Cochin Delights

Great First Experience

My husband, brother, sister-in-law, and I were looking for a place to go for dinner to celebrate my husband's birthday. We wanted sushi, and my brother had heard good things about the food at Wonder Sushi on Wonderland, so we made reservations for this past Saturday night. We got there a few minutes early and were seated within a few minutes. I must admit, the first round of food came rather slowly, and we ended up having to order a second sheet worth of items. But by the time we were nearing the end of that round, we were way too full. Knowing their practice of charging for items ordered but not eaten, we knew we had to finish all the food on our plates or be charged extra. We managed to do that, and then my husband and I each had ice cream, too. We had no bad experiences with the servers. The food was great (I recommend any of the "crispy spicy" rolls. The tempura mushrooms were great and so were the spring rolls. Some of the rolls tended to be a little loose, but that's what you get with made-to-order, at-room temperature sushi. The miso soup was kind of salty. I'd like to know if it's "real" miso as opposed to a mix.

Will Never Return

Since our favourite sushi place in London closed down (Taika on Oxford), we decided to give a renovated branch of Wonder Sushi a try. The first time we ate there a few weeks ago, the food was OK, but we were quickly reminded why we stopped going there -- because of the rude service. When we tried to go there for dinner again, they were very busy on Sat. night and there were quite a few people waiting to sit down. We waited and waited just to ask how long of a wait time to expect. When the hostess finally showed up, she just told one group of customers to follow her. They filled out a sheet with their order while waiting and we thought it was a great idea! When the hostess came back, we asked her how long to expect to wait and then asked her if we could get a menu to go over our options (we thought it could actually save time once we sat down at the table and handed our selection in, seeing how busy they were). She basically scolded us in broken English and told us not to touch those sheets -- that we are not allowed to fill them out until we sit down! We honestly thought we were on candid camera because of how she was talking to us. My husband is a lawyer and I am also a professional with an advanced degree. We felt like little children... We politely told her that she should not be treating customers in this manner and walked away. We'll definitely not be going back...

One Place Wonder

We went here for dinner one week. When we got in, it was like we were impeding on a gathering. Everyone was standing around and it took a few minutes to be seated. The tables were still dirty from the lunch before. When we sat down and filled in our sushi sheet, it took about 15 min for the girl to come back (and you only have 1.5 hours to eat so that's awhile) and again, she made it seem like we were inconviencing her. No one was smiling, most people working were standing around. The sushi wasn't bad, but it wasn't amazing either. The tempura had too much deep fried chunks on it. It took too long to get, and dinner was $25 a person. We also didn't get some of the things we had ordered, like our ice cream. Our bill was well over $50, and they charge you a 10% gratuity for their service. i won't be back, only because if you're going to charge for your service, I expect it to be good. The servers just weren't the best bunch to be around on a cheery weekend evening.

I love this place. The sushi is delicious. Service is hit or miss in terms of friendliness, but they are always efficient. The restaurant has recently been renovated and is now quite nice inside.

Disappointing

I've been to several all-you-can-eat sushi places. I moved to London recently and kept hearing about Wonder Sushi so I went to check it out. We went on a Friday around 6:30 and waited about 5 minutes for a table. When we sat down we were given order sheets. We filled out our order sheets and handed them, then realized that nobody had asked us if we would like drinks. We had to flag down one of the waiters twice because the first time she only brought half the drinks. The food was all over the place. The crab sashimi and sushi were simply excellent, as was the California Roll. I was disappointed to see there was no Dynamite Roll, but opted for the "Shrimp Tempura" roll instead. It was literally just shrimp and avocado, and was incredibly bland tasting. I had Chicken Teriyaki Don and it was absolutely disgusting. The chicken appeared to have been carelessly torn off and there was one piece with a chunk of fatty skin. In the end, the bill had a 10% automatic service charge added to it, and the total with tax came to about $27, which is expensive since I've been to other better all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants with better food, service and selection for around $23-$24 after tax. If this is London's best option for all you can eat sushi, that's a shame.