Sushi Blues Cafe — Restaurant in Raleigh

Went to Sushi Blues for the first time last night after finding it on google. We picked this sushi restaurant specifically instead of our normal one (Kaze Japanese Steakhouse in Garner) because the online menu said they had both Red Bean and Green Tea flavors of mochi ice cream. First the host seemed miserable and obviously didn't want to be there, and he insisted on taking a credit or debit card from us when he sat us at our table on the patio. We thought this was odd, so we looked confused at first, and he was quite rude in insisting we give him a credit or debit card. Then our server (I believe his name was Cooper? Could have been Conor, but I think it was Cooper) took about five minutes to finally greet us with waters and take our drink orders (after a bit of discussion because several of the wines I wanted off the menu they did not have), then it was another ten minutes before we received our drinks and I could ask for a replacement water because mine had mint in it for some reason. We finally placed our food orders (Marilyn Monroe and Bourbon Street Oyster rolls for me, chicken yaki soba dinner with soup and salad for my partner) and proceeded to wait about 50 minutes for my partner's salad to come out. I had to go to the host's stand to ask for napkins, because we were never given any. 15-20 minutes later, he returns with our dinners (minus the soup). He apologized for forgetting the soup, asked if my partner still wanted it, and said he would take it off our bill regardless, but my partner declined. He checked on us once about half an hour into our meal, where I asked if I'd received the right rolls, because the one he identified as the Marilyn Monroe had a large strip of something fried with tentacles in the middle of it (he said that's just how they serve their crab??) and the Bourbon Street Oyster had roe all over it, even though it said nothing about roe on the menu. He assured me they were the right rolls and thanked me for pointing out that there was roe on the Bourbon Street Oyster as he'd never noticed that before (there were literally bright orange balls ALL OVER it, there's no way you could not notice. Luckily I don't mind roe, so it wasn't a problem.) We finished our meals and sat there about ten minutes more with empty plates in front of us before a different server came to take them. About five minutes later one of the hostesses checked on us and offered to get our server so we could get the check, and we informed her that we wanted to order dessert. She said she'd get us a menu, and we said it was okay, we already knew what we wanted. She finally got him to come to the table where he walked up, said "She was supposed to... Let me get you some dessert menus" and disappeared before we could stop him. Several minutes later he returned, saying he couldn't find a dessert menu, but he'd be happy to go over it with us. We told him it was okay, that we just wanted mochi ice cream. He explained that it comes with three of four flavors, and listed chocolate, strawberry, strawberry, green tea, and mango. I asked about the red bean and he said they were out of it. Then added that they were actually out of green tea also. We settled on two chocolate and one mango, paid the check as quickly as possible, and left very dissatisfied.

Basically: The food was good, but not extraordinary. Our server was forgetful and inattentive. The service was PAINFULLY slow. They do have a buy one get one free sushi roll deal, but other than that the prices are pretty average. Not worth the hassle. We'll be trying Sushi O right down the...

