Sagano Japanese Bistro & Steakhouse, Flint — Restaurant in Flint Charter Township

Disrespectful and Horrible Customer Service overall. The manager and her employee (Sharon and Tracey) were very inconsiderate. I flew out of the state On Feb. 14, 2019. I called into the restaurant the night before to ask for a special request. I asked if I could purchase a gift card over the phone and have my boyfriend (BF) pick it up. Being that I was out of the state for Valentine's Day, to make up for my absence, I wanted to surprised my BF by gifting him with a Saganos Gift Card. By the way this, "was" our favorite restaurant...I called Saganos at exactly 11:30am before boarding my flight on 4/14/2019. I spoke to the host and was able to make the payment over the phone for the gift card, I also made a request to specifically write a message (I told her over the phone what to write). The host told me the transaction went through successfully and I also got a notification from my bank that the transaction was complete. I gave the host my name as well as my BF's name and told her that he would be by during his lunch to pick up the gift card, she replied "Ok, we will have it at the host stand"...Before taking off on the plane, I texted my BF telling him to go to Saganos during lunch and to go to the host stand. When I arrived to my destination (Los Angeles, CA) I received numerous calls and texts from my BF explaining that the surprise I had planned for him was a complete DISASTER!!! Apparently, as instructed, he went to Saganos on his lunch, and approached the host stand....The host could not find the gift card and also told my BF that she had no idea what he was talking about, he was then asked to come back at 5pm! He then, left went back to work and returned during their hours at 5pm. Being that it was Valentine's Day you can just imagine how busy it was by this time. When he returned, the host, employees, and manager still had no clue what he was talking about and completely ignored the situation. After 15 minutes of him waiting an employee came out and handed him the gift card. The gift card not only didn't specify the amount I had paid for but the message I asked the host to write was no where close to what I had nicely asked her to write! The message was also wrote on a ripped of Saganos Menu/Receipt which was extremely disheartening. My surprise led to calamity and ruin!!!! After my BF explained the havoc he encountered, I then called Saganos. When I called, I explained the situation to the host and asked to speak to the manager, as the host set the phone down to get the manager, I could over hear the manager (Sharon) in the background complaining and yelling saying "We are not doing anything for her, what does she want? etc." When Sharon got on the phone I explained to her the situation and ask why her restaurant processed my payment at 11:30am but would not give him the gift card until after 5pm? I also explained the the presentation of the gift card was poorly put together - I was completely unsatisfied and wanted an explanation and refund-Sharon hung up on me. Not once but twice, after calling back no one would answer my call. I do not stay in the Flint, MI area and have not been in the area to physically go to the restaurant to speak to the manager in person. It ruined my experience and overall my option to ever eat at this establishment again. No one should be treated the way my BF or I was with the indecency, professionalism and inconsiderate comments the staff and...

This rating is not based on the food. The food is quite good here. This rating comes from the unprofessional attitude and disrespect that I saw displayed by staff and management. The day I went to Sagano's, we arrived at 2 p.m. The door says that lunch is until 2:30 p.m. A number of people arrived at the same time due to the clearly displayed hours. One staff member said that only those who arrived before 2:15 would be seated. Therefore my party and a few other groups remained. Then another staff member came and said that in actuality it was 2 p.m., which cleared out another group and left a few more parties. All who had to leave expressed their frustration on their way out on how unprofessional the restaurant was in stating something that was not displayed on their door. When it still appeared that the crowd was too much for them to handle, the owner was summoned by one of the staff members. She came and said that it was really 1:45 p.m that they stopped seating individuals. At this point it was around 2:35 and those who had been waiting for over 30 minutes became quite frustrated. The female owner, openly began to yell at the customers and tell them to "Get it! I cannot serve you!" She began to complain that she did not have enough cooks to serve everyone waiting and became irate. Her mannerisms and tone was so preposterous that everyone thought it was a joke at first. Everyone just had a look of shock on their faces as she spun around and screamed at everyone. It was around 25 people waiting there at this point. She then walked away abruptly, turned around and charged at everyone again telling them to leave the restaurant. It was horrifying! Some stormed out saying that they would never return, some confronted her as she spoke harshly to them in front of their children and families. It was an extremely, horrible and embarrassing ordeal. I could not believe what I was seeing. My three children looked at me in shock and said, "Mom, people are not supposed to speak to their customers like that!" My kids have never been to a restaurant where a staff member "flipped out" and began to treat customers so poorly. We have always seen Sagano's as a restaurant that was considered more upscale for the Flint area -- one person can easily spend $30 on their meal, let alone a family of 4. At one point she yelled at a young lady and asked her why she was still there and the lady replied, "I am an employee and I was just coming to pick up my check!" It was disgraceful and...

This is a bit of a mixed review. We have been going to Saganos for years. It used to be our go-to place for anniversary dinners, but it's been a couple years since we've gone.

The Positives: Our chef was great. Entertaining and did a great job all around. Looked like most of the other chefs were also entertaining their tables as well. The food we received was well cooked and very tasty, just how we remember.

The Bad: The ambiance has really gone downhill. Looks like no care has gone into it in months. When you charge a certain price point, you expect a certain level of ambiance, but this place looked like a low end Chinese buffet. They didn't even have menus. We had to take a picture of one walking in. Restaurant was mostly empty so it means they don't have menus at all.

I understand inflation and that things are more expensive, but they are actively giving less food and charging more money. Crab Rangoon appetizer used to come with six pieces, now with four smaller pieces. Kids meals used to come with soup and salad and shrimp appetizer. Now it's soup or salad and no appetizer. And everything costs more of course. At least give the same amount of food. They try to rush you out of there. Bringing boxes and the check while we still have two kids eating. There wasn't even people waiting and there were plenty of tables open.

It's definitely a fun hibachi show and good food and if you've never been it's definitely something to check it out once. But as someone who has gone numerous times as well as has experience with numerous other to hibachi places nationwide, I wouldn't recommend to anyone other than a local...