I have never had an issue with the food, but all other services and the ability to make reservations is absolutely terrible. The ability to make reservations on open table for a large family is almost impossible and always results in a comment that there is not a time available within 2 and a half hours from the selected time. Adjusting the time for a reservation always results in the same result. Trying to call to make a reservation ended after 30 minutes of continuing to hit 1 to stay on the phone while I waiting for someone to answer. When we arrived at the restaurant with no reservation, we were told that the next available time would be at 4:30 which was an hour and a half wait and we accepted the time. When we arrived back at the restaurant at 4:15 after walking around the mall for a while, we were told that our time was not until 5:00. Just very frustrating when you have a family with 4 kids who waited patiently just to have that extended. read more

The wait was an hour and the food was mediocre ! :( I've had better from here ! Would most definitely be back though read more

Kanki - Hibachi Steak and Shrimp Lunch - Japanese Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

We went here for our Family Dinner for NYE. I have to admit that the food was good. However the customer service was dirt poor. The manager was a complete jerk. My mom ordered the vegetarian and didn't like her food. He took it back and then accused her of eating the meat. Meat which she didn't order and threatened to call the cops. The man who is the manager of this establishment is a distinguishing human being. Please do not patronize this place!! read more

I haven't ate at the sushi bar in years (since the remodel). The bar area is much larger than it used to be which in theory is great except they had two servers working the entire area.... awful service, but what do you expect when the person has 12 + tables at once? The sushi has gone downhill as well, the roll has more rice, less fish, poorly wrapped, and the spicy tuna tasted 'off' to say the least. The annoying part was that the menu outside doesn't reflect the pricing on the actual menu. read more

Went on a Saturday night on a holiday weekend. The wait was worth it! Food was so yummy! My party ordered both regular food and a gluten sensitive meal. GS meal was prepared in the back to prevent contamination from the regular soy used on the front grill. Wait staff and chef were great. I highly recommend! read more

Carry out order was a bit disappointing. The suggested ETA for order ready was 15 minutes off of when the order was actually ready. Give the late hour and the fact that a large portion of the dinning room was empty this meant very slow service but with all of the available resources not waiting on tables the service should have been fast. My order was also missing a role which the server did not inform me of. Thankfully it was refunded by automated ChowNow portal, but zero communication is considered poor customer service especially in the food SERVICE industry. The quality of the rice and the consistency through the role was not what i expect for $14 and $15 roles. The one bright spot was the volcano role. read more

If I could give you a zero I would! I came for my nieces birthday and the lack of unprofessionalism by Marlo was very shocking. One of my party members were late and I requested an order to be added to the meal and MARLO used radical candor and laughed loud making my party member no longer want to eat, due to this interaction my member did not trust the chef to prepare her food! This was suppose to be a celebration and instead it was overshadowed by his lack of professionalism and ranch soaked salad. I am not from Raliegh but this experience has left destain for me. read more

Ordered sushi and hibachi plate through Grubhub but the sushi was missing. The receipt stapled to the bag shows we were charged for it. I called the restaurant to speak to a staff member several times, no one answered the phone. Very unprofessional. read more

I was in the mood for Hibachi tonight (Mon night 7pm) and staying across the street from the Crabtree mall on my business trip. I saw there was a hibachi place in the mall and walked over. I thought I should check the Yelp reviews before going in and I panicked when I saw how many negative reviews of this place there are. I headed toward the middle of the mall and looked at the other eatery options and decided to gamble and go back to Kanki's because I really really wanted Hibachi. Oh my Gosh you guys it was really good. The soup is one of the best I have had in a Hibachi place. Really flavorful. The salad is a good portion with ginger (my preference) or sesame dressing. Sauteed shrimp for the appetizer and the white sauce is great (someone said it tasted odd..no idea what they are talking about). For entree i had filet/shrimp combo and added on a lobster tail...so good! I am so glad I didn't let the prior reviews push me a away. My only complaint..they don't also include noodles like a lot of Hibachi places. But there is mpre than enough food on the plate so i will let it slide. Also our chef, RD, was hilarious. He should have his own stand up. 5 forks, would eat here again. read more

Kanki - . - Japanese Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

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Ordered takeout from this Crabtree location for my husbands birthday and it tasted like it was from the day before and had been sitting around. Very disappointed, no flavor. Will not be eating here ever again. read more

First time visit and it was great. Party of 2 seated immediately. The food was good, the cook was great and was entertaining.

