NIKU X | Premium Seafood & A5 Wagyu Steak Buffet — Restaurant in Los Angeles

For a luxury restaurant, it's not just about the food but the whole dining experience. Here are the details: Reservations for the Chubby insiders (Gold NFT), who has priority reservations privileges: me. 1 star At reservation via Discord community concierge, it didn't require me to select tomahawk dinner or buffet dinner. I thought it is a decision at dine-in time. OpenTables reservation does request/require the decision (kudos!) This resulted in not getting the meal I made the restaurant reservation for. Mission unaccomplished! Zero (0) stars Made the reservation at 6:30pm but not at my requested time: 7:30pm. 1 star Management review 2 stars The manager came to explain that reservation is required to order the tomahawk meal and there must be an issue with the corporate priority reservation system. I commend the Manager's patience to explain that it takes 3 hours to prepare the tomahawk and so requires the reservation. I told him that I drove 500 miles to dine there and see if he can help find a solution. He was patient but can't offer any solutions. Sigh... He did ask if there is anything he can do to make my stay more pleasant, please let him know. Hmmm... although sincere, but no real solution and no hard offers. Hey, a $5 discount coupon or some concession of something can ease my displeasure of the establishment (whether it is corporate or the operator that made the mistake for my predicament of not getting the meal I intended to have). Another solution is to start cooking another tomahawk at 6:30pm for the 9:30 client and provide the spare for me. They close at midnight. Hey, I'm not manager to offer solutions. I felt he could have done better. Decor (decoration) is nice but the environment feels like a flea market... as an upscale restaurant with $100-$250 meal tickets, something can be done to make it more comfy. More comments if inquired.

Feedback at Discord: zero stars I thought that I would provide this feedback internally to the company via their chat community. "Aiyu Jelly" handle name which is a trusted friend of the company responded by implying that i didn't read the menu. The fine print is embedded in the menu of 8x11 with a small print. Check it out. I'll bet you can't find it. Then, some of my comments similar to this here are censored (deleted) in the feedback section! I don't know if the same person or other company person did the censoring. Why ask for feedback when censoring? And I'm locked out for 24 hours in commenting. So, here I am. As for the server Nate, excellent 5+ stars service. Patient in hearing my orders; gives great recommendations and offers different ways to enjoy my meal. Michelin Star service. The company should give him bonuses! Food & drinks: 3 stars summary Since I didn't get my intended meal of sit down served meal of tomahawk plus seafood & appetizers. -2 stars

Fruity cocktail was offered & accepted. Excellent tastes with the lychee infused alcoholic drink. (3.0 stars.) Meat & seafood (3 stars) A5 steaks... filet, rib eye, ny steak all excellent quality ... 4 stars rounded down to 3 stars. And I have to cook it myself on the grill. Grill fire is quite high and not adjustable, so it's hard to cook it correctly (-1 star). Nate (server) suggested that I let the kitchen cook it. It's better but still not the best. For the buffet review: the cooked seafood quality was 3 stars ... limited in variety and bland. Lobster tail was cold & I had to put in the grill to heat it up (2 stars). Perhaps some sauce can be provided besides hot butter? The sashimi of tuna, hamachi & salmon are pretty good. (3.5 stars). Side dishes & appetizers & dessert & coffee shishito peppers very good with right sauce 4 stars Seabass lettuce wrap... yummy but not can be tastier or wrapped better 3.5 stars Oxtail pot stickers... meat inside is too dry. Sauce was nice . 1 star Matcha cheesecake 1 star the other "x" cheesecake 3 stars Espresso $8 is too acidic... 1 star Wagyu taco is tasty 3 stars Shrimp uni taco 3 stars Wagyu fried...

The restaurant is located inside the Intercontinental Hotel on the 2nd floor. You can park in the garage or valet and they will validate 2.5 hours. We got seated right away with reservations for a friend's birthday and service was extraordinary.There's two weekend dinner options: regular $119/$109 for Chubby plus members)or $159/$149(members).

Buffet: fruits, seaweed and octopus salad, ceviche, raw veggies to grill, regular salad and sauces. Sushi: crudo of tuna, salmon, yellowtail, tartare and unagi don. Meat display: brisket and chef's choice.

Hot Seafood: King crab and snow crab served hot not cold like other buffets. They used to have lobster tails accessible, but you now order with your server and it came out hot, precut for easy peeling, and so plump, juicy, and sweet! Also, even though our reservation was at 5:30PM, they had ran out of hot seafood at 5:45PM. Instead of refilling it, they said they will refill it at 6PM. So expect to come back. They refilled it around 6PM and everything was cooked perfectly; not overcooked or dry. Both types of crab legs were sweet, juicy, and slightly salty. Perhaps because it is not the season, the King crab legs were sadly skinny. Raw Bar: scallops, shrimp, prawns and mussels with their respective sauces and sushi rolls.

