Okinawa Japanese Grillhouse & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Jacksonville

I was at this restraaunt on Saturday10/6/2018. I met two friends for lunch. One I had not seen in 15+ years. It has been a frequent habit of ours to enjoy similar lunches cooked on Japanese Grills. We arrived at roughly 12:30 - my complaint starts in the middle of our lunch, about 2 PM, I still had a a fork in my hand. (a large reunion or birthday prty arrived shortly after we did, they were seated at 2 tables and they were still eating when we were being rushed from our table. There were two couples that had been seated at our table after we had started. They were also eating).

THE WAITRESSES started to pick up dishes, and remove plates in our immediate area. The fact that we were being rushed was so obvious, as we were presented with "To Go Boxes" before we'd finished and when I moved it so I could continue eating. A styrophome cup with a plastic top was dangled in front of my face, from the hand of a gray hair woman as she motioned toward my drink and I was told, "Cup to go, you take with you." The couple on the long side of our table looked on in disbelief. I looked at the two women at the end of my table and said, "Hey, you guy's will be next." The had been no disturbance, there was no reason to rush us out, we were still eating. I can't eat like a vacuum. I paid pennies under $50 for our lunch. I could have easily finished y lunch. As I think of this it burns me more. I will let eveyone I know hear about this rude behavior. Japanese Cuisine is not the rarity it was. There are more places than this and now I understand why their business has seemed so slow recently.

Because it had been so long since I had seen one of these women, we tried to sit in the chairs provided outside Okinawa Grillhouse, but the sun reflecting from the top of cars and the intense heat made it only slightly less uncomfortable than we were made to feel inside. We walked down to Panera's Bread. We were welcome and allowed to sit in their air conditioned seating without making promise for further purchases. Honestly, if I'd known we were going to be treated so poorly, I would have opted for another restraunt. I paid with a credit card, so - Okinawa Restraunt - you can prove these lunches were purchased Saturday and paid for - I am a verifiable DISATISFIED customer. YOU WERE JUST...

I’m a server at Okinawa & I can firmly say I love working here most days. Our food is of great quality. Our meat is red, bloody, & always fresh. Our soup isn’t salty & if it is we remake it. Our salads are fresh with handmade Ranch & Ginger. The sushi is my favorite. My coworkers are very lovely people & so kind unlike the hibachi I used to work at. Sometimes the people all rush in at once & it’s super stressful, but our customers are always very generous. Every once in a while you get a customer that is a lil impatient, but you do your best to help make the process easier on the customer, the chef, & yourself.

We were super busy one Sunday night with only three chefs to work with so our wait was a little bit longer which we informed our patrons of. One customer who ordered the sushi dinner & had already gotten her food raised the most issues. She was with a group celebrating a birthday. Charming group…at first. After giving drinks, soup, salad, napkins, & mints just to help with the wait because, unfortunately it was a longer one cause, food only cooks so fast. They ate, we pulled the birthday cake out, sang, gave plates & forks for the cake, to go boxes, & shrimp sauce for the food. They decided they didn’t want to pay for their meals in retribution for the wait.

All five ladies jogged while giggling toward the side emergency glass doors as fast as they could. With a sweet smile on my face I watched calmly as they shuffled & all slammed into the ALWAYS locked glass doors hard & fell. Screeching at their fail attempt & at the fact they dropped their cake face down on the ground with only a fourth eaten out of it. Which was basically a whole cake!!!

With an attitude the barefoot birthday girl, sushi dinner child, & the rest of their group begrudgingly came to the front to pay for their tab after I informed them my manager would like them to pay for their meals before they leave us today. After the cake touched the ground the birthday girl demanded it be thrown away because, she doesn’t eat floor cake. I told her I completely understand & we were sorry for the inconvenience. Just for her I got rid of the floor cake free of charge. One of the girls did leave a tip which was very appreciated.

For the entertainment alone & my amazing coworkers! I give Okinawa FIVE stars. Well deserved & earned. Good...

It had been years since I have been here and we decided to stray from our usual place to change it up a little last night. It was great to see the fish and how big some of them have got ans the decor.

But we will not be back. Our server was subpar at best. We got a table and ordered off the menu mentioning that we share our dinner and get the extra soup and salads. How we ended up with a meal we ordered (steak and chicken) and also the 2 for dinner combo (steak chicken and shrimp) is honestly beyond me. Especially with the numerous incidents of questions that should have triggered the server that we were on 2 completely different pages. We understood how the mixup could have happened, never alerted a manager and the server only offered to remove the standard gratuity (for a party of 2? Could have sworn it only applied to parties of 6?). Our bill went from an expected