Kobé Japanese Steakhouse - Lake Buena Vista — Restaurant in Dr. Phillips

Had a reservation for 7 people at 6pm on a Thursday. Arrived promptly but still ended up waiting for 10 min before being seated. They have some nice koi ponds to keep the kids entertained before being seated. Our server (Kayla) was good - but not great. She took our drink orders, returned with them and took our food orders, and really never returned again until it was time to pay. She didn't seem overly excited to be working that night. One of the beers we tried to order we were informed they were out of (20oz Sapporo). They also informed us they didn't have any kids drink cups and they were served adult cups - not a big deal since our kids are old enough to not really need them. Had to flag her down to order a second drink. Our chef (Hao I believe) was good, but we didn't get a show quite like other places we have been. No catching food, no drinks in mouth, etc. that the kids like and makes it a more fun experience. It was probably one of the least entertaining shows we have had at a Hibachi. He also forgot to cook the shrimp with my order and had to return to the kitchen and come back out to cook them after everyone else was already served. If I hadn't reminded him as he was cleaning the grill I wouldn't have received my order. My wife is vegan, and despite informing of them that when we were seated she was still served food cooked with butter and which contained eggs. I think they didn't understand the difference between vegetarian and vegan. Food was good, a bit on the pricey side and not anything better than any other Hibachi restaurant. There is an automatic 18% gratuity added automatically to the bill. Despite this I still tipped the chef extra $20 (despite some of the shortcomings). The manager makes a point to come to the table before being presented with the bill and was fairly pushy we leave his restaurant a review online, even giving us a QR code to scan to leave the review. Seemed a bit out of place for a restaurant trying to pass itself off as a high end Japanese restaurant. Overall it was a good (not great, not excellent) experience with some minor shortcomings and the value didn't seem as good as other Hibachi restaurants we have visited. I would try other Orlando Hibachi restaurants before returning to this one again - there is a Benihana in the area I...

Allergy Warning: Their salad has Edamame in it. Not sure when the ingredient was added since it's been about two years since we came by this location. But we chose it last night for it's past great experiences. My wife has a soy protein allergy. Soy sauce, etc. Is fine but she can't have the actual soy bean or edamame. We were only asked about allergies as members of our party ordered specific, minor menu alterations....Someone said, No Onions, they asked "are you allergic to onions," Request for No Eggs in rice, "Are you allergic to rice,"...etc. Because we love Kobe and go a lot, we know menu items to avoid...or so we thought. My wife was a few bites into the salad before she saw the edamame bean. I ran and got her two benadryl, but when we tried to let the manager know that the salad ingredient change could have been a serious medical issue had my wife bitten into one inadvertently, the manager just said rather shortly, "you didnt tell us you had an allergy." I found his stand-off attitude a bit rude, but I know he is normally very polite and attentive to guests. But he also excitedly told the chef to clear our plates that we weren't coming back, in the middle of cooking, when my family was still at the table and my wife and I were in the restroom making sure she was ok. My sister had to insist quite sternly and repeatedly that we were still in the restaurant and intended to stay as long as my wife was ok. So long story short, make sure to mention any allergy, even if you think you know the menu well. We were never asked about overall food allergies and didn't think to mention any possible allergy That didn't apply to our tables' orders. We can definitely accept some blame, but I wish it was handled a little better. The staff, other than management, was very polite and a small discount we didn't ask for was applied to our bill. But the chef was paranoid the rest of the meal, asking if we were allergic to every single item before he put it on the plate, which while I felt it was well-intentioned, was a little overboard, i.e., if I ordered chicken, I'm pretty sure I must not be allergic to chicken. Our past experiences have been good at this location, so hopefully it's just...

Our family has been going to Kobe Japanese Steakhouse since the 1990s. It’s one of our favorite restaurants in Central Florida and a place we love. Over the past 25 years we’ve dined at Kobe more than 100 times and whenever we have guests visiting from out of town, we always recommend they experience dinner at Kobe. Sadly, last night we experienced a very rare disappointment at the Kobe in Lake Buena Vista. We were a party of 8 and after being seated at around 6:30pm the server began taking our drink orders. Problem #1 - One person in our group ordered a Diet Coke. When the drinks were served, the Diet coke was missing. We reminded the server about the Diet Coke and he apologized. After about 3-4 minutes he came back with a Sprite. We reminded him again that we ordered a Diet Coke. He apologized, but then never came back. About 10-15 minutes later (and after our soup, salad, and rice had already been served) we had to find a manager and she ended up getting our Diet Coke. Problem #2 – Some of us have a food allergy with edamame beans, so when we order at Kobe we always just let the server know and they arrange for our salads to be made without edamame beans. However last night the server strangely told us “This isn’t possible”. We let him know that we visit Kobe regularly and this has never been a problem. He told us he would need to inquire on how to do that. Problem #3 – One person in our party loudly and clearly ordered the 10oz Filet Mignon and the server repeated his order back to him, however when the chef came to our table, he only had 5oz. The chef called the server back to the table and it was determined that the server entered his order incorrectly on his tablet. That member of our group was stuck with a 5oz portion instead of the 10oz portion he ordered. This review makes me sad because, again, we love Kobe! It’s our hope that the Lake Buena Vista Kobe team uses this review as an opportunity to improve, especially...