Tokyo Wako Pasadena — Restaurant in Pasadena

This place made me feel like ive been robbed.

Ordered Hibachi Chicken as its a simple dish/recipe.

I go by a code when attempting new restaraunts. Order a simple dish and see how well they make and this will paint a picture for a much larger investment to make.l such as a cold lobster tail meal.

Meal is about $24+$4 Drink. Seems fair. I can respect that cost. Restaurant scenary was nice and elegant(like ALL other Teppan grill place). The cooks(NOT chefs) are interesting to see as flames dance in the air and constant grill tapping and train whistles. Very entertaining and rather distracting to certain extent but rather tolerable to deal with during dinner. Like having a television in the dining room!

Unfortunately, i came here with an empty stomach ready to fill it with deliciousness as Tokyo Wako in Monterrey Park is a good place and had amazing food so I had high expectations especially for what you are paying and well the restaurant is set up for customers.

Needless to say, the food does not amount to the cost you pay and was quite disappointing especially for such a rookie mistake made on several occasions.

Couldnt catch our cooks name but he was hispanic. Well, this is how the food turned out:

Blackened seared squash: Under seasoned, over cooked, bland. Tolerable. Did not finish as it was cold when my meal was completely served. Had to bathe in soy sauce to enjoy.

"Hibachi" Chicken: Under seasoned, a bit dry. Like biting into moist beef jerky on certain bits. Could be due to the various sized diced chicken. Will not cook evenly. Some will be perfect and others will be overcooked

Shrimp: Cooked just right! "Finally", i told myself. Still under seasoned! like biting a sour shrimp. Somewhat enjoyable but there are only about 5 pinky tip sized pieces so how satisfying is this to a hungry person?

Fried Rice: Didnt ask for this! Specifically asked for steamed rice to share my rice with my 2yr old dauhter. The amateur cook decided to give me fried rice without asking. I then had to ask the waitress myself for steamed rice and requested to omit the $4 fee. Fried rice was terrible. I saw all thr ingredients he added but immediately noticed lack of soy sauce, overcooked unseasoned chicked(was left sitting on grill for some time. Almost felt like telling the cook "Dude, move the chicken to the edge of the grill!!"). it was bland rice and nothing special. Fast food chinese joints should shiw these cooks a thing or two.

Carmalized onion/muchroom: Not a fan of mushrooms so I cannot provide professional review. Onions were good. Sweet and about the only thing i devoured.

Steamed Rice: Not much to say. its just rice and i had two small bowls of this to compensate for what I did not eat.

I also waited until the cook served my entire plate. Just not a fan of eating each item by itself. An explosiom of flavor and texture provides a much better experience and pallete. The food was cold! The chicken was hot and fresh but you know how well that went! smh

All in all, my meal was roughly $30 and the only thing that I enjoyed in my meal were the onions and...

My wifes steak and shrimp was just as disappointing bu hurts more considering that platr was close to $40. $12.99 would have been more appropriate. The steak was essentially insulted by the cook im the way it was served. Salt and pepper are two staple ingredients. learn to use em properly!

The "cooks" humor and cool tossing of kitchen tools and of course playing with fire was fun and laid a few smiles on us.

So..I arrived with an empty and left with an empty as well as an empty wallet. (lol)

The Verdict: If you can afford high end costs with low end fast food quality then by all means, this place is just for you! Just know, you are paying for a cook(not a chef!!) that plays with kitchen tools and tosses them few feet im front of you lots of humor.

If you come here for the meal, try next door! "Cholo Cafe" sounded interesting when i walked passed. Maybe that place knows how to utilize salt and...

I haven't been to a restaurant that could be wrong on all counts when it comes to food. We ordered a cut roll with shrimp tempura. The sushi rice was dry and hard and wasn't sticking very well, so pretty soon it was breaking apart. The tempura had become soggy and was tasteless. The wasabi was tight, so when I dropped it into a bowl of soy sauce, it just broke apart into pellets instead of forming a base.

We also ordere Salmon marinated in miso paste. Now I had this dish somewhere else it was an instant winner. Here it was just deep friend salmon medallions. There wasn't a hint of miso and any other taste was overpowered by the sesame crust, which was on the fish when it was thrown into the frier. It came with almost raw cauliflower and broccoli.

The service was also bad. They never once asked our opinion of the food or came back to refill our glasses for water. At one point we were sucking on ice chips. Sad to see such a miserable show in what is undoubtedly one of the best places to have a restaurant. Paseo Colorado rocks but...

We went here as a party of 2 for my Birthday, it was my first time but my Girlfriend has been a few times and recommended it. She booked a reservation for 8pm and by 7pm they told us our table was ready! We live kinda far from this location so we were still driving when we got this message but it was impressive. We got there and they sat us immediately, we did the Teppanyaki. Our table wasn't completely full and left us lots of space. Our waitress came and took our drink and food order and the chef came out shortly after. The chef was super friendly and entertaining. The only hiccup we had was we had placed a order for sushi and it took a bit to come out but the waitress apologized and made sure it came straight to us! Honestly it was an amazing experience and we will be back forsure. It was a bit more expensive than Benihana but way worth it. The food was amazing! I got the Ribeye and she got the Shrimp, Lobster...