I used the Chownow app to order takeout. The app was very user-friendly. Upon my arrival at the restaurant, the hostess was very pleasant. The chownow app indicated that my food would be ready by 8:22 pm; however, it was ready 30 minutes later. Food size was generous. Sushi rolls (Poseidon and Sweet Dragon) were great. Sadly my filet mignon and shrimp hibachi was very underwhelming. The rice was very dry and stale. It tasted like I was served old rice. The filet mignon was overcooked and tough. I love Kanki hibachi, and I hope that this was just an off night! read more

Kanki - Japanese Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

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Went here for Mother's Day this year. We were seated at a table with a very nice family, which made the experience even better. Our chef was friendly and fun to watch. Since we were eating when they opened, we were charged lunch prices - nice surprise on a big holiday - many restaurants won't honor lunch prices on big holidays. Food was good, only food complaint was that the steak portion of our meals was quite under-seasoned. Both people in our party said the same thing about the steak. Now, only reason to dock two stars - the hostess staff. They were unbelievably rude! We were treated like we were inconveniencing them, we even got an eye roll from one young woman. Very disappointing that Kanki would have not one, but three!, very rude young woman "greeting" (more like judging) customers at the front. read more

If you like or even LOVE fresh sushi like my family and do then this is the closest you can get to Japan in the Raleigh area. We tried quite a few places and the taste and prices are by far the best around. It's always fresh, and we've eaten at the Crabtree Valley Mall Kanki for the past 5 years now. We've been on both sides (pre-COVID-19) for just date nights out or special occasions with family and friends. read more

I LOVE KANKI!! The food is always great in my opinion, I get the chicken option and they are always very considerate with the amount of food given. I don't like eggs and so I ask for my fried rice without it and they always are very accommodating. The restaurant is very welcoming and has a cozy feel. Only thing I would improve would be that it is always packed and so I can rarely get a reservation and have only had luck walking in once and had to have an 1 1/2 long wait. read more

I've been here plenty of times. This last time really showed how standardized this place has become. First off the service wasn't good at all. The waiter kept forgetting the times we needed, our entrees came out before the appetizer. He told us there was a 30 minute wait for sushi. I totally understood that when I observed the sushi chef completely engulfed in the sporting even on tv and not only once but quite a few times. The rice tasted just like Uncle Ben's. No part of it was fried even though there was carrots and some other side in it. I will say the jalapeño bombers were the best thing I've tasted from them ever! And that is from all 3 of their establishments. There are too many other places like this to waste your time and money here read more

Kanki, has mixed reviews overall, but I enjoyed my lunch here. It was actually my first-time Kanki experience and I went with the spiral ecstasy roll. The roll had shrimp, avocado and not sure what else, but it was good. They seem to have a lot of specialty rolls kind of like Shiki Sushi in Durham. Not a huge fan of Crabtree mall, but I would go to Kanki again. read more

The entire family went here for a birthday celebration for one of my bride's nieces. First, I have to say, I truly enjoy the Japanese Steakhouse experience everywhere I go. The food is usually just so-so, and the service experience usually depends on the personality of the chef. Our party consisted of 6 adults and 2 children, one of the children being my daughter and the other not quite yet a toddler. Beef is usually a pretty safe choice in this type of place and I was not disappointed. There was plenty of rice to go around and one of our party pulled the server aside and ordered a couple sushi rolls which he then proceeded to share wtih me - I was floored - the sushi was just shy of absolutely fantastic - I'd give it a very good and impressive - not Sushi-Thai in Cary impressive, but impressive nonetheless. The personality of the chef did not disappoint either. He had my little girl in stitches, laughing at how he could flip a knife and a spatula around and in awe with the onion volcanos, flipping food in the air and catching it on a plate or on the spatula, and the egg - one cannot forget the flipping of the egg into the air and catching it on the spatula, (still in the shell), then how quickly - seemingly seamlessly that egg got split dropped on the grill and scrambled right in front of us to be mixed into the fried rice. Very good performance. Location being in the Crabtree Valley mall was very nice for after dinner, giving us all a chance to easily stay out of the elements and browse around some stores for a bit before walking out to the parking garage. read more

The driest hibachi chicken known to mankind! Even those $4.99 hibachi's at food courts are far better than the nearly $20 ones offered here. Their sushi? Be prepared to eat a whole lot of rice. Service was oh so slow. We ordered and waited ~45 minutes for our soup and salad. It was to the point where I told the manager that we never got our soup and salad- yup the MANAGER had to get them for us. We had to wait another 20 minutes for our entree and sushi. Oh and no forks or chopsticks- we had to ask for them AFTER we got our soups and salad. And drinks? They went completely empty and we'd have to ask for more water every single time. Yeah overall, our server was pretty much a burden on us. Instead of having a server waiting on us, we had to wait for him. Food was joe average- not nearly worth how much you pay. Next time I'm at Crabtree and craving hibachi, I'll just go upstairs to the food court. read more

