I used to be a big fan of Ika. I've brought countless friends here, I've raved about this place…read more Now I'm here to correct that mistake.
The food quality has been slipping for months. I kept giving them the benefit of the doubt. That ends now.
Today, we came as a group of five to celebrate my friend. What should have been a memorable evening became one of the most infuriating dining experiences I've had in years.
After we sat down, our waitress was nowhere to be seen for 10-15 minutes. Even when we saw her, we flagged her down 3-4 times and were still ignored. I had to physically get up and chase someone down, and still waited another 5 minutes for someone to take our order. There were only 3 tables in the restaurant.
The waitress never once asked me or my friend's mom for our drink order- completely skipped over us. And when drinks did come out, she brought the wrong one to my friend's mom. When we asked for water refills. She filled two glasses out of five and walked off, when my glass was near empty.
She then dropped a plate on our table. Moments later, I reached for the food and she snatched it back saying it was for another table. Rude doesn't begin to cover it.
We asked for an extra spoon, a completely normal request, and it was met with a dirty look, as if we had asked for something outrageous.
When I asked for extra ginger, she placed it at the farthest corner of the table. Whether intentional or not, it felt extremely careless and rude.
We ordered uni nigiri, which is not a cheap order. It arrived without seaweed. I've ordered uni nigiri many times here, and it's always come with seaweed. When I flagged it, they didn't remake it, just shoved the seaweed under the rice. An insult to a $20+ piece of nigiri.
Throughout all of this, this waitress had a visible attitude toward every reasonable request. What made it worse is that I'm Asian myself, and it was clear she was specifically singling out me and my friend's mom above everyone else at the table.
The dismissiveness, the hostility, the microaggressions felt pointed and deliberate. I can only call it what it is: racism and sexism. No one should have to feel targeted at a restaurant they've loyally supported for years.
Ika has lost a longtime champion. I will be actively discouraging everyone I know from setting foot in this place. Save your money, your time, and your celebration, and go literally anywhere else.
***Update***
I'd like to clarify a few things since the facts were misrepresented by your response.
Funny you bring up my arrival time as if that somehow discredits me. I let my group know I would be a few minutes late, and it was not even close to being an hour. What matters is that after I sat down, our entire group waited 10-15 minutes waving down staff and being repeatedly ignored. I then got up and spoke to a different staff member who was filling ginger by the bar, not even our assigned waitress, and she had to find someone else to help us. That is not "flagging rudely", that is a group of paying customers desperately trying to get basic service. Again, there were only three tables including us. You're welcome to review your security footage to verify this.
You claim you were watching closely, but if you were running a restaurant, I find it hard to believe you had the bandwidth to monitor our table that carefully. And if you really were watching, you'd know that we tried to flag down a waiter for over 10 minutes.
You also never addressed how long the waitress took to take our orders, never asking me for my drink order, bringing my friend's mom the wrong drink, making a disgusted face when we asked for an extra spoon, dropping the wrong dish on our table and rudely snatching it away, and placing the ginger at the farthest end of the table. Funny how none of that made it into your response.
Most importantly, you said nothing about your waitress's sexist behavior toward me and my friend's mother. We were singled out, dismissed, and treated with hostility that the rest of our table did not experience. That was the most egregious part of our visit and you chose to completely ignore it.
The uni argument is not worth debating. Seaweed in nigiri is a global standard. Doubling down on that is just embarrassing.
I even called that evening to provide this feedback directly, and was told the manager was not available and would call me back the next day. That never happened. Instead of having a conversation and being willing to listen, you chose to come onto Yelp and make this a personal attack against me.
Our group was only there because of my recommendation. I was your advocate. That ends now, and so does any business I would have ever sent your way. Your response has only confirmed what kind of establishment this is. So as you said best, goodbye!