Miyabi Japanese Steak & Seafood House — Restaurant in Fayetteville

Former Employee Review – Miyabi Japanese Restaurant (December 2022 - May 2024)

I would like to offer a candid and honest review of my time working at Miyabi Japanese Restaurant. As a former kitchen helper and back kitchen cook, I feel it’s important to share my experience, both for the benefit of potential employees and customers alike.

Issues Observed During My Employment: Kitchen Conditions:

There was a significant issue with hygiene, including visible cockroach activity in the kitchen area.

The kitchen ventilation system was inadequate, creating an uncomfortable working environment.

The bathrooms were often in poor condition.

Food Quality and Storage:

On numerous occasions, food stored in the fridge was not properly maintained. Vegetables, such as cucumbers for salads, were often too soft, and items like chicken breasts were found to be past their expiration date and smelled sour.

Freshness and food quality were regularly overlooked, which could potentially lead to customer complaints.

Management and Customer Service:

The management structure was disorganized and lacked clear communication, particularly with scheduling and addressing employee concerns. Customer complaints were not handled appropriately. In some instances, management would dismiss the issue by either ignoring the complaint or asking customers to leave, which is unprofessional and detrimental to the restaurant’s reputation.

There was also a lack of consistent oversight when it came to food safety protocols. I strongly recommend that regular inspections of food storage areas occur weekly to ensure better quality control.

Workplace Environment:

The kitchen environment was sometimes unsafe, with employees engaging in horseplay, including one incident where an employee threw empty beer bottles, putting others at risk of injury. In addition to what happened around March 2024 which was approximately 1,5 months before quitting Miyabis, one of the bus boys got 2 empty beer bottles, banged in the air, and one of the glass pieces unexpectedly broke almost got hit in the face while sweeping the floors in the middle of work.

No apology whatsoever.

The culture within the kitchen did not always prioritize professionalism or safety, which can lead to a hazardous work environment.

Additionally, there was little accountability among some kitchen staff, with certain individuals not taking responsibility for accidents, such as food being dropped.

Staff and Scheduling:

The scheduling system was chaotic and lacked proper organization, which made it difficult to manage work-life balance.

There was also an issue with certain management figures like one of the hibachi chefs in fact is a head chef and is in charge of the whole kitchen did not seem to respect employee concerns or requests for time off. In short terms, all I can say is there are 3 people who’s running this restaurant. The Head Manager, Assistant Manager and a Head Chef.

Overall Experience:

In my honest opinion, the restaurant’s operational practices need serious improvement. The food quality, cleanliness, and management structure all require significant attention to ensure that customers have a positive dining experience. The lack of professionalism and regard for both employees and customers is alarming.

Final Thoughts:

While my experience at Miyabi was regrettable, I do hope that this review serves as constructive feedback. For the restaurant to thrive, there must be a complete overhaul of both management practices and operational standards. If changes are not made, I fear the establishment will continue to deteriorate, which is unfortunate given its potential.

To those considering applying for a position, I encourage you to carefully consider the environment you may be stepping into. The challenges faced here may be difficult for many.

I sincerely apologize to the customers who have had negative experiences, and I hope improvements are made to ensure that future patrons and employees are treated with the respect and professionalism they deserve.

Thank you...

This had some good reviews on Yelp so my husband and I decided to try it out. From the outside, the restaurant looks impressive. When we walked in, again, impressive. The restaurant itself is very beautiful and classy. However, the service is another story. Firstly, we were seated at a table with two other families and almost right away, someone had a problem. A customer commented to the waitress that her drink was wrong. The waitress proceeded to argue with her about it. The service was off to a bad start from there. We begin to browse the menu and discovered there was not much variety. There were only two pages consisting of entrees and the font was large. I found it odd that the menu had disclaimers all over the place, one of them being that if you share a plate with someone, you have to pay $7.95 IN ADDITION to what the entree costs for one person. Another disclaimer was that you had to pay $3 extra if you wanted all white meat chicken (instead of a mixture of white and brown) if you ordered the teriyaki chicken. I have been to several hibachi restaurants all over the country and I have never seen anything like this on a menu before. The onion soup was poor and lacked flavor. I ordered a ginger salad which was good. Then the cook arrived. Before he began, I asked that he not include onions with my meal. He made several sarcastic remarks to me and asked if I read the menu. He cooked the shrimp appetizers and when he gave me my portion he said, "You like shrimp, right?" in a very condescending tone. Then when he served me my first portion of the entree he said snidely, "No onion. Are you happy now?" He said this with no smile so I can say with pretty good confidence he was not joking and was visibly annoyed. My husband disliked the fast that the cook did barely any tricks which is another part of being a good hibachi place that Miyabi lacked. No onion volcano, no egg flips, no gigantic flames. When everything was said and done, the food was rather average for the price. Someone commented on the blandness of the rice? They were right. Hardly any vegetables included either. We will not be going here again. If you value atmosphere over food and service quality, Miyabi is for you. If you prefer food and service quality over a fancy atmosphere, I suggest Samurai, which is where we will eat Japanese food...

Please, do yourself a favor, don't waste your money there. 1.- Establishment: The outside is clean and the aspect looks elegant. Inside, lacks of proper air extractor, so around ten grills working at the same time makes a hot and oily environment. Once seated, you can smell the rancid oil residue of the stainless steel grill features, looks like they never take the time to do a thorough cleaning. The dishes are placed in position before you sit, you clearly can see that they were cleaned with just water and wiped dry, they were oily and little leftover were visible, not acceptable. 2.- Food quality: The steak was soft, good portions but excessively salted, probably the sauce they use. Rice was on point but it was fried with to much sauce, still acceptable. Same thing with vegetables and shrimp. Now the funny part is that after paying the bill, everyone had to use the restrooms and it was bad. We all felt sick when we made it home. On the next day after several depositions in less than 15hrs my stomach was still upset. I can't tell if it was the steak, chicken or the shrimps. But we got sick. 3.- Personnel: When you approach the front desk to be seated, there is no greetings, it is just a "how many?". Our server on the other side was very friendly and had a smile all the time, she replaced our oily dirty dishes with ones less dirty, we finished to clean them with a cloth. The cooker; this poor guy looks like he hates his life, he had a forced smile and made some nonsense jokes to entertain us, I didn't know if to cry or fake a laugh. His uniform was dirty, faded and ripped on the arm pit side. One important thing I noticed since we arrived is that there were people in restaurant uniform or at least half uniform drinking beer and alcohol walking among the tables joking with their coworkers that were still working, they were drunk, how is that possible? If that was happening on the visible side of the restaurant, imaging how the kitchen handles raw food? No standards. Clearly, there is no management supervising what's going on in the restaurant. There is a sign stating 93% clean rating, too low for what they charge or the kind of restaurant they claim they are.

The one star is for our server, she was good.

DON'T...