Wagyu Place BBQ 和牛公馆 — Restaurant in New York

My fiance and I had the worst experience at this restaurant. It was a Saturday afternoon at around 1:30pm, restaurant had people but not too busy.

When we were first seated at the restaurant, a waiter (#1) wordlessly put down an iPad on our table and ran away. There was no greeting or explanation. Some AYCE places allow order through iPad, and although it was weird that the waiter didn't introduce the option to us, we shrugged it off and tried to order. Unfortunately for us, the iPad ordering was not working. Another waiter then came by and said "are you ready?" My fiance and I informed him that the iPad wasn't working to order. Waiter #2 then told us the iPad is menu only and we order with him. Ok that's great, but the communication in the beginning would have been nice.

We decided on the A5 wagyu course, 160$ a person. Waiter #2 said ok, what would you like to order? I started by ordering the A5 wagyu and he said, "no no, I'm ordering the A5 wagyu for you, what else do you want?" Ok, very strange. So I moved on and wanted to order the omakase (which is included) and was stopped again saying they order all that for us. So I'm very confused, what exactly can we order?? Apparently it's all the snacks on the middle, and first round of A5 wagyu they bring everything, and we also get all the limited more high end appetizers standard. Again, the communication would be appreciated.

The omakase and sashimi order came out fast, the sushi was good so we had high hopes. Then we waited, and waited, and 30 minutes later no other food came out. My fiance and I were starving at this point. Finally they brought out a side meat we ordered (unsure of name), not the wagyu yet, but the waiter ran away again.

The grill was never turned on, and it was never communicated to us where to turn on the stove. It was incredibly frustrating having to flag down another waiter to find out how to turn the stove on. Finally the stove was on, but it was taking a long time to heat up. We did not end up starting to eat meat until over an hour after we sat down - this is accurate as I have time stamps from the photos I was taking throughout our visit.

Finally the wagyu came! Waiter #3 put the wagyu on our table and ran away, again silently. Unlike the other photos posted, ours did not come with labels. We didn't know what we were eating, but ok let's start cooking because we didn't come to a buffet to starve.

Unfortunately our stove was still not very hot and it took a long time to get coloring on the meat. We flagged another waiter who told us only half of the stove works well and to just cook on that half. .... Ok that is odd.

We then started getting the rest of the premium appetizers. The chawanmushi looked really runny. A few moments after it was put on the table, waiter #4 came over and asked if he can take it away. Apparently even he thought it looked bad because he thought we finished it? It was JUST put down on the table (picture attached)

The lobster cheese was standard, but as I was working on the meat waiter #4 came by and grabbed the plate, even though I had my fork and hand on the lobster itself. We had a laugh and he apologized and put it back down on the table.

We ordered some more meat, one came and the rest we asked for again but never came. Sometimes we would see a group of waiters gathered around talking to each other, and when we tried to flag them waiter #1 (the silent one) would avoid the contact.

Overall, we felt like we were scammed. For a meal that was 400$+ after tax and tip (because we are not the type of people to forgo tip despite poor service), we left still feeling hungry.

The sushi was good but this is not a sushi buffet. This is advertised as a wagyu place literally. The stove should work properly, the menu should be explained. Again, what a disappointing...

So my 1 star review is NOT because of the service or the beef, but because i got food poisoning from their OYSTERS. We visited the restaurant on Sunday last week and had the $159/pp AYCE wagyu. We spent over $700+ on dinner, and the wagyu was absolutely delicious and the service was wonderful as well. They seated us next to a table by the private booth which was playing loud karaoke, so that was points off in atmosphere.

