Pete's Teriyaki House — Restaurant in Fresno

I'm new to this place. Having been sheltering in place for so long I decided to venture out and try some local Asian cuisine. I ordered takeout from 3 different Asian restaurants before I happened up Pete's and was totally disappointed with all three. The food was so poor at those three local diners that I'm not likely to go back to ANY of them, but I spared them a scathing review because the last time I gave a scathing review was for Baja Fresh in Riverpark and it shut down not long after (not saying it was due to my review, but...)

So here's the deal. Last week, on our first visit to Pete's we ordered their famous best seller: the chicken teriyaki plate and decided to try the combo meat plate as well. It was pretty obvious to my wife and I why the chicken teriyaki plate is such a hit. We would go back again and again for it. The combo meat plate: meh. Personally, would never order it again. 𝐈 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐲𝐚𝐤𝐢 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝟓 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬

This week, I decided we try the fish and chips. We got 4 fried fish fillets - with the same coating that they use on their teriyaki chicken. Not saying it was bad, but it wasn't my kind of fish for fish and chips. Not a meal I would order again.

The real disappointment was the fries. Not hot, and tasted like they were cooked yesterday and reheated or left over from lunch (not saying this is the case, just that's how poorly they tasted). The portion sizes of both the fish and fries was generous -- but 3/4 of the fries went into the trash. Would never order that meal again and would never order a meal with fries from them. 𝐈 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟̲𝐢̲𝐬̲𝐡̲ 𝐚̲𝐧̲𝐝̲ 𝐜̲𝐡̲𝐢̲𝐩̲𝐬̲ 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝟏̲ 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫. I might try the tempura fish plate in the future. Different batter and no fries.

By my math combining 5 stars and 1 star = a 3 star average. Keep in mind, this is my experience and I would hope its not yours. Hopefully their management will read this review and take it to heart. I'm not in anyway trying to trash them. If I wanted to trash some lousy local Asian cuisine I could do so easily. Like i said, I ordered takeout from 3 other places that I would NEVER order from again, but since I have NOTHING good I can say about them -- I'm passing on reviewing them. 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞❜𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐮❟ 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 (it just wont be fish and chips, or any meal with fries, or the meat combo)

I've included a pic of the fries that went into the trash and if you look at other pics of fries in these reviews --- its apparent they were not on their game tonight... cuz many of the pics of fries...

Updated 9/24- Changed it from 5 star to 2 stars because of recent experience with the food. This used to be a mom and pop favorite kind of restaurant for our family for over 30 yrs. And have always loved it until today. It’s always been all about the food. You order at the counter & they have about 10-12 tables where you can sit and dine in if you choose and you can find a table. I think a lot of people choose take out. We visited again this month & ordered our usual, the Pete’s special with a side of shrimp tempura. Not sure what happened but we didn’t enjoy the food. This has never happened! Until that day. The chicken was over fried, dry & hard, vegetable tempura was too thick and doughy, not light & crispy like it used to be, cucumber salads weren’t cold & one was actually bad. They gladly replaced it. The new one must’ve been a new batch. Cucumbers were bright green & crunchy. And the shrimp tempura: was mostly all tempura and hardly any shrimp. We brought home left overs. Which we normally do because of the large portions. They usually get eaten almost immediately. This time they didn’t & ended up getting tossed out. We’ve always loved this place so I’ll try it again eventually. Really hoping this was just an off day.

2018- Love the Pete's special! Love this place! inexpensive, delicious, generous portions. Our family's been coming here for...

I decided to revisit this restaurant today after a long hiatus, hoping for a memorable meal. Unfortunately, my experience did not meet expectations. I ordered a combination plate and a combo seafood plate, but the quality was quite disappointing. The tempura vegetables were undercooked and crunchy, the tempura shrimp was overcooked, and the squid lacked flavor.

I reached out to the manager, Vaa, who promptly returned my call. Since the restaurant was closed at the time, she offered to remake my meal the following day, but I would need to return the original plate. I explained my situation—having to work in the morning before they opened and then potentially needing to drive past the location to retrieve the plate after work. Unfortunately, her response felt dismissive rather than accommodating, suggesting more concern over me trying to get something for free rather than truly resolving my issue.

It’s disheartening to feel undervalued as a customer, especially when dining costs are so high. I’ll consider this $40 a lesson learned and will choose Kenji’s next time. I genuinely hope they can improve both their food quality and customer service...