What was supposed to be a much anticipated boyz' night unfortunately turned into a disappointing experience due to repeated service issues. Let's start with the food. The portions were significantly smaller than what was shown on the menu photos. While presentation was decent, the servings felt underwhelming for the price and most dishes were overly salty without anything particularly memorable. Now, onto the service. I ordered a 720ml bottle of sake and the server confirmed it was available. I noticed she was taking our order on her phone rather than entering it into the POS system, so I asked about it. She explained that their ordering system was down and she had to take notes manually. That immediately raised some concerns. A few minutes later, another staff member came over to tell us they had actually run out of the sake we ordered. The 2 staff members then had a brief disagreement in front of our table about whether the bottle was still in stock. Eventually, they confirmed it wasn't available and I had to order a more expensive alternative instead. It wasn't a huge issue, we were there to have a good time but it was the first of many avoidable mistakes. Things only went downhill from there. When our first round of beers arrived, the server accidentally spilled an entire glass over 2 of us. At that point, I genuinely questioned whether the restaurant was capable of serving us properly and asked to speak with the manager. A gentleman, who introduced himself as the manager, came over and sincerely apologized before offering us 50% off the bill, which we appreciated. Unfortunately, the service problems continued. We ordered a sake bomb setup, but the staff couldn't set it up correctly, so we ended up doing it ourselves. Later, after 3 rounds of beers, we had to point out that every glass had been poured differently, 1 glass was nearly half foam while the others had noticeably different amounts. Another gentleman later introduced himself as the manager and apologized again, explaining that the restaurant had only been open for 7 months. Personally, I don't think that's a reasonable explanation anymore. After 7 months, staff training, inventory management and service procedures should already be well established. Customers shouldn't have to experience repeated mistakes or hear internal discussions happening in front of their table. As for the atmosphere, the restaurant is spacious and beautifully designed, but it lacks the lively, connected feeling I normally associate with an izakaya. The seating feels isolated rather than communal and despite occupying an entire block, there were only about 5 occupied tables when we visited. To their credit, both managers remained polite throughout the evening and handled the situation professionally by offering a 50% discount. Without that gesture, this would have been an easy 1-star review. They earned an extra star for making a genuine effort to recover the situation. Overall verdict: - Food: Small portions, overly salty, and nothing particularly memorable. - Service: 1 mistake can happen. A series of mistakes throughout the evening points to deeper operational issues. - Atmosphere: Beautiful space, but it lacks the warm, energetic izakaya vibe. Sadly, this was my first visit and it will most likely be my last.
