My daughter and wife got food poisoning from Sushi Oyama in Burnaby!!!

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

As a few members/friends on this board already know, my wife and daughter suffered bad cases of food poisoning a few days ago. Here's what happened & my review of how the restaurant's management dealt with it.

Sushi Oyama has been my family’s favourite local sushi place for years. We’ve brought literally dozens and dozens of new diners there for lunches, dinners, and special events. Unfortunately, the quality has gone downhill in recent months and just recently our family suffered two extremely severe cases of food poisoning after ordering and eating some takeout sushi from Oyama. Last Friday, we had a small fire in our backyard but were very fortunate that our neighbour’s four years old son saw it, told his dad, and had his dad call the fire department. The two then came over to knock on our door and let us know. I was able to quickly put out a fire (motor on a fish filter seized and caught fire), even before the fire trucks came. As a reward for our little hero, I asked his proud father what his son’s favourite food is. He told me sushi, specifically California roll. So I offered to take them to Oyama for lunch or dinner but then we settled on us just delivering some takeout sushi that night to accommodate their busy schedule. Fine, ordered a big Party tray for them and some extra sushi (Dynamite, California rolls & Tempura Udon for our own dinner). Dropped off the sushi to the neighbours and went home where we had our own sushi & udon for supper. Note: the only food we consumed that night was from Oyama. My daughter had some sushi then went out for a short violin lesson (20 min.). Came home and finished her dinner. I had saved the entire California roll because it’s her favourite. She gave a couple pieces to her mom. Long story short, 20 minutes after eating the California roll from Oyama, my seven years old Felicia is throwing up violently in the bathroom. After the third time, I called Oyama to inform them about what’s happening and make sure they double check their food prep hygiene and safety protocols. The hostess was sympathetic and offered a free California and Dynamite roll. We all hoped the worst was past. WRONG! Felicia ended up vomiting 13 times and then started having diarrhea. My wife, who had 2 pieces of the tainted sushi, then started feeling deathly ill as well and threw up. Both my wife and daughter were completely incapacitated from Friday evening till Sunday noon. They were finally recovered enough to get out of bed by Sunday. I constantly emailed Oyama throughout the night and throughout the weekend. I spoke a few times to the manager, who’s main priority was to deny that it could have been Oyama’s fault, claiming that they had not had any reported “health or safety issues in 4, 5, 6 years” (her words). She said she would talk to the staff and owners and get back to me. She never did. Any contact with the manager was initiated by me. She never even replied to my emails or text messages. The sense I got was that she was hoping if she ignored me, I would just go away. Well, a relative suggested looking into the Health Inspection records for Oyama. I was shocked to learn from this link http://www.healthspace.ca/fha/food that Sushi Oyama on Kingsway in Burnaby had failed four of their last nine inspections. In 4 of the last nine inspections by the Fraser Health Authority, Sushi Oyama scored a HIGH HAZARD RATING. Click on the link to see for yourself. The manager never offered to apologize to my family (especially my little girl who suffered most) and never offered to at least refund our order or anything. Altogether, my wife and I each lost a day and a half of work over the weekend, and my daughter was still too weak and ill to go to school on Monday.
I have a policy of writing positive reviews when a business provides good/great service and we are happy with their products. I also have a policy of informing businesses that fail to do so and give them an opportunity to make things right. Other businesses whether online (like Amazon or eBay e-tailers) and even local businesses, when informed that their product or service failed, at least apologize and take steps to rectify the issue. They send replacements or offer a full refund for defective items. They take the appropriate actions to make things right for their customers, resulting in a win-win situation as they retain a happy, loyal customer who spends more money at their business in the future.
I do not enjoy blasting a local business, especially in these tough economic times. However, the attitude of the management at Sushi Oyama has indicated clearly to my family that they are not going to accept any responsibility for the food poisoning incident that my seven years old daughter and wife suffered after eating that California roll from Oyama. This update of my previously very positive review of the same sushi house is to warn fellow patrons to be aware that if you eat here and get food poisoning, management will deny that it’s their food and will try to ignore your complaints and avoid taking responsibility. Don’t expect a refund either or any other compensation for your pain and suffering. I am very sad that it has come down to this because Oyama has been our go-to sushi place for several years and now we have to find a different place for our sushi fix. It has now been 12 days and still NO response from Sushi Oyama’s management. Therefore, I feel obligated to warn the public that if you eat at Oyama and get food poisoning, based on my family’s experience, management will NOT accept responsibility and will try to ignore your complaints and hope you just go away. I am sad it has come to this because we used to love eating at Oyama, but now my daughter won’t even eat any sushi anymore. I have kept my daughter’s soiled clothing, have several digital photos of the incident and had three family members who are retired nurses (two of them registered nurses) over to check on my daughter and wife during the incident to confirm they were suffering from food poisoning and offer advice on how to treat it. I told this to the management at Oyama and they still have chosen to pretend this never happened. This is what happened to our family. You be the judge.

BTW, since this happened, another friend from church who was also a regular customer at Oyama on Kingsway told us that when she called them to complain that they had been given sushi that was NOT fresh (i.e. House rolls with hard, dry rice as if it was stored in the fridge and not made fresh), the person she was talking to just hung up on her. This happened twice to her so she's never going back.