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| - I would give them 4 stars if not for our previous visit. I've only been to Squid Ink a couple of times, and will likely try it again, however the most recent visit left myself (and others in the party) conflicted about this establishment.
The first time we tried it, the service was good - friendly, attentive, helpful and also very knowledgable. The food was also good. I wouldn't venture to say spectacular, as I am a bit of a sushi snob, but for this part of town, it's as fresh as I've had. And it was executed attractively, and the flavors were great. There was one roll that we regretted ordering (I believe it was the Yellowtail Scallion roll), as it was completely bland - read - had no flavor whatsoever. However, the other rolls really made up for it. The Nigiri was also fresh and flavorful - which is my favorite part of going out for sushi! I was also delighted by the Basil Grapefruit Martini...reasonably priced compared to what you would pay elsewhere. Many of the reviews rave about the Cougar roll - it is good, indeed. It's refreshing and light. I'm not a huge fan of tempura rolls, but I really enjoyed the Jibs roll, as well. And the Spicy Yellowtail was delicious - nice and spicy, yet you could still taste the fish! And don't miss out on the Garlic Edamame...you won't be able to stop eating it until it's gone.
Now...the second visit. After a lovely visit the first time, a family member decided to have her birthday dinner there. Granted, we had a large party - 10 patrons. This restaurant isn't huge, but it isn't a hole in the wall, either. We had to wait for space (which is completely understandable), but the wait was reasonable and they accommodated us without any problems. However, we watched them wipe down the tables that we would be sitting at, and it was done so poorly that one of the people in the party literally had to get a bar rag THEMSELVES to clean the tables - because when he asked an employee for help, they did nothing. Also, they did not have enough small plates or sauce dishes for our table. Which wasn't a huge deal, but, you would think they would be more proactive about doing dishes on a Saturday night? They also ran out of water glasses, so most of the party didn't have any water until about 25 minutes after being seated.
Once again, the food was good - nothing to complain about there, which is good, otherwise I wouldn't even give them 3 stars. The problem was really with the service. The first thing said to us by the server was, "It's going to be fine to put this all on one check, right?" As someone who has spent most of their life in the service industry, I was dumbfounded. Moving on...she really did try hard. A 10-top is a lot of work, as anyone in the restaurant industry knows. Overwhelming? Probably shouldn't be...but it really was on this night. When we first came in, all the tables in the dining room were occupied, and they had several servers handling it. Once we were sat, there were a few other tables and us - but they cut the other servers (or so it seemed - our server was the only one left working the dining room). Why did they leave it to one server to handle 3 tables and a large party? Pitiful planning and it showed.
Almost all of the food was correct. Between all of us, we ordered 7 Yellowtail Nigiris. NOBODY at the table ordered yellowtail sashimi. When the orders were read back to us, "Yellowtail Nigiri" is what was read. However, when the first 5 came out - we were given FIVE orders of Yellowtail Sashimi. WOW. That was a lot of food that we didn't order. We pointed out to the server that we had all ordered Nigiri, and she quickly said, "Oh, I'm sorry, it must have gotten mixed up." Then we asked her to make sure that the next two came out as Nigiri, NOT Sashimi. At that point, we hadn't even gotten to the point of being concerned about being well overcharged for something we didn't order. We decided as a group to just eat it and pay for what came out. Until the next two came out as Sashimi, as well. At this time, she then apologized again and stated that we wouldn't be charged for the Sashimi as it was a mixup. Okay, fine - we will deal with it.
When the bill came...was the issue rectified at all as promised? Absolutely not. We were charged for 7 orders of Sashimi, when Nigiri is what we ordered. I think it was roughly a $35-ish difference. On a bill of over $500, I guess it's not that substantial, but it should have been fixed.
If only one, or even two negetive things would have happened that night, it definitely wouldn't have been so bad. But between the table, dish & server issues, the off-putting greeting, the order/kitchen mixup, the failure to rectify it, and the disregard for doing so, it was disappointing.
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