IOU Sushi

The service was the worst I have ever seen in a restaurant. We asked for extra napkins-​nope. Someone asked for a lemon-​no go. That is small stuff, but the meals came more randomly than a powerball lottery draw. First came 2 sushi plates-​10 minutes later another sushi plate-​5 minutes after that another person got her plate. We were down only 2 to go. 5 – 10 minutes later we were down to just me left. Yep-I’m a sore loser. At 30 minutes after the first plates arrived, and long since those lucky few finished eating mine came. The food wasn’t anything special either-​but it wouldn’t have made a difference at that point-​the experience was ruined in my view.
I’m not sure if it was an off night-​but the reviews besides mine suggest it was not too unusual. In my view service in the restaurant business is kind of a big deal. Maybe I was supposed to take an iou on my meal and get over it.

Called ahead to see if I could stop by for a late lunch as I knew they closed at 230 and it was 205, they said come on in. Got here at 207 and the doors are shut and sign said closed. Just wish they would have said no if they were going to do that!

The Boise area, in many respects, has been a hurtin’ buckaroo for sushi generally. There are either stellar standout places, like Fujiyama or Maru or generally gutter stuff, like everything else, with a huge divide between them and nothing fall in the mid-​range. I happened to see this restaurant in a Boise restaurant insert and noticed it while driving around soon after. As it was reasonably close, I took a chance and the rest, as they say…
As to that rest, this might be the place that finally makes me swear off AYCE sushi forever. The wait staff and sushi guy were great, very affable and having a good time, laughing and kidding around and the sushi guy’s technique seemed pretty solid… cleanliness seemed to be of issue and they’re also pretty sauce happy here. The big thing in Boise restaurants lately seems to be having one of the zillions of microbrews make a concoction specific to your restaurant and these guys have one here also, from Edge, if memory serves. The beer is pretty good, points there. Not great, but pretty good. I don’t see it resonating with sushi, but good on them to have one.
This is sushi made by a nationality I’ve not experienced before, that of Micronesians. As it goes, there are similarities with other Islanders I’ve met and the portions are gigantic. Taste varies pretty widely, though, with some of the rolls being fairly solid and some of them leaving me wishing I’d ordered something else. One of them reacted very negatively a short time later and I began to harbor thoughts of impending food poisoning, which was really grating considering I’d just gotten over a bout thanks to a Jersey Mike’s in Salt Lake. A lot of my order was also forgotten, which turned out to be ok in the end. They are on the more expensive end for AYCE sushi as well, but probably make up for it with gigantic portions (but no musubi, which I found myself wishing for — I know, I know…).
On the plus, besides the beer and good vibes and chill place to hang out, the shrimp tempura was frankly pretty decent. Again, not great and not quite accurate to tempura, but portion, again, was quite large and it was overall towards the upper side of versions I’ve had… there is no discounting the sushi though. I wouldn’t say it was bad outright, just more questionable and some of their practices really need to be addressed, like allowing a window curtain between the sushi bar area and the kitchen coming into contact with food. This has some potential, but working on speed and cleanliness have to definitely be made priorities first, before they will get anywhere near that… had I not had such an adverse reaction, I probably would have been leaning towards a 3, but that kind of thing cannot be discounted or treated with faint recognition. I don’t think I will be returning to this location to see if they’ve fixed things, but I hope they do… there seems some promise here.

The sushi is great but the service is terrible. We waited over 30 min for our sushi. Normally I would tolerate it but they brought out our plates at different times. When my father was halfway done with his plate only did my mother and I receive ours. When they brought over our food I commented on how long it took and the sushi chef rolled his eyes and walked away.
I think management needs to hire more staff in order to keep up with the demand. The sushi took way too long and the staff was not able to turn over tables in due time with the demand.

I don’t know what these other reviewers are talking about. We’ve always had great service and awesome sushi. The chefs are friendly and welcoming.

Sishi is high quality and very good. Service is slow and not the friendliest.

Best sushi in town for the price! All u can eat sushi at dinner is such an event. Get a sushi crew together and compete for how many rolls you can eat. One of my favorite things to do in Boise!

