Asian Yummy House — Restaurant in Riverview

This review is about our experience dining in this restaurant on Christmas Eve, 2016.

Let me start by saying that once we were seated, our service was wonderful. Our server, Zoe, was professional, fast, and helpful. We have no complaints about the food or the table service we received.

However, as good as the table service was, the first 30 minutes we spent in the restaurant spoiled our whole experience. Three parties that came in AFTER us were seated before my party, for no explicable reason. The apparent manager on duty, Crystal, was rude, dismissive, and has made me want to never return to this restaurant, even though we have been regular customers of this restaurant for years.

I called a few days ahead of time to try to make a reservation for that evening, and was informed that they were not taking reservations for Christmas Eve. This makes sense to me, I worked in various restaurants over the course of 12 years and I know that taking reservations on a night expected to be busy can lead to longer waits and empty tables.

When we arrived at the restaurant, there were no open tables, which is understandable. I gave the woman at the front desk my name and told her how many were in my party (me, my wife, and our two toddlers). I watched as another party finished up in one of their booths (that seat four people) and staff cleared the table. Shortly afterwards, an older couple arrived, and was promptly seated at that table. I attempted to ask the woman at the hostess stand why they were seated and we were not, and she put her index finger up in the air, and turned her head away from me and just ignored me. I asked another employee if I could speak with a manager, and a woman named Crystal came over, presumably the manager because she was dressed differently than all of the other employees, and she seemed pretty disinterested.

Shortly after this, another party came in and stated to the hostess that they had a reservation. I asked Crystal why they were able to make a reservation and we were not, and she told me that some employees had been accepting reservations, but that others had not. I can understand if some of the employees did not get the message to not accept reservations for this evening, that is understandable, but then Crystal proceeded to seat this party ahead of us!

At this point, I was starting to get angry, and my 4 year old and 2 year old were starting to get cranky because they were hungry. If I thought any other decent restaurants would have been open that evening I would have walked out and gone to eat at one of them. But, we started to get hope as we saw another table leaving. Sure enough, as soon as that table was cleared, another party walked in, and they were swiftly brought back to the table. Crystal came up to me and asked my why we didn't want that table. WE DID WANT THAT TABLE, they just sat another party there while ignoring us. I was standing right by the hostess stand the whole time.

Then I watched as two more parties started to leave, including one booth, and put myself directly in front of the hostess stand so they could not continue to ignore us. I was asked if I preferred a table or a booth, and I chose a booth. Instead of bringing us to the booth, one of the employees just waved us over to the table, and we sat down, with no menus. The whole process of arriving in the restaurant to actually sitting at a table took 30 minutes, during which time 3 other parties were sat at tables we could have sat in, only one of which had a reservation, which they were supposedly not accepting that evening.

We waited at the table 5 minutes for someone to bring us a menu and ask us about drinks, and no one did, so I walked back up to the front of the restaurant and grabbed some menus on my own. As I was walking back to the table, I saw Crystal speaking to the wait staff, pointing at my table, and making what seemed to be disparaging remarks.

Thankfully, Zoe came by and took good care of us, but our experience with Crystal has made me want to never return to...

TLDR: Rude service, over an hour and a half wait, poor coordination with staff that ate handling take out orders, cold food, no compensation.

Last night I called the restaurant directly to place an order for pickup at approx. 8:45pm. I was quoted a price and told the order would be ready in 25 min. My bf left the house a little after 9PM.

At 9:39PM my bf calls me to tell me that the food was still not ready and that the woman (Asian) servicing pickup was rude when asked if the food was ready. He observed another customer who had to come back to the restaurant because of a messed up order (missing California rolls) get promised a discount on a future order.

At 9:57 I receive a call FROM the restaurant saying the food was ready for pickup. I tell the woman that my bf has been there asking about my order. She tells me he has to go up to the window to pay. I immediately call my bf to go to the window.

10:07pm I receive a text from my bf that states: "Supposedly they're cooking it now even though they called you and said that it's ready and I have to pay for it". At this point I'm beyond upset and immediately call the restaurant asking what is going on with my food (I never cursed or raised my voice). I explain that I already recieved a call it was ready and my bf is getting the runaround. She says, "First off, I didn't call you" top which i reaping, "I honestly don't care if it was you or not. Where is my food." She says I ordered Doordash and I corrected her that I called directly. THEN she asks for my number and tells me it's been ready for a while. I can hear her now speaking to my bf and I tell her to handle it with him.

10:12pm my bf texts me this: "so she finally calls me up to the window and she says oh it's been ready all this time and I was like what the f so now it's cold what what can you do you know what she said nothing but I'm sorry. Never getting food from here again never"

I understand it was busy but if a restaurant wants people to support local small business, there needs to be better...

I visited this establishment on 11/21/2014. This was my first visit there and upon walking in I was impressed with the place. I've seen this restaurant for years and never bothered to visit before. It was well laid out and smaller than I expected which isn't a bad thing. The host at the door was quick to greet us and bring us to our table.

The menu has a mix of Chinese and Japanese food. I've never been to an Asian restaurant that does both. My girlfriend ordered sesame chicken and I ordered the hibachi chicken. I ordered a sushi appetizer and the presentation was great. I'm not sure how I expected the sushi to be on the plate but I was pleasantly surprised. The hibachi chicken was very good and I had a bite of the sesame chicken and that was very good.

Here's my issue with the restaurant and I hope management/ownership sees it. The service was horrible. Our waitress was very inattentive right when we sat down to when we received our check. I had to give her that, "Hey, we're ready to order" look after nearly 15 minutes. It look a long time for my water to be refilled. She never checked to see if we had any issues with the food during our meal (we didn't, but that's beside the point). Then, it took another 15 minutes to get our check after we were clearly done. I had to ask another waitress to get our waitress so we can receive our check. I informed the manager up front that the food was good but the service was horrible.

I will go back to this restaurant one more time but if I have another bad experience that will be it for me. In the immediate area I have Sakura which has always been a great experience for me if I want Japanese food. There is also a Chinese take-out restaurant next to Publix that I can always go to if I want Chinese food. Asian Yummy House has competition in the area and cannot afford to lose customers because of...