East Izakaya — Restaurant in Town of Victor

TLDR: Food was just okay. Prices for a la carte options are pretty affordable. Concept seems better for small parties, not larger groups. Lots of kinks to work out with the service. This was a bit of strange experience. We had a party of 9, which I know is a big group and difficult to manage in a restaurant, so I'm giving them some leeway for that. 2 of us got the all you can eat and the rest of the party did the a la carte. This definitely added a level of confusion to everything. I'll start with the all you can eat... there are a few issues: The robot that brings the food to your table is really fun, however, I think it makes it more complicated than it needs to be. It came to our table twice and told us there was food for us on the top level, but it was empty. When I mentioned it to our server he said someone else must have grabbed our food. Okay, I can see how that can happen. He then asked us what we didn't get so he could re-order it which was great. We ended up getting like 3 rounds of the soup we ordered which was annoying. And no one tells you if it's the all you can eat or the entree size. It seems obvious to me, but others at my table couldn't figure out if those rounds of soup were the ones they ordered or the one I ordered with the all you can eat. When the little robot brings the food over, there is no way to know what it is exactly... you just have to guess. In our case, one of the people was a vegetarian, so we had to guess if they were the vegetarian won tons or the meat ones that someone else ordered. That is the biggest downside of robot waiters, in my opinion. It would be nice if they could figure out a way to include what each thing is, especially if you're not a frequent diner and aren't familiar with what things look like. Even though the orders were put in at the same time, things came out in a really weird spacing of dishes. A few times, a single item was brought out. Other times, 3 or 4 things were dropped off. The worst was that a simple cucumber roll took forever and was finally delivered about 2 minutes before our desserts arrived. And we put in a second round of desserts, one of which was brought out rather quickly and the last one was brought out as we were leaving, essentially. They have 3 or 4 different people, plus the robot bringing out food and I think it just adds to the confusion. The ipad ordering was fun, although it seems like it would be easier if they just did an app that you can order from your own phone. Then the delivery could be for each individual person and you didn't need to guess what the food on the robot was. It was also kind of annoying that we had to wait for our server to put the order in. They never quite explained why that was. I think this would be great for a party of 2 or even 4, but it just doesn't really work for large groups.

For those who ordered a la carte, the specials are supposed to come with rice, miso soup, and seaweed salad. One guest who ordered the teriyaki salmon only received the salmon and when we finally asked about the soup and salad, they finally brought it out after she had finished her fish. The rice never appeared, which at that point, was fine, she didn't even want it anymore.

And finally, the food. I honestly thought it was just okay. Nothing blew us away except maybe the crab wontons. The vegetable wontons were also pretty good. The teryaiki salmon was very good and I would definitely order that again along with the steamed broccoli. The vegetable ramen was not good at all. The only flavor to it was corn. The vegetable udon was also not great. It lacked flavor aside from a bit of char from the stir frying. The vegetarian Tom Yum soup was okay as was the Szechuan tofu, although neither were especially spicy. The only condiment on the table was soy sauce and they automatically brought out wasabi and ginger before we even ordered, assuming we were going to get sushi. I would have liked some chili oil or even chili crisp - something to make the supposedly spicy options...

We’ve been looking forward to coming here for a while and we were not disappointed.

First, the food. We had a group of four and we went with the “all you can eat” option so we could try as much as possible. And we all feel it was well worth it. We tried a variety of rolls and each one just hit the spot. The Crunchy Shrimp tempura roll was my favorite, so I highly recommend it. The rolls themselves are very large, I would say one is probably enough for a single person. The regular shrimp tempura was probably the best I’ve ever had. It was crispy, and had a nice flavor in the breading that I don’t usually taste elsewhere. The fried calamari was a little tough, but had a great flavor. I probably won’t get it again, but I don’t regret trying it. The crab wontons were a crowd favorite. Easily these are the best crab cheese wonton rangoons any of us have ever had. The cheese was so creamy and fried perfectly. The dumplings were another classic that hit the spot. Also, they have a few people walking around with some meat skewers. Everything they had was delicious, one guy had flavored beef, shrimp, chicken, but our favorite was the BBQ pork belly. I dream of that pork belly. It was juicy, tender, and perfectly cooked. And the flavor was slightly sweet. The sashimi all tasted fresh and juicy. There are a variety of soups and other appetizers and they are all very good. I can’t mention everything here, but I’ll try to add descriptions and ratings to the pictures I add. Also, the desserts were just the cherry on top. The crème brûlée was creamy, mildly sweet, and perfectly torched. The red bean dakoyaki was easily my favorite dessert. Perfectly crispy and a little sweet, it wrapped up my meal in a very satisfying way. I wasn’t a fan of the sesame cheesecake, it was a little too bitter I think.

