Kabuto Japanese Steak House — Restaurant in Indianapolis

Since BD Mongolian bbq closed (booo!) my family and I were looking for another hibachi grill type experience. While it is not an all you can eat/pick your own ingredients kinda thing like BD's was (again...booo!), there are still plenty of choices and combinations on the menu. Prices were reasonable for hibachi grill type restaurants. We started with their clear chicken broth (comes with hibachi orders), which was quite salty, as chicken broth usually is. Not much to say about it...it was clear chicken broth. Also came with a small salad, which was buried under a ton of dressing. It was ok, again nothing worth talking about. My kids ordered a couple of sushi items which they ate quickly and said were tasty, while hubby and I had tempura shrimp and veggies, both of which were served piping hot, fresh and tasty. Appetizers didn't come out until the chef had already started cooking, which was a shame. Don't bother with their daiquiri's since they are basically milkshakes (even served with whipped cream on top?) and contain pretty much no alcohol. Main courses ordered were the chicken/steak hibachi, which comes with fried rice and veggies, a couple of steak/shrimp hibachi, with yakasobi noodles on the side, and an order of red snapper. Portions of rice,noodles and veggies were generous, though I could have done with a bit more of the steak. The red snapper was very fresh and cooked well. We tried one of the tempura ice creams for dessert. I would suggest skipping this. While the ice cream was nice, the tempura was hard on the outside, mushy on the inside and all in all quite hard and messy to eat. The atmosphere is kind of....off putting. It looks like it could use a face lift. The chef working the grill was funny and knew his business with the utensils! Really though, the place needs a real good cleaning, maybe some fresh paint, a dishwasher that uses hot water to get the plates and utensils fully clean. Everything seemed to have a film of oil on it, probably from all the open grilling in the dining area. When we left, my foot slipped on the greasy floor and I nearly fell. Overall it was fun, the food was decent, but we don't feel the need to...

My family of 6 has dined at Kabuto dozens over times in the last two years. The kids love the place and the food is usually good (they do overlook steak and shrimp at times). The hibachi chefs go through the motions of the things that you come to expect, but they seem unhappy to be doing it, with the exception of a few). None of that caused us to not want to come back. The front desk/customer service is TERRIBLE. They are rude when you call, they ignore you once you arrive, if you have a concern, an indifferent teenager treats you like an inconvenience. This problem absolutely comes from the owner and management. We visited a new hibachi place in town, Kumo, and were blown away. That place is fantastic. For the kids, we have tried to visit Kabuto every now and then but decided today that we will not be back. My husband called an order for an adult filet dinner, an adult shrimp dinner, a kid’s chicken dinner and a kid’s steak dinner (for our children). The owner happened to answer and treated him as though he was attempting a scam by ordering kids’ dinners. He pointed out that we had ordered the same number of adult dinners. He asked, trying to bring light to how ridiculous that was, if he should order his food and give his almost $80 to another restaurant, they said “yes, ok”. That wouldn’t be the first time that we hung up the phone after calling them that we were appalled by the lack of customer service. Kumo is located at the Greenwood mall. If you want great atmosphere, fun chefs, and wonderful customer service - you will want to visit...

I had heard good things about Kabuto and we were very excited to give it a try. While the food was good there were several elements that made it hard for us to want to come back.

First the positive, the hostess was very nice and greeted us as we came in. She took our name and gave us an idea of how long the wait would be. The estimated wait time was accurate.

Dinner was good. I had the steak and chicken and she had the chicken and a vegetable sushi roll. Everything was prepared well and with the usual "show" that you come to expect from a hibachi steak house.

Now for the opportunities for improvement. I get it, they are trying to get people in and out as quickly as possible but the speed at which we were expected to place our orders was comical. I'd been in my seat for less than a minute by the time we were expected to place an order. The menus (see attached photo) are in horrible condition. I've always been of a mind that at a resturant if something looks bad in the dining room, what must the back of house look like. You can actually see through these menus from the places where they have been scotch taped together. The food is good and the service is fast but it's elements like this that make you a little uneasy.

The cook top also seemed dirty as well as our chef's jacket. All of these things just begin to add up to make your experience not as good as it could have been.

The food was good but too many elements just made the experience short of what...