For the first time I’m having to give a bad review here!! Very frustrating. I waited an hour to receive my food. That’s still not my biggest complaint.. Upon arrival I was advised there was a 40m wait, ok, I asked if I could just do take out. She advised sure, it took a few min to put in the order while assisting others.. ok- Np- 10 or so min, Paid for my food, speaking with my invited guest (who I bragged to, abt trying my favorite sushi spot) and We realized we’ve been sitting here chatting over 40m+. We’re thinking we could have just waited to eat here.. we notice ppl coming and going for to go orders.. some Already getting their food that came after us 🤔.. At this point we’re concerned.. I asked to speak with the manager. His name is Mark- stated he’s the general manager. After waiting a few for him to finally come, I accidentally stopped him from walking pass me to a table.. I stopped him and asked for the manager Mark, he states I’m Mark. Now I realized you were not coming out to speak with me, knowing I requested a manager. My complaint is, not only did I have to wait an hr for food, but my tiny spring rolls were super cool, my sushi felt like they were sitting in the back and forgotten about.. besides all of that, the GM seemed irritated and annoyed that he had to stop what he was doing to assist me (his words) I have 32,000 other things to do. As if we don’t have other things to do after leaving. He offered to refund our money back. My concern is what about my cold food I waited an hr for.. his excuses begun, it’s sushi.. it’s going yo be cold.. I can’t refund your money because you’ve already paid- huh- after you just said you would- but whatever with that.. I’m not new to eating sushi, its not super hot, but I know when it’s just been fixed.. that wasn’t the case.. It’s been sitting.. there spring rolls are so soft and cool.. while trying to ask for this to be corrected- he responds with it’ll take another 40m to fix and I already gave you your money back, I’m not fixing more food.. who cares about the money... I want the service I paid for, just like the others!!! This is Unacceptable for a GM to Treat Paying customers.. if y’all forgot our order was in the back made, than apologize and fix the issue, but the attitude from MARK THE “GM” is bad business.. I will be posting everywhere also.... we spoke to him respectfully, but yet he leaves with an attitude still not trying to make things right, like money was the problem!!!!!!!! PLS TREAT “ALL” CUSTOMERS WITH THE SAME AMT OF RESPECT AS YOU DO THE OTHERS!!!! I’ve NEVER seen Mark behave like this, I’ve definitely dined there several times...

RESPONSE TO THEIR RESPONSE; I was very clear about getting more food and the issue would have been resolved. The reason I decided to do a review was b/c of How he treated me and my guest and b/c Mark did not want to provide good customer service. I am VERY RESPECTFUL, showed him RESPECT, but in return, since he’s tired and frustrated, he treats me as if my business didn’t matter. He also advised he wasn’t going to give a refund and replace my food, speaking with an attitude.. So yes, I was very Clear..

Just need others to be warned that ALL do not get treated the same as others.

Thanks for...

I never post reviews but after the service I’ve been receiving recently, all across Raleigh, NC, I’m tired of keeping my comments to myself.

To preface our experience at Sushi Blues, I will say that our server Ian was doing the best that he could, so none of my blame goes towards him.

Sushi Blues is a shady restaurant when it comes to their pricing. To start, they offer BOGO on their sushi. Great idea in theory; however, when you charge customers not by what the person eats, but by the total amount spent, that is not right. If one person buys two $11 rolls, and the other person buys two $15 rolls, you shouldn’t be charging the customers $15 a piece. Especially if they are separate orders (WHICH THEY DON’T EVEN ALLOW). THEN, you have the audacity to base your tip percentages on “pre-discount subtotal”… what is that? You should be charging tip percentages based on the “subtotal”. Our ticket subtotal was $44, but the tip percentage on their handheld card reader showed 15% being $11. Using the card reader with no context on what my bill was, I tapped 15%. It was only after I received my hardcopy receipt that I noticed my subtotal was in fact $44. I wouldn't have left $11 on a $44 ticket had I known what my subtotal actually was, especially with the service that we received. A restaurant shouldn't charge percentages based on pre-discounted items, especially when the restaurant's business model is based on their "buy one get one free deal" (when in reality, it's just buy 2 rolls for X amount of dollars). I have yet to go to a restaurant that does that. Absolutely ridiculous!

I wouldn’t be saying any of this if the service was immaculate (which it was not). We sat down at 8:15pm. We ordered our food roughly at around 8:30pm and did not receive our food until 9:25pm. Keep in mind, all that we ordered was 4 rolls total. Ever other table in the restaurant received their food, ate it, AND LEFT by the time we got our food. The explanation was that there was an issue with the printer that sent our food order to the kitchen. Okay, simple fix, write the order out and give it to the kitchen, and then make sure that that food is prepared first since those customers (in this case, us) had already been waiting so long. It’s not a hard process, and for this establishment to even have 4.2 stars is astonishing. This is not the first time I’ve had these issues with this establishment, but it will definitely be the last because I will never be returning.

To the managers and owners of this establishment, do better! I’m curious as to how this business has survived this long, but I guess college kids in the area don’t really complain as long as they get somewhat decent food in a somewhat “trendy” location (if that’s what this place can even be...