The service: Our waiter was incredibly friendly and matched our energy really well. He would crack some jokes and overall made it a great dining experience. The robots that deliver the food are very fun and convenient. To order we just added everything on the tablet to the order and then called the server over. He checked it over and placed the order to the kitchen. When the robot comes with your food, be sure to only grab the food on the tray that is highlighted. We almost made the mistake of taking someone else’s food. Oops! We did have an issue getting some items. We ordered two rolls that never came, which was disappointing, but when we mentioned it they asked if we wanted to order it again. At that point we were stuffed so we were actually kinda happy we lost some items haha.

The atmosphere was really modern, but felt very pleasing. I won’t say cozy or anything, but the decor was nice to look at and we didn’t feel crowded around tables. It was very open.

Overall, I highly recommend East Izakaya. The food is clearing made fresh, with fresh oil for everything deep fried. The people are pleasant. It’s honestly one of the best dining...

Service 3/10 Speed 1/10 Presentation 0/10 Food 2.5/10 Overall value 3/10

Tldr; Cold food, unappetizing heaps of sprouts on literally everything, poor kitchen times, chewy meat, under done chicken wings

This was our second time visiting, and also probably our last as well. Our first experience was wonderful in all ways except for speed so we decided to give them another shot after several months to practice.

Three of us had the all you can eat with one Shirley Temple ($6 for a sprite with grenadine?!) for a total of $170 after tax and tip. The tip was apparently non-negotiable as there was no option for a custom tip and we really just wanted to leave after an hour and a half of waiting for mostly cold food.

The tablet system could be more user friendly with an option to send your items to the kitchen without waiting (often a LONG time) for a server to send your choices back. We also had quite a bit of difficulty moving from the drink menu to the food and had to request assistance so that we could actually order.

The food wasn't nearly as good this time as our first visit. Everything came to the table covered with a pile of sprouts on top. Many of the items were very cold when they arrived including a spring roll, sweet & sour chicken, beef ribs, and general tsos chicken. The teriyaki beef was perhaps the chewiest meat I've ever been served. The chicken wings had so much potential but were VERY pink inside.

There are several options on the menu that cannot be ordered without first talking to the server. We wanted grilled pineapple and brussels sprouts but needed permission from her first. If I'm paying that much for all we can eat then let me order whats available on the menu without weird extra steps. Neither of those items arrived without more hassle. She checked on us about 15min later and we hadn't gotten either of them. Then she brought out the grilled pineapple which was OK, but unexpectedly cold (grilled means HOT... no?) I reminded her about the brussels sprouts and she said she'd remind the kitchen. Fast forward to the end of our meal, over an hour after ordering them, and they arrived. All of our plates had been cleared and we were eating dessert. The kid that brought them out looked visibly irritated that we no longer wanted them, never mind the fact that they were on a skewer that he needed us to have a plate for that we no longer had. He said "so you DONT want them?" and then gave me a dirty look and walked away.

The meat skewers guy came to our table once (at the very beginning of our meal) in our almost an hour and a half visit, we never saw him again, despite us leaving our card turned up to the we want more option.

City Tavern had almost the exact same reputation with a slow decline in service and food. Part of me wonders if its the same owner/ management. It would explain a lot. At this rate I doubt that this place will survive another year with all of the better options...