Ganbei Japanese Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Lexington

My husband, daughter, and I went out for what we thought would be a nice dinner. It wasn’t the typical hibachi we are used to where you sit around the Chef while he puts on a show and food goes flying into your mouth.

Instead, it was booth seating with the hibachi cooked in the kitchen. No problem, we sat at a the booth. The restaurant was extremely hot, I asked the waitress if they could do something about the heat, she said she had been asking for weeks for them to fix it. Again, no problem ,I just ordered some ice water.

We ordered sushi, the hibachi lobster and steak dinner which came with choice of soup, and salad. After about 20 minutes our soup and “salad” came. Salad is in quotations because it was more like soup, it was half filled with liquid at the bottom of the bowl, not sure if it was the watered down dressing or water from the soggy lettuce.

About 15 minutes go by and we received our hibachi entree. While she was serving it to us she spilled my husbands beer all over the table and into my orangtini, they couldn’t replace my drink because they ran out of oranges, which was odd because oranges are a part of this cuisine as there were oranges in my hibachi plate. So at this point we are wondering where our sushi is as typically it comes before the meal, not after like a dessert.

My husband took his first bite when he was pushed abruptly by the man sitting behind him because the seat in the booth we were sitting in was not attached to the wall nor the floor, the man behind him kept moving the seat repeatedly. My husband couldn’t even finish his meal, so we asked for boxes to go. Our daughter at this point is getting anxious to leave, so they went outside while I waited for the check, no surprise that it took another 10 minutes for them to bring it and another 10 for her to collect the payment.

To make matters worse 20 minutes later I had explosive diarrhea, that lasted all night! Worst dinner experience I have ever had! If I could give negative...

I've been going to this place for years..... and boom I get the rudest experience I've ever had in ANY restaurant and this is a personal favorite of mine that is now soiled.

Normal experience is superior service, top grade food, and a thoroughly enjoyable atmosphere. I've rated this place highly each time I've come through and have recommended to numerous friends.

Not tonight, far from it, first time I've been deliberately treated bad by a server, ....ever. Was there for an hour and a half, ultimately to only get one glass of water, 2 glasses of wine, 1 beer, cold miso soup and a dozen sushi consisting of New York and Crunchy crab. To boot, the hostess is the one that mainly took care of us, as the server was no where to be found.

Upon deciding to leave, and having to ask repeatedly for my check from the hostess, (server walked past us several times to serve other tables around us, but deliberately ignored ours...)

The hostess still trying to salvage the situation, ,brings us our entrees in a to go box, which means, they too had been sitting there the whole time, ignored by our sever. And to boot, the damn server took our check to the wrong table!!!!! And no, I've never met this server before to warrant such open disregard.

In disgust, this was the first time ever that I've walked out on a restaurant..... and refused the entrees which they offered freely.

Food that we had brought to us was excellent as usual. Service was bi-polar, excellent from the hostess but horrid from the server. Hoping next time I decide to go there, they'll have gotten her problems sorted out, one way or the other. I'd probably just turn around and leave if she's...

Two years ago, I would have rated Ganbei as a 5-star restaurant all the way. Their spicy Ganbei Wok dishes were excellent, and I absolutely adore their Ganbei Roll as well. My wife enjoys their sweet and sour chicken anytime she orders it too.

However, since that time their service has definitely slowed up with us typically having to expect at least an hour wait if we want to go there at a reasonable dinner time. Slower service is something I've come to expect after COVID, so I can give them a pass there.

Additionallly, when entering the restaurant, the FIRST thing I notice now is a wet carpet type smell that doesn't bring an appetite to the front of my mind either. It may just be the carpets drying out from being sprayed the night before, but for a restaurant that doesn't have much carpet within the guest area, I'm a little thrown off by how strong the smell is.

Their food used to always impress us as well, but lately their Kobe Beef appetizer has started feeling like it's just some normal, thinly shaved beef without the tenderness we had become accustomed to with this appetizer. Their Shumai has become inconsistent also, with the filling sometimes tasting like straight Shallots, and you never know if you'll get a shrimp atop the Shumai or not either.

We were frequenting this restaurant almost weekly until we continue to run across an issue with almost every visit. Really hope they can turn it around, but we'll likely give it some time before coming...