Fujiyama — Restaurant in Liberty Lake

My partner and I came here twice in 2019 and once in 2020 and had a great experience! Tonight we came in to have dinner and were quite disappointed. We had a 1900 reservation and weren’t seated until about 1910 (which isn’t a big deal but it gets worse!) When the waitress finally decided to take our order, she did not acknowledge my existence when asking my partner what HE wanted to drink. I guess she assumed I just wanted water? Speaking of water, I had to put his water into my cup since no water refills were offered. The woman who didn’t acknowledge me when we ordered drinks came back with our starter salads and soup; the soup was barely warm and when she set the items down she just let them drop onto the table like she didn’t care and didn’t want to be there. The chef came over at 2000 (an HOUR after our reservation was) and started on our food and didn’t know who ordered what. The table contained 6 people all together. My partner and I, a Mom and Dad, and two boys next to us. When cooking up the veggies, the chef miscalculated the portions and gave the Dad of the family about 1/4 of the veggies, then had to split what was left between the two teenage boys, myself and my partner. Of course I was given my veggies last so I was screwed out of my appropriate portion; to make up for it I was given more rice (even though rice isn’t my favorite thing in the world but oh well). Then the original waitress who seated us came back with drinks for everyone, she literally reached across me to give my partner his iced tea... (kind of destroys the 3ft or 6ft distance bs...) When I say reached across I mean her arm was right in my face! Finally towards the end of the meal when we were expecting the ice cream dessert for our “ordering for two” special we got, a new waitress just wanted to give us the check and not ask what kind of ice cream we wanted when the ice cream is part of the deal. My partner politely brought it up and she just said, “oh yeah... what flavor do you want?” We then waited for another 15 minutes while the dishes around us were being cleaned up after the family of four had left, which is rude. The table kitty corner to us didn’t have staff members cleaning things up while they were still seated. We decided not to wait and just got up to skip the ice cream and just pay up front. When we went to pay the lady at the front rolled her eyes and asked “which table were you at?” (Like we had to give her a number when the tables aren’t numbered for customers to see as far I know..?) My partner said “That one.” And pointed. So THEN the lady who forgot the ice cream came from the kitchen to us and held up the ice cream and said “you don’t want your ice cream?!” We politely declined because it was almost 2100 and we were too irritated to stand being there any longer. Not sure what was going on. We are just a regular, working, caucasian couple. Each time we have gone in there we have always spent at LEAST $150.00, and that’s not counting the tip. We always tip well too since we appreciate those in the service industry. However, tonight...

My boyfriend and I are frequent patrons of Fujiyama and have always had a great time until last night. We sat in the bar (which we usually do) and realized it was more busy than usual knowing it was a Friday night we took that into consideration knowing service would be a little slower which we were totally fine with. I’ve been serving since I was 19 (now 26) and understand the industry fully. We were greeted by our waiter and he got the drinks promptly. Everything was great until food. I ordered sushi and he ordered the ribeye with rice and veggies. My sushi came out and our waiter said that it would be a little for my boyfriends food since the grill was backed up. I was a little shocked as to why he brought my sushi out (an item that I’m assuming could have been held) but I was fine with it figuring it would just be maybe 5-10 mins of a wait. So I sat there and ended up sending a photo to my friend of the sushi (this is important). A good while goes by and my boyfriend still hasn’t received his food. Thinking I’m being over dramatic I double check the time I sent my photo to my friend ( cause ya know when you’re hungry and waiting time feels longer than it is) to my shock I sent the photo about 25mins ago. I was stunned. Our server never checked in with us through our the wait. Finally his food came out and the ribeye left a lot to be desired to say the least. Over half the steak had fat on it (see picture below). I’m sorry but if I’m waiting around 30 mins for a 30 dollar plate that food better be close to perfect. The fact that the quality went from the kitchen, to the plate, to our server checking it and still proceeding to bring it out is astonishing to me. In my opinion as a server I wouldn’t have served that and definitely would have been communicating with my table through out this ordeal. My boyfriend said everything else on the plate was great, except the fat. At the end the server came over and I told him “I’m not trying to be that person and everything was great except for the steak it was …” and he looks down and sees all the fat pushed to the side and goes “fatty” and I said “yea…maybe just let your kitchen know?” And he goes “yea it isn’t usually like that” and turned walked away an brought me the check. No apology at all. I totally get it wasn’t “his fault” but again as a server myself that’s a reflection on your service. Sadly at the end my boyfriend and I said we will only go when they are slow if we go at all. Super...

In from out of town and was told to try this place.

Upon entering I was greeted by the hostess. I was put in a slight wait which was fine. It was only a few minutes anyways.

Upon looking at the menu the steak sizes are rather small (5 oz). They do have a 14oz and a 10oz option. I ended up going with the shogun (10oz) filet fried rice and a dragon roll. The onion soup was really flavorful and good.

This is where the experience took a turn. The show is supposed to entertaining. I was hoping for something different than that from other hibachi restaurants I go to back home. Our cook didn’t have much personality. He came lit the fire and then threw all the food on the grill and started. Other tables the cooks were tossing food to people and playing jokes and interacting. Not ours. he cracked a few jokes and just cooked. He also cross contaminated everything by using the same utensils that he cooked raw chicken with all the other food. In other places I’ve gone the cooks use separate spatulas and keep the chicken separate from other food. The fried rice came up first as usual and the rice was crunchy. I thought maybe it was just a few bites but no. It was the whole thing so I couldn’t eat it.

Next came the steak and shrimp. Both of these were cooked to the correct temp I had asked for but really lacked flavor. I don’t think i remember seeing the cook use salt and pepper. He used a whole tub of butter though.

SAUCES yum yum Lacked flavor not as good as others I’ve had steak sauce? I was given some watery steak sauce which seemed like watered down A1 sauce. I’m used on what other places call “plum sauce” which has much more flavor

DRINKS -signature old fashioned It was a decently made cocktail. On the sweeter side but it was still pretty good

SUSHI -Dragon Roll Surprisingly for inland this roll was very fresh all around and had good flavor

FOOD -shogun filet and shrimp Cooked to temp but really lacked flavor

SERVICE Top notch. Everyone is super friendly

Overall given the raving reviews I got previously, i would probably try this place at least one more time to see if the...