i ate here before i read any reviews. it seems that the consensus is correct, and that the food is great while the service is not. i initially had reservations for a special “milwaukee downtown dining week” 3 course meal. the host sat us in a booth with the regular menus. we probably would have said something, if she had returned. no big deal. even average sushi is delicious, so we’ll justorderfrom the regular menu.
ten minutes later, after several servers had passed back and forth, it began to look like no one was coming to our table. well, it’s probably just an unusually busy night and they’re understaffed. no hard feelings. we were about to leave and head to one of the many nearby restaurants… but what’s this?
there is a button on the side of the booth to call for service. maybe they operate like a brazilian steakhouse, where you hold up a green circle, or otherwise signal that you would like to eat? or is this the flight attendant model, where a lit sign lets the server know that we need help? i press the button, which lights up while you’re pressing it, but gives no other feedback to indicate that someone is on the way.
a server shows up after a minute or two and seems to be surprised that we hit the button. i don’t remember exactly how the conversation went, but the general message is that we were wrong. there are buttons on the booths just in case nobody notices you. at that point, we all sort of exchanged looks, and i’m not really sure that any of us knew what was going to happen next. but, it seemed to be a restaurant, and we were hungry, so we ordered.
the server was very personable, made us an excellent drink, and as far as we could tell, the poor service was through no fault of his own. we ordered 4 pieces of sushi, and two maki rolls. it was all delicious, and reasonably priced, though one of our maki rolls was replaced with something that was clearly not maki. we pressed the button again, but after nobody came to fix the problem, we decided to go ahead and eat it.
it was a weird, surreal time. i can’t understate the absurdity of an entire row of booths equipped with an emergency “we would like to eat” button, and i can’t imagine the circumstances which led to their installation. on the drive home, we came upon a red stoplight, which then began flashing red, then turned off completely. i next expected to drive off a cliff, and wake up thrashing in bed. we won’t be eating here again.