Tokyo Japanese Steak House — Restaurant in Lafayette

From my experience, this restaurant should not be in business, especially in the middle of Lafayette surrounded by a multitude of phenomenal sushi bars and hibachi grills. The service was well below average, and the only reason I say that is because the hostess was sweet, friendly and quick and the server greeted us with a big smile. However, the server didn't speak or understand English so questions about the menu weren't properly addressed. Then the food😲... the chefs are noticibly sparing with the rice on the rolls, some people prefer it that way but less than half of the roll had rice and we didnt request it that way. The sashimi was so disgusting. It did not taste fresh and neither did the mango that topped one of the 3 rolls. The children's menu literally reads: Beef.........Price Chicken...Price Shrimp.... Price Rather than deal with the communication barrier, we opted for 2 crab salads that were too spicy for the 3 and 5 year old to eat (a warning would have been appreciated), and the other 4 year old didn't eat at all over the lack of options. We were celebrating a birthday so we made the best of that round but we were left hungry since only about 1/3 of the food in total was eaten so we decided to order the steak and chicken dinner plate with rice. The portion was enough for 2 or 3 of us but again the actual dish was unsatisfactory. It was dry and burnt, the rice tasted bland and the meat itself was overcooked and included very few. 0 out of 10. Again, less than half the plate was eaten. We didn't complain because we were trying to make the best of the birthday. Until..... Check was divided into 2. 2 adults and 2 children and 1 adult and 1 child. Surprise, the restaurant adds 18% gratuity on 6 or more guests , which is known to actually be a service fee and not an actual tip and should be communicated beforehand, if they want us to return, that is. We kindly mentioned that we felt the gratuity wasnt fair and the food was unsatisfactory but nothing was even said in response, she didnt offer to do anything nor even apologize. It was like we weren't even speaking. I've been to many restaurants in my day. Hundreds and hundreds. Tokyo easily gets my vote of the absolute worst overall dine in experience ever. This was once a favorite of my daughter and I's years ago. I'm disappointed in Lafayette for not putting this place out of business yet. Its baffling. I will be sure to tell everyone I speak to about restaurants , now until the...

TLDR; Madison, Kade, Sherry, and Rahman are on top of their jobs. Great food, great experience, and I will definitely recommend Tokyo to friends and family.

Full story: We went for Hibachi in a group of 5 at Friday dinner rush. Madison was our hostess and gave an accurate wait time of 45 to an hour. After a half hour I asked how we were doing on time, and 10 minutes later she gave us another update on our wait time without being asked. I was very pleased with her service and her demeanor. While we were waiting at the bar, we ordered some sushi and drinks but the bar tender was swamped and it was taking a while. Kade was waitressing in the area and she saw us sitting with nothing in front of us, so she stopped by to check on us at the bar. She got our food and drinks out right away, and we really appreciated that. Sherry was our waitress. She was very polite and helpful, she got all of our orders and checks done right, and she stayed ahead of us on drinks the whole night. Awesome service. Rahman was the chef. All of the food was on point and he did a great job working a half-n-half table (loud and laughing on our side and smartphone zombies on the other side - seriously, why did you even order Hibachi if you had no intention of enjoying the show?).

Anyway, it's the little things that make a big difference. With the busy rush and the wait time, this could have been a lousy experience, but thanks to the excellent service from Sherry and Rahman, and especially Madison and Kade who went out of their way to take care of us during rush, we had a great night and I will keep Tokyo at the top of my restaurant list for celebration dinners for as long as I get this quality of service.

Managers: you have my recommendations for pay raises and promotions.

Customers: bring some cash and don't forget to tip Everyone who takes...

Ok all I just wanna say that the restaurant captured the culture from walking in. We arrived there at exactly 7:02 pm on Sunday January 28th 2024...... So on Sundays they close at 8:30, so given the time that we arrived should have been more than enough time for us to enjoy the ambiance and experience..... But upon being greeted after being there for 10 minutes, which was way over time for sure, but the server was apparently training a new hire..... And with all the many years of being a server this girl should have DEFINITELY not been training the new girl. The chef came and began cooking, the other couple then voiced that they asked specifically many times to the server how adamant they were about the specific order....... And of course the chef had no knowledge of that, shoot THANK GOD they didn't have an allergy because if they did they might have died or been sent to the ER immediately. From my many years of serving if a guest is VERY specific about something you make a note of that FOR SURE! NO QUESTIONS ASKED! so anyways after that the chef did try to make the best of the situation since they were not happy about the hiccup..... The sushi was great..... In conclusion JUST DONT GO HERE! the food was so ABSOLUTELY generic, the experience was sub par, and also while we were still trying to finish our meal they were stacking chairs at 8:20 when they are supposed to close at 8:30pm on Sundays...... Also this was my son's very first time to go there and it was so NOT worth the damn $140 we spent here AT ALL! So if you have a choice DO NOT GO HERE! this place is ABSOLUTELY not worth your money AT ALL! might as well just go-to freaking Panda express instead! We WILL NOT BE...