Jacky's Waterplace & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Providence

I made lunch reservations for myself and my nephew. I thought there was valet, but it turns out that’s only for dinner service, and instead you can park across the street for $7 once you get your ticket stamped, which was fine. But good to know. The place itself; decor, location and setting was great. And we did have a nice time. However, I’m sad to say the service was pretty abysmal and left me feeling negative! The host at the front wasn’t friendly or warm, and we had to almost run after him to follow to our table, and without a word just walked away despite us obviously saying thank you. I wanted to show my nephew a nice dining out experience, and I know he did have that, but for me, I know how much was lacking, which is why I’m posting.

Our server seemed unhappy and also not warm or welcoming, as the man who greeted and seated us also wasn’t. I know it was noon on a Wednesday lol and I get that. But I was still hoping for a more welcoming vibe. The only person who had nice vibes was a busboy Andre who despite having nothing to do with our actual table, was kind and happy.

Our server seemed like she was doing us a favor even taking our order. When I asked for a sushi roll recc (I wanted my 7 yo nephew to try one for the first time) she said “do you like cooked or not, I said no like definitely raw and she recc’d cooked choices (so, not sushi). I still chose the Hawaiian roll bc it looked nice on the menu and I felt kinda pressured to just choose one, and it ended up being super basic with imitation crab and cooked shrimp 😢 not what I was looking for at all for a sushi spot I’ve heard so many good things about.

So yes, it is annoying to have a younger child at a table, but he wasn’t loud, messy or anything like that, there was no reason for her to seem to not care about us at all. I just wanted to help him learn how TO be a good guest, (like he asked if he could drink his soup with a straw LOL, but you have to learn somehow, right. He didn’t know any better but he wasn’t acting up or anything. Was just so happy to be there with me.)

Ok, so then he DID 👹 spill his Shirley temple, which I cleaned up with the 2 cloth napkins we had, and wasn’t really an issue. But when she came back to check on our food, I told her, and asked for replacement napkins. Instead, about 15 min went by and we never got any assistance with that. So I ended up awkwardly going up to the nearest station and since no one was there to ask, just took two more silverware rollups so that we had clean napkins. Eventually our server came back, with a 2nd Shirley Temple for him ?! Which ofc I hadn’t ordered, had just asked for replacement cloth napkins. He definitely didn’t need another sugar drink either but once she brought it I wasn’t going to not let him have it. Not like she would be back anytime soon anyway. And was charged for it, of course.

So yea the food was okay, nothing special or anything more than basic Asian fusion you could get anywhere, the service sucked, but the view was lovely, the place itself was decorated beautifully and clean, and the busboy was sweet 😭 I wish I could say better!! I think it’s a nice place to go, honestly, just for the location and view, but I didn’t feel welcomed or taken care of at ALL service wise. Idk if it’s bc I was with a child, so maybe there was an assumption we would be an annoying table or something. But he is really well-behaved and I don’t know why we were treated like that. We still had a nice time, bc I’m good at making things fine and nice lol. But boy, the older man host with the angry cane and the young woman with the beautiful double nose ring hoop, since I didn’t catch your name 🥴 you guys could really be nicer! Thanks anyway, we still had...

I arrived first to Jacky's Mineral Springs address only to find my party was meeting at Jacky's Waterfront. Both places had great atmosphere. So I hopped in my car and went to Jacky's on the waterfront. Pulled up and valet parking (It comes validated with your reservation). Stephen, the valet was very professional and handled "Blueberry" my car with care. I tipped $10.00 as on the way out, my car was gotten back fast.

I entered and soon found my party. A great table right on the canal was picked. Watch out for the sun that comes pouring in, we ate at 1:50ish. Our waiter was GREAT. He took such good care of us. Drinks, food, attention to detail. We were not rushed and despite being to full at the end, he even asked if we wanted dessert! He helped us with validating our cars. The waiter had some good energy with us and a nice manner (light humor).

So the droogs were already there sucking down a dragon bowl and a martini. The waiter came right over as I sat. I ordered an iced tea and he went to go get it. This gave us time to hatch our plot. We had an open discussion as our main reason for this location was the Peking Duck. One gentleman had limited experience with duck and thought we should only order half. The Horror Movie Critic and me elected for a whole duck. We reasoned that if a duck perished for the cause, eat the whole thing out of respect...or we were wicked hungry. Boy are we glad because the gentleman scarfed like 8 wrappers loaded with duck, hoisin sauce, scallions, and julianed cucumbers down his gullet. The duck was moist meat with a crisp skin. This was A+. We also ordered a steamer full of dumplings. The dumplings were a B. Some of them were runny in texture. A couple the wrappers were overly dry. I dipped them in soy sauce.

Next we ordered some sushi rolls. We ordered the sweartheart roll and another tempura roll. The sweartheart roll had a great presentation. THEY have a sushi delivery robot. It did not visit us and we don't know how it works. It did go sing Happy Birthday to someone. It was really fun to watch. The sushi bar/kitchen was not to far away. The open kitchen allowed for us from our vantage point to watch them roll them.

After a breather, we ordered General Gao/Tso/T chicken, spare ribs of the bone, and beef fried rice. The General came in rather large chunks of medium fried sauced pieces. Some nicely steamed broccoli. It was not slimy or undercooked. Bravo for that! The spareribs were surprise: hard to eat. We did not care for the wet sauce that had a cherry undertone. The spareribs were really the only course I was not a huge fan. I think the meat was cooked well, just did not like the sauce. The fried rice was really nice. Lot of eat and slivers of beef.

To Mr. N, who opted not to come with us....you Sir missed out. This is an elevated Asian restaurant...evidenced in decor, staffing, and dishes. All in all Mr. N miss was our find!!! Highly...

I was looking forward to celebrating my mother’s birthday as I do every year since she passed away in 2021. I decided to dine at Jackie’s Water Place Galaxy, as she loved Asian food. Unfortunately, the experience was anything but enjoyable. From the moment we walked in, I felt the negative vibes and being that I was in celebratory mood and didn’t want anything or anyone to mess up my energy I decided to ignore it. That was my second mistake, the first was picking this restaurant. The host’s attitude was lackluster and dismissive when we requested a table near the window.

The waitress never acknowledged us, nor did she come to take our order. After sitting there for 15 minutes without any service, we decided to leave. This was particularly disappointing since the restaurant was not busy at all. The lack of customer service was palpable, and the overweight purple-haired waitress seemed to cater to every other table in the restaurant except ours.

As a black woman, I couldn’t help but feel that the way we were treated was due to the color of my skin. It was disheartening to see how other tables, all of whom were white or non-black, received attentive and friendly service while we were ignored. What’s worse is that the waitress looked at and ignored us multiples times, even as we’re walking out and I know she wanted a reaction out of me. In fact, I can tell people like her expect a reaction.

I will not be returning to Jackie’s Water Place Galaxy, and I advise others to seek out other options. With so many excellent sushi and Asian restaurants in the area, you can easily find a better dining experience. Fortunately, we walked to FoGo De Chao at Providence Place Mall, and the service there was exemplary and completely different from what we experienced at Jackie’s. I hope that Jackie’s improves its treatment of customers in the future but honestly this was second time at this location and the first wasn’t great either but I thought I’ll give them another try....