Kabuki Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Burbank

It's been some time since I've gone into this place. I remember it always being consistently good which is why I'm giving the food a solid 5/5. I just don't' understand a few things. I walk in to eat something at the counter. It should be stated that the host was nice. I sat down in a spot where I knew I wouldn't be in the way or too close to others at the counter. The whole observation of courtesy thing... Anyway. I sit down and I order some sushi from the chef and I order and entree from the server. No issues there. The food tastes fine. And honestly, once you get over the fact that there's competitive bull riding competitions being televised at the sushi bar in a Japanese restaurant where you get to watch grown men voluntarily sign up to be flung from angry steers, the experience gets better. Not much better though because while you're eating you also get a server with seemingly no practical concept of personal space who sees NO issue with reaching directly over your head or across your person to get plates of food to take to other tables. Its almost as if she hadn't a care in the world that her arm was inches from my face. It's not like I'm trying to eat without being startled or uncomfortable or anything like that... I wholeheartedly regret not just asking for a table. Then I would be completely oblivious to the sushi chef who clearly preferred the idea of drinking his Starbucks frappucino that was consistently placed oddly close to where he prepped food, and watching the bull riding competition on television. Maybe If I had sat somewhere else, I would have had a fine experience just like I remember having before. Overall the food was actually pretty good. Mainly, if the server had a basic concept of personal space and actually cared to be mindful that there was literally a patron she was reaching over, I'm sure this would have been a relatively pleasant experience. This place can do better, I've...

Good food that was tarnished by a poor manager. Among other items, we ordered an eel & avocado hand roll. The item wasn't on the menu, but the waiter said this would not be an issue and that they'd be able to serve it.

When the check came, the price of hand roll was double that of any other hand roll on their menu. The manager came to address the issue. He explained that the cost of an eel & avocado specialty roll was entered instead. Although the manager said that their system should not have allowed anyone to enter an eel & avocado roll as a hand roll, he also said that it's a common occurrence 🤷.

Even though he acknowledged the impracticality of the situation, he made no attempt to try and solve the problem. Instead what he did was: Justified the cost of the hand roll even through he said it shouldn't have been able to have been ordered Chewed out the waiter (who was actually very pleasant), and forced the waiter to apologize to us for a problem that supposedly the restaurant's system should have never allowed. If there was an apology it should have come from the manager rather than throwing the waiter under the bus. This manager was pathetic.

The manager took our receipt and printed a new one with an adjusted price for the hand roll. I asked that if this is a common issue, why not just price it how he just did. He said that the new pricing was done manually by himself. That's all great except that all of the ingredients of the roll were now priced individually. I paid the bill and left, but it was really petty that instead of charging a different premium roll, the manager actually sat down and devised a pricing model that he was unwilling to use for...

We were starving and running around doing errands in Burbank when we noticed the Kabuki Japanese Restaurant. There was a bit of a wait to sit down at lunch time so it was a sure sign this place must be good. Only had to wait about 10 minutes to be seated and then we quickly knew what we wanted to eat.

The Japanese tea came nice and hot especially on a cold day. It was just the right strength as I've had it at other places before and it can be a bit grassy tasting, but this was not. It was perfect.

We ordered a variety of dishes including the Miso Soup, California Rolls and Teppanyaki Chicken with rice. The Miso Soup was perfect on a cold day and it came out very quickly. Have to say the California Rolls were so fresh. Highly recommend the rolls and would order again next in the restaurant. The Teppanyaki Chicken was good but we both thought it was a bit on the salty side.

We had wanted to order another Hot Green Tea but the staff seemed very busy so I think we missed the opportunity. If I had to say what was my favorite part of the experience definitely the California Rolls and sitting near the window watching all the people go by.

This was a lunch menu and it had a lot of variety. It would be good to see what the dinner menu was like and next time we're in the area try the a few items from the dinner menu and hopefully be able to land a seat near the window again. It's the perfect place to people watch and...