They are inconsistent and lack creativity with sushi. Last time I was there I walked out since all the tables in the half full restaurant were filthy and food on the floor on top of capable employees standing around instead of cleaning. Will not return unless it’s revamped to impress and get a good professional review. I will say the sushi chefs were charismatic just too bad the food didn’t reflect that.

Ordered the simple San Francisco roll and it had no flavor whatsoever. Barely any avocado in the roll, hardly any shrimp and mainly rice. Not the mention the fish wasn’t even cold in any of the other rolls. I feel like I’m going to get sick. Now I know the only sushi place I’ll ever eat in the boise area is in downtown eagle, ahi sushi bar. You get what you pay for.

Over all this place is good. However they like to open when they feel like it. I have been by here several times and they are not open when the sign says they are suppose to be.

Well gang this is one of those places that started off strong when they opened but for whatever reasons has fallen down the ratings. Service and food levels seem to have declined. I hope they can turn it around before it is too late.

Great place for good sushi. Very nice people and service. I’ve been coming here for years.

I have been to IOU several times, but finally decided I need to write a review in hopes that the owners of this business see it. We came in with a group of 4 for AYCE sushi at 8:10 pm and sat at the bar. There were 3 sushi chefs working and one server. It took at least 5 minutes for us to even be acknowledged and given drinks (just ice water). There were three tables being sat at, but all customers had finished their food. There were also two other couples sitting at the bar, one of which was just finishing up. So by no means was the restaurant busy.
We let the chef know we were doing AYCE and ordered our first rolls. They took about 5 – 7 minutes to give us our first rolls. This continued to be the pace for the rest of our dining experience. After finishing one roll, we wait another 5 minutes (empty-​plated) for the chefs to even acknowledge us, then another 5 – 10 to receive the roll. It should be mentioned that none of us ordered any deep-​fried rolls (that take longer to prepare), so that cannot be an explanation as to why the service was so slow. At this pace, and with the menu’s suggestion that dinner AYCE sushi should last 1 hour, it really did not feel like we were getting our money’s worth ($ 25.99 for dinner AYCE).
What’s even worse– at 8:47, the server started putting chairs on tables and asked us how we were doing our checks. To me, this is a not-​so-​subtle way of telling a customer they’re finished. I found this extremely rude. As a server myself, it is both my restaurant’s policy and my personal belief that chairs should not be stacked onto tables until all customers have left the restaurant, even if they are there past closing time. It’s downright rude and creates a tense, unwelcoming atmosphere for your patrons. So all in all, we were given about 37 minutes of AYCE sushi at a painfully slow rate. I think I only ate 5 rolls; I could have gone for twice as much. And the real kicker is, the posted hours on IOU’s door says that they closed at 10 pm. If I were a customer wanting to give them business and arriving past 9, I would be very irritated to drive to the restaurant only to find out that they closed a full hour before their posted hours. I suppose when you own your own restaurant you can do this at your discretion, but they’re certainly losing business by doing so.
I absolutely love IOU’s sushi. The fish is always fresh-​tasting with a good texture, the rice is a good consistency, and the rolls are unique and flavorful. But even amazing food cannot outweigh repeatedly terrible service. That’s why it pains me to say that I won’t be coming back to IOU.

This place used to be great.
Now the service is terrible, and the food is worst. I tried it today after a long time. the sushi rice was under cooked and crunchy, and the fish was really low quality.

Arrived at 9:30 for a few pieces of sushi. About 8 people at sushi bar. A lady was putting chairs up on the table and told me they were closed. I said the sign on door said 10. She told me I could get a to go order. RUDE.

SLOW service! Small dining area that is usually totally full at dinner time and hopefully you bring good dining company because you will have plenty of time to talk as your food and drinks are… Well, seemingly are never actually going to arrive at your table. The bar is the only area where people appear to get food but I don’t like sitting at the bar and shouldn’t have to sit there to get freaking service. The all you can eat is a joke unless you order 4 – 6 rolls on your first order taken by the server because that’s the ONLY order you will put in. Sushi is OK at best. The only roll I even liked was the one named after the restaurant. Been here a few times with friends that insisted on this place. Those friends moved and now I will suffer no longer!

