Yoko Japanese Kitchen — Restaurant in Cypress

I am extremely disappointed with my recent experience here. This restaurant has been one of my favorites for the past year, and I regularly order their combination fried rice. Unfortunately, the quality and customer service during my last visit were unacceptable.

I placed my order at 8:25 pm and picked it up around 8:46 pm. By the time I got home at 9:00 pm, the rice was mushy and sticky—nothing like it normally is. I tried calling several times that evening to let them know, but the phone line only rang busy, likely because it was close to closing.

The next day, I spoke with a manager named Cindy. Instead of handling the situation professionally, she was defensive and argumentative. She suggested that I “order the rice dry next time,” but this wasn’t a matter of preference—it was simply a bad batch. I explained that I’ve been a loyal customer for over a year and have never had this problem before. She responded by insisting they sold plenty of rice that night, as if I was making it up. I told her I have pics of the rice sticking to the spoon side ways and upside down, explained I called multiple times the night of and explained that by time I would have made it back to the restaurant it would have been close. I had to explain all of this because she was making it seem as if I was trying to receive something for nothing.

When I asked for a refund or replacement, she acted like she was doing me a favor “just this one time.” Her tone was rude, dismissive, and made me feel as though I was trying to scam a free meal, which was insulting. After she abruptly hung up on me, I decided I no longer trusted them to remake my food. I called back and requested a refund instead, but was told I would need to call again the following day since it was after 5 pm.

I rarely leave negative reviews, and up until now every interaction I’ve had with this restaurant has been positive. However, the way my concern was handled—especially by management—was unprofessional, disrespectful, and left me questioning if I will ever return. I told her that I was not interested in leaving a bad review I just wanted to be taken care of as a customer a loyal customer at that but considering how she handled the matter I felt compelled to write a review in detail. As a business owner myself, I know mistakes happen, but it’s how you treat your customers afterward that...

Singlehandedly the worst customer service I've experienced in a Japanese restaurant. I don't know if the waiter was new, having a bad day or literally just that bad.

From the start he seemed irritated to serve us and tried to get us to order food immediately. We asked for more time twice and were eventually able to order sushi lunch specials.

The waiter brought us miso soup and while one bowl contained actual miso, the second was literally just broth, which I had him return.

He then quickly yelled at our table from the other side of the room that something was wrong with our order and that something tuna was missing. I attempted to inquire further or change my order but he yelled OK and gave me a thumbs up instead of listening.

Then, when my glass of water was half empty, he came by and refilled it with iced tea. He didn't even look at the glass, just carelessly put iced tea in it. I attempted to get his attention but he walked right past me twice... so I eventually put the cup next to his cash register so he'd get the point.

So our food comes out and it's obviously missing something. He takes no notice that a glass is missing from the table and returns to his cash register.

He picks up the half iced tea half water mix and brings it to another table and serves it to them. This is a cup I drank out of ten minutes ago. I run to the other customer and tell him not to drink it and that it's dirty luckily before he takes his first gulp.

Then we realize that there are no dishes for the soy sauce brought to us. Not only that but both soy sauce containers say low sodium even though they have different lids. I guess we just take a wild guess?

The cherry on the top was the strange sauce dish he brought us halfway through eating gthe sushi. No explanation. No words. Just drops it on our table and walks away.

Yeah we didn't tip him. It's the guy with the bleached blonde mullet. Please fix your customer service problems.

Worst eating experience at a Japanese...

We went on a Saturday night and they were kind of busy but not packed. We wanted hibachi but for 6 of us, there was a 30 minute wait so we opted for a table. We were hungry and figured with a table we could get quicker service without the wait. Only four of us were eating. They put us in the back room and I think we were forgot about. It took about 15 mins for the waitress to come take our drink order. Not really a big deal. Four of us ordered our food and we sat chatting for a while. About 45 minutes later we asked a waiter and he said we was going to check. Our waitress came back and got another drink order and said our food was almost ready. Being a little busy, we were understanding. Another 45 minutes pass with no one coming to check on us or at least give us an explanation. We were done! My friend and I went to find our waitress, which wasn’t easy, and tell her to give us the check for our drink and cancel our food order. We went back to our seat and not 10 minutes later, they tried to bring our food. My husband’s steak was literally grey! It looked like they had thrown it in the microwave! We told them we did not want that and to give us the check. They did and the manager came over to apologize but at this point we were hangry! We paid our tab for the drinks and as we were leaving, two people were waiting for to go orders and said they had been waiting 45 minutes after the time they were told the food would be ready! I get that they may have been busy and understaffed but to not give an explanation is just not ok. Most of us have been in the service industry so we understand things happen but we should of at least been informed. We got there at 6:45ish and left at 9pm starving. We went over to Lupes and got awesome service. If Yoko wants to make it, they really need to beef up the customer service. I don’t think we...