Saito's Japanese Steakhouse — Restaurant in Loxahatchee Groves

WILL NOT BE GOING BACK.

Now I would like to share my experience here for the first time in 3 years being out to this establishment on January 29th 2025, my birthday at 2pm I called the Saito Japanese steak house in wellington florida and spoken with a lady name Jay and the manager margaret, i asked questions on the hibachi also organizing a birthday for myself celebrating me and my wife for 7 years of marriage and 4 other guest, me being the birthday boy, I (Birthday Boy) am paying $275.00 for the venue was promised a little desert and a song and at least recognition from a recommended chef called pam(Never received the referred chef) that was referred by Jay whom i was speaking to at the time 4 hours prior to the visit to habachi, I was treated very very poorly as far as service, my family was rushed beyond measure to order , Eat and all around very uncomfortable,one of my guest even had her rice taken and packaged in a Styrofoam container by the server(lady)i was trying to explain that I was the birthday boy plus my other party stating that it was my birthday was rudley overlooked that it was my birthday which Jay had promised that they were going to at least recognize my birthday never came , already disappointed I was finishing up my rice my plate was taken from me to early and couldn't enjoy the company I paid for to sit with and dine with and not only that everyone else's birthday was being sang while I was left being rushed and just feeling very unappreciated , also charged me a $20 Sharing charge on a millennium meal this was one of the most absolutely terrible experience for me i felt like I was tricked and robbed out of the gratuity and my $275.00 experience which I paid them in $1 Dollar bills this is my account of the experience i will never return now for the food it was 3 / 5 hopefully I can get a Call from managment would like to talk to them I truly felt i was taking advantaged of ,also PLEASE ID PATRONS THAT ORDER ALCHOLIC BEVERAGES (if they would have checked my ID they would have known also another way that it was my birthday) let alone the chef mingled with everyone else except for the birthday boy IN CONCLUSION I PROVIDED A RECIEPT TO SHOW YOU I ENDED UP DOING A TRADITIONAL BIRTHDAY AT HOME I WENT TO PUBLIX AND BOUGHT A BIRTHDAY CAKE AND CELEBRATED AT HOME $300 LATER

FOOD 4/5 -cooked and seared to perfection, seasoned well Service 2/5 - Was charged $20 Sharing Charge on a millenium dinner (Misrepresentation),Rushed service,lack of communication, (manager:Margaret) ,Lack of Verifying ID for selling Alchohol Atmosphere 1/5 - server (Lady) Attitude(Annoyed),Chef(Quiet,few...

This has been the worst experience ever!!! As someone who loves Hibachi and frequents this restaurant often I’m truly surprised as to how me and my family were treated this evening. I’m a college student who came back to visit my family and we decided to go to my favorite restaurant, Saitos. We sat to watch the show and the chef did not interact with our table whatsoever. He did not do anything special he seemed bothered to even be there and did not provide the usual Hibachi “show” that hibachi is known for. We ordered my 6yr old sister some white rice instead of fried rice and the waitress (who was extremely unprofessional the whole time) did not bring it out till the very end of the meal and it wasn’t even white rice, it was brown rice because they had “run out” of the white rice. She told my mother it was “better” and just left it without asking if it was ok, meanwhile the table who came after us had a child who they had served white rice just moments before she brought out the brown. My little sister hated the brown rice and all she had was chicken (she’s not a fan of vegetables at the moment ) At this point we are very upset with the service we’ve been given, my sister is still hungry and so we decide to not pay the included tip they include for Hibachi. The waitress is trying to force my mom to pay the included tip when the bill comes and my mom continues to tell her that she will pay for the bill at the front so she can speak with a manager, as we make our way to the front of the restaurant the waitress begins to chase my mother up to the host stand and raising her voice. The manager then arrives and asks what’s wrong, my mother and I explain the situation and he keeps trying to get us to pay the included tip as it’s for the chef. We would have no problem giving the tip to the chef if he’d actually done anything more than just prepare the food in front of us, the point of Hibachi is to have the interactive show which we had not received, for that we would have rather sat at a regular table. The manager then responded by telling us to not dine out if we can’t tip, telling us to not come back, that they will remember us and not serve us ever again which was extremely unprofessional and surprising especially since we have tried to handle this situation in the nicest way possible. The point of a tip is to reward good service and in this case we just didn’t feel that the included tip...

The experience started out okay, but ended TERRIBLY.

For quick summary: The manager was rude and they forced us to tip somone who didn't do any work and, when we said that's not who we wanted to tip, they said that they would ask the person we wanted to tip for their tip. The cook was amazing and the food was nice, though.

Full Review:

The Hibachi cook was so nice and funny and he catered to me and my friends specific needs (one was pregnant, one didn't eat specific items and another had intense allergies) and even joked around with us. He wasn't there for too long, I suppose they rushed him because we didn't get to see him do that much trick/flip-wise.

The manager was really rude and kept circling us. He would ask other people how their food was or experience is going, but not my party of 4. The waitress didn't come to us but two times, the lady at the front was sitting down somewhere else with the busboy both times I walked over (once was for the bill) and this other lady kept staring over at us from the moment we sat down to the moment she came up to us about our tip.

Speaking of which: when we were done it was just above $80, so we wanted to tip the Hibachi cook in cash since he did all the work/treated us so well and give the server, who we only saw twice, a 5% tip. The manager and another lady (same lady who stared at us) weren't having that. He showed her the receipt and she instantly came over and asked what was wrong and why we only tipped so little, I explained and she said that our server needed to be tipped. I told her she was getting a tip, but the rest of my money was going to the cook. She then told me that that's okay if I want to pay cash, they'll "just tell the cook to give her half". What?! No. That's not how that works. She only asked our drinks and food. She wasn't even the one who brought us out the drinks NOR was she the one who refilled them the two times we got refills NOR was she the one who got us drinks to go.

The only reasons they're getting three stars is because 1)The cook was chill af and his service was at LEAST worth 1.5 stars 2)The food, specifically the sushi and Hibachi salmon, were worth another star and 3)I can't do 2.5 stars on here.

NOT coming...