Kanki - Hibachi chicken- unbelievably dry - Japanese Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

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Geisha, Sheila Maki, Crabean Roll, Sashimi Roll is what I sampled with no hesitancy as the rolls were BOGO! My total bill came out to be approximately $25 and I was completely stuffed! (DISCLAIMER: Even though I am a small girl, I can pack the food away. So men, sushi can even fill you as it does me.) I had to dock a star for the lack of seating away from the hibachi tables and the LONG wait for our sushi orders. We waited about 45-60 minutes for our sushi to come because there was only one sushi chef for the night. I would understand if the guy was AMAZING and taking his sweet time for perfection, but perfection was far from what we got. The rolls were a bit loose and some of my friends were definitely not impressed. Coming from California, these prices were amazing. The BOGO deal doesn't hold after July, so...I may want to downgrade a star then. Until then, it's fan worthy and I will keep it in mind to make it back there. :) read more

Kanki - Japanese Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

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We came in for a simple dinner, not the "kanki" hibachi experience. Arrived to the host stand to let her know there would be 3 of us and she proceeds to write our name down. I let her know we just wanted to sit at a regular table and she just said we'll seat yourself wherever- I think it was just the demeanor in which she said it. But if a place charges as much as they do, be a little courteous. My mom got the hibachi and we got two rolls. Hibachi came out fairly quickly, but the rolls took over 25 mins. The wait was worth it because the sushi rolls were surprisingly pretty good. We got the Hanabi & Hot RoeMance. Only giving a 3 star because the service was mediocre and the food took forever to come out. read more

Kanki - Hot Roe Mance + Hanabi Rolls - Japanese Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

This has been a New Years Day tradition for my family for many years as well as a celebration place. Last night's experience was not good and we will be rethinking returning. It started with the hostess. She couldn't find our reservation, made that morning, and was completely disinterested in helping us straighten it out. She was being rude and insisting we had to wait for more than an hour. Another hostess handed her a slip of paper with our name on it and our reservation confirming that we had indeed called that morning with a reservation. The first hostess made some rude remark under her breath and told us we would be seated within 5 minutes. Guess she forgot us because 20 minutes later we approached her again. This time we were seated right away. Service was slow, but friendly and pleasant. Our cook was still learning his craft and made a few mistakes - including dropping the salt shaker on the floor and instead of getting a clean one picked it up and continued to use it. I should also mention that I have never been here when it looked so dirty. It was if no one cared about the atmosphere surrounding the diners. The food was good which is the only reason we are giving this place 2 stars. It's such a shame because this used to be one of the premier celebration spots in Raleigh. Not last night. read more

Methinks if you've been to one of these Japanese restaurants, you've nearly been to them all. They all seem to be the same, just a different name. So I went with a co-worker for lunch; could that be it? I haven't been here for dinner. We arrived around 11:30 and scored good seats. The service was a bit slow, though they were nice. The lunch was good, but again -- I've had it before at Ichiban, Nakato, etc. It wasn't bad, just nothing new. I'd come back to try dinner here, and to give their sushi a fair shake. This location is currently under construction so you have to use the inside entrance. read more

I think you either love these sorts of places, or you hate them. I occasionally get a hankering for it, and after I go I remember why the hankering is only occasionally. The sushi is so-so, and the entrees are also so-so. If you're going, though, you're probably going to do the live hibachi "show", which means you'll come out smelling like a french fry. What you'll actually end up with is some pre-made salad with two dressing choices, a bit of salty soup, rice, vegetables and some sort of meat. If the restaurant didn't have the Asian theme I can't imagine that this hibachi routine wouldn't pass as typical American cuisine (with a preparatory twist), nor can I imagine the Japanese (notorious for being fastidiously clean) going to a place in Japan where the "chefs" toss an egg in the air, catch it with their hat and then let it drop on the open grill. (Maybe they do, but I'm just sayin'.) What they do is OK; it's just not particularly inspired. read more

It was mediocre. The shrimp were super tiny, but the chicken chunks were too big. The salad was welted. The flavor of the rice was really good, but the wait time was 2 and a half hours. The employees were extremely nice though, which is always a plus! read more

Great place to take a vegan or vegetarian on a date! They made an awesome veggie and rice dish with no eggs or dairy. They cooked it first so it wouldn't have any traces of animal products! The tofu tasted/felt like it was made in house and seasoned amazingly. Will be back! read more

