Japonee

I’ve been going to Japonee for years, even before the old building burnt down. The sushi is beautiful, the servers are personable, and it is an excellent choice for a girl’s night out, birthday or graduation celebrations, or a date.

There are very few sushi rolls that don’t contain anything deep-​fried or that aren’t soaking in some kind of sauce. The sushi is not that great, and they try to cover it up with fatty sauce or by deep-​frying it. If you like sushi because of the fresh fish, don’t go to Japonee.
And whatever you do, don’t order it to-​go or through a delivery service. The rolls are way smaller than if you eat in. Not worth the money at all.

I really liked the food, unfortunately the service… not so much. When we went in about 6 servers were at the server station right in front of us and not a single one acknowledged us for what felt like a very long time. We were about to go ahead and assume we should seat ourselves when a server finally came and seated us. She was nice but kind of unprofessional, it seemed like it might have been her first job of any kind. We didn’t get any wasabi with our dinner, and the server didn’t reappear. We waited to eat because we wanted some wasabi, but it became clear it just wasn’t going to happen. We only ever saw her again when she brought the check long after we were done with our food. There are other options in town with food that is just as good but better service.

The food is pretty good, no lie. And the deal 4 – 6 is wonderful. But the service is DREADFUL. Bad enough to take it from 4 to 2 stars

Good rolls. The new interior is really posh and great for groups of people or on a date. They serve half priced rolls during certain hours, check the times before going in. I really don’t have any thing bad to say about this place. The service is friendly. Décor is on point. Would give them a fourth star if the fish was a higher quality but all in all, an excellent choice for dinner in B-​town.

Terrible service, not accommodating to large parties. The servers make individuals split up their own tabs. Ordering food was also more complicated than it should be as waitress was not informed with pricing.

In the past this place has been hit or miss, but I think it’s been much worse since it reopened. The service tends to be verrrrry slow, especially if you go when rolls are half priced. It’s not like the place is packed either, they are just slow.
The rolls themselves are decent, but descend to «less than mediocre» if you don’t go when they are half price. It’s also just absolutely bizarre how long the front room (towards Walnut) has been under construction (many months). You still have to enter from the side which contributes to the overall unprofessional feel.

Honestly I really liked this place but the last time I went was an awful experience.
We were seated right away but the restaurant was pretty busy. The three of us ordered 4 half-​priced rolls to share but the food is not the main problem here. The service is just plain terrible. Our waiter took our order and we were completely ignored by him until our food arrived. It took 40 minutes from us ordering to get our first roll and 70 minutes to get our last one. Our waiter also did not refill our water until the second time we had hounded him down to ask him. Our table was also littered with straw wrappers, chopstick wrappers and a place setting we were not using that reminded there our entire meal. The sushi itself was not bad but the rolls have gotten noticeably smaller since when I came here last September.
The service was just so bad that I will not eat here again. Maybe try carry out instead.

Do not eat here. Eat at Red Chopstix instead. Japonee is unprofessional, disorganized, and they do not care about their customers… the quality of their sushi does not make up for a complete disregard for the dining experience.
See below for details:
I will give any restaurant two chances, but frankly, Japonee was an embarrassment both times I ate at their new location.
First experience: We arrived for a 6:30 reservation for 8 at 6:30 and were immediately seated. 15 minutes later, they bring water and place settings and we order appetizers (edamame and dumplings), which took 30 minutes to arrive. During this time, we had to leave our table twice to get the attention of our manager because our waitress was nowhere to be found with appetizers, the free soup or salad, or to take our orders. 5 minutes later, a different waitress brings our appetizers and leaves. 10 minutes later, we reemerge from our table to get another manager’s attention, who sent a different waitress to our table 10 minutes later to take our orders. So far, we had been at the restaurant for nearly an hour and were just ordering. We ordered around 15 sushi rolls, which were brought out in a seemingly random order one at a time anywhere between 45 minutes and 75 minutes after we ordered them. In fact, our last guest’s food had arrived after we had already paid and half our party had left. We received weak apologies and many excuses.
Second Experience: We made a reservation for 6:30 again, this time for 10. Both the website and a sign on the front door said half price specialty rolls until 7pm, which is why we decided to make the reservation when we did. Our waitress told us the special had changed and ended at 6pm instead of the advertised 7. We asked to speak to a manager and instead of coming to see us, he sent our waitress and another back with the message that last week was the grace period to still accept the old special and this week, they would not honor it. If you are going to use a special to lure people to your restaurant over better tasting and much cheaper sushi in Bloomington, you better honor that special when a customer can show it to you on both your front door and website.
This place is a complete waste of time. STAY AWAY.

