Sushi Platters

[Party013]

I'm hosting a party in a couple of weeks and need some ideas of where to get some decent sushi platters without paying a fortune. Last time I ordered from Kaizen for 15 ppl and they charged me close to $500 and they added a 15% Gratuity even though I was picking the food up! If my guests weren't arriving in 30 minutes I would have told them to keep the food.

[KzenCass]

Just a correction here.. Kaizen has never charged 15% for delivery/take out orders.... we do 10% (the same as most delivery services, which is always an option for no extra charge)

The service charge goes to the people who prepare the orders. the rule while unpleasant for some is not for the house.

Anyways, i apologize that you were unhappy with the policy.

[hungryann]

To clarify: a 10% charge is added for take-out, intended for the people that prepare the food, but if someone dines in the restaurant, is the gratuity (15% more or less) shared by the wait staff and the folks behind the scenes?

[KzenCass]

good question, (i've worked at the restaurant for a while)

When people dine in the restaurant the waiter keeps all tip over a certain percentage (i'm not going into specifics here but the waiters get the bulk)..... the rest is shared between hostess, bar, bussers, & sushibar, to a small degree kitchen staff.....

It's a difficult situation doing the economics of a sushi based restaurant (rising costs of rice and fish and nori which weren't cheap to start with) meaning our margins are smaller than most when you look at profit on food after you factor labor and overhead in..... most restaurants only require 3-6 cooks at a time.... we employ 7 just on sushibar and a further 5 in the hot kitchen on a saturday night.

just a comment on the concept of the 15% tip.... i've seen a huge degree of the population continue to use the taxes as their tip basis..... even though it is now 12.5 %..... there are still fair and great tippers out there but a lot of the GP has decided to play the ignorance card in this regard.....

[cherylmtl]

Okay, I don't get it. You're justifying the 10% charge as being the same as what a delivery service charges - this for an order that was picked up. So you're comparing apples and oranges. Don't the people who prepare the orders get paid otherwise? I've never seen a service charge for takeout food that I was picking up, from any restaurant (Montreal and elsewhere) - regardless of the complexity of that food's preparation. What an odd policy.

[kpzoo]

> we do 10% (the same as most delivery services, which is always an option for no extra charge)

I've never been charged anything extra when ordering directly from a restaurant for take-out or delivery, and I order quite frequently.

[naturelle]

Try the sushi at Fino (on Sherbrooke near Guy). Very fresh and tasty. They might even prepare platters for you.

[cherylmtl]

Have you considered Tri Express? I'm not sure they do these, but they do a lot of takeout, so it's a possibility.

[Maximilien]

Myamoto (westmount) make sushi plates; I take-out from them 2, 3 times a month and they do a great job.
http://www.sushilinks.com/miyamoto/index.html

for example : http://www.sushilinks.com/miyamoto/ib...