Tanaka of Tokyo East — Restaurant in Honolulu

Update: the business decided to use their esponse to discredit me instead of owning up to their underwhelming offering. So be it. I've had teppanyaki in many international cities, Tokyo included because it's one of my favorite. The $300 price tag is not the issue here (I've paid less for benehana and it's still better). The issue is Tananka of Tokyo East have to galls to charge $300 for basically frozen seafood while calling it fresh and the non descript waygu. We went to another establishment the following night and got Miyazaki A4 wagyu for basically the same price. Sure there wasnt a show per se, but the food was worth every penny. Because the food was actually fresh. Please don't attack your paying customers. Do better, get proper ingredients, and do right by your people. This honest review is 100% directed towards management.

Wanted to preface this review by saying servers and chefs were nice, it's just unfortunate they're not put in a position to be successful. Tldr stay away from this place if you don't like paying a ton of money for garbage food.

We came here to celebrate our toddler turning four hoping for a good show and at least decent food. We got neither. Even benehana feels like a Michelin star restaurant compared to the overpriced subpar frozen quality garbage this place served. We had the 2 daiymo set with the upgraded $30 waygu + $5 fried rice + $5 canned guava juice + $12 virgin strawberry daiquiri (yeah, the drink prices are atrocious but I was feeling thirsty). Total was around $300 for 2 adults for possibly the worse meal we've ever had.

To back it all up, I sense we were in trouble when we walked in and the carpet has this dank smell and the chopsticks were the lowest quality single use variety. Then further confirmed when the salad came and tasted way over seasoned. I knew we were in trouble when our "chef" fumbled a few times at the beginning and couldn't get the classic volcano to work properly. It all went down hill from there. Fried rice was single dimensioned, mostly a ton of soy sauce and oil. Seafood (scallops and lobster) was extremely frozen tasting and not fresh. The waygu was totally destroyed and over seasoned because our "chef" was probably underpaid and undertrained.

Do yourself a favor, literally Google the type of food you want and go anywhere that isn't near the main strip on Waikiki. It's mostly for tourists, and they offset high rent with low quality and the promise of gimmicks.

We ended up going to another teppanyaki restaurant that was so authentic and delightful that it reminded us of our time in Tokyo a few years back for the same price (i-naba Hanaleiʻi Honolulu Teppanyaki and Sushi Bar). I guess thanks for helping us discover our best meal in Honolulu and the best steak I've...

Do NOT go to the EAST location--sub par ventilation in back room ruined our evening😞 We had our Christmas dinner reservations here and were so exited to have a nice and relaxing dinner. However, we were placed all the way at the back corner of the restaurant in the back room. The smoke smell was already bad entering the back room (no windows available to open like the front room), but when they started cooking it got unbearable. My eyes watered so bad my daughter and I had to keep getting up and leaving the restaurant to get time clean air. We heard other people leaving and talking about it, and others at our table said the smoke was making them cry too. After the 3rd or 4th time I had to leave the restaurant for fresh air, they told my husband the other locations had overhead vents, but the EAST location only had Vents inline with the stove tops.

I asked to speak with the manager and told him how bad the ventilation was, he said he'd check on it. Later he came to my table and said he agreed the smoke was had, "but everything is turned on". Other people at our table also complained, but the managers refused to do anything...no opportunity for another table, to take our food to a different part of the restaurant, no offer to compensate. We actually asked to pack up the rest of our food to eat in the hotel bc I couldn't sit in thee any longer...after waiting around 5 to 10 min to get a box to pack everything up, they told us they didn't have any utensils to provide us! By the time my husband was able to pay, our ice cream to go was half melted and they had no spoons to give us. We walked to the ABC store and had to buy a pack of spoons so our daughter could finish what was left of the ice cream.

The fact multiple people complained, the manager agreed how bad it was, and my clothes from that night STILL smell exactly like the smoke from the restaurant days later is ridiculous! The manager did nothing to make our evening even a tiny bit better, and we essentially wasted $150 on a dinner we didn't...

This was my first visit to this restaurant and it was to celebrate my 29th birthday. we had a party of 8 for 8pm but when we arrived we were still missing 2 people and were made aware that we couldn't be seated till everyone arrived, (totally our parties fault) so we waited for our friends and then they arrived totally late, at 830 PM and they sat us right away with no waiting. AMAZING!! So as soon as we sat down our drink orders got taken and then someone from management came to welcome us and gave us each a reusable back and some side orders of fried rice, also to wish me a happy birthday. i couldn't believe how personable they were and how much they seemed to care about their customers. then our cook came and he was so good. he was friendly and nice. He had many tricks and treats in his show and the food....OMG i cant even put into words how amazing it was. i ordered the steak and shrimp and my wife ordered the seafood combo and there were a few other ordered of shell fish and we had one person in our party allergic to shell fish and our cook totally accommodated her and made sure to cook her food alone and that made her feel so safe eating there. we never had to wonder where our server was or if we were going to get more drinks, always was there to ask if we needed more refills and anything else. the food was so good and the show amazing that by the time it was time for dessert we realized it was 2 hours later and it didn't even feel like it, we were having so much fun! they then brought out ice cream for everyone and a very cute plate with a cake one it for me and had everyone sing for me....totally funny and embarrassing lol. then they cut it up for the whole party, so yummy too....we got some boxes to take left overs and then before we even got a chance to leave the manager was back again to make sure we had a good time and everything was okay and good. i will totally be back again and be telling everyone about how good of...