However what really went wrong and got the 1 star was the oyster dish. I am writing this review just now after gaining full consciousness from food poisoning due to eating a rotten oyster from the oyster tray. The oysters were served beautifully and we each ate 2-3, and the fresh ones tasted delicious, however the last oyster I ate tasted absolutely VILE. Fishy, stinky, and rotten inside my mouth. The moment i bit in, i wanted to spit it out and every cell in my body was rejecting this taste- but due to being in front of companions i quickly swallowed the oyster and chased it with Coke, not thinking much of the situation and just thinking the oyster was just fishier than usual, or even thought it was the sea urchin topped on top of the oyster (as it was my first time having sea urchin). However i realized it was not the sea urchin as i tasted it separately later and it did not have this foul rotting taste.

When i got home that day, i felt intense nausea the entire way home. The symptoms kicked in about 6 hours later, and i started getting intense nausea, diarrhea, and chills and fever. I was throwing up and stuck on the toilet for HOURS. I needed to take acetaminophen every 4 hours to break my fever that constantly shook my body to the bones. I was in cold sweats, dehydrated, weak, and had no energy to consume any solid food for 2 days. All from 1 rotten oyster!

I am not the type to bash on food places, and to be honest the wagyu experience was very delightful for me and was a special experience for my friends together, however the oysters being served not meeting the quality expectations ruined this entire experience for me, and caused me massive pain for 3 days straight and a trip to the doctors office. For a place serving such high end japanese omakase and wagyu cuts, you would expect the quality inspection of every food item to be well above passing- however the rotten taste and the effects of food poisoning from that one oyster shows me a side of the restaurant that i do not want to know more about. I do not recommend to eat raw seafood from this place as I am now unsure how safe it will be. I am disappointed my experience here overall generated into a negative memory for me, even though I captured many nice memories of my friends celebrating through the slices of wagyu.

Trust me guys, 3 days of being bedridden from 1 oyster and the risks of getting vibrio from consuming ROTTEN raw oysters is not worth it. Please check your oysters before you serve it to...

Restaurant has a nice ambiance. You are to be seated by the host. Reservations in advance are highly recommended. You can call ahead of time to see if there's walk-in availability. You can find the wifi access information at the host area. There, you will also find after-meal complimentary items like dental floss and candy on the table. There is a clothing rack if you prefer.

Once seated you have a tablet for your own viewing experience for the menu. But all ordering is done through wait staff. Certain dishes are only available with certain sets. They were patient with us as it was our first time there. We went with the American set which is the limited set. I believe that set doesn't include lobster and other foods.

At the time of our visit, there was good stock on meat but some options were not available because it was out of stock like squid. Alcoholic drinks options had even less availability especially when it came to beer and sake. It doesn't reflect true time on their tablet so wait staff will confirm. There's water at the table through a pourer but it was not effective in pouring out our drinks, perhaps because of the lime. Better to remove the lid. But I'd recommend getting drinks there anyways. Beer was $6 and the 375ml bottle of sake I got was $38.

Food arrived quickly but there were several instances where the food we ordered, did not arrive because either it was out of stock or wait staff forgot. We had an experience where we ordered lettuce and it was forgotten. Then we reminded about the lettuce. And when the wait staff walked by our table, they even goofed themselves for having forgotten it again. Initially service would be 4 stars but I think it's too big of an oversight to ignore for a restaurant that does ordering through a tablet system.

Nevertheless, staff is friendly and helpful. Not all is fluent in English so be patient as they seek help on communicating the menu, how it works and what is available. They also help to replace the grill top whenever and remove empty dishes.

Back to the food, you're able to order sashimi or sushi. They oddly didn't provide soysauce or Wasabi. We didn't bother asking either as we decided to try the sauces made available to us. Our primary focus was on the meat. The best in my opinion was the skirt steak which was marinated and also just at the right tenderness to enjoy. Followed by pork jowls and beef tongue is more of a personal preference. You are going to be grilling these yourself, keep in mind so you can always ask what's the best grilling method for each meat type. For Wagyu enthusiasts, I honestly wouldn't know what to tell you. I am not one and I couldn't tell what the difference was to non-wagyu beef. I was hungry and this was the spot we chosen.

There is dessert options available. The option made available to us was strawberry icecream or...