Kanki - Japanese Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

If you are in the Raleigh area, don't pass this place up for an evening's dinner and entertainment. Kanki is a Hibachi grill where the chef cooks right in front of you, at your table. Each table has room for nine guests, seated around the grill. I visited in early August 2010 with three friends. The restaurant is accessible from the lower level of the mall. The facade is currently under construction, but will not impact your dining experience. For twenty dollars a person, Kanki offers a gracious dinner and a show. This is a great way to spend 1.5-2 hrs in Raleigh. The Hibachi offerings range from chicken and steak to shrimp and lobster. The twenty dollar hibachi meal includes Japanese soup (similar to miso but not quite), salad, main course, vegetable and rice. It's a great deal. Although your experience will depend somewhat on the personality of your chef, all of the chefs are schooled in culinary tricks. The dinner features fast paced slicing, dicing, flipping, and even a little bit of knife juggling. Our chef was funny, and shaped the fried rice into a heart on the grill for our friend's anniversary. He also made a mini volcano out of onion slices, pour sake inside and lit it on fire. It was a great show! And the food? Fantastic. Absolutely delicious. My only complaints would be something other than iceberg in the salad. Other than that, it was really a great meal, especially for the price. Cons: Bathrooms need to have hooks to hang out purses! And, they don't take Discover. read more

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Kanki is my favorite restaurant and never had a bad experience until tonight. We ordered our meal at the bar, we received our appetizer without utensils. The bartender said he would get it for us. At the 30 minute mark of waiting for our food and the utensils to eat our warm salads, we cancelled our order and left. We took in consideration that they were busy or it was probably a new hire however it became increasingly irritating that he kept constantly walking past us getting other peoples orders and not checking on us or seeing why we haven't received our food. This pretty much removed the previous consideration. read more

This place is fun for groups and dates. The atmosphere is lively and the food is delicious. The table side chefs keep it light and fun with their jokes and showmanship. I mean who doesn't love an onion volcano?! In addition to hibachi and teppanyaki they serve sushi and ramen. This location is in the mall so definitely get there early or make a reservation. If you're not into hibachi sit in the sushi bar. Watching the sushi chefs work their magic is also a nice way to spend the evening. read more

Since I work near the mall, I have eaten lunch at Kanki at least 20 times so far. My company goes out to eat every Friday and Kanki is chosen almost once a month. Surprisingly, the service and the food has been mostly consistent. When eating hibachi, I prefer shrimp or steak. Sometimes the chefs put the chicken on last (because it cooks fastest). The steaks are cooked to order and delicious with the tasty white sauce (don't ask, just get it). The sushi is good too, but I'm not a sushi connoisseur. Kanki recently opened up Torii (which means "gate" in Japanese), a noodle bar, at their top-level entrance. I had some spicy noodles with a carafe of unfiltered sake on my first visit there. Overall, I'm a fan of Kanki. It's the best restaurant in the mall and great for a small group of friends. read more

I have no idea how anyone can give this place a bad review. Love, love, love their hibachi. I don't do sushi. I love this place! Farm to table food, entertainment for the kids. Family memories and super delicious food. They renovations look great, we haven't been in a while. It was a nice surprise. I'm hungry it's time to eat!! read more

Kanki - Excited for the show! Always a treat in a nice environment. - Japanese Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

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Our visit was on 7/9/21 Server was great, she was very nice & brought us all that we asked for in a timely manner. The food was delicious!!! The sitting area was comfortable & the temperature was perfect. read more

Just disappointed. All I wanted was a bit of normalcy in my routine. So I opted to "do lunch" COVID-19 style (take-out) on a whim. I was passing Crabtree mall and so I whipped into the parking lot and called Kanki on the phone. They gave me the heads-up that it would be a 30 minute wait. So I sat there and of course called all my peeps to let them know I was "doing lunch". My euphoria was short-lived as my 30 mins turned into 45, 1hr and then I finally received my food after 1 hr, 25 mins. To make matters worse, my food was cold and my sushi roll soggy once I drove 5 mins to my house. So much for a Happy Friday read more

We recently attempted to book a reservation for a party of 7. We contacted the host or reservation staff who was extremely rude and informed us we were not allowed to make a reservation on the same day we planned to dine. She was not friendly or helpful with our request. We decided to try and drop in, thinking the person may not have been representative of the demeamor of the restaurant. Unfortunately we experienced the same haughty attitude by probably the same person who stated, " we would have to wait 4 hours." We understand if a restaurant has a crowded evening they could be somewhat civil in their explanation. Suffice it to say we will not be back and will advise our friends to stay away! read more

