Hayashi — Restaurant in Lubbock

First and LAST time to dine there!!! To start off, the salad that comes with the meal is the grossest looking and saddest presentation I've ever seen for a salad. It is basically yellowed (not fresh) lettuce topped with supposed French Dressing, but basically looks like regurgitated carrots that were stored in a walk-in cooler for about a month and then served. I immediately asked them to take mine away. My wife was braver than I and tried it, and had to rush to the restroom to spit out the one bite she took. Our friend that joined us, also took only one bite, and then was done with his as well. Apparently, the other patrons that we shared a table with, felt the same about the salad. When I inquired about having another salad brought to my wife with a alternate dressing, it was "snake eyes" on that request, as they only have French available...really?!?! The staff did NOT apologize for the mishap with the salad, however, they did offer crab salad...but no dice on it being provided as a substitute, as they were going to have to charge "additional" for the crab salad, amid the unpleasant experience with the "initial" salad??? But who cares, it's just salad right??...well, their pathetic version of a salad anyways. Moving on...My wife and I decided to go with the shared Sea & Land Meal: which comes with chicken, filet mignon, and lobster. First of all, the chicken was subpar, having put zero imagination in preparing it, lacking in seasoning and taste, and could swear that it got drier and drier by the minute. Towards the end of gustation, the chicken was so dry, you could throw it into Lake Alan Henry for a week, and maybe, just maybe, one wouldn't have to take a sip of water just to swallow it. The fried rice was undercooked, effortlessly prepared in under 45 seconds with only butter, a generous amount of salt, and literally nothing else. I added three fluid ounces of soy sauce to my rice, which then made it acceptable. Of course I'd like to not have to take a beta-blocker to simply enjoy my rice. Our friend that was dining with us followed my lead with adding the soy sauce and found it to be helpful as well. On to the filet mignon: what can I say...if you want a good steak, go to a steak house, and not have it prepared on a glorified skillet. The preparation for the properly-aged, choice-cut slab of skirt steak, or Hayashi's version of "filet mignon" was right on up there with the way the chicken was prepared; lacking seasoning, flavor and was bland at best. I would have just dipped the beef in the available ginger sauce for flavor, but the chef talked me out of acquiring the small tray of the ginger sauce based on "his" delightful way he prepared it. FYI, even if Wolfgang Puck prepared the filet himself, I still would have liked to dip my steak into the sauce...as I always do. I guess they are needing to cut back on their overhead, and do so by convincing customers they don't need the ginger sauce. By the way, the ginger sauce looks as though they pour the unused portion of the dipping trays back into the source it came from, and then recirculate it...sort of like their French Dressing. So Captain Soy Sauce had to come to the rescue, once again. Hopefully Hayashi's has plenty of the soy sauce to go around to accommodate anyone that actually has taste buds. One additional comment on their "sauces," approximately half way through my meal, the waitress asked if any of us would care for any other type of sauces, and I eagerly chose to get the spicy mustard sauce, you know, so I could dip my bland chicken jerky into it. Their "version" of spicy mustard, is literally a clumpy, recirculated, watered down lugy of Grey Poupon. Do they still make that stuff??...EXACTLY!!! Lobster bashing time: Surprisingly, the portioned amount of the lobster surpassed my expectation. Unfortunately, after having to request a knife to cut away all of the feces (cooked INTO the lobster) that covered nearly half of the portion of the bottom-feeding sea creature, the impressive amount of lobster quickly diminished. $90 for that:#RIP...

First off, I want to state that this is my opinion but I felt that either the hibachi chef was forgetful or focused more on the other guests than me and my brother. There was 2 other groups and out of everyone, I was the only one with the least amount of fried rice given on the plate (you can easily eye ball and tell). I ordered a filet mignon and shrimp (this order also comes with 2 free shrimp).

Now, the hibachi chef cooked the steak fine and no mistakes there so far until he started cooking seafood. He ended up giving me scallops instead of shrimp and I don't even eat scallops, so then he had to get a server to get a extra batch of shrimp to cook. So now the shrimp he is cooking at this time is for everyone and one person who actually ordered shrimp with his steak (because everyone has the 2 free shrimp). Everyone got the 2 shrimp and the other guy got 7 shrimp plus the 2 free so it was 9 shrimp. Mean while, I didn't even get any shrimp still! But at least my brother did and he gave me his to eat until mine arrived. The shrimp was cooked well and it was good, that was at least satisfying. When the new batch arrived from the server, I figured maybe he is gonna cook it all together and give me the 9 shrimps together. No, this was not the case, he only gave me the 7 piece of shrimp and basically skipped giving me any extra. (Probably because he saw me take my brothers shrimp???) Regardless, after eating the shrimp, it did not taste the same at all. It felt and tasted rushed and 80% cooked with minimal taste to it. Unsatisfying and meal ruining moment when multiple things keep happening when I came in to eat a good meal and had to be presented with this kind of problem.

This is my reason for the 1 star. I won't say not to come here to eat. But for the money I spent and the experience I have to go through. I will not be coming back here again. Truly...

I don't ever write reviews of restaurants but I felt the need to this time! I'm sure on any other day Hayashi is a lovely place to be but I went in on a Sunday, probably about the same time everyone gets out of Church. The restaurant was obviously running short-staffed, and during a rush. I'm sure this place is lovely any other time of the day, I've been here when it has, but today was nearly inexcusable. First of all, our waiter was doing the best he can, but management was obviously overbooking him. He was very stressed out and I believe he was waiting about six tables. I don't want any blame put on him. The biggest offender of my visit is this; my mother ordered a sushi roll and bit into something hard and gritty, like a bone. That should have never happened in a kitchen, it ruined her lunch. I was very sad to see it. Our waiter was great about understanding her, sending it back to the kitchen, and taking it off our bill. The last thing I want to complain about is the clientele and management. I always thought of Hayashi as a well-managed, nice restaurant. I was seated next to a family who was letting their child watch YouTube very loudly. Obviously this wasn't something that could be well-controlled but I think it says a lot that this Hayashi has gone from a nice, quiet, sophisticated place to get sushi- to a place that allows disrespectful and irresponsible parents to taint other people's lunch. The fact that our waiter was overbooked, our food was tainted, and there was no clientele control makes me wonder if this place is being managed by someone that just does not care. I feel sorry for the employees, I feel sorry for the chefs who are obviously being rushed, and I feel sorry for the restaurant.

This used to be a place I thoroughly enjoyed. I pray I just caught this restaurant...