Kiku Japanese Steak & Seafood House — Restaurant in Fayetteville

You know, I really thought that the Japanese food was gonna be better than the Chinese food but I was wrong. There is a Chinese buffet in Riverdale and the food is great this place here it was a hibachi so I figured I said you know what let me try that plus it’s in Fayetteville so it must be good because if you’re in Fayetteville, you gotta pay a lot of money for rent and if you’re paying a lot of money for rent, your food must be good because it better be good because you’re gonna need customers to pay that rent bill but I was 100% wrong first, we had to wait so much time for the hibachi man to come when he came. He did his tricks. Everybody knows the tricks. The tricks were always fine the kids love it whatever whatever but Food let’s talk about the food I ordered seafood combo, which is lobster scallops, shrimp vegetables so let’s start with the soup the soup was nasty. OK then they gave us plastic forks, and spoons. I don’t know what that was about. I had one metal fork in the metal fork was about the side of my hand. It was super small OK so then I had to salad. The salad was cool but I mean they gave me like one piece of tomato then let’s talk about the food. First of all he cut up my lobster rule number one don’t ever cut up my lobster OK that defeats the purpose of having a lobster if you’re gonna cut it up OK then he put all kinds of sauces on my lobster. No I don’t eat all that stuff on my lobster. OK then with the shrimp he did the same thing with the scallops? He did the same thing I had to put a little water on it cause I was like all of these sauces and seasoning is just gonna be way too much. It was like it was overcooked. The lobster was hard the scallops were good, but the shrimps was just it was just overcooked, and then the vegetables they look like they died. I was like oh my God so I had to nip through the vegetables the squash was OK. the zucchini was OK but all the other vegetables it was just cooked too much and it was just too much sauce like way too much sauce. OK then get the bill the bill for two people and a child, oh my God was $97. The tax was like $10 and the tip was like $20 they made us pay their own tip. They put their tip on it so the whole bill came to $121 and I’m trying to figure this out like let me get this straight. We had two hibachi dinners and the kids meal but like a water and it was $120 no not no that’s way too much way too much for $120. I probably could’ve just paid a phone bill or something it wasn’t worth it because I can go to him, what’s that place I can go to Kroger’s and get some lobster tails for 678 dollars I can grill them with some zucchini and they’ll be fire fire fire fire fire for like $20 never again...

I want to start by saying I (used to) like this restaurant and it's not my 1st time visiting this location. Unfortunatley my recent visit on Saturday 4/24 was not a good one at all.   We were seated after an hour wait time we were told it was an hour wait and we decided to wait..  The dinning area we were seated in on the LEFT HAND SIDE of the restaurant area/table #2 OR #3  If you are seated in this area, ask to be changed, as there is a terrible SEWAGE ODOR that came up and it really spoiled our dinner, the smell arrived as we were finishing our meal.  I guess I should have realized there was an issue when  were  being  seated another couple on the other side of the table was asking to be reseated.  We didn't know why?  At the time we sat down we didnt smell anything , we assumed they maybe wanted a certain waiter or Chef , we didnt smell anything ( at that time).   After being seated we waited an hour before the chef came to prepare our food.  Once he got there he said, one of the Chef left and they were short staffed.  The food was all prepared and we were trying to enjoy our meal,  but by the end of our dinner the SEWAGE ODOR appeared and was overwhelming, we could not get out of there fast enough.  There was a family on the other side of the hibachi grill who heard me say something about the smell and they said they smelled it as well !! I mentioned this to the staff and he said "oh he didnt know that there was a smell"  I said well how can you not know bout the odor if you work here, he then said "there was a smell before but they had it fixed" ??  Obviously it hasn't been fixed!!!.     I think this restuarant makes more than enough money to get there plumbing problems fixed. Can't blame the odor on the pandemic!!  This is certainly something health inspectors need to be made aware,  this can truly make someone sick.  Who wants a sewage smell while trying to eat.   I probably won't visit this location  in Fayettville again and if I decide to visit another KiKu it probably will be the one in Campcreek. I can't give more than 1 star, the food was good but that Odor makes it negative -100 stars. Please fix the ODOR...

My complaints aren't so much with the food, as generally I thought it was decent... Not great, not terrible, just middle of the road..

My complaint with this place is almost solely on the service and the scummy adjacent practices by the restaurant by tracking on a 15% mandatory gratuity regardless of party size.

We arrived, and made out drink order as well as our appetizer order. The server repeated that order back to us.. Several minutes later, we made our full lunch order. By the time both of our lunches were out, I finally decided to ask about the appetizer we never got. Turns out, he never even put in that order. Additionally, we barely ever saw the server, and he was not attentive at all. Mind you, there were only 3 other people in the restaurant in his section, so it's not as if he were busy...

Regardless of that, we were let down by our food, considering the price.. the hibachi chicken somehow was dry, while swimming in teriyaki sauce...

All these things I can forgive, and move past and would normally not even mention..

The scummy practice of adding a gratuity without mentioning that at all, however, almost rises to the level of infuriating.

There is no signage, at all, as you walk in nor is it mentioned by the server while seating you that gratuity will be added. There is no apparent opt out option either. Typically I expect such, with proper signage and disclosure for groups of 6 or more, but there were only 2 of us...

Moreover, when returning the payment slip, there is still a Tip line where an inattentive person may mistakenly tack on even more tip without actually realizing that tip has already been forced upon them.

It's really scummy to operate like that.

At the barest of minimum, there should be signage at the table disclosing that extra will be added to your bill.

We will not...