Kobe Seafood & Steak House — Restaurant in Missoula

Made reservations get here 15 minutes early for my sons birthday. Find out they made several reservations for people at same time. Watch large groups of walk ins get seated. Remain calm. Told at check in 20-25 min.(6:45p at this point) At a hour in start to loose my cool a bit manager on staff keeps apologizing then watch two large groups after us 1 person shy of our group get seated. Manager apologized says his fault thought we were name of other group didn’t realize they were after us just going off size…..wait another 35 minutes at this point seated at 8:20 ish I believe.

We come for every single birthday and special occasions since they opened….So we were sticking it out as that’s what birthday boy wanted… Here at least 10 times a year( we will be finding a new spot to do celebrations.)

Fast forward almost 2 hrs later and kids are asleep still waiting on cook and again WE HAD A RESERVATION 🤣😒😤

Fast forward to the end (shy of 4hrs total) food was finished /served10:30pm ish following 5 min after with to go boxes and staff cleaning around us as yes it was just shy of 10:45-10:50p. Drinks not checked on after 9:45 however water was refilled around 10:10p….. decide pack up food let’s go as it’s beyond obvious everyone is ready and wanting to leave. Birthday boy didn’t even get asked if he wanted desert….(it’s the point not that we would of ordered at this point)

Management needs to improve as all tables after 6pm we’re there for 4 hours young kids I’m sure way past bed times . Should not be taking reservations for this to be happening poorly ran. Staff also suffered and was there beyond scheduled time due to very unorganized. Manager on shift admitted this was late and extremely poorly ran for the night. Claims staff was “let go” for these several mistakes tonight however also short staffed. Instead of “firing” people maybe train them correctly and take some accountability that this was your circus tonight on your watch while you walked around with a root beer bottle instead of assisting cleaning tables or training staff. The 40.00 off a table bill of 450….. well thanks …. Will be finding a different spot for celebrations as the big 13years old...

Dissatisfying experience, compounded by horrible management.

Last night, my family visited Kobe as part of our Graduation weekend festivities. The place was very busy and we were eventually settled in the Teppenyaki (flat-top) section. None of my party enjoyed the food; the ginger dressing tasted and looked old, the rice was flavored primarily with salt it seems, and the steak was largely flavorless. To make matters worse, I didn't receive half my meal. While disappointing, it wasn't surprising. I put in an urgent food-sensitivity modification just as the server (Tayli) was entering our order in the point of sale; it would be easy to imagine the other part of my order being forgotten under those circumstances. Unfortunately, with how busy the restaurant was--Tayli could be easily observed running from full table to full table--the mistake didn't get recognized until we were at the boxes-and-checks part of the evening. She was very polite and super apologetic, offering to immediately get my order in and get the manager (Alex) to talk about how we would settle the check, since I was not getting the bulk of my meal until we were all ready to leave.

This is when the experience went from "we are not having a good time" to "we will never patronize this place again." Alex, after having the situation explained to him, thought it would be appropriate to apologize but inform us that if we weren't willing to pay for the dish, it would "need" to come out of Tayli's check.

As a guest of the restaurant, I was extremely disappointed that Alex's response wasn't to seem nearly as apologetic as the server or to simply comp, at the least, that portion of the meal. As an individual that runs several restaurants in and around town seated at a table full of people with a history in the restaurant industry, I was appalled by the grossly unethical and illegal threat to dock an employee's wages as punishment to cover the restaurant's missteps.

In the end, the dish was taken off our check. While we were always unlikely to return based on the quality of the meals, our experience with management makes us doubtful that this restaurant should even...

"Best sushi in Missoula" - My review from a year ago.

UPDATE: While I still believe Kobe has the best sushi bar in Missoula, we just spent the last 90 minutes doing our best to give this restaurant money without success. We were hung up on 3 times. We were put on hold and then hung up on 4 times. While on the phone with the restaurant, the girl working at Kobe placed the phone handset down and we listened to two Kobe employees argue for an extended amount of time until we couldn't deal with it and hung up.

We then proceeded to call them NINETY FOUR times before someone picked up (see picture). They finally picked up the phone, told us they were having an off night, said the manager wasn't there this evening, and we finally placed the order. We were told it would be 25 minutes. I arrived at Kobe after 25 minutes and was told it was going to be another 30 minutes. So, I left.

Look, I'm not a Karen that constantly asks to see the manager or flees to Google Reviews whenever I feel slighted in the least (check my other reviews) but this experience tonight was something else. I've spent more than half my life in the bar/restaurant business. I owned my own place for 5 years. I know there are off-nights. And I still do believe Kobe has the best sushi in town; why else torture ourselves for so long trying to procure some.

But, at the end of the day this was a terrible experience - one in which we were never issued an apology - so I think I'm done with Kobe. At least for quite...