Izumi Sushi & Hibachi Waterloo — Restaurant in Waterloo

I’d like to start out by saying that most of the issues we experienced today are common with restaurants that have recently opened up. Having worked in restaurants for many years, I understand the learning curve that you must go through to figure out your systems and processes that work well for you, your staff, and your customers. We will be back in the future once they have some time to settle in. I’m not leaving these comments for potential customers, instead they are for the management to know about our experience. This seems like a unique concept for our area that I hope sticks around.

With that being said, we each got the All You Can Eat for $30.95. You are given a stack of paper menus and you check off whatever it is you want for the whole table. The waiter collects your order and then it is delivered family style to your table (all sushi orders on one platter, all appetizers, etc.) except for the hibachi.

The Spicy Crab sushi roll we ordered was delicious and delivered to our table rather quickly.

Everything else we ordered had issues…

The steak hibachi was a significant disappointment. The steak itself was cold, over cooked, and we could not tear it apart with our teeth or even cut it with the fork provided rendering it inedible. The vegetables that came with it were also cold, like straight from the refrigerator cold. But the fried rice was hot and fresh. My guess was that the steak and veg were done well before the rice. The rice itself was hot but surprisingly bland.

At this point our chicken tempura arrived. It was a stretch to call it chicken tempura as the breading was panko and not your typical tempura batter and of the 2 pieces, one of them was shrimp. Thankfully neither of us have a shellfish allergy or that could have been bad as we unknowingly bit into it.

Our waiter was sparsely seen. We had to flag down other staff to inform them of the shrimp mixup. They did remake it and brought out fresh chicken pieces (but again, not what your typical tempura batter). But it was hot so we ate it. Definitely wasn’t seasoned as it needed salt.

At this point we turned in our order 1.5 hours ago and we were still waiting on the scallop hibachi. But once again we couldn’t locate our waiter to inquire about it. It seemed odd that they would deliver the (cold) steak hibachi but not the calamari hibachi at the same time.

We had other appointments to get to so we asked for the check. Once again, more waiting. It took 10 minutes for our waiter to bring us the check. As he handed us the check he also handed us the calamari hibachi. We laughed about it as we clearly were in our way out the door and unable to eat it.

I’m also a huge yum yum sauce fan. Theirs was pretty average and nothing special. What was odd for me was I found myself eating most of my food without it which I don’t think I’ve ever done at a Japanese restaurant.

With many of these issues we didn’t want to bring it up after a while because it was taking so long to get our food, having them remake it would only delay us farther.

All in all, we will be back but not for a long time as we got the vibe that most of these issues were caused by inexperienced staff and processes that they will eventually figure out. When we do go back, we’re just sticking with sushi. Everything else was...

Stopped in today as we were school shopping. This place was packed , so I assumed the wait. We told the staff we wait the 45 minutes. We sat in the waiting chairs and other people with 2 were being seated before us. I went up and asked why this was occurring and they said " you didn't take a number" .. Nobody told me about a number before I sat down. So long story short we waited the 45 minutes just to be placed last in line after I acquired a number. Over wait was 1h 15 minutes. Food: We were seated but not given anything to drink or asked until I stopped a server to get our drinks. He went and found another server who then went to the front desk and had the guy take our drink order. For as busy as it was , food came fairly quick ( 15-20min) .. I don't like the hodgepodge serving method they use for fried food as the bottom food gets soggy and greasy as ever. The sushi was ok , not the best ive had around the cedar valley, but for 30$ all u can eat its good. Service: if this place had been open longer id give it 1 star. No drinks for 10 minutes and that's after I asked to get them, refills were non-existent. Terrible service. Overall: I'll be back after it gets some time to establish and everyone gets a groove and acclimated to the speed this place is most likely going to experience for quite some time. Id suggest if you go, make a reservation and get a number !! Order everything you think you can manage to eat so its a one...

Overall, the experience was just okay. The service was very fast and our server was super friendly, but he pushed the all-you-can-eat option a little too much. He brought it up several times during the meal and again as we were leaving, which felt a bit over the top.

We started with calamari, but the breading wasn’t our favorite. For the main course, we had the 16-piece sushi meal for two, which came with miso soup. The soup was filling but really salty and neither of us really liked the taste. The sushi itself was a good deal if you enjoy nigiri, and the portion size was just right for us. That said, the Izumi roll didn’t really stand out, and the rice kept falling apart, especially on the nigiri, which I’ve never run into before. The fish tasted fresh, but it was a bit too room temp, probably because the rice was too warm.

The atmosphere was cozy at first, but partway through our meal the light above us got really bright, and the flashing rainbow lights around the bar (which seemed empty, with no alcohol available) got pretty distracting.

I’d give the place another shot since I know restaurants sometimes just have a few kinks to work out. Hopefully the next visit will be a bit smoother, because this visit was a little...