Osaka sushi&hibachi grill- drive thru — Restaurant in Maryville

I have to admit that I love this place. My wife and I have eaten here many times. Portions fair for the money. Service has always been reasonable. Food tastes delicious. Until tonight.

We invited friends from Lenoir City to join us this evening and they agreed to make the drive since we to meet them in Lenoir City on occasion. Everyone was excited as we have all been there before. We walked in, were seated within seconds and promptly greeted by a nice young lady. We asked for a few mins, but ordered within 5 mins of being seated. Approximately 50 mins later, and after people who had been seated after us had already been served and were leaving, I asked to speak with the manager. She abruptly told us our food was "on the grill" as she walked away dismissing me and my table. If you have been here before you know you can hear the chef on the grill. Sizzling, clinking of spatulas. But at this moment she walked away there was not a sound. About 3 mins later it fires back up. I point this out to my party and they all take notice of the silence. 10 mins later the food starts to come to our table. The first 2 plates come and the fried rice is cold to the touch. One of the plates has literally 3 pieces of steak and 2 scallops. Then next 2 plates come and same. We tell waitress about the rice and she gets very snotty with us. She comes back 3 mins later with warmed up rice. This whole time we are still waiting on the 5th plate to arrive. About 4 mins later it comes with cold rice again. We all were frustrated with our waitress who at this point is very upset and showing her discomfort to our requests for help. I calmly ask to speak with her manager after she tells me "I don't know what to tell you guys." To this point we are calm. But then we got the manager. This is when the nightmare really begins to unfold. I calmly tell her that we have waited over an hour. She immediately tells us "no, I checked your tickets" and then I mention we are regular customers and that the portions are unusual describing the 3 pieces of steak and 2 scallops. She tells us that 2 scallops is standard and that plates come with "5-6 pieces of steak" to which she makes no effort to correct my friends plate. Very frustrated she then says "you are lucky to get a table tonight." This is where I knew all reason and customer service was lost on this woman. All the tables around us had been being served while we patiently waited for our food, and she tells us it was because we were last to be seated which was absolutely not true. She continues on about how the drive through is busy and only one grill going and they ran out of chicken. I could go on and on at the nightmare we experienced with this woman. I can honestly say that we all would have chalked this up to just a bad night, but after dealing with this manager, I realize it's just terrible management and not just a one time deal.

Bottom line what I learned tonight here at Osaka from the Owner/Manager:

The customers are "lucky" to be able to eat there. It's the customers problem to deal with the mismanagement of the wait staff, the grill staff and the inventory of food. It is obsurd to even think that anything could or would be done to make up for our poor experience. I have read other reviews that align with this philosophy, so sadly I am now one of them.

What I intend to have Osaka ownership and management learn from tonight and this review:

You can't treat people this poorly and ever expect them to come back and spend their hard earned money when there are so many other choices.

You lose Osaka. You just lost 5 regular customers. Not another dime or positive referral will ever come to you from the 5 of us. It's a shame management isn't smart enough to see that being apologetic and taking care of our tickets for one terrible experience would probably have saved this mess and prevented this very honest but...

Food tampering is a federal crime.

TO THE OWNER:

Second response to owner... 6 people posted negative reviews and suddenly think we are working together? That is paranoid. The only person I know in these negative reviews is my husband who was with me when we ate and shared his own feelings. You cant do anything about that since we both ate there. Do you not have more than 6 customers eat at your establishment? Fun fact my hubby and I USED to eat here ALOT over the years. I was a frequent customer UNTIL you guys let the building grow mold, the floors get filthy, and the food quality plummet. Before the rude staff and the bullying, pointless legal threats for updating my review on current conditions. Similar language?! Are you serious? I read all of the reviews and there are alot of intelligent reviews? I have proof I've eaten there. Accuse me of whatever you want, I'm not scared and you will not intimidate me. As a matter of fact, this USE to be a 5 star review from years ago until I changed it to a 1 star update after coming back to town and eating there. With the photos of the establishment, so many complaining customers, and a visit from any court official, and soon the health department..you can't claim these are fake. People are stating the same things because its obvious. People are noticing your disgusting business practices. Like threatening to sue for a real, honest, and perfectly legal review with photos and receipts. I encourage you to do what you must. I would read up on the law for threatening ppl into silence, it wont work. Its my right to post a review of my experience. I will not be responding, but if you threaten me again, I'm contacting the proper agencies. This is very unethical.

Response #1: Your aggressive and threatening responses to every negative review say a lot more about your business than any of us ever could. Accusing every single customer of being dishonest, malicious, or defamatory isn’t just unprofessional... it’s paranoid. Why would anyone lie in a review? What do you think the end goal is? People don’t walk into restaurants just to start smear campaigns.

You say you “reviewed footage.” Great. But pardon me if I don’t trust the same people who served me a meal with a visible hair in it to also conduct an honest internal investigation.

I have photos. Of the hair. Of the visible filth in your establishment. And if you think I won’t post them publicly or share them with the Health Department, think again — because I already did.

Let’s not pretend customers are obligated to “take it up through proper channels.” Public reviews are the proper channel. If you invite feedback, then learn how to handle it — not threaten everyone who doesn’t praise you.

You owe me, and every person you've publicly dismissed, an apology. But more than that, you owe your paying customers a clean environment, respectful service, and edible food. None of which you provided.

TO POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS:

If you’ve experienced poor conditions here, take photos. Document everything. And call the Health Department in Blount County. You can ask the switchboard operator to direct you to the correct investigator. I did.

They should take accountability and responsibility for their...

Pros:

The price is great for a restaurant these days. Three of use ate for about $60 after tip.

The staff were friendly and polite when they were being attentive.

There is a lot of food for the price.

The server was very helpful. She suggested dishes, explained any questions we had well and was accommodating to our request to sample their different sauces (hibachi, teriyaki, Korean BBQ) because we did not know what they tasted like. I have had each sauce before but not at this restaurant but my wife had not.

Cons:

We were seated and there was an overwhelming smell of some sort of cleaning product.

I ordered the steak and chicken hibachi. It arrived and the chicken was overcooked and chewy. The steak was oddly only half similar. Half of it seemed very chewy and the other half was tender. I'm not sure how this happens if it is all cooked at the same time.

The glasses of water my wife had tasted very bad. I could not drink mine because of the bad taste. Tap water (which I am guessing this was) does not usually bother me.

As previously mentioned, there was a lot of food in each dish. My son ate all of his because he has a huge appetite. My wife and I looked like we hardly made a dent in ours. We wanted a couple of to go boxes so I tried to get our server's attention. She was walking around and not looking over at our table. There was only one other seated table in the restaurant and I saw the same server bring them their check and they paid her. Our server then stood at the cash register talking to some other employees. I looked over at them for more than 5 minutes and she did not look at the table once. She did not come back to our table. After a few more minutes I got up and walked over to the cash register and asked if we could get a couple of to go boxes. They brought us a couple of boxes and we boxed up our food. The server brought out check and said "I'll take that when you're ready". I said I'm ready now (because we had to be somewhere) and put my card on the check right in front of her as she was watching. She walked off and did not come back. 5 more minutes and I got up again and had to ask someone if I could pay. She was again at the cash register talking to other people who I assume were co-workers (they were not eating or ordering anything). I was starting to wonder if this was one of those restaurants where you pay at the register but the only other couple that were eating when we arrived got great service and the server brought their check and took their card.

For me, it was a bizarre experience that honestly isn't worth repeating. For some I can see the appeal when everything is so expensive these days. You can get a rather average (or below) meal for a great price. The price is the only reason I went...