Hi Sushi

joslyoung

"I wouldn't, it's not very nice" 10th October 2008

0 found this helpful

This place is just a standard, high street sushi chain and therefore, in all fairness, expectations should not really be all that high, but I felt sufficiently bemused by the meal I ate there this week to write about it.

The menu carries no surprises - ramen, sushi, sashimi and sets - and the quality is low to average. Put it this way, I ordered seafood ramen and wasn't sufficiently surprised to even be disappointed that it came with crab sticks. Crab sticks - those well known seafood items. The noodle bowls are, at around £6-8 each, a cheap enough eat given the location, but still represent quite a considerable mark up when you consider the cost of the ingredients used.

Anyway, what made this an interesting lunch was the fact that there was a noodle dish on the menu that attracted my attention as I hadn't seen it before (I must confess to not being able to remember what it was now!). I asked the waiter what it was, and he replied, "Erm.... well... yah, it's sort of vegetable, but I wouldn't order it because it's not very nice".

Cue stunned silence from my partner and I. The waiter then went into an explanation of sorts, which I quickly interpreted as "It's quite 'Japanese', and quite an unfamiliar flavour to the European palate, so I don't think you should eat it". And to be frank, it annoys me when waiters do that. Firstly, it's rather patronising to assume that the only dishes I'm interested in are the 'tame' ones that are tailored for UK tastes (why would I be in a Japanese restaurant if I didn't want to sample Japanese flavours?) and secondly, it actually puts one in the strange position of looking obtuse and stubborn if one orders against what the waiter thinks you should have... In his (unsolicited) recommendations, the waiter told me that "you should have the chicken teriyaki, or the grilled salmon". Yawn. We both felt strangely pressured and ended up ordering completely different food to what we would otherwise have done, and true to promise, it was all bland, unimaginative and highly disappointing.

So not great marks for the kitchen, but particularly poor marks to the waiter, who did the very opposite of what a good waiter should - if the chef at Hi Sushi is reading this and wonders why his customers are all so frustratingly dull and safe in their menu choices, now you know....!!!