Toyo Hibachi & Asian Fusion — Restaurant in Colchester

One of the worst experiences I have had at a restaurant. Traveled over an hour to see our friend's band, Skylark City, play and were met by a generally nice staff... except for Janelle. They asked us where we wanted to sit for dinner while we waited for the show later. The options were the Patio, Restaurant, Lounge, or Hibachi. We chose the Patio. The first thing Janelle did when she came out to take our orders was ask for our ID's because "one of us didn't look old enough to be here". We didn't even have a chance to order our drinks yet. When we asked why our friend had to show his ID to order a coke she told us we couldn’t sit on the patio. Her attitude then got even worse and she started bickering about how she wasn't going to get fined for us and was down right RUDE. She gave our drink orders to a new waitress and told her she could have us because she didn't want anything to do with us. I’m not quite sure why you have to show your ID to sit outside (not at the bar) and when you ask why you are met with even more attitude and unprofessionalism. The new waitress was as sweet as could be and even hugged us! After we ate we went to go to see our friend play in the band and stood outside the lounge until they told us we were allowed to go in. Janelle then came and found us and told us we were not allowed to be in there. All of us. Only our under 21 friend left the room and stood just over the entry. Multiple people told him he could go in there and stand to watch the band play but Janelle INSISTED he couldn't because she "already said he was not allowed". There was, however, a couple children (couldn’t have been older than 5) enjoying the show with us.... After sitting at a table for about 20 minutes we decided to get a drink and the bartender told us we HAD to use the waitress, who of course was Janelle. Funny how she could come up to us to tell us that we couldn't stand in that room but she couldn't take a drink order. When we got our drinks that we ordered from the bar Janelle threw the bill on our table and said "here's your bill" as she kept walking. Our entire party that evening works in the customer service industry. It's unfortunate that we will never be back to your restaurant because your waitress is more concerned with her power trip than being a waitress. We understand rules. We understand your employees don't make the rules. But what we don't understand is rude, condescending employees that go out of their way to make sure customers have an unpleasant experience. I did not leave a tip for Janelle on Saturday but I do have one for her today- get out of the customer service industry. It's not for you. Your staff did not inform us that we couldn't sit on the patio at 6:30pm if we weren't all over 21. Therefore, it is your mistake. If you were any good at your job you would have just apologized for the confusion and asked us to move POLITELY! We are nice, reasonable people who deal with this kind of stuff every day. You don't have to be a witch. You had an opportunity to earn regular customers that night as the ONLY reason we visited your establishment was for Skylark City, but instead we will be seeing them at every...

Up-scale Asian (Chinese and Japanese cuisine and employees) dine-in and take-out (there's an app that you can use to order food at, but the app is from a 3rd party) with a bit of a price-tag. Meaning, this is not your usual Chinese buffet place.

Having been there for the first time (for end-of year holidays celebration, 2016), I spoke to a lady at the front, to inquire about reservations. Because not having had called in advance to place a reservation, there was no place available for my party to sit down and enjoy the full Hibatchi experience (AKA show), but we were still able to order from that part of the menu. The lady had told me that during holiday seasons it's best to place a reservation at least one (but ideally two or more) week(s) in advance of when wanting to eat there and experience the Hibatchi show; during off-season, at least several days in advance would usually be a good idea too.

Which means that they keep very busy, which also is the reason why their food is very fresh and, from my experience, very well prepared and as such very tasty. Their soup, which is part of the Hibatchi dinner, was excellent - even better than those of Hibatchi restaurants in other cities in various states that I liked before, which is an achievement.

They also have a sushi bar - I'm not in particular into seafood, so I did not try that out (they have non-seafood type of sushi there too). But it was fairly busy, so it must also be quite excellent, in case you are into sushi.

All in all - if you want to experience "something special" and don't mind paying a higher amount for such excellent experience, you won't go wrong going there (regardless of whether you like seafood or not) - the decoration is great, the atmosphere very nice and the food...

Overall the food was okay at best, cleanliness of the restaurant was okay at best, the major downside to our visit was at checkout. We had a $100 gift card that was roughly 4 years old (it was given as a house warming from our realtor). We presented the gift card with the associated receipt showing the date of purchase, amount, and the number of the gift card. The manager came to us and said the card had already been used in the amount of $50 leaving only $50 remaining. I asked for the date it was used, she went back to check on that and came back with a different story. This time she said the gift card was only purchased for $50 and not the $100 that is listed on the receipt with the matching gift card number. Long story a bit shorter….the card was clearly a $100 card, it was old and they chose not to honor it for the full value. We paid the balance and left. Gift card issue aside, we would never have returned, however it’s because of the gift card this review is being written. Supposedly it was the owner who made the decision and told the manager how to deal with the gift card. Shame on you, terrible management decision, you certainly lost us forever, hopefully you lose a few more customers as well because...