Fuji Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Rapid City

Let me preface that I lived on the East Coast in NY/NJ for 36 years and I've had hibachi countless times and I assumed hibachi around the country was more or less the same. If you're a transplant from the Coasts, you'll likely be disappointed.

We only had hibachi so I can only speak to that. Hibachi fried rice usually is cooked with eggs and veggies, like carrots and peas. The rice we were served was completely plain. It wasn't bad, just different than we're used to. The meat (steak and chicken) and veggies were tasty and cooked well. The sauces we were served were not the traditional ginger sauce and hot mustard, it was one little fish of something called Yum Yum Sauce, which tasted kinda like French dressing. Maybe that plays well here. For dessert, we had green tea ice cream. Something tasted off about it, not bad, just not traditional. Plus, sprinkles? No. I also had a pot of hot green tea which is normally freshly brewed with green tea leaves. This was just tea bags in water. Plus we were charged for it, which is unusual.

Lastly, if they ask if it's ok if they clean the hibachi grill while you're sitting there, SAY NO!!! They use some kind of cleaning solution in a green bottle that smells like a morgue. And I work in a hospital and I've been in the morgue and I'd rather be there. It's horrible. I said it was ok to clean the grill when asked because I've only ever seen them clean the grill with water, and just water.

Anyway, not bad if you go for lunch. Dinner prices were a little on the high side, probably not justifiable, but hey, the place is always busy and I hope they continue their success. Also, please get higher chairs and replace the old,...

If you don't want to read this whole thing, I'll sum it up... WHAT A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE....

Let me elaborate:

We came in on Sunday 1/14. When we arrived there was a wait to be seated for hibachi, which isn't a big deal. We were greeted by, who I pray was not the manager, along with 2 other people standing there doing... the same job. She told us it was about a 30 minute wait because they were short on servers. She then said, "probably a shorter wait if I started serving." Accompanied with a look to say as if I would do that. We sat at a table instead. Once there, it was so cold we had to keep our coats and hats on, along with my daughters snowsuit for the entirety of our meal. I obviously did not have a thermometer, but I don't think it's a stretch whatsoever to say low to mid 50's. As we left we saw a table of four gentlemen all wearing their Carhartt gear.

The food was overcooked and sub par at best.

The only good thing that came out of this meal was that the food came out quickly. We ate about a quarter of it and decided to get to go boxes so we could eat our food at home, and comfortably.

I can understand that things break occasionally, but noone seemed to be actively trying to fix anything and customers received no warning. I'm sure nothing will come of the lazy employee, but I would hope a manager who hopefully reads this can remind her n0of the importance of helping out in times of need to get customers serviced in a timely manner... I know, a foreign concept today...

I hope things improve, I used to love Fuji, but things seem to be...

We didn't eat here at the end!

We were greeted unfriendly at reception as soon as we entered. (3 girls were talking, maybe we disturbed them on an important topic!) We were shown the table we were supposed to sit at....and sat right next to 4 other guests, even though there were plenty of other empty seats. Strictly speaking there would only have been 6 of us there. Everything else was empty! That's why we politely asked the young lady if we could have some privacy and sit a few seats further away. But we were told in a totally rude and brisk manner by this young lady that this was not welcome and that we had to sit there! But please! Such behavior is unacceptable to us in a restaurant like this - sorry! We are the guests here, pay for the service and value friendliness. After all, our planned meal would have been quite expensive ;) because it was my birthday that we wanted to celebrate. Surely we left straight away and will definitely never come here again! And we immediately told our friends about this unfortunate and unfriendly experience so that they could avoid this restaurant too. Thank goodness there are other restaurants that know how to...