Sapporo Japanese Grill & Sushi — Restaurant in Louisville

Have a large group? Want attentive service? LOOK ELSEWHERE! even with reservations!

So, I don't make these kinds of reviews but my (our) experience had me compelled to do so.

We had a reservation for 20 people for the hibachi grill that was made days before, for a Saturday night. A going away party for a friend of mine, who's leaving the country. The policy, so we were told, was that they could not sit us until all 20 showed up.

Look. We didn't ride a bus here together, people's plans sometimes change on Saturday night.. with that many people, there is always a few who don't show, it just happens.

So after waiting about 30 minutes, in the front, most of us standing because there was not enough seating available... we had 15 people show up, most within the first 10 minutes. We ask to go ahead and be seated, they tell us 'no', all 20 need to be present. We wait about 15 more minutes, people are getting restless.. two more show up. At this point, its obvious nobody else is coming. We ask to be seated, we are told 'no' again.

Now, we're getting pretty annoyed... Are they really going to tell us to hit the road because only 17-out-of-20 spots we reserved showed up? That seemed like the case. I explained the situation to the nearby bartender if we could speak to the manager. He left to see what he could do... he came back (note: without the manager we asked for) and explained that seating us with only 17 instead of 20 'wouldn't be fair to be the people who show up late, because the hibachi chefs cook all the food at the same time.'. We explained that they weren't showing up, and he basically shrugged, and said 'sorry, that's the policy'.

I was about to ask -again- for the manager since he failed to get him/her the first time, but another member of our group finally managed to talk some sense into the host staff and finally decided to seat us. Great, it only took 45 minutes.

Note; all the while, we could clearly see two hibachi grill tables (each seating 20) had been available this whole time.

Once we were seated, things seem to return to normal. Food was good, I ordered sushi, most of the rest of the group had the hibachi. Sushi rolls were mixed up (I was given someone else's roll at first), it happens. 20 people is a lot to remember.. though only 2-3 of us didn't get the hibachi, but I can still forgive that.

What I can't forgive is that multiple times most of our table was completely out of the water, and the waitress was nowhere to be found. A buddy of mine actually just grabbed the pitcher and walked around the table filling up everyone's water because the waitress was MIA.

It came to my attention about halfway through our meals that another friend of mine just didn't receive her food AT ALL. Again, had we had a waiter/waitress, this might have been noticed, but I guess they had other things to do. To the kitchen crews credit; once she called over the waitress, the food she had ordered was received a few minutes later, not sure if it was expedited by the kitchen staff or waitress just forgot to pick it up.

To sum it all up, food was good, but if you come here as a large group... think twice, the good food just isn't worth the headache.

To Sapparo: Fix your group reservation policy, if we make a reservation, most of us are here and want to be seated, then let us sit down. Also, try to pay attention to your customers, especially to the ones you've made needlessly stand around...

Very disappointed. We took my inlaws out to dinner to have a nice meal together and I can't even explain how disappointed and even embarrassed I am. We waited 30mins to be seated. We all got our salads and rice at the same time. We ate them and the server brought out 2 rolls claiming that one was theirs and one was ours. My husband bit into one and warned me to not because it contained fish (I'm vegetarian and ordered 3 veggie rolls) as I picked at another slice. So the server came over and I told him that although there was avocado on the roll it was not vegetarian. He ran off and came back and said he gave us my in-laws second roll. Embarrassed that we had dug into their food. I nicely asked him to bring them a fresh one. So 30 mins go by the in-laws have already finished their food completely including the roll we picked off of. We were STILL WAITING on our rolls. More time goes by and finally I get the servers attention and asked him to cancel our remaining rolls because they were finished eating and we came here to eat together. He ran off again no apology or anything and comes back later saying that once it's order they can't cancel it. I told him that we really wanted to eat together; that's why we came out in the first place and they were finished with their entire meal. He said he couldn't do anything for us but our sushi was ready and he will bring it to us right away. My husband said that its okay put it in boxes and grab our check. Not kidding you another 15 mins go by and I literally watched as they made and put our sushi in a box on the bar. Completely ridiculous. I talked to the manager and explained what happened. And she said she would "take care of it" 15 mins later the server comes with our bill and our boxed sushi from the counter. And she had taken $10 off. That didn't even cover for the extra roll we had to order because of the servers mistake in the first place. He did not apologise at all. Rang out our bill no apology and no thank you. Complete silence. Now I get to have cold tempura sushi tonight in my home instead of together with family in what I thought would be a...

Hubs and I visited on a relatively slow Monday night at 6pm in June to celebrate his bday. Had last visited 5 mos earlier where wait was 30mins but everything else was 5 stars.

No wait for table and server was very attentive and service was quick for both bar and food.

He and I both ordered same entrees as 5mos earlier: he got hibachi combo steak & shrimp, I got the hibachi combo steak & scallops. We preceded each of those with the spectacular No Name sushi special and a smoked salmon sushi order.

Right off the bat, my soup was lukewarm at best, but salad was perfect for us both. His 21oz Ashani beer was perfect as was my peach old fashioned. The sushi hit all the right notes.

The main course, though, was not on par with Sapporo previous quality.

The steak chunks were not only also lukewarm temp but not lean and chewy with significant gristle which we both eventually spit out. We called back our server after 3 bites each.

Server summoned someone with authority to make a correction and whomever it was arrived to explain the problem with the steak was our Medium Well request made it chewy so she would reorder for us Medium Rare if that was OK.

I countered back to her the reorder could be cooked however she saw fit but what was needed was a higher quality cut of meat because gristle doesn't alter to more palatable when cooked less.

Replacement steak came quickly for each of us, and at least was indeed served warmer. Cut selection was no different, however, and I was very sorry to have hyped our revisit to this expensive-for-us restaurant.

I made no further fuss because it was a birthday celebration, and meal disappointment already dampened our spirits, twice.

T'is a shame the steak quality diminished so from our prior visit. My $33 combo and his $29 combo suggested better...