Takoyaki Restaurant — Restaurant in Cleveland

I am not one to leave a review, and understand that some businesses and workers just have an off day where they do not perform the best, however my most recent experience here just has been eating me away. My family and I have visited this location a few times now, and have enjoyed their food. First let me say that the food is amazing, great selection and average market pricing for what they serve. My family and I walked in and instead of being greeted, we found the hostess looking down at her phone watching a video with a headphone in her ear to listen to it, not even a small one you can hide, but a big bulky one. She never looked up, smiled, or said hello. She just took a deep breath like it was an inconvenience, and asked "how many', again never looking up at us, when I told her the amount in our party (which could very easily have been seen) she proceeded to ask "dine in or hibachi?" When we told her our preference, she grabbed a few menus, and walked away... never said to follow her, I understand that it is commonsense to follow, however, it would still be good customer service to state that. Again, never looking up or smiling at us. Because of her just walking away she was 10 ft ahead of us and we had to chase her down. She dropped the menus on a table and was already out of the room before we even go close to the table to confirm that is where she was seating us. Shocked on how this has already started I looked around to make sure we were sitting at the right place and she did not have us somewhere else. I barely had time to sit down and hand the menus out to each of family members before our server was at our table. Fast service, yes, but it was his approach that rubbed me the wrong way. "what do you want to eat?" We hadn't had time to settle let a lone look at the menu. I explained that to him as nicely as I could, and again like I was a bother to him he quickly demanded what we were going to drink. We all ordered waters. Our table was just outside the kitchen, so it did not take very long at all to walk the 10ft, get water cups, and bring them back. Gave us the water, and again asked what we wanted to eat. this isn't even two minutes after taking our drink order, and still not enough time to look over the entire menu or sushi menu. When I asked for a few more minutes he stared at me like I was being rude to him. Then proceeds to ignore our table for what felt like eternity, and we had to ask another waiter to take our order. He was kind, smiling and very helpful. When our food arrived, it was the original server again and I asked for chop sticks for each of us, he only gave me one. we were a table of 4 and 2 were children. I caught the nicer servers attention, and asked for another set of chop sticks and asked for two for the children. He immediately got what we needed and asked if there was anything else that he can grab for us. When we finally finished eating, still a long while before they were closing, no one including the hostess that was at the counter, said good bye or thank you for visiting. Purely ignored by all the staff. I am a big believer in quality customer service, greeting people and thanking them from their business. There was so much more that they fell short of with our visit, and this was now 2 days ago, so things are not as clear as I would like them to be for a proper review. Based off of this experience my family and I will be looking for another restaurant to go to when we are wanting hibachi and sushi, and thought I would let people know so that they can make an informed decision to support this business or find another...

Total Disappointment. Dull presentation. Loud and noisey. Burnt food. Rude server. Her name was Shelby. She displayed favoritism towards another couple sitting next to us, yet hardly paid attention to my son and I at all. It was my son's first experience eating Japanese and I wanted it to be memorable and exciting. We we're seated at a table with NO ONE ELSE sitting there and she put us in the far corner. My son wanted to sit in the front center so he could see. So we moved. When she came back to take our order 15 minutes later, she snapped at us for moving and said we would have to move back into the corner. I told her my son wanted to sit in the middle so he could see. And she said "Everyone wants to sit in the middle, but we have other people who we need space for." Then added "if no one comes in, you can sit there." We got our drinks and sat there another 30-45 minutes before anyone ever came back in there. 2 young couples came and we're then seated by Shelby on the sides of the table, neither one got the center where we had tried to sit. Our glasses still sat empty while she promptly attended the couple sitting next to us. "Anything to make sure you're comfortable here" she would say as she served them with a smile. Another server brought us our soup and salad. Just as the cook arrived to start the show, Shelby came in and removed the center 2 chairs and table settings where my son and I attempted to sit. She said "we need more space here" but she only moved the chairs to the back of the room against the wall, so we COULD HAVE sat there with no issues. The cook burned the eggs in the fried rice. And also put food on my son's plate that he clearly stated he didn't want. Shelby snatched my soup away from me before I was finished with it and slid all the soy sauce and seasonings towards the one couple next to us. Both my son and I felt very unwelcome. And then less than 30 minutes after leaving, I got sick and what I got to eat, came back to haunt me. One of the worst experiences...

A Health Hazard Disguised as a Restaurant!

Takoyakai was an absolute train wreck from start to finish, and I regret ever stepping foot inside. Our group of four came in expecting a decent Japanese dinner. What we got instead was overpriced garbage, the kind of food that makes you question your life choices.

The sushi was a joke—fish that tasted like it had been thawed and re-frozen multiple times, rice that was cold and clumped together like paste, and rolls that fell apart the moment you picked them up. The takoyaki was a mushy mess—undercooked on the inside, soggy outside, and completely flavorless. Nothing we ordered had any redeeming quality. We ended up leaving most of the food untouched, and that was probably the smartest thing we did all night.

Service was an insult. We sat for almost 15 minutes before anyone even acknowledged us, and when they did, it was like they were doing us a favor. Our server barely spoke, got our order wrong, didn’t check in once, and looked annoyed every time we tried to ask for anything. Zero professionalism, zero hospitality.

On top of that, the atmosphere was unbearable. Giant overhead fans blasted so loud it felt like we were dining inside an airplane hangar. No exaggeration—we literally had to shout across the table just to hear each other. It completely killed any chance of conversation or enjoyment. It was miserable.

Then came the final blow: that night, my wife came down with severe food poisoning. Violent vomiting, fever, stomach cramps, the works. We had to rush her to urgent care. She didn’t eat anything else that day, and none of this started until after that meal, so we know exactly where it came from.

Takoyakai isn’t just a bad restaurant—it’s a health risk. The food is trash, the staff couldn’t care less, and the environment is hostile to basic human interaction. Do yourself a favor and stay away...