Sai Gai Japanese Steak House & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Norfolk

Torn between two stars or three. If I could sum up my experience with this restaurant in one word, it would be: unremarkable. Let's start with the ambience...rather dark and dingy - either replace current light bulbs with brighter LED ones or add more/better lighting. Poor lighting coupled with outdated décor created a rather depressing mood. Service: no issues, but my girlfriend and I were the only ones dining - the place was otherwise void of customers. Presentation/Entertainment Value: Ordered hibachi, which usually means gathered around a hibachi grill and provided a presentation of some sort by the "chef" (knives clanging, onion fireball volcano, quirky comments/jokes, shrimp appetizer flipped to catch in one's mouth, etc.). Well, there was really no presentation. I felt cheated - no shrimp appetizer! No fireball onion volcano! No quirk jokes/comments from the chef! Food: Edible, but bland. Fried rice had no butter melted on the grill beforehand and no seasoning added while cooking. Yum Yum sauce looked more like ranch dressing and didn't have the same taste as all the other yum yum I've had elsewhere.

If you are in the area and are in dire need of hibachi, then sure, stop in...but temper your expectations. For the price, which is about the same as other hibachi joints (which include everything this place lacks), the value just...

Agreed with poster below...Guy cooking had no interaction at all with everyone at the table-looked and acted like he absolutely hated his job and his customers. Way overly expensive for a very little bit of food compared to other Japanese steak houses Our meal for 2 was over $50 and definitely NOT worth that. Should have been half that for what we received. We initially asked for more yum yum sauce before tasting it, but the "chef" ignored the request. Then when he did give us more, most of it was ladled onto the table next to the container. --Thanks! The yum yum sauce was yuck yuck watery goop. Gross. The shrimp tasted old. Almost walked out after the water with a mushroom slice (soup) was served. Should have been clued in initially by the fact that there were NO cars in the parking lot and no customers inside when we arrived at dinner time around 6pm. What a waste of money. No way we will ever go here again. Not a chance. Thanks for making our anniversary dinner a flop. I promised the wife we would try somewhere else later in the week to...

This place has been here for a while and it is definitely not what it used to be. Went here for my boys "40th" birthday came here thinking it was going to be the same experience from what I had years ago, boy was I WRONG. The hostess was very nice I must say and was also very attentive in taking our orders or was for of us Myself, him his mom and his lady. But when the guy came out to do the cooking on the flat top he was just terrible. He did some kind of twirling of the spatulas and hit my boys lady with one because he missed the catch. It was like he was drunk or something. There was no real show he put on at all like you would normally see at a hibachi place at all. The volcano was the WORST no fire no nothing he put some oil and some soy sauce in it blew the whistle it bubbled over for 3 seconds and that was the end of the show. Will I go back? Probably not I think Sai Gai has run its course. Food was good but that will be...