Midtown Lunch

I am all for giving readers a forum to complain about restaurants.  But if a restaurant wants to complain, I don’t have a problem with that.  Yesterday, this comment was posted by the owner of Yushi- a hip Japanese take out place on that I’ve written about twice since it opened.  The first time, I complained that while the food was clearly healthy, it was not filling enough for the price (i.e. I’m fat and need a lot of food.)  The second time, I was a little more gracious… admitting that the place didn’t entirely suck.  The owner chose to respond to my second post:

Mr Midtown Lunch,

I have only just seen your July 17th comments, i’m not even sure owners are mean’t to write here but what the hell. You initially said we were too expensive when we opened, FYI:

1. We haven’t raised prices in a year, unlike the rest of the world, even though rice has doubled in price, tuna is up 30% and salmon 25% etc

2. We set up My Yushi, it’s like a coffee card for sushi, basically a 10% discount without all the hassle usually associated with this kind of thing, you should try it

But wait, there’s more… 

About our maki rolls:

1. The weird tubes are actually designed to become a convenient little plate if your eating back at your desk.

2. The salmon and tuna we use is absolute Grade A, even in the makis, the expensive stuff that comes from the same suppliers as the top sushi restaurants, it comes in every day, sometimes twice a day, fresh, never frozen.

3. The comparison to “other pre-packaged sushi” is unfair. Check our products out, do you see a “packaged on” date? We make EVERYTHING fresh in the store throughout the day, not the day before at some factory in Queens.

Our Bentos never sit unsold for more than a couple of hours from when they are made, we throw them out otherwise, there’s even a time stamp on them, this way we keep things super fresh. So whilst technically pre-packaged, our format is more about being super convenient for our guests than mass production

Did you also know that all the salads, sauces and dressings are made by hand at the store everyday?

Our biggest mistake? Not having an open kitchen so everybody can see what goes on, we’ll fix that next time!

If you like a very filling lunch you might try the chicken teriyaki bento (we’re soon to add sweet miso and satay to this range) as they fall well under the $10 price point.

Watch this space for a few impossibly delicious new menu items we are soon to launch.

Cheers,

Luke

I’m still not sure why he chose to get this angry over a post titled “I Am Big Enough to Admit I Wasn’t Entirely Correct About How Much Yushi Sucks”. I was admitting that I found something I liked! Why so mad? I also never questioned the quality of your product… I even said it many times in both posts. There is no question about the quality. I’ll be happy to take your advice and try the $8 chicken teriyaki bento… sounds right up my alley. And if you introduce more items, feel free to let me know! I’ll be happy to post about them… in an honest, and balanced way.