Mikato Japanese Steak House & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Florida

2 Friday’s ago I took my family there for dinner for my son and grand daughters birthday. I called much earlier in the day to make a reservation. When we arrived, I told the gentleman at the desk we had a reservation and everyone in our party was present. He then said he would be with us in a few minutes. So while he sat others down we sat and waited. While he was gone I looked at his very small list of those with reservations and although they were getting busy, their wasn’t but a few actual “reservations” so he was seating walk in guests before an agreed upon reservation. The man in charge also had the personality of one of those Hibachi tables. 20 minutes past our reservation time we finally got seated. The floors in the place were very greasy/slippery. That’s dangerous. The food was ok but certainly nothing to write home about. Then I asked the server how many tables she had as it looked like she was handling most all of the hibachi tables. She was spread very thin....... When we were finally placing our order, I asked her if it would be ok if I had more vegetables INSTEAD of rice because I don’t eat rice. She said sure. But when the bill came I asked her what the $5.95 charge was and she said that was for the vegetables. I reminded her that I said instead of rice and when we previously discussed the order, she said nothing about any up charge for my request. When I’m presented w/a bill for $244.00 (then had to tip on top of that), the $5.85 charge because she didn’t let me know about the charge ahead of time, was very annoying! I won’t be going back to that place anytime soon! The next afternoon my son had a very upset stomach and ate hardly anything the day after our evening at Mikados. He is also the only one at our table that ordered seafood in...

We have been in search for a decent Japanese Steak House since we moved to St Augustine. We've tried others in and around the surrounding areas. All were disappointing, so we were a little apprehensive about Mikato. I have to admit we were presently surprised to find it acceptable. While It wasn't the best we ever visited. It was clean, had a presentable apprarance, friendly and engaging staff. My wife and I ordered the shrimp tempora from the sushi bar and shared the Terriaky chicken and Shrimp Habachi Meal. The share charge was about average @8$. We each received a bowl of clear soup, a salad with ginger dressing, one appetizer shrimp, fried rice with fried eggs and light vegetables, Shrimp and Chicken with vegetables. While the main course portion was slightly smaller than we are use to, it was the perfect amount for tonight but no lunch for tomorrow. Some items that were lacking are. Clear soup was light on flavor, ginger salad dressing was to thick and no flavor almost like a dried out marinade, the rice was over cooked to the point I felt like I was eating seeds at times, the chicken was cut to large, over cooked while not having any flavor and the vegetables were under cooked. The things that really impressed us were: the staff was excellent, our server was very attentive, the chef was very interactive, they have clear soup, the tempora shrimp was fresh, the shrimp in the Habachi Meal were the large appetizer shrimp without an up-charge and they were cooked excellent. With all that said, overall the evening was enjoyable and we will be back. I hope the next vist is as...

Mikato in St. Augustine Beach is your typical Japanese Steak House.

What we ate - Chef’s Special (lobster, shrimp and scallops), chicken & filet hibachi, Amazing Roll sushi.

Pros - restaurant was clean. Service was excellent. Soup was 10/10 - very flavorful. My husband said the Chef’s special was very good, and he said the Amazing Roll was one of the best sushi rolls he’s ever had. Filet was tender.

Cons - neither one of us liked the salad dressing (they have ginger and mayonnaise…we didn’t like either). I didn’t like the yum yum (white) sauce. I like a sweet yum yum sauce, but theirs was not sweet at all.

Mixed feelings - the food coming off the hibachi grill did not have much flavor. My husband liked that because he likes the taste of the seafood without strong sauces. I didn’t like it as much for my filet and chicken. Usually when we eat hibachi, if I don’t like the flavor or if there isn’t much flavor, I just use the Yum Yum sauce and it’s all good. However, because I didn’t like their sauce, it didn’t help me tonight. I added soy sauce to my rice which made it somewhat better, but fairly bland overall. We have a Japanese Steak House back home that’s my favorite. I always compare others to it. Mikato didn’t measure up, but I’m still giving four stars for the soup, sushi, Chef’s Special...