Javelin — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Food: Got the wasabi edamame and miso soup to start. Miso soup was good I’ll give it that. Wasabi edamame was fine, a little over cooked. There was this light flavor/seasoning but it didn’t really taste like much, just mildly savory salt. We each ordered about 2 rolls and split the Truffle Toro roll. Truffle toro roll was good, but not great. Could definitely taste the truffle and it was aesthetically pleasing but for $25 there needs to be something that stands out. It tasted a bit fishier than I expected but truffle hid it mostly — the stand out part of the roll shouldn’t be there to mask fishy flavor. Also got the spicy scallop roll and it was good but nothing remarkable. Spicy tuna and salmon were fine. Spicy crab meat was good. White tuna roll wasn’t my favorite. King crab roll was bland. The last bit to mention though was the Mackerel Sashimi that was recommended by the server — figured why not… I can’t mince words about this one and I truly am not saying this to be mean but it was a dumpster fire in my mouth. Texture was fine, so I don’t know if we just had a bad cut or what and I know mackerel lends itself to the fishier side but this was just… stiflingly pungent and absolutely, infinitely fishy once it hit my tongue. We all had rumbly stomachs after and the most fishy burps of our lives after eating it. All of us.

Drink: We got 2 glasses of wine and 2 cocktails. Wine was decent, but the pour size was just very different between the 2 glasses. Like a difference of 1.5x the amount between the two. For cocktails we got ‘The Perfect Square’ and ‘Smoky Mirrors’. The Perfect Square came with some cute garnish and it tasted good and fruity, just a little watered down. Can’t say it tasted ‘special’ though. The Smoky Mirrors tasted decent and did get the flavors right, but again — just watery. Im also not sure why it’s given some signature cocktail name when it’s just a basic mezcal margarita? Nothing unique about it besides the mezcal but again… that’s just a mezcal marg? Just disappointed that for the cost of the drinks ($15 and $18 respectively) they weren’t all that special and watered down, that’s legit craft cocktail prices and they tasted like $10 - maybe $12 drinks and that’s being generous.

Service: Service was …odd? I really don’t know how else to put it. If I had to guess our server was new to this because any time he placed things down he just seemed nervous and shaky, thought the miso soup was going to spill on at least one of us so I kept grabbing them from him after the first one went down. When drinks came they brought out 2 Pinot noir instead of Grigio which was fine, no big deal. We pointed it out and there just wasn’t that “Aha!, let me fix that” from the server until we asked him. Server came back with only 1 Pinot Grigio… we just let it go after that. Last was another weird interaction when the sushi came out. At this point we were all done our soups for a while and there was room on the table but whoever was running the food over just came up to us and stared and looked down at the table. And we just kinda looked back at them cause we weren’t sure why they weren’t putting the food down? Once they motioned the plate back and forth in their hand we quickly scrambled moving silverware and whatever we could to make as much room as possible — but the whole thing was just super awkward. If you feel you don’t have enough room just mention it or ask, don’t stare or flail around with the plates silently? Nobody was rude or anything but also no one was friendly.

Atmosphere: The look inside is really nice, dim and classy. Loved the wood paneling. At one point when it hadn’t gotten any darker out though these bright white lights came on and never went off. Killed the moody vibes.

The final shocker was the bill. With tip about $220, and this just felt insanely expensive, by a factor of 2. Fairmount has better sushi and it’s usually almost less than half of what we paid when we all go out. Center city prices for less sushi and less quality… I’m sorry...

I very rarely leave negative reviews… Javelin is a special case. My friends and I are always on the lookout for new and exciting food locations in Philly. However, we are still raving in our group chat about how bad our experience was. We were so excited ab the new sushi place opening in fairmount… turns out the staff are confused, the place is overpriced, the sushi is bad, and somehow they even messed up the drinks. I swear it must be the employees leaving the good reviews.

Let’s start with the staff: each time someone came over to bring a dish or a drink, they always gave it to the wrong person. We were swapping plates and glasses like we were the ones working there despite literally saying “oh that’s mine” and “that’s hers”. They just plopped em down wherever and they didn’t clear plates before bringing out more so the table was a mess and were playing bumper cars with the dirty ceramic sprawled across the table.

Next, the drinks: my friends and I ordered two glasses of Pinot Grigio and two of their specialty cocktails. We received two glasses of Pinot Noir and flavorless cocktails ($15 btw) which we proceeded to have a debate about whether or not any alcohol was present within the cocktails. We corrected the staff on the wine of which, they still proceeded to only bring out one glass of Pinot Grigio… another misunderstanding.

As for the sushi and sashimi: we ordered 10 rolls, one of which was a specialty roll as well as two pieces of mackerel sashimi as was suggested by our waiter. We’ve had sashimi before but this was different; it was likely not fresh mackerel and haunted us throughout the night, we all tried a bit of it to experience just how bad it was for the first victim.

The sushi rolls were not redeeming either. Almost all of it was well below average with the exception of the spicy crab roll which was actually quite tasty. This one roll unfortunately could not outdo the other 9 bland or dry rolls including the specialty truffle toro roll which was significantly lackluster despite its hefty price of $25. I cannot emphasize enough to not order the snow crab roll. The rolls were so dry, I might as well have been chewing on a ball of cotton. The tuna and salmon rolls were also more akin to that of a tuna can mixed with mayo. Very disappointing.

Lastly, the check: let’s just say, you may as well go to Zama if you want to spend this much on sushi, at least they’ll serve you something worth the price.

Overall, the only redeeming quality of this place was the new interior. All else was considerably bad. From the servers, to the drinks, to the sushi… just go somewhere else.

Javelin, if you’re reading this, I hope...

I rarely leave reviews (let alone bad ones), but I felt the need to write about my experience because the previous reviews were misleading. My friends and I were so excited to try a new sushi spot in the Fairmount area, but we were left severely disappointed.

Starting with the service and the vibes - it just felt weird from the moment we sat down and interacted with the servers. For drinks we ordered two glasses of Pinot noir and 2 cocktails (each $15 and $18 mind you). They took a little bit to bring out the drinks which I thought, okay fair, they’re probably taking their time making the cocktails. The server 1) brought out 2 glasses of Pinot Grigio instead of noir and 2) gave the cocktails to the wrong people (which would have been an honest mistake, but mistakes like this continued to happen). Instead of offering to swap out the Pinot Grigio with the wine we ordered, they kind of awkwardly stood there until one of us specifically asked for the Pinot noir instead. And then regarding the taste - the cocktails tasted like there wasn’t a lick of alcohol in them. They tasted watered down in general. Which would have been understandable if this were a dive bar, and the drinks weren’t $15-18.

Moving on to the food. Overall very mediocre. We ordered an assortment of rolls and one order of sashimi. First off, the mackerel sashimi was one of the most offensive things I’ve ever put in my mouth. The fishy taste was unbearable, and we could still taste it hours later. The rolls were fine - some were definitely a little fishy but not the worst. The best roll was the spicy crab roll, but it literally tasted like the one I get from Kansai. The snow crab was extremely bland. The spicy tuna and salmon were nothing to write home about, and the one specialty roll we got (the truffle one) was not worth the $25 price point. Also - re: the earlier mention of awkward interactions with the servers. We ordered miso soup (which was pretty good), and they didn’t clear our soup bowls or anything prior to bringing the food. They brought the food out and awkwardly stood there hovering it over us until we moved plates and bowls out of the way.

With the other sushi options in the area (Umai, Kansai, Doma), I do not plan on returning here. And honestly for the price we paid, save your time and go somewhere like...