Japengo — Restaurant in Maui

First of all service was good except for the manager if you can call him a manager his name is Hoala and I don't know how such a person like him became the manager. Our family were celebrating our mother in law 60th anniversary, such a milestone that supposed to be all smiles and happiness, we had a more that 3 months in advance reservation(15 people) for this place, we checked-in and we got 3 separate tables, our server in a attempt of get all family in one table, he spoke to the front about getting a table that was getting cleaned to seat us all there and he got the confirmation that we were getting that table and decided to wait, it supposed to be 15 mins that ended up being about 45 mins but we understood, it was busy, in the meanwhile we ordered some drinks and an appetizer, the moment arrived when our server told us that the table was ready, we proceeded to walk to the table, we were about to seat when Hoala the 'manager' showed up and stop our family to seat in that table because 'he' had a family waiting for that table for about half hour or less, one of our family members tried to explain to him that we were been waiting for almost one hour, and we asked for the manager to see if there anything that they can do to solve this situation, then Hoala just said. Well I'm the manager and there is no way for you guys to seat here. Our server started to apologize for the situation trying to calm down the situation but not Hoala, he didn't care about customer service he just wanted to prove that he had control over everything happening, not a single word about he feeling sorry for the situation, and FYI the family that Hoala sat in that table was 4 adults and 2 kids! One of our tables a round table was a 6 seating table, can you believe that? I mentioned to 'my family' let's eat somewhere else and Hoala heard that even I didn't talked to him he replied, if you want to leave you can leave just make sure you pay before you leave. That comment was rude and offensive and coming from the manager! I told him if we leave we aren't paying for that (which was nothing compared to our final bill). Then the great manager Hoala told me directly. "Do you have a problem?" What type of questions was that? Personal? Was he really trained for this position? does he really understand what the job of a manager is? We decided to stay and order dinner, when again Hoala showed up to tell us "we cannot give you guys service if you're not paying" Yes just for that, the dinner, complete separated for our initial appetizer order. We never, never mentioned not paying our dinner or final bill because we decided to stay, but again great Hoala just showed up making sure we didn't enjoyed our dinner and our night in Japengo's no to mention tha looks he gave us during the night, like he took it personal. Our poor server kept apologizing duren the rest of the night and he looked nervous and forgetting things, all because the environment created by this Hoala manager. He really made us feel uncomfortable during our dinner and the rest of the night. Hopefully management can see this review because I personally don't want any other family to go through this just because this incompetent manager Hoala. I think if he wasn't there during that night the nothing wouldn't happened, Hoala just wanted to protect his image and prove that he has all the control not caring about getting resolve something that everyone else would resolve it as the staff had it resolve prior Hoala got involved. So here are my points of this situation.

Hoala needs to be re trained ASAP. Staff wanted to help but stopped by Hoala. Food was good. Customers need better treat regardless of the situation. Hopellly management take this seriously.

P.S. This call is for Alejandro Carmona the manager of Hoala I'm here to give more details and feedback. I hope this is information is true since was given by the...

Don’t order to-go nor the calamari. Manager still has NOT reached out. Dine in with a reservation and don’t order the calamari. We dine here regularly because my spouse knows the chef and other staff. Every time we’ve either tried to order the calamari or it’s been sent to us, it’s the toughest chewiest calamari we both have ever had. The rest of the food and the views are great. There’s almost always still a wait with a reservation. This last experience, we were celebrating our anniversary and as usual, my spouse wants Japengo despite my suggestions. We now have a toddler and an infant, so we stayed at a resort nearby and opted to order take out. I ordered 2 Chirashi don, 1 tamago, 1 uni and 1 hamachi kama. The lady who took my order repeated my order back to me incorrectly stating 1 chirashi don. I told her the correction of TWO chirashi don. She repeated the correction back to me. During our conversation, she admitted she’s never worked there and usually works at the Swan Court (hyatt breakfast buffet). She stated the order will take 15 to 20 minutes. After placing my order, I received a couple of phone calls that. The first call was stated that the order would actually take about 30 to 45 minutes instead. And then 15 minutes after that I received another phone call stating that they were out of the hamachi kama and it would be an additional 15 minutes and everything else was in stock. I had my spouse pick up the order. When he got back, we were missing a chirashi bowl. Since these bowls were supposed to be each of our entrées, I called back something that could be done. The same lady who took my order answered the phone. She says she remembered me stating the two bowls and she corrected it. However when I stated that only one bowl was punched in and charged, she then tried to backtrack and lie and say that she didn’t hear. I then said yeah you didn’t hear so I corrected you that it was two bowls instead of one. The lies continue when she stated that the Hamachi kama was out of stock, which was not what I was talking about. Then I restate it what my order was, and what had occurred in our conversation. Then she stated that she thought it was two Hamachi kama. On a frustration I asked to speak to a manager. I was on hold for quite a while until another lady came on the phone named Olivia. She then stated that she heard about the situation and had been trying to track down the manager and couldn’t find the manager. She then asked for my phone number which they clearly already had since they had called me back twice about the hiccups with my order prior. But I gave her my number again anyway. She said they were really busy, however my spouse said they looked slow. The manager has still not called me. So going forward my spouse can go and eat at Japengo by himself to support his friends and can count me out. Our Stay-in anniversary dinner did not go how I envisioned at all. I had to go and order a burger from somewhere else. It’s one thing to make a mistake and want to make up for it, but it’s a whole other thing to lie and not even try to make an effort to correct it nor call back.

FYI, the fish on the chirashi bowl didn’t smell or taste...

Beyond disappointing.

We went to Japengo 4 years ago during our first visit to Maui and it was very nice. So now we were back and we now also have 2 little kids so we decided to go with a take out.

Boy, what a poor poor experience we had this time.

First, it turned out you can’t order food to go via phone or online. Only personally at the host stand, which is a massive inconvenience. My wife had to go there with a baby and instead of simply picking up food and leaving she had to wait 30 minutes while its being prepared.

Then, the check came in and to our surprise there was 15% tip already included “for our convenience”. On take out! And they don’t even take orders anyhow except in person. Both my wife and I used to work in hospitality and we know how important tips are for people in this industry and quite frankly we would likely tip anyway, but mandatory tip on take out?? Seriously? For what may I ask? There was no service provided! You couldn’t even take my order over the phone! Once my wife raised this concern the staff’s fairly cold attitude became simply disrespectful. They started rolling eyes whispering while looking at her while they were looking for a manager. Manager came and without any words just put a new check in front of her where gratuity was removed, without any respect. You call this a fine dining restaurant?? If you are a manager in restaurant, even if you feel like the guest is wrong - you should talk to them and show some respect, they pay for your food, which actually ended up being really bad.

Talking about food - four years ago during our first visit it was mind blowing. This time it was beyond disappointing. We ordered 2 rolls and sashimi. First roll with hamachi tasted like not bad supermarket roll. But supermarket roll costs $9, not $25. Second roll was a suggestion from staff and it was just awful. It smelled like clusters of seaweed you can find on a beach in a sunny day. I even first thought that the fish was spoiled, but then the realized this was coming from the seaweed on top of rolls. Taste was poor and it was all “infused” with this seaweed flavor Last, hamachi sashimi - they were 3/5. Probably on the same level you can get in some Japanese supermarket pre-packed for you.

Sadly, this is not the same restaurant we went 4 years ago, from both service...