Kobé Japanese Steakhouse - International Drive — Restaurant in Dr. Phillips

I've been to many different Japanese Steak houses. The food varies from chef to chef. Each experience is not the same.

Short review: The ratings are inflated because the manager strongly recommends everyone review on Google and have QR codes at every table. It's talked about multiple times and pressures you to review. Read other reviews with posts to see how people liked / disliked for honesty vs the inflated 5 star with no text. My chef was terrible. They also add an 18% surcharge without informing you upfront... To me that is an instant loss of rating. See long review for more.

Long review:

Major issues: Overcooked food and undercooked food. 18% service charge High pressure for reviews with QR codes on table. Chef wasn't enthusiastic or fun.

I ordered a Sumo which comes with everything. This large plate of food was staggering. Noodles, chicken fried rice, veggies, teriyaki chicken, filet mignon, shrimp, lobster, and scallops. It's a feast.

The chicken in fried rice was overcooked. It wasn't tender it was well dry. Other than that the fried rice was good. The noodles were cooked perfectly and had a good flavor. The vegetables were undercooked and missed the mark. The veggies were large in size and I'm used to smaller carrots and smaller zucchini. Mushrooms didn't come with the veggies which was strange that they aren't included unless you ordered them separately. Teriyaki chicken was also overcooked and dry. The teriyaki sauce tasted a bit sour on the chicken which made me not want to eat the Chicken. Filet mignon was the best of the meats in this meal, I asked for medium as everything else at this point came out undercooked (veggies)... It came out well done. It was still tender though and was quite tasty. Shrimp were also slightly overcooked and didn't have much flavor or spices added. He simply placed them on the grill and flipped and served. Lobster was again... Overcooked and slightly dry. There were some that had decent flavor and other bites has way to much lemon juice that was squeezed unevenly on the lobster. It was also chopped up into random small bits. Scallops were extremely large... Unfortunately another missed food. The scallops were undercooked. I took a bite and it was quite obvious that it was undercooked and I stopped eating all together at this point. Killed my appetite.

Now my loss is simply from the chef. He didn't seem to care, wasn't enthusiastic, and wasn't really into cooking. I've seen so many hibachi chefs do amazing things. His most impressive feat was with fire on his hand on an onion... Missed opportunity after missed opportunity... For the cost of the food, the chef needs to be the best of the best and enjoy his job.

Our waitress was very friendly and outgoing. She did a wonderful job and noticed we didn't want to pack up our scallops. She got the manager to take off $21 off the bill. This was a good gesture on their behalf, but the manager came by and asked we again leave a good review since it was taken off bill. I don't believe in leaving a good review in terms of monetary gain. I'm leaving honest feedback here.

The ending is what finally made me want to rate 2 star vs 3.

The bill came and at this point I had a 7 year old kiddo who wanted to leave so I paid without seeing there was a 18% surcharge tacked on. Then when paying they bring a credit card thing to you and has an additional tip to be added at that point. This tactic pressures you into adding an additional tip without realizing it. Not to mention this added tip is basing on your total balance (INCLUDING THE SURCHARGE). YOUR TIPPING ON TOP OF A TIP. Any restaurants that do this scam artists. Stop doing this!!! I understand if you have a party of 6 or more... But it was my wife, my son and myself.

Funny thing is I more often that not leave 20-25% tip. But hate when it's forced without a heads...

So here's my honest review of this place. Walked in and placed seemed very welcoming and quick response to be attended to and seated. With that said and out of the way let's begin with the real review. The young lady that was serving us was very polite and well spoken and attended to our every need. Sushi was good and fresh. Hibachi was very blend with very little flavor and wasn't very pleasing to eat when half of your food is cold and the other half is somewhat warm and somewhat hot. I asked for med cook for my steak and my wife asked for med well for hers and yet it came out more burnt and dryer than beef jerky! We made the cook aware as soon as he placed the steak on our plates. He said "ok ok no problem I get you new one" instead of going ahead and doing so right there and then he decided to start cleaning the grill instead and told someone in the kitchen to cook the new steak. It took over 10 minutes to get my new steak which at that point I had already got fed up of waiting to eat my cold noddles and cold rice and veggies so I started to eat while still waiting for the steak to come out. By the time I did most of my plate was already eaten and the steak the brought me wasn't even cut properly it was cut into huge chunks that anyone would choke on while eating, so now I had to wait for someone else to come around to bring me a knife to even eat the rest of my cold rice and correctly cooked steak. When mentioned to service staff the issue was sorta played off like it wasn't an issue. I have been to many Hibachi places and this has by far been the worst experience. There was no show no life to this Hibachi experience what so ever and these people still have the courage to say and make the statement that "kobes is the best Hibachi in florida" which by my personal experience is an absolute lie!!!! Folks at Kobes the food is flavorless so at very least provide good customer service to make up for it. When you are told there is an issue or a customer is unhappy with their food or experience please try and address their concerns instead of being condescending and have something smart come back with "sorry but this is the best place when it comes to Hibachi food in Florida you wont find any better and the shows can't be too exciting cause throwing food in people's mouth isn't sanitary" over all I'll give you a 1 and for anyone who looks up my reviews and sees i don't give out 1s and I'm very honest with my reviews. DO...

I wish I could say that my experience was great, but unfortunately it was far from it. Please keep in mind I have been to Kobe’s multiple times and have been working in the service industry for the past 8 years. First off, we were greeted to the restaurant by the hosting staff that seemed to be bothered by my party's presence. Granted our party of 7 showed up at 6:45 when our reservation time was set for 7:30. We were told that our party we would be seated shortly and waited for our table up until our reservation time, which we had no problem in doing so. Additionally, each time we asked the host when the table was going to be ready, we were given an irritated response from the host that we would then be seated at our reservation time, despite her initially saying we will be seated shortly upon arrival. Had we known that we were going to wait so long our group would have walked around the strip until our reservation time. After our party ordered our drinks and entrees, we were displeased with the quality of our drinks that I had to walk up to the bar from my table and ordered a replacement drink myself. Our chef was great, however, after eating the first bite of our steaks our entire table realized that they were cold in the middle, and one of our members threw her steak back on the grill herself because it was so raw to the point that it was inedible. Despite all of this, when it came time to split up the checks, I told her that my boyfriend and I were going to be on the same check (we were celebrating HIS birthday) and our server Peggy responded with “Together? … Oh.” And then proceed to exchange looks with the both of us that made our experience very unenjoyable. After that exchange she proceeded to carry out closing out of bill with other remarks that made out entire party’s head turn. Once again, we both work in the service industry and we would both never treat any of our guests this way, to the point that made our entire experience uncomfortable. Overall, between the experience with the host, the poor quality of the food and drinks on top of the uncomfortable remarks from our server I am glad to say we will not return to this establishment, and hope that the manager can please teach our server some etiquette on how to treat guests....