Substandard teppanyaki

Dear Lord in heaven, where do I start with this terrible experience? We arrived on a Sunday night before Christmas, around 7:30. We were told by the host, who didn’t smile once and sounded as robotic as Al Gore on sedatives, that there would be a 4- minute wait. It was a long time to wait, but we were in the mood for teppanyaki, so we agreed, took a pager, and took two stools at the adjoining bar.

The bar area floor was dirty with straw wrappers scattered on the ground. How difficult is it for a manager or busser or server to walk by and pick stuff up. It just shows a lack of pride and caring. We ordered a couple of mojitos, they tasted fine. They were made with sake as well as white rum, so they had a little extra punch. Pretty good mojito, but one was enough for me. After 15 minutes, the pager buzzed. So they overdelivered, which sounds good. But the amount of time they quoted was so long that we nearly left, when in reality, it only took a third of that time for us to get a table.

We got sat with six other folks, took waters to go with our mojitos, and then waited to place our order. And we waited. And waited. It took about 10-12 minutes for the server to be ready to take our orders. The thing with the server is she didn’t even smile. Maybe it was stress, or the end of a long day, but my goodness, can’t you try to create a happy and positive atmosphere for your guests? We’re spending a lot of money to eat here, make it feel like a worthwhile investment!

The waits weren’t over yet though. The first course was, of course, miso soup. And from the time we sat down to the time the soup arrived, we waited 33 minutes, and yes we checked the clock. We had not eaten in nine hours, so that time felt even longer. She did apologize to the table, but couldn’t she have asked a manager or someone to assist her?

We also noticed a table that got sat after us had their chef start to prepare their dinner even before we received our salads. At this point, we were considering leaving, but decided to hang on. Our chef, Lucas, came over just before the salads were brought out. The timing was so off and I don’t know if that’s on management or the wait staff.

Anyway, the salads were very enjoyable, and I liked the ginger dressing very much. And thankfully, Lucas was an entertaining chef between the onion flame and making the girl who was celebrating her birthday feel welcome (although she had less emotion and personality than the host at the stand) by giving her first dibs on the food and extra portions.

The vegetables, fried rice, and shrimp appetizer all tasted great. I did get a huge amount of rice though, but I was able to finish it; I guess that’s what nine of hours of waiting can do. For the entrée, I ordered the filet mignon and salmon. I ordered it medium, and while it tasted really tender and juicy, There was very little char on the steak. Mom complained of too much garlic on hers, so I wound up eating her portion. The salmon was ok, but nothing special. I poured a good amount of yum yum sauce on top for some more flavor.

About halfway through the dinner, I asked for a refill on my water and a girl next to me asked for a refill on her Dr. Pepper. Fifteen minutes later, nothing had arrived. At that point, we just looked at each other and exchanged that head shake as if to say, “Yeah we ain’t getting this drinks are we?” The drinks never did arrive. Once we finished, we paid cash and just got out of there.

The meal tasted just fine; I appreciate Lucas’ charisma and skills. But that wasn’t enough to salvage our time at this establishment. The overall experience can best be described as disappointing and substandard. That’s not due to poor food, it's about deficient customer service and and lack of customer care.