Bendoya Restaurant

First let me qualify this review by saying that I am a sushi amateur (no raw fish). I was very happy with the number of selections available and the friendly service. I was there on a Thursday which features half of the bill on a number of certain rolls on the menu. The service was a bit slow given the apparent popularity of this special (apparently also available on Tuesdays). We sat at the bar and were offered a free appetizer during our somewhat extended wait. The food was delicious and flavorful and made for a quite satisfying lunch.

The sushi was good. The prices were good. What really made the place was the awesome service and friendly staff. I would gladly go back any time I'm in the area.

I've been to Bendoya twice: my first time and my last time (badum-CHING!) In all seriousness, I went to Bendoya for their Thursday lunch special. Historically, this place offered half off all sushi on Thursdays for lunch. I went with a group of coworkers that went regularly. There were no signs posted or anything on the menu mentioning the special, but the place was packed, implying to me that there must have been some type of deal going on.

The packed nature of the restaurant really slowed things down. It probably took an hour and a half from the time we sat down to the time we paid our bills. Our server really didn't greet us and eventually collected our sushi papers where we indicated our orders. The long wait certainly built up the anticipation, but once served the sushi was standard and definitely nothing special. I would say Sapporo, Osaka and Caviar, all also downtown, are definitely better. I had a crunch munch roll, hill roll and some yellow-tail sushi. Prices were $9, $9 and $4, so I was looking to spend around $13 + tax and tip. The real fun began when our bills arrived.

My total bill was around $18. I was trying to figure out the math on the thing and thought perhaps it was full price and they neglected to charge me for the yellow-tail. When someone came by to take away our plates, we asked if the special had changed. This individual not our server, goes on to say that "Yeah, we changed it. Your server should have told you that. Whenever I greet a table, I start out with a detailed explanation of the special. It used to be 50% everything, now it is buy 1, get 1 free of equal of lesser value". At this point, I realized they had elected the $4 piece of sushi as my "free" item. I explained to that server the situation with my bill and that it would be more logical and more fair to me if one of my $9 items were the free in the buy 1, get 1 free. She wasn't really buying this, said she would check with the manager, who subsequently came out. She offered 10% off my bill, which I didn't really want, as I was more concerned with the principle of the matter.

I explained my logic to the manager and how "buy 1, get 1 free of equal or lesser value" works essentially everywhere else. This, coupled with the fact that the special policy was never shared with us seemed unfair. The manager just argued with me and said, "well, that's not how we do it here". I went on to explain to her, that with this policy, I was essentially charged an incremental $9 for an item on the menu that is $4. If I would have bought two $9 rolls, my bill would've been $9. By adding a $4 roll, my total shot up to $18. Not very logical. She refused to budge, so I thanked her for her time and for allowing me to experience the restaurant twice (my first and last).

To recap, the food was average, nothing special, but probably worth gorging on if you could get a great deal. I will have to try the Osaka lunch special at some time to compare. The fact that Bendoya took so long, coupled with the nonsensical special policy and the manager's nasty attitude really turned me off to this place. I already shy away from going out to eat for lunch due to how much more cost effective it is to pack a lunch. When I end up inadvertently dropping $20 for a mediocre sushi lunch, it further galvanizes my viewpoint and encourages me to save the bucks and save the hassle of joining the rat race that is lunchtime in downtown Louisville.