Kobé Japanese Steakhouse - Altamonte Springs — Restaurant in Altamonte Springs

Normally I don't review a place like Kobe as they hold expectations, but this was very negative. I have experience with these places across multiple brands.

I revisited this Kobe today for my 19th birthday with my family and partner. To secure our seats at the very busy location on a Sunday night, we reserved our spots 3 hours in advance for 7 the same night. Upon our arrival at 6:50, our experience started great and in very similar fashion to my previous visits. We were quickly called up by the hostess to have our reservation verified and were seated within minutes. Upon being seated, we were placed at a hibachi table with some other parties directly across from a separate hibachi table already occupied by other guests. It was visible upon our arrival that this separate grill directly opposite of us had new customers as they were just receiving their drinks (~5 min after arrival). Keep this in mind.

For our initial experience, things started similarly. Lynn was quick to serve our menus and drinks. For the drinks themselves, I ordered a sweet tea. My girlfriend and her close friend ordered flavored sweet teas, one Mango, and one Lychee – (My girlfriend had to choose this, they didn’t have Passionfruit). Regarding the quality, the drinks were mostly poorly made. The mango tea was pleasant. The others were VERY overpowering. The lychee tea was insanely sweet (oversaturated sweet tea with generously sweetened lychee syrup). Make no mistake in my description, as my girlfriend was nauseous during our dining from this. As for my tea, same story. I like my tea Georgia level. This was levels past that.

Going onto food/drink experience, after receiving our drinks there was a MASSIVE wait time. We timed not only with phones, but also with reference of the earlier mentioned guests. We were left nearly unattended for 45 minutes with slow refills, and very late salads/soups. Recall that we made a reservation HOURS in advance for 7 the same night. Kobe charges you for no-show. Shouldn’t I then be able to charge Kobe for a 45 minute no-show? This whole time we experienced the guests across from us get their full experience. By the time the guests started enjoying their full courses, we were finally greeted by our chef, the head chef Onkyo. There was no compensation other than an apology in word from the manager.

Our hibachi experience itself was stellar, if it weren’t for some notable caveats. Head Chef Onkyo was amazing at his craft and had some unique tricks I had otherwise never seen, However Head Chef Onkyo made some mistakes along the way. For starters, among many jokes from behind the grill and the other guests at our table, Onkyo made a joke about me switching girlfriends with the couple at the hibachi grill across from us that was already served their food. The joke was unusual, and it seemed way off-putting when Onkyo backed it to the point of visibly angering the other guest. It didn’t sit well with me for the rest of the night. I doubt it sat well with the other couple either. Our food was great except for one big problem; the steaks. While Head Chef Onkyo went to request what level of doneness the other guests preferred, however neither me or my girlfriend were ever asked our preference. We can’t really ask ourselves in such a loud environment, either. We literally did not receive the chance. We did receive two sirloin steaks well-done, which is most definitely not what we would have requested.

After being served full courses, we were all full from excessive sugary drinks. We hardly could enjoy any of our food. Also, when Onkyo finally made it over to start us, the chef serving the hibachi table directly across from us, whose guests arrived 5-10 minutes before us, were not only finishing their food, but their chef was now serving a whole new table next to us. That was nearly infuriating.

Today I left this restaurant conflicted. I think I’ll stick with other experiences if it means avoiding the nausea, discomfort, and dissatisfaction we...

Last night I attended the Altamonte Springs Kobe. Kobe has always been a family oriented restaurant to me and I’ve never had any issue. Management has always been amazing as well as our staff. Unfortunately, within the last two weeks I experienced something that I never thought I would experience. Two weeks ago I had dinner at Kobe’s and our chef was Jason , he was very charismatic, and then he proceeded to make comments towards my 13 year-old daughter. Some other chefs have never done. He started asking if my daughter and my best friend her uncle were together they stated no my daughters only 13 years old he proceeded to still continue to have a conversation with my daughter and my boyfriend and I quickly change the conversation. Last night we attended Kobe, and we happen to get the same Chef as we were sitting there there were two additional couples there, and he stated to one of the couples “ Oh wow you got one there” I found to be extremely inappropriate. Then he proceeded to make a comment about my youngest daughter, stating that she looked just like her beautiful mother, which was my 13-year-old daughter. My daughter corrected him and said once again, we told you last time I’m 13 years old. He proceeded to state and looked over at me. Are you their sister? I stated to him know I’m their mother she’s 13 years old. He said “oh wow. Well, I mean never mind then.” And he continue to ask my daughter. At that moment, my daughter felt uncomfortable and she wanted to leave. She looked over at me and said mom this isn’t OK.. I was already upset and bothered. I spoke to the hostess and requested to speak to the manager as I got up and walked away. The manager was very kind and was very shocked that this happened. As we were leaving, I had a family member that was having dinner prior to us arriving and saw how upset I was and I explained to him what happened. He waited until Chef was done and confronted. Chef stated what he did was nothing but disgusting and predatorial. As staff and other family members, how he conducted himself he continues to stay that he had no idea of my daughters age but we have repeatedly stated to him how old she was. Her uncle had him apologize to my daughter, and we specifically spoke to the manager and stated that a predator like him should not be working at an establishment, where A family friendly location. Kobes Altamonte Springs has always had a great reputation until now. Management to remove the Chef, nor I or any of my family or friends will be joining this establishment again. All I wanted was to have dinner with my girls and this is what happened. The situation was escalated because this shouldn’t happen to...

After a bad day today at work my son & I decided to use my Kobe’s birthday award (I get every year and go.) We eat at Kobe’s SEVERAL times a year, it’s one of our favorite places to eat. Today for the first time we decided to dine in privately at a booth instead of doing the hibachi experience. It was peaceful & quiet ❤️ definitely something we will continue to do for now unless we are with our own group/party.

We had the pleasure to have Megan as our server. I am a server myself & we can be the worst critics 🫣. She was absolutely AMAZING! And I will request her ever time we go now. We also had the pleasure of Pom helping us as well & she was just as great with helping with any requests. We definitely will ask for her as well. They both were super attentive, patient, & sweet. The food was delicious & the portions were HUGE! We both got steak & chicken hibachi with the soup & salad. We also ordered wings & crab Rangoon appetizers. We had so much leftovers to take home -Tgats the best part… It is easily 2 meals with just the hibachi plate unless you have a huge appetite. 🤣

I have one suggestion they roll out the plates on a cart in an iron skillet tray which is of course sizzling hot. The presentation was nice however we ordered med-rare steak & the food is served on the iron skillet. Our steaks continued to cook due to the skillets being so hot & our medium rare steaks quickly began cooking to medium. I had to immediately call Pom over to ask for plates before the steaks cooked even more & the chicken cooked more… I didn’t want it to over cook and dry out. She immediately brought us plates & Megan came & replaced our steaks for us so we could enjoy our medium rare steaks that we ordered because the steak was already cooked to medium by then. We are grateful for her going out of her way to bring us new steaks, however I think they should not be served on the skillets or it’s going to do the same for everyone & if you have to bring out new protein for customers due to it continually cooking you will lose money. Just my suggestion.

Regardless after having a really bad day Megan & Pom made my evening so blessed… Bad day what? 🤣 Megan brought me my birthday cupcake that my son devoured & then came back before we left with some ice cream to help cheer my evening up...