A–Aki Sushi & Steakhouse — Restaurant in Alafaya

1 star isn’t even what this place deserves. My fiancé and I were drawn to this establishment by the groupon deal, and from the minute that the wait staff was aware of this, we were treated like second class customers. We didn’t have a single waiter the entire night, instead the wait staff was shuffled around constantly so that our requests were always delayed and orders became confused. I went 30 minutes between my water being empty and it being refilled. A simple request for a spoon was ignored and forgotten. At the end of the meal, I had to get up and grab our own to go boxes just because we didn’t want to spend any more time there. The waiters we did have were rude and incompetent. On three separate occasions the waiter knocked into me as I was eating, even reaching completely over my fiancé while she was eating to remove our soup bowls. 45 minutes into a meal, another server approached us with an order of sushi (not ours) and I quote, “did yall order this or…”. Not to mention the mandatory 18% gratuity, which is just an added insult to the level of service provided here. Two words I could use to describe the food quality would be bland and uninspiring. The meat quality was definitely subpar. I have had better chicken out of the $10 packs at Walmart than what we were served. I picked 2 or 3 pieces out of my meal that were pure fat or just plain gristle. The vegetables were somehow both undercooked and burnt at the same time. I have also never seen so little rice served at any hibachi restaurant. The cleanliness was another matter to talk about altogether. There were still food remains left on vacant grills and the floor appeared to have not been swept that day. The entire place made me embarrassed that I picked it for a date, and definitely not a mistake I will make again.

For a hibachi grill, you expect and experience and there was none here. The chef demonstrated either complete incompetence or just no regard for the guests. He was lifeless and uninspiring, just making us our meals to move on with his shift. It made us and the rest of the guests feel uncomfortable as he constantly messed up in simple ways such as cutting the meat and when he dropped half of the meat from my date’s meal on to the area in front of her plate. The best thing about this restaurant was walking out of the front door knowing we would never be near this place ever again. I felt insulted from the first minute and the service was laughable at best. I asked to speak to a manager regarding the forced 18% gratuity due to the poor service received, and despite trying to keep a civil tone he would not back off and made fun of us for “not having enough money” which was clearly not the case. I’ve honestly never eaten at such a poorly run restaurant before. There are multitudes of better options in the area. Please do not make my mistake and bring anyone you...

My girlfriend and I live very close to this restaurant and go here to treat ourselves with all you can eat sushi for $20. The menu for the all you can eat is HUGE and also contains soup, hibachi, desserts, and a bunch of great appetizers. The quality of the sashimi is incredible, and is the majority of our orders. The tuna sashimi in particular is so tender it basically melts when you bite into it. When we ordered the sashimi it was arranged to look like a flower, and was a very nice touch. For $20 the food is a great deal.

We were just there tonight, and it was a completely different experience from usual in a good way in terms of customer service. We were immediately greeted upon entering by someone that seemed to be covering for the usual manager because he was not there. There were only about 3-4 other people in the place at the time, and we got our food pretty quick. Morgan was our waitress this time and last, and she did great picking up additional orders both times. The guy covering for the manager was in the hibachi uniform and was all smiles. He came over and asked us how the food was, we told him it was great he gave us two thumbs up and exclaimed "Enjoy the food!" and walked away smiling. Service tonight was amazing.

The only problems we have with this restaurant seem to stem from management. There have been times where we would walk through the door and not be talked to/completely ignored for 10 minutes, even though there's a door chime when the front door opens. The usual manager is completely deadpan, and looks like he would rather be anywhere else than at work. I took my family here for dinner once, and he waited our table. It took 30 minutes after getting us drinks for him to come and take our orders.. we ended up being there for two and a half hours even without all you can eat. After reading through some of the other reviews, it seems like others share the same issues with this guy. He wasn't there tonight, so maybe they did something about him? Who knows.

I didn't want to dock any points for it if the problem has been corrected, and this past visit was fantastic so I wanted to write a review. The difference was having a pretty mediocre time with good food to having a great evening. We'll be returning customers for a while, and this visit makes me want to come back more often.

Also, get the fried cheesecake if you have any room left....

This entire experience is about the restaurant and the server TONY C. I came in with my family of 6, including children, and from the moment we sat down we were neglected with extreme delayed service. After 20 minutes of sitting, an employee finally asked us if someone took our drink order, which did not happen as of yet, so he took the order. This same employee finally took our food order and then after that moment we were finally introduced to our server TONY C. When bringing the food to the table, he hovered the plates over my 11 month year old niece and when we all told him to be careful he did not respond because he had his headphones in his ear and continued to risk the danger of possible food juices falling on a baby. When finally tasting the food, the temperature of the food of our steak, chicken, and shrimp was cooked but cold and when we told him the issue at hand, his response was with a negative tone and asked “and what do you want me to do about that”. Moving forward he took the cold food and ensured he would bring the dishes out hot. We also order wine that he delivered half way through the booth over a 4 year old and expected us to reach and grab it. 4 minutes later he returned with the dishes at the exact same temperature, so at that moment we did not have the energy to keep going back and forth with a difficult server. We asked for to-go boxes and to speak to a manager and he asked us “for what” and said the manager wasn’t even in the building and eventually gave me his personal cell phone to speak to the manager on duty. After the conversation with the manager, he only agreed to take one meal off and provide a $15 gift card, which at that point I was not pleased but wanted to exit the establishment so I paid the bill. TONY C, then forcibly added auto gratuity without my knowledge and after over hearing that he was ensuring his tip when I was leaving the restaurant, my family returned and asked for the receipts and realized he added 18% gratuity and the other server told them he was not suppose to do that and that he was having a “bad day”. Ive worked in the industry for almost 10 years and have never wrote a review until now because this was...