Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Lynchburg

I have been eating at Wasabi in Lynchburg on and off for a year or so. I spent five years as a waitress in other restaurants and therefore understand the expectation of customer service on the part of diners in a restaurant. I also understand the challenges of providing good customer service. About 2 weeks ago on 10/9/16 I attempted to eat at this restaurant with my family and had the absolute worst customer service I have every had the misfortune to experience. We had a couples night with my brothers and sisters and our significant others and after 1 hour and 15 minutes, 3 of the people in the party of 9 (myself included) had still received NO FOOD while the other 6 people in the party were finished and had received their checks with automatic 18% gratuity added. We asked the waitress where the rest of the food was and she apologized for the delay and said that it was being made. The manager (who it seems is one of the owners as well) came to the table after about 1 hour and 30 minutes and I requested that the orders that still remained unmade be free of charge considering the extraordinary wait. The manager told me that he would waive the charge for the 3 orders remaining and 3 other people at the table heard him say this. Shortly after, the waitress returned to the table and said that she was watching the chefs make our remaining orders and that the delay was because our orders had been thrown out because they sat for so long. After about ONE HOUR AND FORTY FIVE MINUTES, the manager returned to the table and asked why we were still sitting there and do we want our food after all!? I told him I absolutely wanted my food and why was it still not out when the waitress had said she was watching the kitchen staff make it! He asked if I would be willing to pay for it? I told him that he had told me 15 minutes ago that he would comp the meals due to the extremely long wait. He stated that he did not say that. I told him I had three witnesses and he said it did not matter, that we had to pay to get the food after all. We left. I didnt want to even eat at any restaurant after this experience. The horrendous customer service on the part of the manager is a foul taste in my mouth to this day. It spoiled what would have been a fun evening and three of us...

My mom and sister wanted wasabi for their birthday. It ended up being quite a large group of us, thirteen. Because of the large group, my mom decided to make a reservation. She called, told them how many and they said they had a 6:30 slot. The first five of us were there by 6:20. They said they'd seat us when the rest of the party arrived. Over the next 15 minutes six more arrived, and the last couple was there by 6:40. We waited and waited while they sat dozens of walk ins. By 7:15 we were very impatient and they offered to split our party up to two different tables. We asked what happened to our reservation and they said they had too many walk ins. We were told that a table to accommodate us would be available shortly if we waited a little longer. We had 2 small children with us who were hungry and getting tired. Eventually they had to leave without eating. The manager did not seem to care and told us that they usually don't take parties larger than 10. When we asked why we weren't told that when the reservation was made, no answer was given.

It was 8 o'clock, an hour and a half after our reservation when we were finally seated. By that point, two more of our group had to leave because they had plans elsewhere. Service was slow and one of our plates had dried food stuck to it. The waitress seemed to forget my drink, and when reminded, brought me the wrong one. I just accepted it because at that point I was too tired and didn't want to wait another 20 minutes. When our cook showed up, he was the only redeeming thing about our night. He was fantastic. Our waitress mixed up our bills, and didn't bring us boxes when we asked. We finally got up and grabbed our own.

No one accepted accountability, or seemed to care that a quarter of our party had to leave without eating because they screwed up our reservation. I understand such a large party can be a strain on a restaurant, but that's exactly why we called ahead to reserve a table. If it wasn't okay or they couldn't handle a group like that, they shouldn't have taken the reservation.

We were all so disappointed last night. We have been to Wasabi many times, and each time it seems like the service gets worse. Next time, we will...

The food is average but I have never experienced worse service in my entire life! We went to Wasabi today (half price sushi Wednesday) for a friend's birthday.

We were seated next to an open door that had an extremely cold draft. After talking to staff 3 times nothing was done.

Our waiter had to ask our order 3 different times and still did not get it correct. But he did manage to ask for a large tip in a non subtle and unprofessional way.

We were told there would be a 45 minute wait for sushi, something we anticipated with it being a Wednesday night. 1 hour and 30 minutes later, we got the first of our sushi. The order was messed up. 2 of the people in our party never received their food another 30 min later, after most of its had finished.

We asked to speak to a manager 3 times and finally talked to someone who said she was "like a manager". After raising our concerns, the "manager" said she would give us 30% off. A discount that was never put on our check.

When it came time to pay, we were asked 3 times how we wanted to split up our checks. I finally went to the front desk and spent 20 min splitting up the check for the staff. Not only were they incapable of splitting the check, they also tried to charge us for another tables food on top of our food.

In talking with the "manager" I was told that I shouldn't be upset because other people have been waiting longer than us.

The lack of service and poor handling of the situation by the management was unacceptable. I will not return to this establishment. Any half decent restaurant (including McDonald's) would comp a meal if a screw up of this proportion occurred. I will say that we did have one waitress that did seem to care and apologized to us even though she seemed to be the only component one there. She got the tips.

The food was a good value for the price we paid (50% off on Wednesdays). I would consider it an mediocre value at full price.

Aside from the cold draft making us uncomfortably cold, the environment was acceptable but slightly tacky. Too many LED multicolored lights. It is not a club, it is a restaurant...

It was the service that ruined the experience for us. I...