Miyako — Restaurant in Houston

Went here few years back but this was the first time I visited this restaurant after its renovation. It wasn't busy when I went there as it was a weekday after lunch and before the rush hour. There were only two people dining at the bar, a family on one of the tables at the end, and I on one of the tables at the other end.

Their lunch hours already ended so they only have the regular menu. I wanted to eat shrimp tempura so badly, so I just ordered the one on the appetizer and a cup-sized of vegetable fried rice. I also ordered crabmeat puff and Crazy Caterpillar Maki. The food was served out fast and they were all delicious! The staff service were lacking. It was my first time to eat on a Japanese restaurant in America after visiting Japan so I was kind of disappointed with the service. I guess I was kind of looking for smiling faces, welcome-feeling, and attentiveness that the Japanese servers show in Japan? Here, they still served you but don't have that friendliness or happiness-in-serving-you feeling. Well, maybe because this is America and not Japan, and the people who served me here are not Japanese? Maybe it's just the culture? Anyway, this place doesn't really served legit Japanese food, all of their rolls are Americanized but since they branded their restaurant as "Japanese" and greeted you the same "Irrashaimase" like the Japanese in Japan when you enter the restaurant, then I was kinda hopeful that they would also be hospitable here.

Also, few years back, they used to have someone that refills their customer drink all the time, but didn't see any of that when I was there. Maybe they normally comes out during busy time and at the time that I was there, it wasn't busy, yet? I ran out of my drink, was so thirsty, and the waitress who was serving me were nowhere to be seen! I put my glass on the side of my table so that hopefully, someone could see it empty and would refill it but there was nobody. I waited for more than 8 minutes, there was still nobody. I was so close on getting up and going to the bar to ask one of those chefs to refill my drink, but then I saw the host seating one couple, so I called her and asked her to refill my drink, and she did. After 5 minutes or so, the waitress who was serving me finally checked up on me and asked if everything was alright. I just said, "yes" and...

-The selection of sushi rolls is large, although they do not have the typical rolls such as the California/San antonio etc. -Atmosphere is nice, although they have a turtle pond up front having poor turtles stressed without a dry place to rest.

-First time I went, food and price was ok. I got a fry shrimp in a roll to be switched for a grilled shrimp. I was never charged or even informed of a potential charge. Then, I asked for eel sauce. She brought me a small little cup of it. Then it appears on my bill to have a charge of $1.99 for it. I told her that if she would have notified me of the charge I wouldn't have gotten it. And she's like "haha...yeah.." and I was mad because you should inform someone of the extra charges and give the customer the option to take the extra charge or not. I've been. To other way fancier sushi places and I never get charged for ell sauce. Like what the heck. The second time I went, my waited told me that the manager said he could not switch the fry shrimp to grilled without an extra charge. I let them know that this was done before. They waiter came back saying sorry, the manager still says the same. So I'm like ok, so last time I guess my waiter was nice. But you would think they would care about customer satisfaction when it comes in terms about one small tiny piece of shrimp in each roll. Like seriously, you can make 4 pieces out of one shrimp. But then I also brought a birthday cake that day, and the manager said it was $5. We asked what was the charge for, he said oh because we bring plates in, provide forks to cut. We were like fine, everyone's invited to come here, we're not going to stress about it. Then after we finished eating, they came in and sang, and put the plates and small knifes and forks on the table and leave. So I'm like are you telling me you charged me $5 to come and sing?? This whole time we all thought they were going to cut the cake as mentioned. Small little details show that the management it's obviously money oriented and not customer service oriented. If you don't mind being on the look out for being charged for the smallest things, and management being after you money...

So let's see. There was no wait to sit but parking was a nightmare on Friday Night. The place looked clean and full. They took us to a table right away. However the seat was dirty and sticky so had to call a staff to clean. Took a while for waitress to acknowledge us and take drink order. When asked what was the soup special she didn't know. Had to go ask. Came back and told us they were out. We started to order but it seem she was not familiar with the menu. Had to go ask someone in the kitchen to confirm. No worries. About 20 mins after placing order (she hadn't come by at all to check up), I had to get up and go find her for our status. Told me it was coming out. Another 7-8 mins and our main entree arrives. Still no sushi. I had to ask another server to grab our sushi. At this point the sushi was incorrect-missing the avocado. Sent it back to be redone and asked for forks. Took another 4-5 mins to get folks. At this point the semi warm entree is now cold. Took three attempts to get the manager to address the issue. Manager was sincere. Told us he would rush another one out and redo the order. Second time around it was much better. Manager came back to check and said he would take care of us. I appreciated that and got us a new waiter. Carmen, the new waitress, was on top of it all. We ended up ordering some desserts. The Godiva cake. Not bad. When the check came, clearly nothing "taken care of". I gave my card and said manager said he would take care of it. Got the charges back and he had taken the cheapest thing off. What a joke! Trust me won't be coming back. Quality of food wasn't there and the service overall was horrible. Left a 18% tip for Carmen and a note for the manager to check Yelp. I hope you have a better experience...