Nikuya Stone Grill and Bar — Restaurant in Pleasanton

Having no reservations, my family of 4 adults, a 75 year, 68 year old & 7 year old, 3 year old, and 14 month old, put our name down at around for 8 people total at around 1:10PM on waitlist. We were told by the reception the wait would be 45 -60 mins. No problem, we went across to Dollar Tree, Trader Joe's and 60 mins later we are told our table is getting ready.

15 mins later...we ask why the long wait and they NOW said the party before is almost done they still have 3 mins left on the 909 minutes time limit. 10 minutes later They bring out cake for that exact party thats almost done. We complain and ask how much longer, the reception says their 90 mins is almost up we asked them to leave. 10 mins later we complain and ask why can't we just have one of the wide open booth seats and just squeeze in.

They obliged. 2 hours later we are finally seated:

This is my problem:

-If you wont enforce the 90 minute rule, why have it? Its a Saturday, there are people waiting, I get it, there is cake. I am not one to spoil or ruin a celebration YET my family's time is not equally important? The young manager with the tattoos did absolutely NOTHING to help the cause. I would not be surprised if they were all somehow related.

-Why did you tell us 45-60 mins and we are not seated until 3PM? That is 1 hour and 50 mins. I have a 14 month old and also a 75 year old waiting nearly 2 hours only for you to NOT THINK TO GIVE US THE BOOTH? What exactly are you thinking?

From a service standpoint.... ZERO STARS! The manager and reception did absolutely NOTHING. Did not offer a free upgrade, did not offer free deserts. Did not ask if we wanted something to drink... lame.

Now to the food:

-Surprisingly the california rolls were the star of the show. Meat selection and quality for the SILVER AYCE was exactly what you'd expect. Price-wise it is on par for the costs. I'd give food overall 6.5 out of 10 because the actual sushi requiring raw fish quality was not great. I did like the Unagi rice, I liked the pork belly, I liked the service of the WAIT STAFF. NOT THE MANAGER with the tattoos nor the reception person who just stood and did not know much.

*While waiting, the manager said we could call to make reservations. Lesson learned on our part. STILL, making us wait nearly 2 hours is NEVER OK. Also failing to ask people to leave after 90 mins limit is also NOT OK. And not apologizing to parents is NOT ok.

At my age, I appreciate and cherish my time with my family mosts. Having us wait there you could have told us the REAL WAIT TIME. Allowing a party of 2 large tables to celebrate PAST their time limit while making another family wait is where I draw the line.

Extremely disappointed on how my family was treated on that day. This day exactly was 09/13/25. We were the large asian family waiting from 110PM to 310PM for our seat.

Just to be clear, food and wait staff quality was not bad. Management decisions were nothing short is disappointing and...

We came here after seeing a bunch of people talking about it on social media. But after eating here, I can say with 100 percent confidence that those were definitely paid ads.

Service staff was pretty rude and forgot to give us plates after asking multiple times and they wouldn't let us sit down until after we chose our menu; when we asked what the difference was between the different tiers, all they said is "better quality meat" even though from what we could tell, there wasn't a difference between the Bronze and Silver tier (both said "Australian Wagyu"). we just chose silver and sat down. The table and the restaurant as a whole was FILTHY. Table and grill were coated in sauce, oil, and something or other, and the sauce trays and sauces were covered in some weird thick goo and sesame seeds. The grill itself had a thick layer of burnt matter, such that every bite of meat had old carbon stuck to it that made every bite of meat taste like cigarette ash, not like a pleasant smoky char, but like an old cigarette butt due to the old carbon on the grill.

I don't think they ever washed the grill plate even once. The meat itself was also not wagyu too, I'd say its similar to the type of meat you'd get at a McDonalds or a Burger King. Zero marbling and smelled, and tasted... off? Like it had been sitting out for a while (or more like ages). Same thing with the sushi, every bite was somehow both warm and cold, the rice was very stale, and the fish was almost glowing red, like they dyed it with food coloring.

Avoid this place like the plague. This was also on a very quiet afternoon, so not sure why the service was so bad. The moral of the story is that if it's too good to be true, then it's not. If a restaurant tells you its serving all you can eat wagyu, but it only costs 30-40 dollars a person, do you really think it's the same wagyu you'll get for 100 dollars a pound at costco? And even if it is, they have to cut corners somewhere right? Don't come here unless you want to eat meat cooked on a grill that hasn't ever been cleaned, eat meat that tastes like it was sitting in the sun for a few days, and sit on a bench covered...

We were repeat customers back when this wasn't an AYCE restaurant, and it was becoming one of our favorite spots. The meat quality and service were consistently good - never had an issue. We have spent a lot of money here.

On our most recent visit, we were surprised to find it had changed to an AYCE format. My wife and her friend, who are not native English speakers, arrived first and did not understand the format or what was going on. They said the host (young women) had an attitude and was rude and unhelpful. (I later witnessed her treating other new customers with a exasperated tone, so I believe them.)

I arrived about 15 minutes after my wife, and after our first round of food, we found the meat quality was not as good as we remembered. That's when we learned that the AYCE had different tiers. We asked to upgrade to the highest tier and were shocked to be told we only had 20 minutes left of a strict 1-hour ordering time. We explained that this was our first time with the AYCE format, we were unaware a timer had started when my wife first sat down (waiting for me to arrive), and we were willing to double our bill by upgrading to the highest tier. They refused to make any exception. A 1-hour limit is short for an AYCE place IMO. The wait staff also seemed new and was spread too thin to provide timely service. We left hungry.

Overall, this was a terrible experience driven by poor customer service. We were willing to spend significantly more to see if the quality we remembered was still there, but the staff's greed and inflexibility lost them our business for good. It's a shame to see a favorite spot decline due to short-sightedness and bad business sense. Just another AYCE slop restaurant with a QR code menu. We will not be returning and they've lost out on...