Tokyo Japanese Steak House — Restaurant in Cocoa Beach

If I could honestly put 0 stars I would. May 24, 2025, me and my friends came to this Tokyo as we were here for vacation and as a Nashville native, we have a Tokyo restaurant so I have been here before and knew what to expect …….. as to see this was not the case this day. As we walked in, I noticed the atmosphere was quite different from the one in Nashville. It was much smaller and honestly it wasn’t as up to par as in smell wise, staff, and cleanliness. When we were seated, I instantly noticed the plates. The decor looked like spilled ketchup stains and for me, I would have chosen a different style. On top of that, I felt my plate and it felt very greasy as well as my friend’s. When asking the greeter for new plates, she got an attitude while getting us new ones stating smirkily “what’s wrong with them”. When we all ordered our drinks, I asked for a cocktail and the 3 others asked for waters. When asking for soup or salad, we all asked for salad and I requested soup and salad. As my other two friends have never sat in a hibachi place before, they were going to share a plate so they didn’t know that had to be expressed. After one friend ordered she looks at the other and says “So you not going to say anything” and she told her that she was sharing with the other friend. She then tells her the fee to share a plate and that she needs to speak up which was very rude and honestly uncalled for. While waiting for our salads and soup, we noticed the 1 of only 2 cooks there coming out was rolling the food out in a very raggedy cart. As I’ve been to Tokyo before I’m familiar how they roll their food out in carts, but their’s looked more so janitorial. When our salads came out, our mouths instantly dropped. The dressing they had on our salads was of an orange color and didn’t even look like dressing, it looked like caviar. When we asked one of the other lady servers what the dressing was she couldn’t even tell us. I asked for ranch and I’m not sure if she couldn’t understand or properly say the words but she instantly says they have yum yum sauce and then says white sauce after. So I then proceed to tell her no, ranch is white and yum yum sauce is not white. She then for the second time says “Yum, yum” and I as clear as day can see she was missing all 32 of her teeth. I instantly in this moment knew this was not a place I wanted to be spending my hard earned money. When the greeter comes back out we tell her how we wanted to just pay for what we already had on the table and my cocktail, but we no longer wanted to eat there. She then huffs and puffs and says we can just go. The other two who wanted to share their food proceed to go to the car and me and my partner proceed to explain how the Tokyo in Nashville we go to is completely different and this just wasn’t what we expected to experience and how we didn’t want to cause any disrespect and at least try to pay for my cocktail. She wouldn’t let us pay for the drink and then advises how it’s honestly okay and that “you guys can just go to McDonald’s” then immediately laughs as in she is joking but clearly we know she was not. As a Black American this was very offensive!! We will go to McDonald’s in a hurry if we trying to get something quick and spend a good $30 too and that’s with the deals included. Not only the racial joke, she was rude as soon as we were seated which is not good customer service and a place I will never go back to. It is June 19 and me and my friends are still affected by this experience and from research, still have no knowledge of what sauce was even on our salads. The Tokyo in Nashville has no idea as well. I will be reaching out to corporate to file a complaint and will be seeking further disciplinary actions for the greeter who has caused emotional distress for me...

Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse- Cocoa Beach, FL- 4 Stars

“I'm sure one of the frustrations of being a Western enthusiast of Japanese food and culture is you're confronted every day with the absolute certainty that you will die ignorant.” – A. Bourdain

One of the reasons I dislike coming to Cocoa Beach for reviews is that there are 100 restaurants and the majority are clip joints or tourist milkers. Don't misunderstand me here, I'm not knocking the tourists, I love not having a state income tax, I am, however; knocking those that rip them off as they give other proprietors, the area and the state, in general, a bad name.

Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse is a joint in the Teppanyaki style of food prep. If you are unfamiliar, this is the style that was invented in Japan post-WWII by an enterprising entrepreneur by the name of Shigeji Fujioka of the Misono chain of restaurants in Japan. Most of us here in America know this style from the Benihana restaurant chain. Certainly a tourist trap, it boasted a fun touristy décor and a light warmhearted staff.

My waitress was Davina and she is on top of things, prompt and 4000 times better than Amber in my previous dining experience in Cocoa Beach. Being served by a professional of Davina's caliber finally brought my blood pressure back down from dealing with the aforementioned Amber. I asked Davina for the Surf and Turf with Scallops and medium-rare bovine. After taking the orders of the rest of the table, Davina disappeared to the back and we soon saw our chef wheeling his cart of culinary destruction to our table. Everyone knows that half of this dining experience is the show the chef puts on and this guy, while his name escapes me at the nonce, put on a hell of a show. He was awesome and the food was downright wonderful. Grilling sliced steak medium-rare is not for the novice and this chap pulled it off in spectacular fashion. The Scallops, while slightly overdone for my taste, were delightfully flavored and left a succulent aftertaste. The salad was fresh, crisp and accompanied by the obligatory ginger-sesame dressing and I found the fried rice, while not my favorite item in the world, to be cooked properly with crisp veggies and properly seasoned.

I always enjoy having my food prepared in front of me. This place is technically not in Cocoa Beach proper (this is no-man's land) this must be why the food is so much better.

The Big Boy says, “If you are in the mood for some tasty grub, a good show and a fun time, give this place a try!...

Normally we love this place. We celebrate Thanksgiving Eve here every year for the last 4 years. They close at 9pm so I called to make sure they could accommodate our party of 5 by latest 8:15pm as my son was getting out of martial arts at 8PM. They assured me that everything would be fine if we were all seated by 830PM. We all arrived early and were seated by 815pm! Upon arriving I guess the reservation details were not really communicated very well. The front of house host or waitress was kind of rude. She sat us anyways letting us know abruptly that we would have to be finished by 9PM. And the only reason I would still be writing this is because the behavior continued the ENTIRE dinner. Rushing us out was an extreme understatement. The chef was amazing! The waitress was pushy, rude and bordered balant lack of respect. She basically shoved to go boxes in my lap to the point my husband started to speak up. Mind you, we were done eating as a group at 8:40PM. We had a full 20 minutes before they closed. I get it, I understand restaurants, especially coming in before they close, before a holiday. But I did my due diligence in this case. I called 2 times to verify this appointment as it were an important dinner with coparents involved, a first dinner with them actually. So dinner was rushed, it was akward...next year our family will make a new Thanksgiving Eve tradition. Food portions are good here, quality of service is...