Absolutely wonderful sushi there! The people who work there are really nice too. They offer AYCE too. The price for that is a bit high but at least they offer tons of choices and don’t charge extra to substitute soy wrap instead of seaweed, which for me is big. Their crystal shrimp is to die for too! I just wish they were open on Sundays. Oh well I still love them!

Crystal shrimp… yummmm the best is here! Service best at the bar. Easiest to give your order for several items all at once or seems like end up waiting bit too long. The game is usually on, sushi delicious etc. Have had several good experiences here, the Nampa location not nearly as good (service or selection) Other tasty rolls included on their All you can eat ($ 23ish) are the Nan Madol, Mirian, Big Joe & the Bogus. A favorite sushi place for us! The better servers we’ve seen are Jesse & Trusty.

This restaurant almost demands two separate reviews, because depending on how you choose to dine here… you will get two very different experiences. So right up front let me say that my overall rating is a consequence of having to «split the difference» between the two VERY different experiences I have had at IOU Sushi. Basically if you sit at the sushi bar itself… you will have a pretty good time. By itself I would rate that as 4 stars. If however you sit at a table and are fully dependent on waiter service… you will have a pretty lousy time. I would call this barely 2 stars. The difference is all in the service.
So I’ll come back to the service issues in a bit, but let’s dispense with the food first. Now you can eat at IOU as a more traditional sushi restaurant, but essentially this place should be thought of as an «all you can eat» place. That is the most popular option for diners here, and that is what the restaurant itself seems to expect from most patrons. That said, you have to keep that in mind when judging the food here. The rolls themselves are good. The fish seems to be pretty fresh. But the preparation is pretty basic and unassuming. I’d say it is a slight cut above say… Sushi Ya in terms of overall quality. At least IOU seasons their sushi rice. The variety of rolls for «AYCE» is a little lacking, at least on the lunch menu, but overall you will be pleased with the quality of the food itself.
Now here’s the catch. The table service at IOU is absolutely terrible. If you are at a table, it can take forever to get an order sent up to the bar, and who knows how long before you’ll actually see any food. I can’t decide if this is due to the waiters themselves, or the fact that the sushi chefs at the bar are prioritizing patrons at the bar, or if the fault is somewhere else along the line. But the bottom line is if you are at a table, I hope you aren’t exactly hungry… or looking to place more than a single order for «AYCE.» You might starve to death in the time it takes for an order to get back to you.
If you ARE sitting at the bar however, the experience is almost completely difference. The sushi chefs at IOU are very friendly, will engage in conversation with you, and will ask if you’re ready to place another order before you even finish with the first. It is a much more timely and pleasant experience, a «night and day» difference from what you will find sitting at a table. And while this is fine if you are dining alone or maybe with your significant other… but for those of us with several children in tow, sitting at the sushi bar just isn’t really an option.
So in the end, it is easy to recommend IOU Sushi for a quick lunch or maybe even a casual dinner date. But just make sure you are sitting at the bar. Don’t opt for table service unless you enjoy watching everyone else eat around you while you sit there starving and confused.

There is so much better sushi to be had in the valley. For all you can eat, I’d rather do Best Sushi downtown or Sushi Ya in west bench.
Service is god-​awful. I mean, like 15 – 20 minutes of sitting there without attention from our waitress for water, to place another order, whatever. What hurt was there were few other people in there and the waitresses (yes, plural) were flirting with guys at the sushi bar, who already had service from the sushi chefs. I’d better get more attractive and ditch the wife next time…
No, we’ve never sat at the bar (I hear service is better if you’re staring at a chef). The quality of sushi isn’t great at all (but, when you do all you can eat, it’s clearly a quantity over quality situation, still… see first paragraph). When I’d ask for nigiri, which typically comes with two pieces per order, they’d make me 12 (and, if you don’t finish, they want to cut you off for wasting their food). After forcing myself to eat that many pieces of nigiri, I ordered another nigiri and asked for only TWO PIECES (repeated this several times to our server), but still got the 12. Felt ignored, nickled-​and-​dimed, and like I was being served sub-​par sushi.
For all of the IOU lovers, please, please, PLEASE try the following: for all you can eat, Best Sushi or Sushi Ya; for quality sushi (especially nigiri, not crazy, deep fried rolls), try Maru (number one), Shige or I’ve heard great things about Yoi Tomo.