Mannen Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Ridgefield

I was disappointed on my first visit.. taking my son for sushi and hibachi on a Sunday afternoon. We were seated very abruptly as the fist customer of the day. First question is why do they sit a party of 5 cramped on a corner as opposed to letting us all sit in a line so we could enjoy the food preparation? Again, no one else was in the restaurant.

We ordered drinks. No drink menu was provided. First order was Pinal Colada. We were told they don't have. No suggestions on what we could order so we got waters. Kids ordered Japanese soda at 3.50 ea.

We asked about sushi as it is my favorite and was looking forward to his first sushi boat. It was a struggle bit we finally got a menu. We ordered love boat for 2, and 3 hibachi entrees.

The soups came out, and one salad. Apparently sushi boat for 2 does not really mean for 2, as it came with only one soup and one salad.

Love Boat for two was next out. Guess what.. no boat. Instead it was a modest platter of 2 rolls, 8 sushi and 9 sashimi. Number one, if you are going call something a boat and charge $50 for it... it should come out on a boat. Secondly it had 4 more pcs of sushi and sashimi versus their $30.00 meal for one. I really don't get it.

Lastly, we watched a robotic hibatchi show which lasted about 10 min.. had about 10 min to eat before we were handed a bill and shuffled out the door.

This place has no personality, the staff is unfriendly and the food is over priced and sub par. There are so many better places in Fairfield County to spend your money... don't...

I have been ordering Sushi and other assorted, delicious and beautiful plates from Mannen for years. The quality of food is spectacular, the Sushi is both aesthetically beautiful as it is delicious. The staff is very friendly and do their best to make sure their customers are happy. I have never been disappointed going there or ordering from them and they are always a place I recommend others to go. (This is my personal story below to expand on their great customer service.) I never utilized their free delivery and always opted to use DoorDash until I realized how much DoorDash takes away from the restaurant (The restaurant pays the dashers to have them deliver). I recently had a "rogue" DoorDash driver take off with my order. While the problem was rectified, I will never use DoorDash again. I strongly recommend the same to others, because It can happen to anyone. I will spare the details of how the order was not just for me, but my family as well and that was not a happy night for any of us. We ended up getting a hold of Mannen to see if they had seen the driver pick up my order/number, which he did. When we explained what had happened they were so apologetic and understanding. They then offered to make up the whole meal again for us --minutes before closing! Of course we refused politely explaining that no one else should have to take a loss tonight, however, If that is not great customer service I don't know what...

This place is a great mixed bag. Solid menu, good service, good spirit -- all fine -- the one thing I found a bit different here is the actual chef-stations for the Hibachi cooks. There is no physical room for two chefs to cook simultaneously in the same physical space. It's as though they expect the chefs to ride "piggy-back" to serve multiple stations at the same time. Same goes for seating at the Hibachi Tables -- I'm over 6ft tall, and the legroom is less than an economy airline seat. Zero legroom. Super uncomfortable. The quality of the food is totally fine, the service is good, the ambiance is no muss no fuss. I'd definitely go again, I'm just bumming for the chefs who are completely compromised in their personal space when trying to create an enjoyable experience. You can tell they're uncomfortable, and so too is my legroom under the tables. The whole thing tastes great, but the Hibachi experience needs a renovation to allow more personal space to chefs...