kobe Japanese steak house — Restaurant in Rock Hill

Finally...Rock Hill has a metro-level Japanese restaurant to call its own! Truly, this town was in dire need of some good, sophisticated Japanese restaurants...and well, now there is one!

I think this restaurant just opened about a week ago...and it's now open for lunch and dinner, with an ambitious menu featuring just about everything! A full menu of Hibachi plates, Teriyaki plates, a variety of Ramen bowls, Sushi (Sashimi and Sushi Rolls), Bento boxes...even a ton of appetizers and desserts. It's truly a large-scale Japanese restaurant, featuring all Japanese specialties, though it has a fusion touch. I say this because of the Americanized ambiance, with pop music overhead (I heard Lady Gaga and Selena Gomez, for starters). Although I've seen several restaurants named "Kobe" in Charlotte and beyond, I'm not sure if this is part of any "Kobe" chain...if it's a local or a national chain.

The place itself is rustic-chic, with several tables for 2, 4 and bigger groups. There were also 2 big circular booths for parties up to 6?

Now for the foods! I came super-hungry, so ordered 2 sushi rolls ("Green Dragon" and "Tokyo Cowboy" Rolls)...and OMG, these rolls were Phenomenal!!! Both in taste and presentation...just look at the stunning pictures. I've never seen sushi rolls like this in Rock Hill...EVER. Kudos to the Sushi Chef! In fact, it's hard to find sushi rolls this fancy in Charlotte nowadays.

Service was great as well. Honestly, I can't really find any fault from my first visit here.

Obviously, this is a 5-star from me. I just hope they can keep up their quality standards long after the soft opening. Hopefully, it'll inspire other restaurants in Rock Hill to raise the bar as well. In any case, I plan on returning to try one of their ramen (and other...

After reading several rave reviews I was extremely excited to eat at this new restaurant. I am sad it was such a disappointment! We arrived before 5pm. The place was not even close to half full. It took 45 minutes to get our dinner. Thankfully we had some egg rolls to hold us over. My husband ordered the hibachi chicken, which said it came with mixed vegetables and fried rice. I ordered the teriyaki chicken because it said it came with sweet carrots and broccoli, and I paid an upcharge to get fried rice. My husband's order was brought out before mine. It came with sweet carrots and cold mixed vegetables (which were obviously supposed to be hot). When they finally brought mine out there were no sweet carrots. I told the waitress mine was supposed to come with sweet carrots. She tried to tell me I was wrong. I told her the menu absolutely says it was supposed to come with sweet carrots. Again, she tells me I'm wrong. I tell her again, and that the only reason I ordered this was because it was supposed to have sweet carrots. She finally took my dish back to the kitchen, and brought it back with sweet carrots. The chicken in both of our dishes was as tough as jerky and needed a ton of sauce just to make it edible. After waiting for our food for 45 minutes, and then the waitress repeatedly telling me I was wrong about what the menu said, we didn't bother to say anything about the cold vegetables or the tough chicken. We just wanted to eat and get out of there. They do have a very extensive menu, so I really hope that other items on the menu are better quality than what we ate. But we won't be going back to find out. Food and menu pics...

I took my family of five to the soft opening on August 1. We have been excited about this restaurant opening and decided we'd chance the first night hiccups. We were surprised at their excellence.

The layout is very similar to Southern Hills Gastropub that preceded it, and so is very well laid out. There's plenty of space and they were flexible with where we wanted to sit.

We wanted to try a little bit of everything. We ordered Gyosa and Edamame. We liked the edamame, but the Gyosa were excellent. Our kids ate hibachi and lo mein, both of which were beautifully presented and delicious.

The sushi and ramen outshined the rest of the meal. You can see in the photos the effort the chef put into plating. The sushi rolls are creative and interesting. Sometimes sushi offerings can just be a california roll with various toppings. This place has clearly put thought into their menu to avoid that.

The maguro sushi was delicious and beautiful. They even had sea urchin, which I always order when I can.

There were a few items like drinks and some of the tuna options that are not yet available. This is understandable given how new the restaurant is and we were able to find plenty of other delicious options I liked just as well.

The value we got with the meal was exceptional. Everything came out looking like something you would find in uptown Charlotte, but the prices were very reasonable for the Rock Hill area. It's really set to compete with the other offerings available in town.

The staff attended to our needs, and they already have a good workflow. I believe this restaurant is going to be a standout in Rock Hill and we will...