Big Iowa BBQ — Restaurant in Tokyo

So I'm an avid BBQ at home in California currently and I've been looking for a good spot while I'm here in Tokyo, and I found this place. Unfortunately I feel like the reviews are very misleading. A top rated bbq place I consider Franklin's bbq or Snows bbq in Texas, and this place honestly doesn't hold a candle to them, or spark for that matter. So let's break it down

Service. 10/10 friendly staff and if you're Japanese isn't the best the staff speaks great English.

Beverages: 3/5 Beer selections are very limited and I wish they had more American beers to offer at self proclaimed American bbq restaurant. They did have corona which was nice with actual limes. The food 2/5. Here I genuinely believe I am being generous I don't see how the food resembles American bbq in the slightest other than the fact that they source their pork from Iowa. Because to be completely honest if this restaurant was in the states it wouldn't last a week against actual American bbq. If anybody knows anything about American bbq they know that brisket is the crown jewel. So the brisket is what I tried and it was very dissapointmenting. The good things about the brisket is that it was moist and tender, which are the most important components but it's not enough. The bark on the brisket was very soggy and didn't compliment the brisket at all. I have some serious suspicions that they don't fully smoke their bbq here. Brisket is by nature on of the longest cooks because of all the connective tissue that needs to break down in the meat. Because of the long cook it is the easiest piece of bbq to get a beautiful smoke ring. The brisket I had, had no smoke ring whatsoever I'm not even sure how this is possible if you smoked it low and slowm more than likely the either did a short smoke or they cooked it entirely in the oven or sous vide. My money is on sous vide because of the bark. Further testament to this is the lack of smoke flavor from the meat, the only smoke flavor came from the black pepper. So overall sad experienc. If they want to make it an American BBQ experience the meat itself I feel isn't the best thing to ship in, they should focus on the wood in my opinion, especially because the customer is fronting all the cost for the...

What a disaster. I had such high hopes for this place.

First of all, when I asked for the check, 5 beers that I hadn't even ordered were on the check, which came out to 17,700. When I pointed the error out to the staff, they apologized and said they would correct it, and attempted to walk away with my card, so I took it back and told him to just bring me the new check. Why would he try to walk away with my card? He instead brought me a phone and asked me to sign for the check (I paid with card), and when I looked at where I was supposed to sign, the bill was now 19,700. I pointed this error out, and the staff let out an annoyed sigh and then proceeded to change my check to the correct amount of 10,700. I couldn't believe that they attempted to overcharge me by 9,000...TWICE!

Secondly, the main reason I came was for the Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich. Wow was it awful. The nice thing is that I could tell it was freshly fried...because it was still drenched in the fry oil. Nashville hot chicken is also supposed to be.....hot. My food was not at all hot, and the sauce on the chicken was one of the furthest from authentic I have ever had. We were also given Alabama white sauce, which essentially tasted of just kewpie mayo mixed with apple cider vinegar (not at all authentic). I get it, BBQ ingredients are tough to find in Japan, but don't mislead your customers.

Lastly, my beer was given to me in a glass that smelled awful. I pointed this out to the staff, who didn't appear to speak English. So I repeated my issue in Japanese, which he also didn't understand. I had no clue which language to speak to get my point across, and ended up drinking a lukewarm, smelly beer.

I had such high hopes for this place, but I will never be...

Owner - If you read anything from what I write, let it be this: You've been getting the same reviews on the meat quality and the watered-down drinks for 2 years now. Why hasn't anything changed? Booked a few days in advance, as we were excited to have some good weatern food after living in Japan for almost 2 years. We ordered 2 brisket buns, that were absolutely horrible. The buns themselves were stale, dry, ans not hot, and the meat was cold, dry, and had a severe lack of moisture. Other than a squirt of bbq sauce, the buns included nothing in them. Not even coleslaw salad. Just dry meat with a bit of sauce in a stale bun. We also ordered the mac and cheese, and the sauce tasted so fake, like it was made from a freeze-dried powder. Definitely not a trace of real cheese in there. We ordered coke as well, in the price of ¥1,000 (!!!) for a glass, which was so watered-down that we asked for a new one, and received the exact same thing. Read here in the comments that the beer is watered-down as well.

The fries that came with the buns were okay. Hot and salty.

We also ordered the mozzarella sticks and nachos. The nachos tasted as if they were fried 50 times, the salsa was cheap and cold, and the mozzarella sticks were actually good, but the sauce that came with it tasted like a cheap pasta sauce.

We were compensated after being asked how are things, but the last straw was definitely seeing reviews from anywhere between 2 years ago and now, saying the same things, but nothing has changed. The complaints are still the same. Hire new cooks with passion for cooking, or listen to the current ones if they have improving...