Ishi Shabu — Restaurant in Sturbridge

My fiancé and I wanted to enjoy a meal at a restaurant we’ve quickly come to love. However the host seemed more attentive of other guests other than ourselves. We didn’t spend anything after waiting over an hour. Let me back up. We went to the restaurant and struggled to find a parking spot. It’s a cramped parking lot and we’ve dealt with this gambit before. No biggie it’s a popular spot we get it. We parked the car and walked inside and saw it was busy. The hostess seemed nice and attentive or so we thought. She asked us if the approximate wait time was acceptable. We agreed and gave her our party name and sat out in the waiting area as we were instructed. So there we were waiting patiently as we watched other families walk in and out of the door. There seemed to be people who showed up after us being seated before us. We looked at each other puzzled but chalked it up to potential reservations and didn’t think about it further. The first half hour passed and we figured they were running behind, it is a buffet after all. When an hour had passed and we saw two definite party’s that were waiting to be seated, that arrived after our arrival, we feared we were forgotten (as we have before this isn’t the first time with other restaurants). So we got up and asked the hostess if we were coming up next and a little confused how other parties were seated prior to us. The hostess immediately without hesitation looks me and my cold hungry fiancé dead in the face and told us we had left and that we weren’t in line. Didn’t we put our name in the waitlist? Didn’t we say we will be waiting in the wait area? Didn’t we agree to the wait time and happily wait double what we were told even though other party’s were entering and leaving the establishment multiple times? Oh right yes, yes, and definitely yes we did. And did said hostess try to fix her clear mistake, no instead the best that ishi shabu could do to fix said mistake was offer us a normal table for normal boring sushi. No manager no appeasing two now angry hungry and cold customers that waited probably way longer than they needed to and wanted to. So we said we’ll take our business elsewhere (Cracker Barrel) where we’ve been seated, ordered, a wrinkle came up with one of our drinks and the waitress made it by hand! Who says you can’t get good hospitality anymore?!?!? Ishi shabu you need to step up your game if you want to keep customers through your door, maybe involve a manger...

Do not recommend one Star! (Long read lots of detail) Ishi Shabu is disorganized, unprepared, poor communication, overall just unprofessional! I made reservations for a private birthday party of 15 one week before, reservation for 10/25 at 4pm in a private party room upstairs for both hot pot & sushi. I called several times on different days beforehand to get a price, clarify questions with staff, and to be prepared ourselves. I arrived at 3:00pm (1 hour early) on Saturday 10/25 with the birthday cake balloons etc. (staff ok’d early arrival to decorate) the room was not clean! Thankfully we had wipes and cleaned up the tables etc ourselves before decorating. At 4:30pm I had to go downstairs to find a staff to let them know our private birthday party of 15 has been completely ignored! That I have been here since 3pm decorating with a 4pm reservation and it’s now 4:30pm not one person has come up to introduce themselves, ask if we need anything, we have no menus, utensils etc . Staff responded “oh, yeah we are really busy I’ll get my manager” zero apology! Nobody knew what they were doing, everybody was too busy! By the time our drink orders were finally taken at 5pm we’ve spoke with three different staff! Finally at about 5:30pm we got an assigned server named Jacob who was thankfully attentive and accommodating. Our food finally started to come out about 6:15pm (2 hrs and 15 minutes after reservation time) everyone was done eating by 7:45pm we all left and cleaned up by 8:00pm. The food quality was mediocre and mostly cold, and some food was forgotten so we had to order twice. The environment was unsatisfactory because the room was unclean on arrival and looks like it was not cleaned after the last use. I understand Saturdays are usually very busy, which is exactly why I purposely made these birthday reservations one week in advance! And followed up in between to prevent all of the above. I am completely disappointed, dissatisfied, and upset! Especially after spending nearly $800 total plus tip! Ishi Shabu needs to get it together ASAP or they won’t...

Came all the way from Boston to check this place out! Was super hungry so I forgot to take more pics haha

This place really shocked me with their quality of food! Typically asian places out in the suburbs are super average but this spot is sooo good! My best friend and I did the AYCE sushi and hot pot option. The value was great at only 40.99 per person!

Fish, scallops, other seafood tasted fresh! No fishy taste at all and the portions were not skimpy. Hot pot items were brought out quick and they definitely load you up with a veggie basket. Meat plates only came with about 5-6 slices an order so I would order multiple at a time if you’re a mainly meat hot pot eater!

If I could suggest a couple of things, the broth did not have much flavor to my friend and I. We got the Satay and the Tom yum. I couldn’t really taste anything with either. We’re used to places like happy lamb where the broth is super flavorful that sauce is typically not needed! Also, I couldn’t tell if our chopsticks were safe to use in the hot pot as they might’ve been plastic? Still used them tho lol but maybe some wooden chopsticks for cooking would be great!

Other than that, service was amazing and the staff is very attentive! Shout out to our server with the mullet, his energy was great! The inside and outside of the restaurant is beautiful (koi pond at the entrance!).

You’ll be...