Fuji Japanese Steak House — Restaurant in Charlotte

My family and I have been frequenting this location for years for holidays and birthday. Unfortunately, our last visit on Wednesday night will be our last. It was my partners birthday, and we have a 3 and 5 year old who have never been to a hibachi restaurant. Our server was wonderful, however our hibachi chef was frankly horrible.

When he first came out, our three year old and five year old said hello and he seemed to mumble something back under his breath before lighting the fire on the grill and absolutely scaring everyone at the table. We all know fire is apart of it, however we expected some kind of hello or how are you beforehand. His entire attitude was sour, and he only did one trick, that being the onion volcano. That lasted about five seconds before he put it out and started on something else. For the rest of our visit he didn’t say more than a few words. We were looking around watching all of the other tables laugh and be shown tricks and speak with their cook, but not us.

There were several times throughout the service that he snapped at both my partner and I for not holding out our plates for him. The table was crowded with plates and drinks and we were trying our absolute best while also juggling three kids.

When we told him the children wouldn’t eat vegetables he said “well I hope you two like vegetables” and continued to cook 5 servings of vegetables and pilled them onto our plates By the time the rest of the food was done, everything was falling off of our plate and we couldn’t eat without making a huge mess all over the table.

I expressed my concerns to the waitress and the hostess, who were both extremely apologetic. I also specifically told them I did not want to tip the cook. They said they would get a manager out to speak with me, but she never came. She gave us a measly 10% of a $130- with a 18% gratuity charge of course- which went to both the waitress and cook and had the waitress come out and tell us, who seemed absolutely embarrassed at this point.

I tipped her well, and told her and wrote on the bill I wanted 100% of the tip to go to her. Out of all the trips to Fuji Japan, I have never been treated like this or received such awful service from the cook and manager. I hope that the waitress received her tip and suggest that the owner speak to their cook about customer service because I come to your establishment expecting excellent service...

Summary: They have gone SO CHEAP! They put basically no food in the to go containers, it was no where NEAR the volume of food you have eating inside the restaurant. We even ordered extra sides of food. It was the biggest rip off of the past year. If it wasn't for how hungry we were I would have taken the food back and requested my money back.

We all know there are just some places you expect to not be able to clean your plate, yet we ordered double and literally were making more food at home an hour later.

Long Story: I hate I have to write this review as our family really loves the food from here (or used to). However, after this weekend we will not be going back, i don' think. Hungry and ready for some Hibachi we got Take Out this past weekend and it was...sad, just so sad. Sure the food tasted good but the shear volume was sooo skimped on I was tempted to return the food and get my money back. We would not be as upset if that was the standard amount but we eat inside a lot and always have food to take home. Now we do To-Go and don't have enough to even satisfy us. I was in the kitchen and hour later making more food! AND WE ordered more food to go then we normally do in house, Extra steak, salmon, and more..... just so we have more left overs but WOW this was just bad. Obviously going cheap and it sucks because we really liked this place.

More Details: The salad had so little of anything to it that i do not know why the put it in the bag at all. The soup was great flavored broth but that is all, nothing else in it...at all. The hibachi chicken was just half empty. Even the rice on the side was half full, the salmon could not have been more then 4oz, the steak was a whole tiny 5 pieces, Again why even waist a box. Latterly would have been better off just giving me a container for air, especially when hat cost and EXTRA $10. Overall rather than $80 the entire meals with all of the extras we added on i would not have paid more than $30 for the volume i got.

Please do not waist your time and money on this place. If you do, check your food size before...

THE LOW REVIEWS ARE REAL AND THIS PLACE IS GOING DOWNHILL - AVOID THIS RESTURANT

I used to go here all the time after I moved here in 2008, but have not been in a while and it's really fallen apart. First they don't have a positive air flow system so the huge fans they have for the tables is offset by airflow from outside. It's a dangerous situation and the amount of force it takes to open the door is unreasonable. A simple vent in the roof would fix that problem. That problem has been around since 2008. Never fixed it. The interior is tired, old, and dirty. There are just random bits of trash all over the place that have been there for a long time. There is a fork on top of the fish tank that is covered is dust that no one seems to want to clean up. The service is pretty terrible as well and lacks any kind of attention or care for the customers. The people who work there don't speak English as a first language and while that is OK, they also don't make any attempt to make you feel welcome or like they are there to take care of you. You have to run them down and force them to help you at all times of the day.

The food quality is pretty average to poor. It's not high quality food. It feels like the worst quality they could find and then just did nothing to improve it. The soup is average and not that tasty. The fried rice is not that great and dry with no flavor, and the meats are just sub par quality and overcooked.

I still have no idea how they are still open and people go there. Even the "Yum Yum" sauce is bland and disgusting. They could use some big changes. While the staff were all running around not helping anyone the 3 guys working at the sushi bar were doing nothing and clowning around. Seems like they are understaffed in the area that is busy and over staffed if the sushi boys have nothing to do. The entire Rivergate Shopping experience is pretty terrible to begin with and this place makes me wonder how it's even still open.

In the words of Randy "That's a no for me dog"...I won't...