I have eaten here many times, and typically it is pretty good. However, today was the exception. We showed up around 1:45pm for lunch and were told there was an hour wait. After an hour had passed I went up to the front to kindly ask if we were approaching being seated. The hostess then informed me that they were running very short on chefs, so she wasn't sure how much longer, and proceeded to ask her manager. I joked that I would be happy to jump on the grill if the needed me. At that point, the "manager" aggressively reached out and yanked the pager out of my hand and yelled at me to stand by the wall. I asked her why she felt the need to be rude, as I had been overly polite, and she refused to respond to me. I asked for her name and she would not respond. At that point I decided not to waste any more of my time or money there and left. That "manager" should not be in the service industry. Perhaps the most unprofessional encounter I've ever had at a restaurant. Piece of advice to owners and management - just because you had four chefs quit/call out, does not entitle you to be rude to your patrons. Think twice about who you employ to be the face of your customer relationships. read more

When my partner and I ordered our sushi last evening, I asked for a single substitution on one roll: that the type of fish laid on top be substituted by half for another type. Our server explained that he'd have to ask the chef ("Hiro"), which was fine. We heard the server ask Hiro, as he was only about 5 feet away, behind a wall. "No." was his only response. The server sounded dismayed, and I believe he asked again, "You can't do it?" and the chef just shook his head... and said, "No." ? I've been coming to Kanki for almost 10 years at both Raleigh locations, and this has never been a problem. Not once. Our server delivered this news, obviously uncomfortable and very apologetic. He had no explanation to give us because HE was not given one (nor did he ask). Taken aback -- and wondering what the problem could be -- I asked for another type of fish as a substitution on the roll. He said again that he'd have to ask, stepped a few feet over, and received the same response: a flat, "No." He comes back, "He can't do that either. I don't know why..." ?! If the issue was that it would have changed the cost of the roll, we would have gladly paid that. If it was that it needed to be fully substituted instead of by half (never an issue before in 10+ years), that may have also worked. But it's ridiculous and unreasonable that we "can't" get the food that WE are paying for and eating prepared with the ingredients that WE would like. Kanki makes completely custom sushi rolls at a customer's request. How is this any different? I have NEVER received this type of treatment at Kanki. We were completely appalled. And as expected, the sushi roll was "okay," but a little strange (to me), because... surprise... I didn't like the fish on the top. We certainly don't come out spending nearly $100 for a single meal for two people and expect to be refused the food we'd actually like to eat, and worse, with no explanation or alternatives presented. Appalling. read more

We when we our family it was a special occasion and they seated us with more people and we didn't even fit ! So we had to leave the restaurant! read more

We celebrated our adult son's birthday at lunch We had an excellent meal superb service and great value. Everything about our time in the restaurant was very pleasing. The staff were friendly and attentive. Great time was had by all. read more

I had to come here to celebrate a friend's birthday. I am vegetarian, so I was already unsure of the experience, as they only have very few vegetarian options. I finally found tofu yakisoba which sounded good, but it came with a shrimp "appetizer" that they said they couldn't sub out without charging me extra. The waiter told me I should just pay the normal price and give my shrimp appetizer to someone else....false. I was about to cancel my order, but he came by and said he was able to find a way to sub out the shrimp appetizer for the tofu, but the "appetizer" just consisted of 2 cubes of tofu so I felt dumb for making a big deal of it. They also have tons of other up-charges like a $9 plate sharing fee. Even though I liked to food, I cannot give this place more than 2 stars. Since the hibachi tables seat 10, you will be seated with random people. The person cooking our hibachi was so unhygienic. He would go around adding food to everyone's plates by touching the serving spoon to their plates of food that they were already eating off of! It wasn't a light graze either, it was full-on and and gross. I don't understand how they have a 98 sanitation score. I don't want to catch whatever spit-borne illnesses the random people at my table have, so I will not be returning here. read more

If you really want sushi but don't want to leave the mall, Kanki will do, but don't expect to be impressed. My son and I came one day cause he wanted sushi and we were at the mall. The restaurant looked packed but it was because everyone wanted to eat hibachi, so thankfully the small-ish sushi section was available. The selection is typical. My son got a crush roll which was mostly just crunch, but not the good kind that is freshly made, it's the kind that has a texture of a slightly soggy Cheeto... same color too. I ordered some roll and when it showed up it was slathered in room temp mayo sauce. I had to scrape it off to even eat the sushi. Do people really want THAT MUCH mayo on their sushi??? Not me! Many other better places to go at Crabtree. read more