Dzo Pho - Sushi - Hibachi — Restaurant in Pinellas Park

I'm not one to leave poor reviews, but this place is something else. The sign with half of the lights burned out was a little off-putting, but sometimes dumpy places have the best food so we went in for dinner and a show, and were told we'd have to wait until the chef was done with another group which was totally fine. The table and chairs along with the floor were all super gross and sticky, but again we'd hoped for some great food. We ordered some drinks and were told there is no liquor, so we ordered bottled beers instead. 2 of us took a drink of ours to find them very skunky, so we looked at the labels to find that they were 2 and 3 YEARS old. I asked the waitress if they had anything a little fresher, and she argued that they "just got" this beer and disappeared for 10 minutes. She finally returned with another bottle of beer, which she had attempted to scrape the date off of, and it had the same skunky taste. Like I wasn't going to notice it tasted like dirty dishwater if she scraped the date off? I said she could take the beer and I'd be good with water, which turned out to also be awful. Never ever have I had water this bad, and I drink out of rivers and lakes regularly. We then spotted some cockroaches scurrying around under our stools, so at this point we had reservations about the freshness of our steak and seafood we'd ordered, and just decided to pay our tab and leave. 10 more minutes went by with no waitress, so we just dropped $10 on the table and walked out. I've been to thousands of restaurants and would eat food out of the trash if hungry so I'm not a picky eater by any means, but this is the first time in my life that I've ever walked out of a restaurant. Honestly had to go home and shower...

The new owner is terrible!! The service is horrendous. I went in to place a to-go order because the phone was busy and I was unable to call the order in. I waited 20 minutes before the owner approached and asked if she could help. Once I told her I wanted to place an order she said she would be right back. Another 20 minutes went by where she never acknowledged me again. I chalked it up to them being busy so I left. The next night I went earlier thinking they would be less busy and I would receive better service. I was wrong! There was only one hibachi table with customers, otherwise the place was dead. I placed my sushi order to-go, thinking sushi doesn’t take long to prepare, right? Nope, wrong again. It took over an hour to get my order. After a half hour I asked the guy preparing the sushi if he remembered making my order. Thinking maybe it was done but they didn’t realize I was there waiting for it. His response, “I don’t know ask that lady.” In my head I’m thinking but you are the one preparing it?? The new owner runs around in circles but has no idea what she is doing. A young girl in her teens is left running the place and I give her credit she works her butt off. I overheard that the owner keeps most the tips that this young employee should be getting. So a piece of advice, if you go here bring cash to give this girl yourself, otherwise she is doing all the work and is not being rewarded for all the hard work she does. I’ve been going here for years and the previous owner was amazing. You were greeted right when you walked in and even though this place is not appealing to the eyes, the service was top notch. Sad to say that this is no longer the case and they will no longer be getting...

This is yet another of dozens of restaurants in St Pete/ Tampa where it doesn't seem to really matter to the owners how the food taste. Customers, they must presume, go to a place like this for what passes as "atmosphere". The food is not Japanese, it's clearly Chinese but, I'm guessing there's far too many bad Chinese places, so they decided to open a bad "Japanese" place. I ordered an easy, common and simple to copy Japanese entrée, Tonkatsu. What I got was, I think, pork or chicken? sliced up and literally scattered about the plate, as if it were some stir fry dish. it was fried not in Panko as it's supposed to be, but in tempura, i think? Tasteless, not unlike chewing on a warm damp oily napkin. It was served with a soup that looked and tasted of salt in that way Chinese restaurants only can prepare. Also included was a "salad"- about a cup of wilted lettuce and a bad tangerine dressing. the atmosphere was another giveaway- corners of the dining room and behind the bar are unappealingly cluttered with boxes of supplies, cans of product, paperwork, just bad. Server was nice and efficient, no issue there whatsoever. She even defended the place when I asked "Is this supposed to be a Japanese restaurant? It really taste way more Chinese", to which she replied, "Well, not all of it", which I thought was cute. No one asked for my advice but here it is anyway: Use your budget on your actual FOOD, not the flashy red LED lights illuminating the cutout pagoda. People that I know go out to a restaurant for good food, I can't eat the marble floor, the teak chairs, the Chinese good fortune cat at the door. Just stop opening places like this please. The...