Sashimi and Tempura at Himawari Japanese Restaurant, Alexandra
I chose this restaurant for a company "welcome drinks" session this weekday evening.
I'll go directly to the point in this review - I had a pretty woeful experience at this restaurant, and I'm fully determined to avoid this place as much as possible in the future.
For those avid readers of my blog, you know I'm not really a person who overreacts to incidental bad experiences. Things happen. Sometimes it's luck. Sometimes, it's a misunderstanding. That's why I don't particularly appreciate highlighting minor issues that occur on rare occasions.
However, at Himawari Japanese Restaurant, I had enough incidents in one night to conclude that this is a fundamental issue of a restaurant that lacks a customer-oriented philosophy.
So I'll keep it short today. Here are the details of the restaurant.
Himawari Japanese Restaurant Alexandra
Address: 991B Alexandra Rd, #01-08/09, Singapore 119970
Web: https://g.page/HimawariJapanese?share
Map: https://goo.gl/maps/KC9zxERUA8oHdKydA
The pictures are rather dark (as it was night), but the restaurant is located in a nice spacious area with great proximity to parking.
The issue started right when we arrived at the empty restaurant. I pre-reserved the restaurant for ten pax.
A lady waiter, probably a senior hall staff, was very rude and arrogant from the beginning. I won't go into the minor details because this blog isn't meant to do that, but the quality of service is certainly not what you expect from a Japanese-quality restaurant.
One telling incident was that she accused me of ordering wrong when I received an item we didn't order. I also experienced customer service in my professional career; I know this is the worst way to lose customers forever quickly.
This is just one symbolic incident. The staff was entirely lacking the objective of providing a good user experience.
But it's not only her. It's the entire restaurant as a whole.
Their MENU can be seen through a QR code, which is very common in many restaurants these days. The issue is the QR code leads to a series of PDF files that are huge in file size. These files take forever to download because the mobile network reception is very weak in Himawari restaurant. All of us were struggling to access the menu.
I asked for a physical menu because I can't load the MENU on my phone. The hall staff said they don't have physical copies of the MENU.
This is jarring to me, given that probably everyone goes through this awful experience each time they come to the restaurant. Not addressing such a prominent issue makes me wonder if they have any concept of customer service.
This is not an incidental personnel issue. This is a restaurant system issue.
Okay, I'll stop there. Now to the food.
The 7 Sashimi Platter - $75++.
The size of the sashimi was decent. However, the quality of the sashimi was not up to par. Several cuts were watery and fishy. They charge way too much for such low-quality sashimi.
The Tempura Platter
The tempura platter was a decent dish, albeit it's hard to go wrong with tempura.
Here are some other dishes which we've ordered.
Everything in Himawari is very basic, and nothing really is fancy. Which can be a good thing when it comes to Japanese food. There is an element of "addition by subtraction" in Japanese culinary culture. However, this happens when the ingredients are superb.
None of the ingredients in Himawari really stand out. The cooking is basic and is over-priced overall.
While I already pointed out the bad experience, even from the food quality perspective, this restaurant doesn't score high.
So, what's the verdict?
The guru rating
For the Sashimi
1.9 / 10
As I mentioned initially, I'll avoid returning to this restaurant as much as possible. To pay SGD 75 ++ for a fishy and watery platter of sashimi at a restaurant with awful service won't do.
As an Izakaya
1.5 / 10
Even before considering the bad service levels, I think Himawari Japanese Restaurant charges way too much for mediocre food and not even a very comfortable restaurant setup. Add the awful service to this, resulting in a score of 1.5 out of 10.
I won't recommend going - I'm not saying that because I'm a picky Japanese guru. I'm saying this even from an ordinary customer perspective.
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