MIKADO Japanese Steakhouse — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

My girlfriend and I came for dinner last night and were seated after a short wait. Unfortunately, our experience started off poorly with the first chef we were assigned. After our waitress took the order, the chef came out and immediately began placing sauce cups on the grill. While pouring sauces, his hands shook violently, spilling most of it onto the grill instead of into the cups. He repeated the process a second time, leaving the grill drenched in dark sauce before even starting to cook. On top of that, the chef had the sniffles and was noticeably sniffing over the grill, which was concerning from a hygiene standpoint.

At that point, I spoke with the manager, Wayne. He listened attentively and reassured me not to worry. This conversation took less than three minutes, but by the time I returned to the table, the rice for our entire table was already served. Everyone was confused because hibachi fried rice simply doesn’t cook in under three minutes, and nobody wanted to try it.

Shortly after, Wayne returned and handled the situation perfectly. He politely asked the first chef to take a break and reassigned us to a new chef, Jeff, moving our group to another table. The difference was night and day. Jeff was fantastic—outgoing, funny, skillful, and great with the kids at our table. He turned the evening around and gave us the hibachi experience we came for. Wayne and our waitress also went above and beyond to ensure we were taken care of.

While our night started off rocky, the manager and second chef completely redeemed the experience. Because of their professionalism and hospitality, we ended up having a wonderful dinner. We will definitely be returning to Mikado, and next time we’ll be sure to request Jeff...

Wanted to try something new tonight... first thing we noticed was the smell. It's an old building and it smells like an old building. Was told 35 min wait so went to the bar, ordered a couple waters while looking at the drink menu. A couple minutes later "Lee" the bartender asked us what we wanted. We weren't sure yet. A couple minutes later, same thing. Then Lee decided to try to be funny. Firstly, she was annoyingly unfunny, but more importantly she was mocking us as "those type of people who go to mcdonalds and look at the menu... duuuuh I don't know what I want". This was incredibly uncomfortable and had me fuming. I was ready to leave but my wife convinced me to stay.

The drink menu had maybe 10 things on it which I assume was a testament to what they could teach Lee to make within four score and seven years time.

Another few minutes, still without the waters we asked for, we asked again and got water. Got to overhear her neighborhood stories of junkies and dead bodies which was just pleasant. Needless to say after waiting for 15 minutes for water we did not order drinks from this person... god knows when those would've shown up.

Moving on to the hibachi, we are now an HOUR in before getting some chicken broth with 2 pieces of mushroom and a single bowtie pasta which they called miso soup. After being in this cesspool for an hour and a half, the hibachi chef showed up. The chicken and shrimp were decent, thus the 2 stars. Filet mignon was ordered medium and came out medium well. Fried rice was bland without much taste.

Needless to say we will not be back to this place. The food was nowhere near making up for the bad smell, the rude bartender, and...

This was our go to spot for the last few years for decent hibachi in Nashville. Never had any problems with the food, except when we ordered takeout for the first time. We asked for the food to be packaged separately due to a seafood allergy and it was all placed in the same box anyway. The scallops were barely cooked at all, soggy nastiness. The steaks were extremely over cooked. We did not enjoy our meal. We spent about $120 on our meals and ended up having to throw nearly everything besides and a single portion of rice and veggies away. I contacted the restaurant as soon as I could, they asked me to bring the food back in my trash bag if I wanted them to do anything to rectify the situation. I was going to actually do that to prove a point to them, but once I got home the trash had been taken out so I was unable to provide proof. We have spent lots of birthdays, anniversary’s, and just good times at this restaurant, so to be treated how we were was truly unexpected and shows how much they DO NOT care about their customers. The server kept insisting that they haven’t made any mistakes in 20 years, when I have seen problems with my own eyes. For example, people having allergic reactions to sesame because the chefs didn't listen to customers listing off allergies. They tried so hard not to have any fault in the food they prepared and sold to me. I will not ever spend my money at this establishment again. SUPER...