Kyoto Sushi & Japanese Steakhouse — Restaurant in Idaho

This establishment is trying, but there are still quite a few hiccups from our experience. We would like to return, if they can fix the service issues. Pros- Good amount of parking in the rear of the building. The owner was present, gracious and checking on all the tables. Very proactive, friendly and professional as I spoke with him after and he was genuinely concerned about our experience faults. The place was hopping on a Saturday night and I took that as a good sign. I overheard other guests say that the previously bad bathrooms had been updated nicely. People that were offered appetizers, received them promptly and they looked amazing and generous. The ginger salad dressing was delicious with nice amount of ginger. Chef was fun and went around the table confirming orders. He knew what we ordered. When items were forgotten, he was proactive on getting them quickly. Servers came around frequently for drink refills. Shrimp toss is always a fun part of the show and the chef did a great job. Neutrals- The grills were much smaller than other Teppanyaki style restaurants. Soup was not bad, but just okay. I ordered the salmon & scallops and my husband ordered the salmon & steak. Cons- Seating was tight next to strangers. Not sure if they remodeled, but the carpeting didn't appear clean. Tried to order house iced tea, but they only carry Lipton, so we ordered water with lemon. House made tea is easy and cheap, so why not make it? Our water arrived without lemon or straws. We asked again and our server brought out the lemon, but forgot the straws, so we had to get up and go to the bar area to get straws ourselves. Server asked the table if anyone wanted sushi, we did not, but later she brought out appetizers as well for others, but we weren't asked. The fork was not polished, with a large soap stain. No knife provided for proper eating and no steak knife, which was actually needed for the sinewy steak. Salad was the cheapest mix you can pick up from a supermarket, just lettuce, crouton dust and cabbage. No tomato. No cucumber. We were the only 2 to order plain steamed rice, as all others got the fried rice. Guess what was forgotten? The chef called to the kitchen for our rice, twice. Veggies were meager. Usually you get so much veggies that you can't finish, but not here. Again, this is not an expensive item for the restaurant to be cheap. The chef was serving the proteins, but for us, my husband only got his steak, no salmon. The chef called back to the kitchen for a salmon to cook. I only got the salmon and he called the server over for my scallops. She came, didn't understand his request, shrugged her shoulders and walked away! I heard him and knew she made a mistake not asking him to repeat. He called out to the kitchen a 5th time in total for our orders. I finally got my scallops after everything else was eaten. Don't expect much of a show here, there's nothing except the onion volcano and egg tossing. At other restaurants, I've seen egg catching in their hats, grill writing with egg whites and knife tossing. Here they just banged on the edge of the grill as they salted the food. We finally got all of our food and thanked the chef. I've never before left a teppanyaki restaurant hungry, but here the portions are small. I'd definitely recommend ordering appetizers, if offered. At the end, the server asked us what we ordered, odd as she had taken the order in the beginning. She remembered the gyoza for some guests, but then while looking down at her order pad, she said, "no one ordered sushi, right"? Yes, 2 people had, but they choose the opportunity to be quiet. For some reason, everyone's checks were run, except ours, after she picked up our cards, she went back, sat down and was chatting with the other employees, while we waited. Finally, we got our checks. Oh, the sushi bar did tell her of her mistake and the guests did pay for their sushi. Thoughts- I did speak with the owner, privately afterwards and as we were the last table, I didn't want to take up his time, but he was extremely open to hearing...

I'm going to do my best with this review. I worked at Kyoto's for 16 years with the previous owners. My last visit was in 2022 when the new owner had taken over. That dining experience wasn't the best. Our server was rude. Our chef cross contaminated his cooking utensils with cooked veggies and raw chicken. We had to look for our server for sake bombs. These were just a couple of the few issues with my first initial visit. As horrible our first visit was, I made sure I came in today with an open mind.

Our reservation time was for 5:15. They had our table set up and us at the table by 5:10. We did come early so it wasn't really busy at the time. We sat, got ourselves adjusted and our server was ready to grab our drinks. Our server did take a minute to get our drinks to us. We did have a couple different lemonades which could be time consuming and a hot water pot. After drinks were dispersed, our server asked if we wanted to do any starters. We asked her just to take all of our orders at the same time. Some of us wanted sushi for dinner as well as Hibachi.

Soups and salads were dropped off while everything was getting prepped. The soup looked really hot but it actually was at a good temp. The soup was on the saltier side but still good. The salad was ok. The salad dressing didn't really hit for me. It wasn't sweet nor savory.

This part of the review will be hard for me since my dad was our chef tonight. He's the most amazing chef on the planet so my opinion will always be bias for my dad. But I'll be honest! We started off with the fried rice. The rice was cooked nicely! It wasn't dry and had great bits of onion, egg and carrots. It could have used a little more soy sauce. My husband opted for the side of yakisoba noodles. They were chewy in texture and slightly charred! So good but it was on the saltier side. My meal was shrimp and salmon. The shrimp was tasty! They were good sized prawns and cooked perfectly. I appreciate that the salmon was grilled perfectly! I love when the salmon is crusty from the grill. I like the crispness on the outside and softness on the inside. My chef did a great job!

Our server did an ok job. She checked up on us once while the chef was cooking. She filled up our drinks but missed my daughter's drink so we had to fill it ourselves since she left carafes of our lemonades on the fireplace. I had to fill up my drink as well since she was gone for a while. Boxes were passed out when we were done. She gave us 1 bag and didn't ask if anyone else needed their boxes bagged up. I did see bags on a side table so I grabbed a couple. Bagged up my sister's 4 boxes and my mom's 2 boxes.

I would leave this at a 3.5 stars but since my chef did such a good job it's a 4. The silverware could be polished. Nothing like eating your meal with a fork with a ton of water spots on it and looks dirty. Soup could have been hotter since it's cold outside. Overall, it was a good meal with...

My partner left a google review about our experience at your restaurant this past Sunday 07/10. I had ordered 2 meals a fillet mignon and salmon with fried rice and a fillet mignon with fried rice. When the food was delivered half our order was missing. The fillet mignon with fried rice wasn't delivered. I called the restaurant and they told me they could refund or remake my food but I'd have to come get it. I was obviously extremely irritated hearing that as I paid $21 total for the delivery. $4 delivery, $8 tip, and $9 "service fee" whatever that is. I demanded the $21 back and asked how long it would take to remake my food your male manager said 10 minutes so I said fine remake it. He told me I needed to call doordash which by the way when doing an online order through your site it doesn't mention it's through doordash anywhere. I called doordash and got dressed and drove to your restaurant. I waited over 35+ minutes for my food to be remade that your manager assured me would only take 10 minutes. Not to mention he was rude he had gotten off the phone with doordash and I was still on hold with doordash waiting for their conversation to end. After it ended he walked up to me as I was actively on the phone with doordash and he kept talking to me as I was holding a finger up trying to wrap up the doordash call. He said doordash sent a full refund to which I said that's not what I asked for. I asked for the $21 back. He then said "did you still want the food?" Meaning they never started remaking my food and it's been at least 20 minutes since our prior conversation where I told him to remake it. This meal was for my anniversary I spent easily an hour+ between the multiple phone calls the driving and the waiting. My card was charged the full amount. I called today to speak to the owner who wasn't there and ended up speaking to the same manager I dealt with Sunday. Again nothing but attitude from him. His behavior is beyond ridiculous and unacceptable. He finally refunded the $21 something he should've done on Sunday. I would love to speak to the owner directly and my calls are recorded so I'll gladly email them if needed. We will not be dining with Kyoto's again. Your restaurant and staff need to take accountability when...