Masu Sushi & Hibachi철판요리 — Restaurant in Carrollton

Yesterday I went to Masu Sushi & Hibachi with 3 friends to celebrate my birthday and another friend’s birthday. When making the reservation this was made known that we were celebrating our birthdays. Our reservation was for 6:30 pm. The other birthday friend and I arrived 8 mins early. The hostess seated us shortly upon arrival. We sat down across from a nice, friendly family. The waitress/server came. No introductions were made. She kept insisting on when the other 2 in our party would be arriving. I told her shortly that we arrived early. The family across from my friend and I chatted about if they’d been here before, they said yes, and told us about the happy hour specials and gave my friend and I their happy hour menu. I put in an order of wine and and glass of water and my friend ordered water then later hot tea, (again not being aware that there was HH specials until the family across from us. My wine happened to be on HH. The 3rd member of our party arrived and shortly the 4th after. It’s about 6:35 when everyone is at the table. My friend and I told the other 2 ladies about the HH specials and menu. When the waitress Betty returned she scolded the 2 older ladies about their tardiness that they were making the other party wait, mind you we came on a reservation for 6:30. The other 2 ladies began reviewing the menus. When our waitress came back she snatched the HH menu out of my friend’s hand. Our waitress’s name was Maria, extremely rude the entire dinner, I was referring to her as ma’am and miss when addressing her because she never introduced herself, she scolded me too. There were other parties at the restaurant that were celebrating their birthdays and were sang to along with being presented their dessert with a candle to blow out, none of that for our party. I will say Bobby, the chef who made our dinner was great, but abit heavy handed with the salt but, a was very friendly. When Bobby finished cooking out meal Maria immediately came to give us to go boxes and a check. She never asked if anyone in our party wanted additional drinks. She actually came to the family across from us, refilling their waters. I had to call for her to get more water, and when I requested she ran back to the kitchen to return with nothing, over to the register not to print out anyone’s check… just to delay. Overall I would not return. The hostess was nice and so was Bobby the Chef, but Maria’s attitude and service was trash. Near the end of our time there I went to the restrooms. While in the restroom my friend asked why nothing was done for our birthdays and Maria said she was not aware, although I had mentioned multiple times during our initial interactions with her and when making the reservation. All I can say is our best option would have been to just leave and figure out somewhere else another time. I would definitely not...

This place is half hibachi grill, half sushi bar. My review is solely of the sushi side, which has been a fantastic experience each time. I promise I'll try the hibachi side... next time. It was pretty busy when we arrived, and most were families for the hibachi side. The hostess was also our server so she was really working the whole floor and doing so with a pleasant energy & smile (you could easily tell, even under her mask). After selecting multiple items from multiple menus, while still contemplating the ramifications of ordering more, a gentleman stopped by with our drinks. Nigori and Sapporo, party started! 🥳

I think we were the most lively table in there, but it is a nice atmosphere... even without us there. We laughed & joked with the staff, and then our house salads arrived, gifting the other diners with a few moments of silence while we chewed & moaned like cattle grazing. Next time, I will order two house salads for myself. Appetizers for the evening included the Monkey Ball, an absolute go to favorite. So. Good. We also got fried Goyza, chicken yakitori, shrimp yakitori. All were amazing...pro tip; don't neglect the sauce that drips off the yakitori & hangs out on the plate. 👍

We finished off with the Sunset roll, which was good...kinda vanilla. The Texas Ranger Roll came to bat though & knocked it out of the park. Round the bases, and bring it home! Damn, that's a good roll. Little spice, lots of flavor.

A great dining experience, made even better when our server brought us a farewell shot each of Nigori, which cements my opinion of her awesomeness. Great time, every time here at Masu.

UPDATE: Today on a return visit, everything was still amazing as usual. However, we again ordered the sunset roll & this time it had a good amount of spice & was rather good compared to the previous visit. We also ordered the paradise roll & this paid with the sunset roll was an absolute flavor bomb. Nice heat from the sunset roll is excellently complimented by the mango on the paradise roll. It was a fantastic combo... even if you don't really like spicy, the combo of the two is enough to tamper down the heat & just lay the flavor on...

It upsets me to give one-star to Masu BUT our last experience was so negative here it’s hard to know where to begin. We had a party of 8 adults and 3 teens. We went to eat after a play and arrived at 9:10. It was a Saturday and the posted time to close was 10:30. Some of our guests were from out of town. The restaurant was slow when we arrived and we were first told by the waiter as we sat that they close at 10:30 and we needed to get our order in. How embarrassing in front of our guests. Then the bartender approached and wanted to know what I wanted to drink because they had just released him and he wanted to go home! Seriously? He was absolutely rude and literally said just that. The waiter remained rushed and told us at 10pm that he was ready to go home and if we wanted anything else he needed to know right then. Our guests from Colorado couldn't believe the staff’s attitude at every turn they made it clear that since we arrived at 9:10 that they had to stay to service a party of 11 that ordered cocktails, appetizers, wine, sushi, sashimi, and more! At 10:30 we were paying out the tab to leave and they brought up the lights full force in the dining room! Really? Again so rude and so unnecessary. I went over and pulled the manager aside and his response was, ” well we close at 10:30.” My family and I have been going to Masu since it opened with the original owners and we have seen several owners come and go but the lack of professionalism of this staff and management is inexcusable. We have been going so long that we have a credit of $250.+ to use from their frequent guest program. We will be using it soon and I'll let you know...