Irashai Grill has gone on a marketing blitz and I was invited out for a foodie/blogger lunch and their open house, which they heavily advertised on Twitter (see poster here). That’s kind of the reason why I had my post about foodie perks.

I couldn’t make the foodie lunch because of school, but you can read about it from Sherman, Miss604, Eat, Snap, Repeat, VanFoodies and Foodists.

After reading such great positive reviews and impressions, I was pretty excited about the open house, envisioning a friendly crowd, great food, and all that.

What I experienced at the open house left me less than impressed, and it started even before the actual event occurred.

I had arrived 15min early with Kevin, and a passerby asked me what was going on, so I pointed out the signs and told him what it was about. He asked if he could join, and I told him that it was by RSVP only. Guess what he did? He walked in, and put down his info and came back out smiling, saying he was in. Not to mention the guy was kind of weird.  You’re probably thinking wow, just like I did at that point.

What was the point of me having to RSVP weeks before, when some random person on the street can walk in 10 minutes before and be allowed to participate?  I think they took the meaning of open house a little too far, as it seemed to be taken very literally. Just from this, you can tell that there was no sense of control as this shows that there was no set max capacity, there was no “exclusiveness” and just a bad sign.

So we checked in with the hostess in the front, and she ticked my name+guests off the printed list. I think I should mention the same thing as Wendy did on her post about bringing guests. This is the exact response I got when I RSVP’d.

“Would love to have you join us at the open house along with your friends, with a friendly comment…our intention is to promote the restaurant to people who will become return customers, so if your friends fit that bill for sure bring them along. If they’re from out of town, or not likely future customers, I’d ask for you to use discretion on who to bring. We’ve had an overwhelmingly strong response to the open house, quickly reaching max capacity and don’t want to have to turn anyone away.”

Now the people I invited along with me, I know that if they had a good experience, they would return. After all, they trust me enough to go to sketch places such as Save-On-Meats and try new places. I actually do understand the reasoning behind this, but perhaps they shouldn’t have said “family & friends” on the poster, and let random people just RSVP on the spot!!! Max capacity my ass. (Yes, I’m really ticked off about that.)

Once inside, things seemed okay. There was some complimentary sake offered at the door, but the person serving it threw me off a bit. A Japanese restaurant, and the person serving us Sake was..white? Also, the restaurant is Chinese owned, a peek into the kitchen shows that all the chefs are Chinese except for the Head Chef, so it makes me wonder just how “authentic” of a Japanese restaurant they can really be.

Since we were basically the first people in, there was food on a table set up already. I took some pictures, grabbed a bit of each, and sat down to enjoy. The only thing that stood out to me was the pearl chicken karaage, and only because I haven’t seen this at other restaurants. Everything else didn’t impress me nor my friends. While it is an open house, they should at least showcase something that’s good.  Not plain boring typical California Rolls, Chopped Scallop Rolls, and overcooked chicken skewers.

The alcohol they had was all offered at “special” prices, but they seemed pretty normal compared to other restaurants. A SMALL beer for $3.50, large for $5.50, and a glass of wine for $5.50. Sake could also be bought by the bottle for $25.  At least they offered samples.

Less than half an hour in, the crowd started to get a little thicker. I can only assume that the kitchen was not prepared for the amount of people. It was packed, especially by the kitchen exit where the servers would come out with plates of food. Sometimes the food wouldn’t even make it to the table, which was a short 6-7 feet away.  I also witnessed a couple times the server would bring food out to a table, which seemed to be very preferential, depending on WHO and WHAT they were. I’m sure you can figure it out if I tell you that I’m young (2o) and Asian.  What’s even worse about this was the people that FOLLOWED her to the table.  One final blow was when two people sitting beside us were offered food and we were sitting right beside and the server totally passed us over.

John Chow described it perfectly on his post, as the vultures descended upon the food, many losing their manners and using their hands to grab the food. Pushing and shoving also happened, much like you would experience in Chinatown or at the Night Market. We left before 7, tired of sitting around, getting passed over by the servers and not wanting to fight the crowd for a little bit of food.

Poor planning, preferential treatment to certain patrons, allowing randoms to RSVP minutes before, ridiculous “special” prices for the alcohol, and not enough food are definitely ingredients that make up a great steaming pile of …disaster.  The food was not impressive, which should have been their main point of the night.  Instead, they seemed to want to pack the place full of people to hype things up and feed them mediocre food.

Coles Notes: It was a total gong show.