The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Avoid it. Worst service I have ever experienced at any restaurant. When I called and complained, I was told it was their "soft opening". Of course, no one bothered mentioning that little factoid to me when I went in. Also, it was nice knowing that after being their guinea pig in order for Asahi to work out their kinks so to speak that I got charged full price.

but how was the food?

B-/C+.

I guess I have never expected much in the way of service at the old Asahi.


How do you get the worst service ever when all they do is bring you a glass of water and your sushi order?

This Asahi is also a sit down dinner and hibachi restaurant (a la Osaka). As for the bringing water, ten minutes after Asahi seated me, no server came to our table to take a beverage order. In fact, the only reason a server showed up in any timely manner was because I went to the bar to get a glass of water for the family and the bartender told our server. I even had to go to the bar to get a "to go" box. It took nearly ten minutes to pay the freakin bill.

Edited: I will not elaborate on the rest of the "service" issues I had in my nearly two hour stay at this place.

Thanks for the heads up. I will avoid this place. I am not a big sushi fan anyway.

I know the family that owns Asahi.  They are usually very attentive at the old place, almost to the point of annoyance.
Soft openings are always dangerous when you allow the general public in.  It can really develop a frame of reference that is difficult to escape in the future.

Soft openings should always be handled by invitation only with the understanding of what it is.....With no charge on the food....

I ate at the old Asahi once.  So not impressed.

Is Flying Fish still going strong at 111th & Memorial?  I thought they were pretty good, just very inconvenient for me.

Thanks for the clarification.   Sounds like I will stick with the sushi joint and skip the hibachi.

Good idea.

Yeah its still there. My kids love that place.

Yep. Folks shouldn't pay to be a lab rat.
The problem here was there was no notice of it being a "soft opening". In fact it appeared the place had been open for several days. I even called in advance to make a reservation and they told me I could be seated with no problem.

Weird, I went and ate there this weekend and had no problems....not sure how you can give it a B-C+ either, what did you eat?

From the sounds of it, a bowl of smile.

Ah, the #23. . .My favorite.
たわごとボウル

With Restaurants, a "soft opening" is considered opening with out advertising. 
Just opening the doors and letting the chips fall as they may. 
Where you see restaurants do "Grand Openings" typically several weeks after opening. 
This is to "get the kinks out".  While you don't want to be a guinie pig, if you know a place has just opened up you may want to wait a few weeks to enjoy their cooking.  So you dont get tested on, but then again at the begining most restaurants are more generous, and if your lucky they will offer up "new" items for you to try on the house.  I like trying out a place when it just opens, then if it isn't the best go back 2 months later and if it is bad again, then I will chalk it up to they suck. 
Got to give new restaurants a chance...
Erik

This place has some bizarro decor.  I'm tired of over the top Japanese places.  I'm tired of all of these stupid concepts being foisted on South Tulsa so we get to pay the overhead for the chinzy look.  I like Asahi at 71st and mem but this one sucks.  the sushi was ok, but I got really pissed off when the whity white waitress didn't know the proper name for some of the sushi.

Is there anything your not tired of?  I mean seriously, every time you post on here its all piss and vineger

I bet he's a lousy tipper too.

here is a tip, don't use ridiculously oversized chairs that actually hide your customers from you so you forget to bring them water or bring them their ticket.

From the way they were advertising months before this place was completed i think they are fairly underwater on this project.  the location is horrible to get in and out of too thanks to the shitty signalization job tulsa/bixby did.

Did you take a look at my posts in this thread? I had to fetch my own water and to-go boxes myself at the bar. I am still seething a bit over my experience 5 days ago--I guess because I have to drive past that place nearly every day.

What's the over/under of the life span of this restaurant?

1 year + or - 3 months.

I would agree with that.

