Kobe Steak & Sushi — Restaurant in Elk Grove

2nd time for us eating at this restaurant on 17 April 2021 @ 6pm Pacific Time. We waited for 30 minutes before being seated. We ordered immediately: Two alcoholic drinks, a Volcano Sushi Roll and two Filet Mignon (medium well) & Lobster dinner combo plates. There were 3 other people (same group) that were seated with us at the table/grill. They placed their order immediately as well.

It took the staff over an hour to bring us all our drinks after we initially sat down. Then we waited another 30 minutes for one sushi roll. After an hour more of waiting, a waitress explained that there were only 3 cooks working that evening and we were offered free baskets of Edemame.

After another 45 minutes of waiting, I asked to speak to the manager. Some young male employee who claimed to be the manager told me that they were short-handed on cooks for that evening. He said that there were other tables ahead of us.

Finally, 20 minutes later a cook came to our table but noticed that the grill had not been turned on. The cook turned on the grill and left us with no other explanation. The same cook went to a different table and started cooking their food even though our table had been seated before that other table and we had been waiting a really long time. It took another 45 minutes for the grill to get hot and then another 30 minutes for a different cook to arrive to cook our food.

The current cook claimed that he had 12 years experience cooking – yet, the food was overcooked, dry and chewy. Also, someone at our table was allergic to seafood and the cook almost forgot and put the shrimp on the grill while the other food was cooking. After waiting another 15 minutes; everyone was finally served their ordered food. Again, our steak and lobster were dry and overcooked. We could not finish eating the food. It felt like chewing through leather and stale bubblegum.

When we all got ready to pay and leave, the so called manager apologized and offered to take 15% off our bills to compensate for the wait. Funny thing though, there was a “service charge” on our bills that added up exactly to the 15% amount that was supposed to be deducted from our meals. I questioned the young man who claimed to be the manager but he stated that he “wasn’t” the manager and the actual manager was not in the restaurant. He also said that there was a sign on the restaurant door notifying customers of the service charge.

I was appalled, irritated and perturbed at this nonsense we had to endure and I was totally upset that we were still charged the full amount of our meals and the offered discount was magically the service charge.

I don’t like waiting for my food (understaffed restaurant). I don’t like incompetence (grill not turned on). I don’t like overcooked food (chewy & tough). But I expressly don’t like being lied to (not the manager and no discount).

Perhaps it was the fact that 4 out of 5 of us at the table were African-American/Black and they expected us to be “dine & dashers” or that we were “too stupid” to add up our bills and notice that we got robbed. All of us complained and even a few other customers was questioning the same things we were questioning.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND EATING AT THIS RESTAURANT EVER!

Employee hiring & schedules is not the customer’s problem. Overcooked food is the fault of the restaurant cooks. And someone “playing” manager and lying about a discount for the total experience inconvenience – is laughable in the sense of insulting our customer and...

I went here with 2 of my friends and we all ordered different things so we could share, one got the ramen, another got a platter of meat with some veggies, and I got the bento box with Chicken and Salmon Teriyaki... Where to begin. I should mention we were in a booth not one of those cooking tables

First off the miso soup barely had any miso in it. It was bland and the soup was see-through which pretty much shows how much broth was in there.

I ordered my Bento Box and asked the waiter if I could side out my salad with an extra serving of steamed rice , and though he said yes I was given niether the rice nor the salad. This box costed about $16 as I recall

The Teriyaki sauce was mediocre. It was thin and frankly as it enters your mouth it practically rolls off your tongue and all you can taste is the meat. Which is fine if you wanted the chicken/salmon/etc without the tasting seasoning, but I digress. I'll admit the rice was good though. Sadly it was the highlight of my meal. The salmon and chicken were cooked fine but again. Lack of sauce taste

My friend who ordered the ramen struggled to eat it. And DARED us to try it. He didn't just say "You gotta try this" He dared us to do it. Which is not really a sign of good news. I got a spoon full of the broth and surprisingly was able to taste it with smell alone before it even touched my tongue. But I gave in to the benefit of the doubt and tried it anyway. And all I could taste is black pepper. It's not as though the black pepper was just a strong flavor in the broth, it was more like I stuck my tongue in soup made of nothing but black pepper. And the ramen DID NOT MAKE IT BETTER. The ramen was about $14 or so.

Now my friend who ordered the meat platter/plate had probably the worst of it in terms of just pricing. This platter was $35 on a maybe 12 inch x 5 inch plate. I'm guesstimating. The plate came with 3 items along with a seperate bowl of miso. A salad, chicken teriyaki, and some steak I can't remember what it was called. But regardless the chicken teriyaki suffered the same fate as mine. Albiet the sauce was even thinner than my teriyaki chicken which I was unaware of as a possibility with how light my sauce was. I didn't try his steak or salad due to my already thinning patience.

If there is anything I can say about the restaurant in a positive light, the WAITRESS (Not the waiter who messed up my simple order) was attentive to us in refilling our drinks, the Pot stickers (Gyoza) was delicious, annnndddd.... The rice wasn't too wet or too dry. So thanks for that. I really hope that going to the Hibachi Grill would change the quality of the food, but honestly with what i've experienced I wouldn't want to even attempt at spending another hundred dollars there (certain appetizers and sodas I didn't include in this review which is why the math...

Super disappointed with Kobe. We've been eating here since it opened years ago. Not sure if it's changed management since reopening after COVID, but the service was terrible last night (4/7).

I'll start first by saying, the food was delicious. Our Chef was awesome; great conversation, funny & entertaining.

We have always considered Kobe Special occasion dinner. Customers don't come in and get a $10 meal. Most groups are there to celebrate, expecting an expensive meal due to the atmosphere & personalized experience. Service should be excellent.

We came in for my daughter's & sister's birthday as a party of 6. I saw on the host stand that there is now a service fee for dine-in... not sure why, there was no explanation. What extra service was I paying for? I expected a $5 maybe $10 fee on our bill. Our bill of $220 had a $42 service fee! I could not believe it. That's more than 20% service fee. I assumed that it was the tip since most restaurants automatically charge that for parties over 6, nope. There was still an expectation for a tip.

We waited 11 minutes before I got up and asked for water. We waited 38 minutes before our dinner was started. We were only checked on 1 time after our food was cooked, waters were not refilled. The kicker, we were there for 2 birthdays, let the hostess know as well as the waitress. Neither were celebrated.

I would have not left a tip at all if I could have, except for the chef. I'm feeling that the service fee is to cover the lack of service that Kobe is providing. When it's automatically added to the bill, what do you need...