Jul 3, 2024
Brand New Hawaiian Place Too Crowded
A soba shop closed recently and in its place is now a Hawaiian style cafe that opened recently.
How recently? Very recently. So recently that the Congratulations on Opening a Store flowers are still on display.
My husband tried to take me there at almost 3PM on a Monday, assuming it would be after lunch rush, before dinner, and on a weekday.
Could we get in?
Not for several hours, they said. Literally 47 groups were ahead of us in line, having written down their names and walked off to wait elsewhere. They wouldn't let us make reservations for later, so we left to have steak for lunch instead.
While we were both disappointed, I also feel like this was for the best. Most shops like this are exciting but poorly managed at the beginning, eventually finding a level of decent, consistent customer service or quickly dying away.
We'll check back in a few months.
4 Comments
genkidesu
on Jul 3
That's one thing that I still can't wrap my head around, the hype of new places and waiting for hours for them to have a vacant table. I'd rather wait until the hype dies down, too!
helloalissa
on Jul 20
It looks like this is a Kona's? When one opened where we used to live, the same thing happened, then of course it calmed down. I was a fan of the burgers because it's not everywhere in Japan you can get a big American style burger.
JTsu
on Jul 21
@genkidesu Right? Waiting a minute is the only reasonable thing to do.
JTsu
on Jul 21
@helloalissa I think you're right. It's a Kona's, which I haven't seen before in Miyagi, but we have several specifically Hawaiian burger places in Sendai and a very decent American style burger place in Matsushima, so I can't complain about having plenty of options. It's definitely not like that everywhere.