At the end of February Groupon had a 50% off deal to one of Wrocław’s sushi bars called Sushi Naka Naka, as it naka-naka-not gonna eat there ever again.

There were a couple of people at work who after finding out I had such a coupon said it was a great place to eat and they would surely buy my coupon off of me if I decided not to go. A little excited that this place was so well advertised by my colleagues I made a Sunday afternoon reservation and that’s when things already took a turn toward Funny-Business Avenue.

I had actually bought two coupons since I really like sushi and haven’t had it for months. I was thinking of using them on two separate occasions since they were worth quite a lot of cash but during the reservation phone call I quickly found out that one coupon was strictly for one person per one visit. Alright, no biggie, we’ll see what happens once we’re there.

Sushi Naka Naka is located out in the boonies only about a 100 yards from where the city ends. Come Sunday afternoon we brought our two coupons and sat at an empty table. The place was quiet and almost empty even though it absolutely required a reservation per the fine print on the coupon. We had a look at the menu and decided to spent both coupons worth roughly 140zl (~$50 but that’s a quite a bit on one evening). This wasn’t hard to do because sushi prices here are very high which probably explained all the empty tables around us. Even though our food technically took up two huge plates on the menu it was delivered only on one AND with room to spare! Our sushi rolls and sashimi looked only vaguely familiar to the photographs on the menu which has to be a compliment to their marketing department.

Size wise the portions were tiny! Taste wise it was OK. I mean it wasn’t bad, it tasted alright, but I’ve definitely had better and in much worse looking places, too. Bang for the buck however we definitely got screwed. I will never go back to this place because it’s simply too expensive for the sushi they serve. Oddly enough, as empty as this place was and always seems to be (per online reviews I’ve read afterward) the owner has his sights set on franchising and for only $40,000 dollars you too can be an owner of an overpriced sushi bar.

What seemed like a deal wasn’t a deal at all and made me more cautious towards any other Groupon deals. Turns out Groupon is slowly turning people against itself with similar service from other businesses it advertises. Pretty much everyone I know that used a place from Groupon has complained about the crappy service they received once the place heard they had a Groupon coupon, treating them second rate to their regular coupon-less customers. Perhaps my sushi experience is a similar deal but I will never eat there again and won’t ever recommend Sushi Naka Naka to anyone.