Robert M.
Yelp
On October 2nd, my family and I ordered food from Yakumi for the very first time. I should have paid more close attention to the negative Yelp reviews as they mirrored my experience quite accurately. I guess when everything goes well at Yakumi, it goes well, but do not attempt to get anyone to fix a problem that comes up.
So here is the problem - I was charged $138.72 for food that did not arrive. One would think that this would be something that requires 5 minutes to fix. "I am sorry sir. I deeply regret that after an hour, you are without food. We will have another order out to you ASAP and provide you with an extra special dish for the inconvenience." Or "I realize that it has been an hour. Would you like us to prepare the same meal tomorrow? We would be happy to also give you $20 off your next order after that." Basically an acknowledgement that mistakes happen and that you should make an effort to compensate for the inconvenience.
Upon getting a texted photo from GrubHub of the wrong house, a house I was not familiar with, I called Yakumi's phone number and spoke with Manager Tim. He explained that GrubHub made the mistake and that they outsource deliveries to them. I explained that I did not care as I am only responsible for the paying and eating part. I am a customer - not Yakumi staff. I do not want to know about who they contract out with for delivery any more than I want to know who is supplying their ingredients. I was told by Tim that the issue would be resolved by the following day - it wasn't. I called and spoke with Eric on October 3rd who also gave me the same excuses. I spoke with Chef Steven on the 4th and received my third dose of excuses. I still have not gotten all of my money back. It is now October 12th.
The refund amount I received on my VISA was $112.84. Instead of a credit for my inconvenience, they pocketed $25.88 for some unknown reason. Working with GrubHub is not ideal. In the "old days", a restaurant would oversee the quality of its dining experience, from the order taking process, to the quality and preparation of the food, to the delivery of the food, to the handling of any mistakes and complaints along the way. At some point, the customer became responsible for quality control because of a faceless and unaccountable third party (GrubHub, UberEats, or any of these other worthless companies that I did not choose to do business with).
I have given three people at Yakumi a chance to step up and fix this - nobody has. Their competitor Kabuki also delivers food using GrubHub, but if they make any mistakes (leave out a dish, forget to include soy sauce and ginger, etc.), they take full responsibility and fix it the SAME DAY. This was my very first experience with Yakumi. 10 days later, I am still dealing with fixing this issue. No apology, no follow up from them to see how things ended up, no offer for a credit or free dessert, nothing at all. A restaurant either learns from its mistakes and thrives, or it burns its customers and goes out of business. I am posting this review so that others will be aware before they order.