Independence of the Seas - Izumi - Veggie Sushi - AWESOME

[ShillyShally]

We just got off Independence of the Seas and I just wanted to say wonderful things about our experience at Izumi!  We're vegan but can always find things to survive on while onboard.  I even had heard Indy is one of the RCCL ships with the vegan menu in the main dining room and was excited to find out and try it BUT we never made it to the MDR 🙂  We were travelling with son and his GF (22 & 21) and we just never made it to the MDR and often just did the WJ or had eaten lunch late so snacked.  One night husband and I were hungry but not up for the WJ so we asked at Izumi if we could just do sushi a la carte. They seated us at the sushi bar and we asked if they could do vegan sushi for us - we've usually found when travelling that chefs are happy to do this and love to get creative.  Orlando ROCKED - he made us a ton of food and we were shocked it only came to $12 before tip (sushi was $6 per person for veggie sushi).  We also loved the edamame though I would have eaten another bowl if that was also on the menu.  We raved about it so much we came back 2 nights later with son and his GF (they had seen the picture I took from night one and wanted to try it too and they are not vegan) - that time the bar was full but they didn't have any more reservations for the hibachi stations so sat us at one and Orlando went even above what he did before!  We tipped generously both nights and told him how much we loved it.  My son couldn't believe they didn't have this sushi on the menu.  Here are the pics I took - this is 2 orders on one plate as my husband and I happily let him put it all on one plate!

[sunlover12]

I am very surprised you were able to order a la carte at Izumi.  We weren't on Independence so maybe it is different depending on the ship.  The sushi at Izumi is very good but the price we were charged was excessive and we were not allowed to order a la carte. This was confusing because the individual prices of each item were on the menu.  We had to make a reservation in advance (I don't think they took walk-ins) at a fixed price of $49/person.  Looking at the a la carte prices on the menu, there was no way the 2 of us were going to eat $98 worth of food.  We asked the maitre d if there would be a discount if we didn't order that much food.  We were told it could be applied only if we returned another night.   Consider yourself lucky that they only charged you $12 for all that sushi.  Glad you enjoyed it. 

[ShillyShally]

12 hours ago, sunlover12 said:

I am very surprised you were able to order a la carte at Izumi.  We weren't on Independence so maybe it is different depending on the ship.  The sushi at Izumi is very good but the price we were charged was excessive and we were not allowed to order a la carte. This was confusing because the individual prices of each item were on the menu.  We had to make a reservation in advance (I don't think they took walk-ins) at a fixed price of $49/person.  Looking at the a la carte prices on the menu, there was no way the 2 of us were going to eat $98 worth of food.  We asked the maitre d if there would be a discount if we didn't order that much food.  We were told it could be applied only if we returned another night.   Consider yourself lucky that they only charged you $12 for all that sushi.  Glad you enjoyed it. 

We did feel lucky - we asked in advanced - just walked up to the hostess and asked if we could do a la carte and they let us both nights so it may be Indy specific or they just don't advertise but yeah we wouldn't have been able to justify the per person price since we can't eat any of the printed menu save for 1 or 2 things.  It also may have helped we only asked directly at Izumi!

Edited March 11, 2019 by ShillyShally