Order with Server: Appetizers: potato tarrine: flaky layers of deep fried potato. Oxtail potsticker: juicy and flavorful. Miso Chilean seabass on a lettuce cup: our favorite but the miso glaze was a bit too sweet for us. Wagyu curry: texture of slightly crunchy carrots, tender wagyu beef over rice is just so comforting and hearty. The men really loved shitshito peppers Other apps: deep fried broccoli, miso corn, wagyu pepper beef, chicken wings, waffle fries which is basic.

Soups: tom yum is good for those who like the kick of spice and hint of coconut. Miso soup: Ironically, it didn't taste like miso soup, it was more like light dashi soup with mushrooms, tofu and seaweed. Desserts: egg tarts are a must if you want crispy, flakey, and crunchy layers of crust with just enough egg custard. Another favorite was the mille crepe with chocolate cream, but was informed tonight, it is not offered anymore. Hazelnut cake: not too sweet and soft. Other desserts: earl Grey and vanilla cake roll was okay. They don't make some of the desserts and instead choose to serve those packaged cakes you get from the Asian grocery store. The dessert option doesn’t align with the premium exclusive experience they're aiming for.

Meats: sticking to the basic menu is just as satisfying especially if you enjoy the thinner slices of brisket and beef tongue. If you really want to try the thicker cuts of premium meats, then choose the premium menu. Sadly, our favorite, the aged tomahawk which has to be reserved 24 hours in advance was removed from their menu so it is no longer an option. Drinks: yuzu sparkler and peach slush. Refreshing and so good after a salty and fatty meal. No comment, I can probably down a gallon of it.

And lastly, Joe ,our server, was so friendly and fun. He made wonderful recommendations and was responsive to all of our requests. He made everything so fast and easy by having the bill and parking validation ready before we even had to ask about it. He even threw in special little touches like a grilled lobster tail option that is not on the menu, and made everyone have an amazing dinner experience. Do note, the grilled lobster tail was very salty, so you can ask them to be a little less heavy handed in the seasoning if possible.

Overall, this is a great place to celebrate a special occasion like birthdays or anniversaries for unlimited seafood and specialty meats like A5 wagyu. They do stritctly enforce the 90 min so I would avoid bringing babies or young children, those who don't eat and or picky eaters if possible as you may spend most of your time catering to them. If you can't, you have to be really strategic to maximize your...

If I can rate this place as 0/5 I would. I was utterly appalled and frankly disappointed in this establishment. If you want cheaper AYCE wagyu/sushi, I think driving to one of their sister restaurants is more cost efficient (such as Yumiyaki, Mikiya, or even Chubby Cattle). Those other restaurants are cheaper and judging by how they serve sushi and Japanese Wagyu also, it's better to get those dishes there than pay a butt load for this place.

We got the upgraded option of $139, and opted out to order any large steaks that you pre- order (ex. tomahawks range from 35-40 oz, and some other options that you can select of your choosing.

Service: Extremely horrendous. I had runners/staff members not even know the simple aspect of having certain condiments at their restaurant. One runner said they didn't have tabasco, but had chili oil; only for a FOH manager to come by and say they have no tabasco and chili oil. Our server kept getting our orders wrong which caused a delay in our meat being served because we were sat at a non-grill table. Our server admitted to getting the orders wrong completely. Wait was over 15-20 minutes long in between waiting for the next round. Runners/servers also kept serving dishes on the side of the table even if there was room in the middle of the table. Dishes were not cleaned up. I had almost 4 plates stacked just from appetizers because I was starving between rounds of meat never coming essentially.

Ambiance: The restaurant is nice, but with the amount of complaining tables surrounding our area, I definitely didn't think that I was at a high end semi fancy restaurant at all. Interior is dark and nice, but the buffet line could use some work as it is a narrow walkway and some patrons decide to stand and block the way as well.

Food: Subpar at best. If I wanted to get expensive cut meat and be paying for 139 for it, I should be getting top quality. It was lukewarm at minimum every time we received the meat. It wasn't cooked to our medium rare liking, and some of the meats weren't the ones we ordered since our server got out order wrong multiple times.

Manager Education: Its pretty comical when even the managers of this establishment aren't well trained, couldn't answer simple questions of why the wait was taking so long, why the service was horrible, and why the raw seafood bar was completely barren for a great portion of the time. When we asked these questions, they completely invalidated our party and didn't try to resolve the solution or provide alternatives in any way possible. Pretty disappointing for a restaurant group that I've had pretty adequate experiences at their other sister restaurants.

Overall, I am not stepping into this establishment again. This wasn't even half of the entire experience. I saw an influencer table get up and not touch their food or pay at all, and then another couple order the tomahawk and have a few bites and left, and then the table that got seated after they left also got up and complained why the food was delayed and the service was pretty unbearable. I advise eating at their sister restaurants for much cheaper like chubby cattle, yumiyaki, or even mikiya. At least you'll pay for the service you're getting and the quality of food. One of the worst experiences ever and to top it off, I sent an email to their feedback group and they promised they would get back in 48 hours, and they never got back to me :(. Save your money, and your wrinkles...