Teriyaki House Japanese Grill — Restaurant in Ankeny

Hello. I am a "chef" for a family of nine. I cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner almost every day.

Every now and a long time, I get out to try something new or revisit favorite places.

This time, something new. Teriyaki House Ankeny.

Very friendly staff and the place looked clean at the time of my visit. 10/10 for that.

While service and cleanliness are important, I come to taste food. When I looked at the menu and setup, I really wanted to turn around and walk out. Instead, I gave the place a chance, seeing all the good reviews.

When I opened the box, it reminded me of something my kid would make for me for a food challenge. Spring salad mix, fried rice with some onions, egg, and other ingredients, and 6 pieces of 16-20ct shrimp on top. It also came with 2 small sauce containers. I tried hoping that it would taste good, but that did not happen. Bland shrimp and fried rice. And lettuce is lettuce. Im ok with lettuce, but it needed a good dressing and maybe some ingredients to give it a worth my time and money.

The biggest problem was the blandness. The sauces were ok, but nothing great. They were certainly not going to save the meal. And, as I sit here 2 hours later, my stomach feels upset. I rarely have an upset stomach.

Maybe I am spoiled with my own cooking and my likes, but there should be no excuse for bland food. If you are going to open a restaurant you need to take risks and have something amazing.

The problem, is people don't cook anymore and have settled for bland, greasy, salty fast food. So when they come to a place like this....WOW.

I really hope cooking does not...

I've been a long time lover of this place for about 5 years, so I would consider myself a regular, however I'm leaving this review now after an interaction that left me feeling so special! I unassumingly went inside after they had closed by ten minutes since the open sign was still lit (they had reduced their hours by 30 minutes since the last time I was there), I was greeted by the same girl that helps me almost every time and explained that they had closed ten minutes ago and that they are limited on the menu but she would still take my order! I apologised profusely since had I known I obviously would not have went in. Not only did she take my order but also gave me extra chicken on top of that, and on one occasion she had given me free Crab Rangoon! I didn't catch her name but she sure knows how to keep customers, I'm so shocked by the way she treated me and I want to say thank you for being absolutely incredible, so this review is for her!! I can't promise you the same treatment but I can promise you delicious food and great customer service. My favourite restaurant of all time...

We tossed this place around with a couple others but after reading the reviews here and seeing pics of the food it was the best option. Unfortunately this is not somewhere I would return to. It started with the service and the extremely poor attitude when we were greeted at the register. According to the receipt this individual was named Sai and boy was he not welcoming at all for a first time customer. He gave me a hard time with my order and seemed annoyed that I wasn’t sure how to order everything that I wanted. Once we got through that and received our food I was not pleased at all with the quality of the Chicken Teriyaki which seemed like it might have been precooked and then heated on the flattop. I went back to ask for more Teriyaki and it was like we were trying to meet with Congress to even get a small cup of sauce. It was also annoying that he just slouched in the chair at the front and played on his phone. I wished it would have been awesome but it was quite disappointing. Even trying to throw my trash away took quite a bit of...