Haiku Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Quintana Roo

This is a very difficult review to post. The food was good but not great, although being from Vancouver which probably has more Japanese restaurants per capita than any other city in North America, I'm both experienced and biased when it comes to Nigiri sushi, rolls, miso, tempura, etc.

In fairness, Haiku does not promote itself as a pure Japanese restaurant so much as a Teppanyaki style establishment. The primary difference between the two is that the former involves prepping food behind a sushi bar or in a kitchen, whereas the latter is more of an exhibition of the Chef cooking the food in front of a guests sitting around a griddle/grill combo while he animatedly engages and entertains with gymnastics involving his cooking utensils and food preparation which can sometimes include him firing food into guests' mouths from a distance using a spatula or fork.

Unfortunately, while all that was manifesting at an adjacent station (where most of the guests totally nailed catching the food in their mouths and frequently squealed with delight), our chef was almost mute while benignly cooking our food without making a peep. That's not what I (literally) signed up for.

It's worth mentioning our waiter was very attentive, hovering nearby at all times monitoring our needs, whether that was filling our glasses with water when half-full [half-empty? 🤔] and clearing dishes when done eating.

I would have liked to be able to give a better score than two or three stars, but the average-good food quality and waiter's professional service couldn't outweigh the disappointment of our Chef being completely untrained in the art of Teppanyaki cooking, and likely not speaking any English....

Pro: The show-cooking was very nice and the food suuuuper delicious. We had Steak and Shrimps.

Con: The waiter forgot one drink and also fork and knife for my wife (you can't eat steak with chopsticks :D ) When he threw down the chopsticks of my wife he didn't apologize but put them back on my wife's table mat without saying anything.

We will visit Haiku again but hope for...

The restaurant has two options for food, the teppanyaki option where you sit with 4 other guests in an U shaped tables, or the traditional a la carte menu with sushi, ramen, etc. The teppanyaki is somewhat limited and frankly, tasteless. The show that procedes it and the fried rice however are top notch, some deserts are great too ! All in all, dont expect much and you wont be...