Tepanyaki — Restaurant in Lehi

TLDR; Worst dining experience of my whole life so far lol. Don’t go here. It’s sad because we would come here all the time, but we will not be coming back after this.

Buckle in because this is a long one

Me and my Fiancé came here Thursday night for dinner and we both ordered the fillet minion as part of our meals, which are a more expensive cut of steak. There was another lady at our table who we were sat with, (we were dining hibachi style) who ordered the New York strip, a less expensive cut of steak. The chef cooked our food and did a good job until he gave my Fiancé’s fillet to the lady that ordered the strip steak. She was a little disappointed because she was looking forward to the fillet, but decided not to say anything in front of everyone because her fillet was already on the other ladies plate and it was too late. Instead of having him remake it, she decided to just pull the waitress aside later and explain the mix-up so we didn’t get charged the difference for the cost of the Fillet. We were planning on just paying for the cheaper NY strip cut she received instead. When the time came, my fiancé explained to the waitress how the different cuts were mixed up and wasn't able to explain further because the waitress cut her off and told her she would go ask the chef. When the chef came over, instead of just LOOKING at the meat on the two plates, he very heatedly started saying we were confused because all the different steak cuts are the same portion sizes??? Even though we watched him cook it and put it on the wrong plate?? Not to mention fillet cuts are taller and thicker than most cuts, so it was easy to tell the difference. You could especially tell because I had my fillet on my plate which was very obviously a fillet, right next to her strip steak. However, He would not listen to us and cut us off by saying something Spanish to the waitress that we couldn’t understand, and then they both left. Oh and the waitress took my Fiancés plate of food when she left. She was giving us ATTITUDE haha. Then she returned about 5 minutes later with our check, which she tossed in our direction instead of handing it to us. When we opened the check the cost for my Fiancés meal was removed. We waited until the waitress came back, to again, try to explain that we don’t want a free meal and we would happily pay for hers, we just didn’t want to pay the $5 extra (or whatever the difference was) for the fillet. She again would not listen to us, cut us off, and started explaining portion sizes???? Which again WAS NOT OUR ISSUE??? We just didn’t want to pay for the fillet that we didn’t get… that was all. Anyway, she still would not listen to us and told us to “just pay and leave” and turned around and left.

I do not know who they had to deal with earlier that day to be so on edge to the point where they treated us like that, but everything was so uncalled for.

We ended up leaving a large tip in an attempt to pay for the food we did eat. Hopefully they saw the tip and realized they jumped the gun? Idk? We were so in shock...

We went for my sons birthday. We will not be visiting this location again. They automatically added a $30 gratuity without any notice beforehand. I would not have minded if there had been good service. there was not. We have been many times and not had these problems. The servings were much smaller and did not taste good, way heavy on the salt. The chef left during cooking 3 or 4 times to look out the window in the parking lot like he was nervous and watching for someone. Super weird. The chef threw shrimp at all of my kids, asking them to catch it in their mouth. I understand that is part of the "show." But he did it so many times that all the shrimp ended up in the floor and we had approximately 2 shrimp left to eat between the 8 of us. That's food we are paying for.

At the end of the meal we waited 20 minutes for them to bring my sons ice cream so we could sing happy birthday to him. They brought the ice cream to a table next to us that had just been seated 2 minutes earlier- And was complaining that their party had been split up to two different tables even though they called ahead for a larger table. So my sons birthday ice cream was repurposed to pacify the other table. There was only one server and a handful of families, so there should not have been a mistake Like that, it was not a mistake. When they did bring it finally, candle but no lighter.

They kept trying to push the bill on us before the chef was even done cooking, which means we had not started to eat yet. The host awkwardly shoved the folder and bill partially under my plate and up against my drink and came back multiple times asking if he could get it yet. Mind you, the chef was not even done cooking and we had not eaten yet!!!! They also tried cleaning around the table while we were still eating. Why?!

Lastly, the bill was RIDICULOUS. My wife and I got regular entrees $26 each. 4 of our kids got the $13 kids entree. Our bill was $180+!!!! Does that sound right to you?! Two other Dads nearby were arguing with the bewildered and confused server who looked like a deer in the headlights during our dinner and looked just how I felt. Unhappy. You need to fix your staffing situation or you will not survive. I feel like my sons birthday dinner was ruined. I'm very unhappy and feel like I was robbed. I do NOT recommend this...

Our server is the only reason why I’m not giving this place a 1 star because he was awesome. It’s not his fault that the miso soup bowls have cracks in them and the soup slowly drains out of your bowl. You’d think with $50 a plate that they would get bowls that actually hold soup.

We normally love coming here but tonight was the worst experience we have ever had here. Our server was fantastic but our cook was not. It’s pretty clear that he hates his job and he was not prepared at all, he actually left our table 4 times.

The first time was to get plates for our sauce. Second was to turn the tv on behind us. Third time was to go get more sauce. Fourth time was to get our veggies to cook.

He cooked one thing at a time and while stuff was burning he was just looking behind us watching tv. The shrimp he tossed to us was burnt, the whole area smelt like burnt oil and apparently this guy was the head chef.

Half my noodles were burnt, nearly all my veggies were burnt, there was egg shell in the rice and the whole thing was a mess. The smoke was awful and we all left smelling like burnt oil. When you go and pay that much money, you pay for an experience and for good food. I could have gone to Panda and had better cooked food.

We tried to get the manager to talk to her about it away from the chef but she never came, even though our awesome server tried to get her multiple times for us. We finally brought it up once the cook asked us if everything was ok, the manager finally came out when she realized half the restaurant was watching us talk to him about our experience.

You know it’s bad when multiple employees tell us that this cook gets complaints all the time and nothing gets done.

The other cooks around us were awesome and those families were having a great time. If you come to this location, make sure you do not get him and if you do then ask for someone else. You will know who he is because he doesn’t interact with anyone and he looks like he hates his job, he will also be watching tv...