KIKU Hibachi & Sushi — Restaurant in Bedminster Township

I've been there many times over the years, but since the pandemic I haven't gone out much, and this is the first indoor dining I had since reopening. Naturally, a lot of anticipation. But it turned to be a very disappointing experience. First I found out this under new management since January 2121, so all new staff, menu may have changed as well, then the whole experience dealing with a poorly cooked entree totally soured my opinion of this place. A popular dish in many Japanese restaurants, I thought chicken teriyaki is impossible to mess up, yet that is precisely the case. It's a big piece of chicken breast that came out way too dry and even hard to chew. Not tender at all. My companion mentioned to me first, I tried it, had to agree that it was the worst chicken teriyaki I've ever had. Called over the waitress to express my disappointment very politely, she apologized profusely, but said the only thing she could do was to steam it (!!), Instead of offering a second chance of redoing the dish. All the while, her presumed manager, a middle-aged woman, stood over her shoulder without a word of apology or anything else. Waitress asked if we wanted anything else, we declined. So she removed the 1/10th consumed dish from the table. Then came the bill at the end, with that $18 still on it as if we had enjoyed it. What gall! I again called the waitress over politely explaining to her that it didn't meet my expectations, I.e. the proper way is to remove the item, as that is what a reputable restaurant should have done. She nodded, said she'll talk to her manager, then went to talk to the same woman, who looked askance at our table. Several minutes later she came back and said her manager could only give a 50% discount. I was displeased, but still very patiently explained to her why a diner would feel this way. Then she began what I believe was a relay of her manager's reasons, 1) manager has to draw a line if everyone complains about an entree (draw a line at what? I wasn't there to get a free meal, we hardly touched the poorly prepared dish, ); and 2) it's been ordered by a lot of people, none has complained (that may be so, but have they tasted this one they served? so shifting blame to the diner, essentially). This is quite appalling, insulting, and irresponsible of them not to look at their own reasons. Frankly, I don't understand their rationale, unless something else at play.

Despite decent sushi and sashimi (which are the reason for the 2 star), the overall experience is sour. I will not...

Cross posting from my YELP review:

This is my first negative review ever and I thought long and hard whether or not I should write this review. This has nothing to do about their food but on their customer service.

We (myself, my husband and 2 small kids, age 2&5) were in the are around 5p and called to see if there was a wait for the hibachi grill. The lady over the phone said that "now" there isn't but later they were booked. I informed them I would be there in 10mins and she said OK.

We get there and get seated right away, she did ask if we had a reservation and I clearly said no but I had called just before to confirm. No issues. They take our order and we are started with the soup, salad and drinks. Right before the chef comes out, one of the staff comes to us and tells us that we are seated in a reserved spot and that they made a mistake. She wanted to seat us in their dining area. We initially misunderstood her thinking she was asking us to move to the empty grill next to us so we agreed. She proceeded to take our soup bowls to the dining area without the grills. We stated we were there specifically for the grill as our kids love the show. We asked about the empty grill next to us and we asked about that and they said no. We declined their request to move and left.

It was pretty disappointing that she wasn't able to accommodate us despite their error. It wasn't like they realized the mistake as soon as we walked in. It had to have been a good 20mins since we walked in and the chef was literally coming out with our food (along with the other party we were seated with who appeared to have been waiting for us to finish our starters).

It was EXTREMELY poor customer service on the staff member in charge for doing what she did and frankly quite rude. I don't understand why they couldn't accommodate our request given their error. My son was sad he couldn't stay to watch the chef cook in front of us. We felt...

Great meal marred by terrible treatment of staff.

We celebrated our son's 10th birthday. My wife got him an ice cream cake and checked with the restaurant to ensure it could be dropped off and kept.

We were told that is fine.

My wife dropped the cake off at 11:30 and reiterated that it was an ice cream cake.

Upon finishing our dinner which was delicious with excellent service, we were told the cake had melted and would we want ice cream instead.

My wife understandably upset said ice cream would be fine but she expected the cost of the ice cream cake to be taken off the bill.

At this point, had that been done everything would have been fine. Instead...

We were told that when my wife dropped of the cake the chef told the server that it could not go in the freezer because there is meat in there.

The server then said it was her own fault and offered to pay the money out of pocket. My wife refused. No server should be responsible to pay for the restaurants mistake.

We were then told by the servers that they can't take the money off the check because the chef would fire the server. This is unacceptable.

Regardless of what actually was the cause of our cake being ruined the RESTAURANT is responsible.

Two things are true about this experience. 1. The chef has created an environment where the staff thinks it is acceptable to pay for errors out of their own pocket which is illegal. 2. This greatly impacted our overall evening. It sucked.

A very disappointing end to a wonderful meal.

Treat your...