Chase. He was apologetic and said he'd get it made if I come back.

So I got in my car again and drove back. When I came in someone was in front of me waiting to be seated, he was clearly annoyed that he hadn't been talked to and was poking his head around the wall trying to get someone's attention.

Finally I get the missing entree, Chase offered a free cheesecake which was probably the only positive in this experience. A free slice of cheap cheesecake drizzled in the same cheap syrup used to make chocolate milk.

I then came home to cold food that I paid $43 for, for two people. I think the teriyaki chicken was missing the sauce. Luckily I had some store bought sauce in my fridge to eat with otherwise dry chicken.

The crab wontons were good, but were quite soggy after having been in the box...

I am so sad to write this because usually I’m happy with my experience here. I went Saturday night at 9:45. We waited for 5 minutes and were sat quickly. We then waited for 45 minutes before any acknowledgment was given to us. No waters, no server came by. Finally someone did and got us waters and said our server would be there soon. During this 45 minutes, 3 other tables were sat and given waters and appetizers right away. Our server finally came about 15 minutes later and we ordered. We waited another 30 minutes with no appetizers or food. I looked over, saw our plate of sushi be set down, our server came out of the kitchen eating food and proceeded to walk around the restaurant not giving us our food. About 10 minutes later she brought our rolls, no appetizers still. One of the rolls was horribly made and falling apart (wasn’t even a roll we ordered). I had to flag down our server again and ask for our appetizers and for our correct roll. We started eating and all our rolls were warm. The salmon was spoiled and left a disgusting taste in your mouth. The tempura was undercooked and raw and one of the rolls was missing ingredients in it. We all stopped eating and called our server explaining we were done and would not be eating anymore. She proceeded to tell us that we already started eating and should continue. I told her we were done and wanted to leave and if we could have something comped because of waiting over an hour and then the food being inedible. Keep in mind we only ate 7 pieces total, out of 6 rolls. She brought us the check with $5 taken off and the wrong rolls on our check. I then asked for a manager 5 times and finally my sister spoke up and also asked for a manager. He came over, harassed us some more saying it was all fresh, cut today, we had to ask for the tempura to be cooked fully next time, and asked if we even liked sushi…I was absolutely shocked with this behavior towards us and all we wanted to do was leave. After 20 minutes we were finally given a check with a slight comp on some rolls and then we left. As I was walking out the server came to have me sign. I wasn’t even halfway through the signature before she slapped the book shut on me and walked away. Will not be coming back after being shown such horrible treatment and being...