Came to this restaurant a party of 15+ for a birthday dinner. We decided upon this restaurant after reading their 5−7pm half price specialty rolls on their website. Upon arrival and after being seated, we couldn’t find a waiter for ten minutes. Our waiter informed us that they changed their special to 4−6pm. We asked to see their manager, and instead the manager brushed us off, said he wouldn’t see us, and refused to honor their website. While extremely disappointed, we decided to still stay. After ordering, our sushi rolls and other meals were served spontaneously over a 30 minutes period. Our meals were decent, at best, and the service was not very good. The only good thing about this meal was that my friend received a free dessert because it was her birthday…
If it’s not during their half price specialty rolls hours (if you can figure out which hours those are), then you are being ripped off by their overpriced mediocre sushi.

Great sushi and with the half-​off on specialty rolls deal very affordable too. Our server was great too. The only negatives were the annoying techno music they play and the fact that it was a bit chilly. Neither one of those things were unbearable but worth noting.

Have been here several times while visiting my son at IU. The sushi and maki were excellent. Love the flavored Saki. Our waiter Adam was pleasant, attentive, and made great food and drink suggestions

Incredibly disorganized and overpriced. I had previously ordered their half price specialty role for pickup about a month ago with no problem. Then, I go to do it again, and they tell me that they don’t do that for pickup. I have no problem with the deal being dine in only, but staff doesn’t seem to know the menu, and the sushi is expensive for the quality.

If you are accustomed to good sushi then don’t waste your time at this place. I’m sure it’s good for Bloomington but if you live in a metropolitan area on either cost then wait until you go back home for your sushi fix. It’s really that’s simple.

The food here is delicious. The atmosphere is ok although the attempt at extreme hip modernism ends up leaving it a little sterile feeling, and although you can get a private booth/​room for a little more intimacy, the private rooms are almost too dark, which is not that big a deal if your date is ugly but why would you take an ugly date to such a pretty restaurant?
The music, too, could be a little more well-​suited to the experience (a little to dancy for a place to sit and eat, maybe?) but the food is amazing and the specialty rolls are half price from 5−7pm every day so the prices are really competitive. I’ve actually never had such high quality seafood in the Midwest, either, which makes me wonder what kind of sorcery goes into the preparation. But whatever kind of dark magic it may be, it is the most delicious kind.

Met here for a lunch business meeting. New location is very nice. Décor was inviting and comfortable. We were both impressed with the quality of the food and what you get for the price is one of the best values I have experienced in any Sushi restaurant. Wait staff was attentive throughout our stay.

Music blows in this place but the sushi is excellent – San Francisco quality, actually. During the school year they have toro.
Ask the chef what fish is good that day. We did, and the yellowtail he delivered in response was on point. Great prices too.

wow i walked and sat in my chair and almost hit the dang floor holy crap. the freaking seat to table ratio is so whacky like what’s up? is the guy who designed the tables OK? was he goin through something when he was measuring how high the chairs were in relation to the table? i guess we’ll never know :/
anyways i basically became the nerd of the group b/​c i looked so darn short the whole time. would not sit there again…
on top of all this my sticks weren’t grabbing the bits and morsels i was after, and i had to eat with my grabbers the whole time :=P

We had a wonderful dinner here last night. The space is very updated with modern décor. Service was amazing, they even changed one of the TVs to the Blackhawks game at our request. Water was topped off several times throughout out meal. Our service was very fast with sake on our table less than two minutes after ordering and our rolls came out before we were even finished with our edamame. This is our new favorite place for sushi in town!

Not really a good experience, dishes comes too slow and the quality is fair. Servers seems with no experience at all. Also, the size is kinda small.