Tokyo Wako Long Beach — Restaurant in Long Beach

This review is for the dining area and not the toppanyaki side of the restaurant. However the restroom that is communally shared was filthy and parts of the ceiling were coming down. My wife also went to the women's restroom and told me it is unsanitary. Bear in mind this is on Mother's Day around 6pm and the restrooms were a mess.

We were given disposable utensils and soy sauce packets; mind you we were dining in and not taking anything to go. We ordered the truffle edamame which didn't have any umami flavor of truffle whatsoever. My wife ordered a salmon wrapped scalloped that tasted overly sweet and like a bunch of flavors just mixed together with no contrast or acidity to wash out or balance the overbearing sweetness of the sauces. My food was a little bit better as it was simply fried but honestly feels like it shouldn't be priced at $26 but rather than $18 for that dish once I received it.

Our waitress only walked by once and saw that our drinks were low and refilled them. But never came back and asked how the food came out or how we were doing or even bothered to offer dessert. I had to flag down another waitress to get our to-go boxes and the check. Also, one of the guys who is running the food was coughing very loud in the back and coming out from the kitchen walking with plates and bringing back refills and walking back out. I couldn't help but to notice he wasn't wearing a mask or gloves the entire time he was coughing.

This isn't exactly the kind of experience you want when you are spending $130 on dinner for two. Again disposable utensils, lack of attentive service, filthy restrooms and subpar meals that just don't live up to their prices. I honestly can't believe this restaurant is on the pier and fails to capitalize on the real estate it's at and deliver excellent service and cuisine.

P.S. I'm writing this review while sitting on the 🚽 cause to add insult to injury it...

It saddens me to write this as we gave this restaurant years of loyalty & not to mention hundreds of dollars with countless birthdays & date nights throughout the past 15 years.

Unfortunately, after covid, it is simply not the same. I simply want everyone who has high expectations of this place to be aware.

About 2 months ago, we walked in & told them we had a party if 2. We were informed that they were only accepting reservations, no walk ins. So, 2 months later, we went back with a reservation. Our reservation was at 7:30 pm on a Saturday. Mind you, right before us, about a group of 10 people walked in (who did not have a reservation) & were seated right away.

We were seated & were able to order our drinks & food promptly. Quickly, our soup & salad came out. But I believe this was simply to distract us because the clock started ticking. & around 8:15pm a person from another party we were sharing the table with went to ask the waitress what the hold up was with the chef & she stated he would be on his way to our table in just a couple of minutes.

Well, another 15 minutes went by & then I got up to go talk to the manager (& behind him, was the walk-in table of 10 with a chef in front of them). He assumed me the chef would be immediately on his way. & about 5 minutes later, he finally was. It was almost 9 pm by the time we started eating! The chef was wonderful & the food was delicious.

But the service was absolutely unacceptable. While I understand they are clearly understaffed, they should not be taking a walk-in party of 10 people, especially when tables who have reservations & were there before them have not been served.

This place is not cheap by any means & the food does meet the hype. But the decline in service & consideration for the customers is not accep for the...

Awful. I can't comment on the teppanyaki part as I was there to eat sushi. I should have turned around and left when I saw the sushi chefs were Hispanic. No I'm not a bigot but in my 45 years of eating sushi, mostly prepared by Japanese masters, I have come to conclude that Japanese and Koreans are the only ones that are willing to go to the trouble of making it properly. To start I ordered the shrimp tempura. I got a good amount of veggies and 3 shrimp prepared wrong. The batter was not Panko batter but a batter you would get on fish and chips. The Tesryu sauce was basically soy sauce. Awful. For the sushi I had ordered nigiri - tuna, yellowtail, scallops, eel, egg and sweet shrimp. I asked the waitress what kind of tuna they were serving and she said the raw kind. after slapping my head I asked her to enquire to the cookies. She came back and said Bigeye tuna. That would have been good but what I got looked like yellowfin tuna since it had no fat in the grain and the taste was flat. The yellowtail and egg was practically tasteless. The octopus was raw. Not good! Now if you know sushi basics, not all sushi is served raw. Octopus is to be parboiled until tender and not till rubbery and definitely not served raw! I sent it back. The eel was good and not fishy but ruined by this gelatinous teriyaki sauce they slathered on top which overpowered the taste. The scallops and shrimp were OK. The rice as in most these non-Japanese places was terrible as expected. It was a low grade Arborio rice cooked till sticky with a bit of salt. It was not vinegared, there was no dashi, it wasn't polished and it was served cold and not luke warm. Properly prepared rice makes all the difference in the world. I gave the place two stars because they took the octopus off the bill and I didn't get...