This review is very tough to write, as I felt the food quality was definitely a 4, but the service really drove the decision to make it 3.5 (3 star).
We arrived when just a few tables had entered before us and were promptly sat down. Little did we know the question we answered after being seated would change our whole experience: they asked if we wanted the waygu beef, which is yaniniku, so the primary focus of the eatery, but neither my family nor I eat beef so we ordered seafood items and poultry instead.
The chef's appetizer platter came quickly as was a delicious. It had a variety of vegetable dishes, ranging from pickled to grilled. The scallops my spouse ordered is when things got weird, the first guy who came to our grill and placed the scallops on and said you'll know when they are done when the butter melts, ok fine. My spouse ate them all and then we waited and waited and the dude never returned (he was the worst server of the night) and decided I guess a table with a bigger beef order should be prioritized. After we waited and others at our table were looking our chicken that was left out for 20-30 minutes and shrimp just sit there. The rice and soup we ordered finally came. We asked the server who brought the soup, to see if someone could help us cook the chicken and shrimp (mind you, none of the other tables we could see were having to cook themselves) and he said sure I'll look into it. Then the person we originally ordered from came around and asked how our meal was going. I was honest and said it looks like everyone else is having their meal cooked for them, but ours we're having to to cook for ourselves, she gave us tips and then walked away. I think we cooked the chicken and shrimp correctly. We ordered a veggie dish after for the grill and finally one nice gentleman (guy with a cross necklace) and Ella a very nice server appeared which at least made the end of our meal more pleasant.
While we were were there we observed another of two table getting our treatment while the rest of the other tables with bigger parties and/or more meat orders where treated more consistently. I think if you got Ella, the necklace guy, one other guy we got you'll come away with a nice experience, but if you have our first cook of the night or the person we ordered from originally your night will make you decide that the food quality isn't worth the return. In summary the inconsistency and some times absent service makes this a restaurant not to return to quickly in my book.
Also, other tables were asked if they wanted assistance cooking or not, so if we were asked and given tips that may have been fine --but given that the choice wasn't provided and our experience was different from most other tables, we felt the need to call this out. We also would have ordered more and were initially very excited to eat there as we do love grilled poultry and seafood. Maybe they need to have guidance on cook times and how to tell when food is done if they want to align more with the pure yakiniku style of the table cooking for itself. read more