Izakaya

We went to Izakaya as they were advertising an all-you-can-eat buffet for £16.80 on their board outside, but were quite disappointed when we came to order. It turns out that this was not a buffet, but quite a confusing ordering system whereby you could order up to 7 things off the hot menu (only once) and up to 5 things off the cold menu, which you could order repeats of but needed to have finished your previous order before ordering another batch of 5. Equally, you were timed from the time you put your order in, and had one hour thirty minutes for 'all you can eat'. It's not that either of us are greedy, but you expect to get what was advertised. My friend wasn't sure about the deal, so after some discussion she decided to go a la carte, but then the waitress told us were weren't able to do that; we both had to do all you can eat, or both go a la carte. I didn't quite understand why, if both of us were ordering, we had the above limits for two rather than per person, as the price was advertised per head and said nothing about a two person minimum. Furthermore, there was a note at the bottom of our menu saying that huge food wastage would be charged at £5 per person! I've never seen this anywhere else and given the obfuscating nature of their ordering system had to ask the waitress what counted as 'huge'. The food was ok but I don't think it reflects their pretty high prices and the service and welcome (or lack of it) is not what you'd expect of a Japanese restaurant. At the end of the meal, a rather rude waitress came over and without saying anything, put my card into the machine and split the bill, even though we were clearly in the middle of working out our share as only one of us was drinking (and assuming that were happy to pay the 12.5% 'optional' service charge. We were not). Overall, I felt the apparent 'deal' was quite sneaky and dishonest as it wasn't really what was advertised and I ended up feeling like they were trying to rip me off. I would not recommend anyone to go here; it's the kind of place where you resent having to give them money at the end as the experience was so bad.
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Jessica Copley
4 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 4
Thursday, May 31, 2012

it took 30 min to get served...

rude staff and long wait for any order...the food was just average ok...but the service was as terrible as it could be...the restaurant wasn`t that full not justifying the long delays that affected our sense of humour...incredibly awful service.

bad trip! don`t go! won`t come back there ever.
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john mcbrown - View all reviews by this user
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 1
Saturday, April 23, 2011

Food was all right, wasn t great. Service terrible, I work with hospitality myself, both waitress was rude with us. Every one should refuse to pay the service charge (it comes included) untill they change their way to serve.

Not recomended!!!
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Gabriel zampra - View all reviews by this user
3 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 3
Friday, April 22, 2011