Beatrix D.
Yelp
My husband heard about Sushi Zanmai, wanted to try a sushi place that was new to us, and requested we go for his birthday dinner. We were excited!
We acknowledge the service industry is rough right now, and many places are understaffed, and we usually have total compassion if we encounter bad service.
However, our service was horrendous, which compelled me to write this review. Our server was negligent and inattentive; once she took our initial order, she didn't ask how we were doing or inquire if we'd like to order anything else. She wasn't spread too thin; she was careless and made minimal effort. We waited 1h15m for the first part of our sushi order to arrive, and she didn't come by once during this time to apologize or simply check in. We had to flag down another staff member to ask for our check.
Our food was also thrown together. We are accustomed to receiving sushi orders in batches, but here, part of an order of an item came out, and the rest came later. For example, we ordered four fatty yellowtail nigiri, and three came out, followed by the fourth maybe 20 minutes later. The dishes were served without ginger or wasabi (and we had no opportunity to politely ask for some, because we were ignored). The soft shell crab was over-fried. The rolls were sloppily put together and fell apart easily.
Additionally, customers either waiting for a table or waiting for take out were spilling from the small entryway into the restaurant, standing among the tables, and not everyone was masked. The staff made no effort to remedy this.
Our bill was over $200 before tip (I never tip less than 20%, and I did here, because the service was abysmal), which was absolutely not worth it. We have paid half that and gotten much better service and food and have also happily paid more than that for great service and food.
I rarely write negative reviews, especially after just one singular bad experience, but this was appalling. The only silver lining was the comic relief of a birthday dinner gone wrong. We will never go back and will warn others against going as well!