WAKO JAPANESE CUISINE — Restaurant in Murfreesboro

As a server myself with a great management staff, I feel as if I am qualified to make a review on this restaurant. Some friends and I visited the restaurant yesterday, March 20. Our server, Rachel, was great! They were very attentive, kind, and friendly. Those are great qualities to have as a server. My friend and I ordered some rolls that had cucumber in it. My friend and I both had the same issue while eating the roll. I had ONE bite of my California roll and noticed a very pungent, metallic taste. Sushi is not supposed to taste metallic. Nothing is, right? Another friend in our group also was under the impression that rice came with her meal. We even looked back on the menu, and it says nothing about rice being included in the meal. Eventually, Sara, the manager on duty, came to our table. This is where my server brain kicks in. I understand food costs. I have worked in the food industry since I was 17. I am now 22. We ask Sara to have our rolls and rice taken off the bill. Why? Because our rolls had a gross metallic taste, and the other friend did not order the rice on purpose. First, Sara tells our friend who ordered the rice she shouldn't have ordered it. She asks her, "Why did you order it?" That was very inappropriate, immature, and tacky. Then my friend and I who ordered the California rolls ask to have our $5 roll comped. Sara then tells us that she and her head chef tried the rolls off of our plate. She then told us that they tasted nothing wrong with it and that they use the best quality ingredients. I am sorry, but the "best quality ingredients" do not and should not taste like METAL. She argued with us. In my restaurant, especially if there were only a few bites taken out of the meal, we would have immediately comped that off the bill. In a review, Sara talks about food costs. If you are so worried about food costs, provide ACTUAL good quality ingredients, and maybe you wouldn't have to worry about comping food from people's bills. Great customer service goes a long way. I have heard many complaints about this restaurant. Not from the servers, the hosts, or kitchen staff. Only about Sara. It is really sad how one manager can make a restaurant a living hell for their employees. So guys, if you go to Wako and have a mistake with your meal, don't expect it to be taken care of.

P.S. to Sara, don't talk about food costs to the general public. It shows that you are not willing to make the customer happy. Haven't you heard, "The customer is...

Awful Experience!

The female Asian manager is driving customers away and needs to be replaced. If you're the owner, please stay in the back and let your employees run the front—they're much more polite and professional.

My family and I opted for the all-you-can-eat deal at $32.99 per person, just wanting to enjoy some sushi. The restaurant wasn't even busy, yet the manager ended up serving us, which seemed unnecessary.

At first, we didn’t think much of it, but when we needed service, she was constantly on her phone! We couldn’t get any help and had to ask the busboy to fetch her. She eventually returned to take our second order, only to go right back to her phone. This is completely unacceptable! If you need to handle business calls, send someone else to assist customers instead of neglecting them.

As for the food, it was mediocre at best. I ordered a Spider Roll (fried softshell crab + cucumber), but it wasn’t crispy, and there was barely any crab—maybe a quarter of what there should have been. It felt cheap, and I could hardly eat two pieces because it was so bad.

When we asked for the check, the manager rudely told us that we’d be charged extra for not finishing our food!

The food was awful! Just because I ordered it doesn’t mean I should force myself to eat it. Her response? "The softshell crab is inside the roll, so next time don’t order something you can’t finish!" How was I supposed to know that? It was my first time ordering it. Instead of scolding customers, maybe focus on improving the quality of your food. Stop serving dishes with a quarter of the ingredients and prepared hours in advance!

If you order salmon or red snapper teriyaki, be aware that they coat it in flour to fill you up quickly. It’s a gimmick to ensure you don’t eat much more.

Stop lecturing customers about finishing their food and start improving the quality of your dishes! Use real ingredients, and don’t come to our table with a bad attitude. The low tip was a direct result of your behavior—learn how to make customers happy instead of being confrontational!

Trust me, if the food is of good quality, people will happily clean their plates. But if your business model relies on cutting corners, adding more rice and flour, and pre-frying things hours in advance, you'll always have customers who don’t want to eat the food—not because they ordered too much, but because it’s is not...

BEWARE don’t seat there 2 hrs, otherwise the owner will ask you to leave, doesn’t matter they serve you food or not, you eat or not, and you need to pay. We had a girls’ date this afternoon, friends want to try the new open sushi restaurant,they got there earlier, I was late. So friends started ordering food and eat. When I got there about 4pm, the waitress took my orders, only served 1 plate which about 1 bite steak which cut into 4-5 pieces, so we waited for the rest of food to come, while we continuing chatting due to long time not seeing each other. suddenly the owner came over and asked us to leave, due to the table was occupied for 4hrs, which she said is 6hrs. I asked the owner to turn on camera to see when we walked in. She kept saying we stayed there too long. I asked her where my food then, I can leave but I am not going to pay. The owner said it is common sense for All you can eat only can stay 2hrs, I break the law if I walked out. I asked her to call 911, I am waiting for. I asked her why you don’t serve food to me. After the arguing, she finally asked me which dishes have not been served. I told her about 4-5 dishes, she said she will make a sushi roll and let me take out. She specified to me the roll cost $17, which I paid for $36 for dinner all you can eat.

Response to reply: 1st, your manager has no interest to listen what is going on, instead just want me to leave, no apologies. 2nd, about long list order, I only ordered 1 time, about 5-6 dishes, only teriyaki steak was served. Who ordered the long list, who y’all served to, need to ask your waitress. I was so excited to meet my friends. The waitress handed me invoice about 10 mins I sat down, I asked her that you want me to pay when I have not ordered. she never hand me the menu and told me y’all sold out sashimi. I had to order something else. Another nice girl came over and listened to us, brought the IPad showed me the order, my order was type in 5:17pm and 5:24pm, why 2 separate time and why so late? Because we asked the waitress why the food has not been served. The waitress never put order in. The nice girl apologized to me, and I accepted. We seat there because you did not bring me the food, but want to charge me. If you don’t want us to seat there too long because my friend was there earlier, why you don’t tell us if we want to meet somewhere when I sat down, instead of...