Niobe Japanese Steakhouse — Restaurant in Graham

The three stars are based strictly on the food…. for taste and presentation. This used to be one of my favorite restaurants, but no more. Don’t expect good customer service if you dine here! After you place your order you then go and wait at a table for the food to be brought to you. There is a small number that prints out on your ticket that identifies the order. If it is very crowded, (as it was today) it is a bit chaotic as the worker goes from table to table calling out the order number. A lot of people were deep in conversation, and not paying attention so did not hear numbers the first time they were called. I made a suggestion when our order was brought to the table…. I told the lady it might be helpful for them if they gave out a number tab when the customers placed their order. Then the customer could just set(lay) the number on their table and the employees could go right to them with the food. My suggestion was not well received, in fact I believe the employee took offense! The second negative experience occurred as we were preparing to leave. I went to the register to ask for a couple of take home boxes and some lids for our white sauce. I always get three of the little containers of white sauce for my hibachi meal. The employee was very rude and informed me she would give me the lids this time but we were only allowed to have two white sauce per person! I had three, because that is how many I usually eat. My mother was with me and she uses three with hers as well. I told the employee I already had a couple of white sauces on the table and I wanted to take them home with my leftover food, that’s why I was requesting the lids. She reiterated that we were only allowed 2 but she would give me lids “this time.” REALLY? Why be stingy over one extra white sauce? The Sakuras restaurants on North St. Church Street & South Church St have never had a problem with extra white sauce. In fact, they bring a small bowl of it (with a serving spoon) to the table. Also Niobe‘s will not allow you to substitute mushrooms for another vegetable on stir-fry meals but Sakuras will.

Update: Niobe’s‘s now has the White Sauce dispenser on the self-service counter, where the...

We've eaten here several times but after tonight we have no desire to go back. After we finished eating my father in law and I went to the counter to pay. We stood there for about 10 minutes after the guy behind the counter held up his finger to us telling us to hold on. He finally lets my father in law pay and then I stand there for another 8 minutes before he acknowledges me. Meanwhile he's ringing up all the bills the waitresses are bringing up to him while I just stand there waiting. He's also getting on and off the phone the whole time not paying any attention to the fact that there's customers who have been standing there waiting on him for a while. So he finally looks at me and says the card machine wasn't working. So I asked what he wanted to do and he said he didn't know and told us to just wait until it started working again. I said no, we have a baby that we need to get home. He gets agitated and asks me to pay with cash. I don't carry cash and didn't have anything other than my card and at the point where I said that he got angry. I asked my husband if he had cash and he didn't so the guy told me to go to an ATM and come back to pay. I asked if he was kidding and he said no then started sarcastically telling me what and where an ATM was. My father in law ended up paying for us and when he handed the guy the cash the guy holds it up to me and hatefully says "this is cash, this is how you pay". Completely ridiculous and rude as could be. It wasn't our fault or problem that his card machine wasn't working. His attitude and disrespect was uncalled for. No one bothered to tell any of the customers they couldn't accept payment by card before serving them. And the whole time this is going on a blonde waitress is leaning on the counter giving me a death glare. Not really sure who she thought she was intimidating but that's not the kind of person I'd hire to work in a restaurant. We will not be wasting our time here again. No apology was made, there was no consideration, and the guy was completely disrespectful and...

Edit after eating there several time since orignial post.

Staff is not as friendly. Prices went up a lot and food portions went down...a lot. If you dine in you get unlimited white sauce, if you get takeout you have to pay for it. I watched the lady in front of me fill up 9 cups and take it to her table..i filled up one and the lady literally told me to give it back or pay for it Food has been very plain, they got my order worng and forgot the springrolls. We are probably about done with this place and ready to try other places

Orignal reviewFYI: This is not a place where they do the hibachi grill in front of you, as some of the pictures show -- it may have been pre-covid, but now its an order at the counter, seat yourself/self serve type style.

Really good. Nice people, fast service. Huge portions. My only gripewould be that I didnt get many vegetables on my hibachi plate, could've used more and less rice, I was eating rice for 3 days lol. I got the steak, it was tender, but not too flavorful and my husband got the chicken, we both really liked the chicken one, the flavor on it was so good. The spring rolls were also good. This is a far food, order yourself or...