Tokyo Japanese Steak House — Restaurant in Federal Way

We went out to celebrate my friends birthday dinner last night at the Tokyo Japanese Steak House in Federal Way. I have been coming to this particular location for the last 20 years. I have celebrated countless of my own birthdays and my children's birthdays. The servers know me by name as well as a handful of the cooks. I like to think I keep the lights on at this establishment with how often I go for the dine in experience (smile). This particular night we were seated and it took about 15-20min for the cook to arrive at our table (No big deal). I jokingly asked Jerome our cook for the night what took him so long. He replied back joking saying there was lots of traffic in the back. We started off with their soup that I love. I always ask for seconds. However, This night the soup was Luke warm (did not complain and did not ask for seconds). Our first serving was vegetables and as I was eating my vegetables there was gum in my mouth. I took the food out of my mouth and put it back on the plate and showed it to our Jerome. He tried to say it was tofu and I told him to look closer and I disclosed to him that it was chewed up gum I just took out of my mouth that was in my food. He confirmed it was gum. I then said whelp guess my food is free for this evening. Jerome immediately said he would make my plate over again but food would not be free. I then told him to get the manager because I wasn't paying for anything at this point. I literally had someone else chewed up gum IN MY MOUTH!. He called the "nurse" to being a fresh set of veggies for me and was going to use the same grill to prepare our food. I then asked him if he was serve safe certified. IYKYN! I am because I have my own catering business. I told Jerome the gum was clearly on the grill and the whole grill was contaminated now. He then walked off spoke to his staff came back and said we will move you guys to another clean grill and start the cooking process from the beginning all over again. Jerome then said he was going to the back to prep all of our food himself to ensure the safety of the food for the night. Jerome came back about 10-15mins later as he had to give the grill enough time to get to tempt to cook on as well. He never communicated that he spoke to a manager or that my food would not be compensated. He came back and we are going to start fresh so assumed my plate would be on the house as I had already told him before we switched tables to get the manager because I was not paying. If Jerome would of came back and communicated that he spoke to the manager and they were not willing to compensate me with anything then I would of left. Its Monday night, its a school night, we arrived at the location at 7:45 and didn't leave until almost 10:45. At the end of my experience I was handed a bill for a little over $100. $108 I believe to be exacted. I then asked Jerome why was I being handed a bill. He said because we started over and made your food fresh on a new grill. (ahhahha) I asked to speak to a manager and they said no one was there. Amy who i was told was the assistant manager came over to me saying the manager told her via phone for me to pay the full bill and she would call me tomorrow after she figured out what happened and would possibly give me some type of refund. I then asked Amy to call the manager so I could speak with her because SIS WHAT IS THERE TO FIGRUE OUT!!!! THERE WSAS CHEWED UP GUM IN MY MEAL. I got on the phone with the manager "Clair" and explained to her what happened. I always go out to high end restaurants and I told her at any of those restaurants the whole table would of been free. At this point all other parties that were at the birthday celebration paid for there meal in full but me. No one was looing for compensation, but me! After i explained to her what happened she said the cook Jerome told her a different story. I told her as a manager someone should of offered me some type of compensation 50% a certificate to return again SOMETHING! PART 11...

Tokyo has been my favorite restaurant for years. We usually go a few times a year, and always in July for my birthday. I was excited to go today to celebrate both my birthday, and my grandson having just turned 21 on the 14th. This was his first time going there. It turned out to be a big disappointment. I had made reservations for 5 PM. My husband was running late, so when I saw him walking in the door at 5:15, I let the receptionist know that he was now there. At around 5:35 I went back up to her to let her know that we were still waiting to be seated, she said, oh, looked at her computer screen and said I'll seat you now. We were obviously forgotten about. I will say that the "Nurse" (waitress), who took our drink orders, gave us our soup, etc. Was absolutely fantastic! She was very friendly and attentive and made sure we had everything we needed! The cook was slow, he did a few tricks/jokes but you could tell that he wasn't really in to them. We are usually all laughing throughout dinner but not tonight. I had raved about the fried rice to my grandson and told him to make sure and get some, unfortunately it was not the fantastic fried rice that we usually get. The cook didn't season it very well and neither my grandson or myself were impressed. We waited quite awhile to get our ice cream and check, my 9 and 11 yr. olds and my grandson were all asking me what we were waiting for, because we were just sitting there waiting for so long and they wanted to leave. When the check finally came, it was for $300, and that was after the $25 discount was taken off for my birthday dinner, since we paid for 4 adult dinners. My husband is looking at the check and sees that they have charged us a $40 "service fee". This is not the tip, it is an additional fee that goes directly to the business. We have never ever been charged a service fee there in the 25 years that we have been going there. No where in the restaurant, on their website, or facebook page do they mention any service fee. I stop at the front desk on my way out to inquire about this mysterious service fee and am told that it is a fee that they add on to your bill if you have 5 or more people in your party. Excuse me? What? She knows nothing else about it or why it's charged, just that if you have 5 or more in your party, they add it on! I guess I should have put my grandson on his own ticket, or made him be a party of one, so we only had 4 of us in our party. Boy, good thing I bought my 9 yr old an adult dinner to get that $25 birthday discount! As with everywhere else, their prices have gone up, and I'm fine with that, that's just the way it is. We all enjoy going there so much that it's worth paying a bit more than we might somewhere else, and we always make sure to tip really well, between 20% to 22%, but to add on a $40 fee, just because there are 5 of us, seems a bit much. We were very disappointed. It looks like I'm going to have to find a new favorite...

Didn't have a great time here. First, there's a secret where you get $25 off your bill if it's the exact date of your birthday (if your party is 4 or more). Well, mine was the day before, and my friend's was the day after and we celebrate in the middle. So we showed up here and immediately felt like we lost some kind of lottery we didn't enter. Pretty dumb promotion. We came to your restaurant to celebrate, shouldn't that be enough?

Our food was good and edible but that's the bare minimum expectation. They upcharge you $5 for fried rice which is honestly inexcusable when their menu starts at $24 (teriyaki chicken). I originally went here because I was avoiding another place that upcharged $4 for fried rice, since the menu here says "includes house rice". "House rice" is white rice. I was livid. The fried rice is literally like one third of a teppenyaki meal - it's not optional. It's like getting bamboozled into getting charged $4 for basic green tea. Also, this place charges $4 for basic green tea. (btw the fried rice is literally just eggs, butter, soy sauce and some spices. it's not like it's especially fancy for the $5)

Pricing aside, our chef was pretty bad. The food was decent, but he said nothing the entire time and put on no show. Basically we watched a line cook do an onion volcano. Meanwhile, the other chef on the opposite side of the table was very engaging and fun the entire time. Not to rag on the guy, but when you're paying $40 for glorified basic takeout, you're paying the 300% upcharge for the show and the atmosphere.

Our bill was around $250 at the end of the night across four people and we didn't get anything super fancy. We could've gotten more food for $50 at Panda Express next door that was more or less the same and the quality + entertainment here wasn't worth the $200 difference. Now that's a sad thought....