Watami Sushi & Sake Bar [0/5]

So being adventurous definitely has its upsides and downsides. Toward the end of last term, Noreen and I decided to go try out a new Japanese restaurant in Uptown Waterloo - Watami Sushi & Sake Bar. Watami Sushi is not an all-you-can-eat restaurant and I had heard from a friend at school that this place was decent, so we naturally had higher expectations of a la carte sushi. We decided to check it out since it was something different than all of the restaurants we generally visit.

When we walked into Watami, we were greeted promptly... started off well. I guess it was a pretty quiet night so service was decent. We scanned through their menu, and decided to go for the sushi lover's boat, which consisted of an assortment of sashimi, nigiri, and rolls. It came with miso soup and salad to start. The salad was pretty standard, it was your standard salad appetizer that you would get at other Japanese restaurants. The miso soup on the other was below standard. It had a weird bitter aftertaste, but none the less, we were anticipating on getting some decent sushi that night... boy, were we wrong.

The presentation of the sushi platter was actually well done, but that was about it. When we dug into the sashimi, we found it to be cut way too thick and not fresh at all. It really tasted like they pulled it out from a freezer and didn't put any care into how the fish was defrosted. The salmon was probably the best of the fish we got for the night. The red and white tuna had no taste whatsoever. There was one type of fish that we couldn't figure out what it was, but it was nasty - it had a very pungent fish smell and taste - it actually triggered my gag reflexes (and no, it wasn't mackerel). The California rolls were the safest to eat and surprisingly, the best part of the meal. Not only was the quality bad, it was worse than what we normally get eating at an all-you-can-eat restaurant and to top it all off, it cost us as much as what we would have paid for at the local Waterloo all-you-can-eat sushi places and we were not full at all. Seeing that the sushi here was absolutely terrible, we didn't order more to fill ourselves up here.

We both walked out of the restaurant unsatisfied with our meal and said that we would never come back to this restaurant ever again... but, it turned out that my research group was planning to have our Christmas dinner here. Since I wasn't organizing this dinner, I just went along with the group's decision. Right away, I intended on ordering a cooked Japanese dish. So on my second trip to Watami, I was even more frustrated at how bad their food AND service was. I have never seen people put in leaf lettuce in a maki roll, but long and behold, the spider roll I ordered was stuffed with lettuce???!#$%^!!! Already frustrated at the food, I kept waiting, and waiting,... and.... waiting for my entree, which was a seafood soup udon. The screwed up the order and brought out chicken fried udon.... which part of seafood and soup do these people NOT understand?! Everyone got their entrees and I just sat there for a good hour before I got my udon.... an hour! When I saw the bowl, I lost my appetite.... there was broccoli and mini corn in it... what are these people thinking. This definitely topped my last visit here. The waitresses were completely clueless and service in general was slow.

Taste: Bad. Terrible. Enough said.

Presentation: One positive about this restaurant.

Service: Just as bad as the food. The waitresses were completely clueless, inflexible and didn't know the menu very well.

Atmosphere: The restaurant was comfy and cozy, but the food and service made it uncomfortable and frustrating.

Overall: Never ever ever ever ever come here for sushi. It's much more worthwhile to hit up the AYCE Japanese restaurants in KW for a better dining experience. Noreen and I will never eat here again.