I blame these strip mall developers as much as the tenants.  They create these paper thin steel frame EIFS garbage with some shitty stacked stone and a low "prairie style" roof pitch..bullshit...just look it is everywhere south of 91st....then command retarded amounts of money for lease.  So the option most of these places have to opt for is go large and bring in high volume.  A huge japanese restaurant is the antithesis of Japanese.  I was really hoping this Asahi would mimic the smallish quaintness of the 71st st location, only with some newer digs.  This is just crap....but it is only going to get worse.  The frakking unoriginal copycat developer turds are simply shifting 71st sst 3 miles south and "updating" the look.  I recall when a certain frakking fuckhead sat in a neighborhood meeting and said he "wasn't going to bring in development like the rest of the trash along memorial" yet what is going up at 101st/memorial is a-frakking-NOTHER cell phone store...well actually not one but TWO.  Do people really do nothing but go to gas stations, banks, or cell phone stores?

I have to say, even though Remy Cos is a bag of crooks, the design concept of Regal Plaza is better than any of the smile going up right now.  I'm sure RP is built with poor quality considering the roof at the SPirit Bank Event Center is already leaking...but at least it was a try at something different.

You know what the best developments are along south of the creek on memorial?  The cow pastures and sod farms held on to by those "stubborn" land owners.  If I owned one of those adjacent fields I'd build a mock up of the EIFS prairie roof dreck using hay bales and cardboard and hang a big sign that said ME TOO.

I liked the scenery better when the only thing between about 55th and 111th along Memorial was a stop light and a Fina station about 71st, Sam's DX about 91st and I think there was a steak house (in a house) about 81st.  At least that's the way I remember it. Just woods and pastures along a 55 mph road that you could actually do 55 on.

wow dude you are old.

Inteller, bravo awesome post above, I am really sick of these strip malls. I mean I can't really blame the developers they are doing what all business should do, trying to make money...

Regal was almost the nail on the head as to some sort of little change in South Tulsa from a strip mall, my opinion is that if a city(Bixby, Owasso, BA wants to get serious about growth they need to really think about some sort of community city project that would bring people and jobs to their cities and offer options like Utica Square does to just chill out and be able to walk around with your family... (like a mini utica square) with affordable small business space to help small business launch and grow into the rest of the community, lease rates are so high we have stopped looking around south Tulsa for our new office space and are looking at downtown again with the plethora of 1. actual aesthetic features of the place (non strip mall) and 2. availability of office/retail space and great prices.

i think bixby needs to build a skyscraper and start marketing it as satellite offices for businesses downtown.  i think there is a huge opportunity to siphon off office space from downtown companies who are downtown just because.  it would be an alternative between going downtown to work and telecommuting.

Regal Plaza looks like a modern penal colony.  Just not that compelling.  It's an improvement over the EFIS dreck, but not by much.

it does several thing better.  first it hides parking to the inside.  second it provides front and back entrances to businesses creating a trusting environment for customers instead of the back against the wall mentality of strip malls.

Regal Plaza would probaby work better if it had been built next to effective public transit.  My preference is (real) trolley.  Unfortunately, RP cannot support a trolley system by itself.  It may not even be able to support regular bus service.  I went to Roosters for a Marshall's Beer tasting when the Pilsner was ready for bottled distribution.  There was an event at the center that evening.  The first thing I encountered entering the area was "you can't drive here" and "No Parking" signs.  

Okay, for those that think I am hard headed or an aoxhole, I gave this place a second chance a few weeks back. Much more pleasant, better service, and me and my son were served what could have been a meal for 5--easy.

We went in last night.

It was so quiet and empty I asked if they were open.

The waiter was meh, mumbled something, and held the water glasses by the rims with his fingertips when he set them down. 

To make sure he didn't run his hands through our food we left and went to Savastanos.

When I went last it looked the same. I talked to the waiter about the business and my impression is that Asahi is banking on the new fitness place to keep it afloat. And, going from Japanese/Hibachi to pizza?

Oh I would have done the same thing!  Who knows where his fingertips may have been!  Years ago my husband once went to a sandwich place with his coworkers.  The guy making their sandwich licked his fingers to get the ham (kinda like how some people lick their fingers to get paper from a stack!).  They all left because they were so grossed out.  A few weeks later the sandwich place closed down.