Lava Hibachi & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Rocky Hill

I'll start with the good for the purpose of a fair review: Upon arriving we were seated by the very friendly hostess, our orders were taken promptly and our appetizer and drinks arrived quickly. My sweet potato roll was delicious and my friend was very happy with her sushi entree. Sadly that's it.

Now the bad: When we were seated the restaurant was pretty quiet, more on this later, and we were asked every 30 seconds, by three different waitresses, if we were ready to order yet. When I was ready to order our appetizers, soups and salad came out extremely quickly. The problem is, on numerous occasions, a waitress would try to take our plates before we were even done with our food. We ordered the dumplings as an appetizer and the waitress started taking the plate away with one left on it, when we told her we weren't done she had my friend move it to another plate and took the plate anyway. Mind you the place was still nearly empty at this point, except some people at the bar, so I didn't get the rush.

Our food came pretty quickly, except at totally different times. I was given my entree about ten minutes before my friend's arrived but I then had to wait 5 minutes for my fried rice. As a note; the fried rice was absolutely disgusting, there was no veggies, egg or anything in it, it looked and tasted like they stir fried white rice in soy sauce and that was it. My chicken and veggies entree was the lowest quality chicken possible coated in goopy salty/sweet sauce with surprisingly fresh/good veggies. Once we were done eating we asked for a dessert and drink menu as we wanted another round and this is where things went really downhill.

As a note; Apparently this place does a happy hour after 6:30pm where you buy one drink and get the second for a penny. I didn't know this as I've never been here before and while I saw the special posted when I walked in, I didn't see the time posted. Needless to say at 6:30pm it got packed. We waited for well over 30 minutes for our drink and dessert orders to be taken and no one ever came. I tried, very politely, getting a waitress's attention and even with making eye contact or getting a nod no one ever came over.

At this point we decided we were done and just wanted the check. After about 10 more minutes we were finally able to get a waitress to bring us the check, I looked at it and saw they charged us full price for both drinks. I questioned the waitress about the charge, politely, and instead of explaining the special didn't start until 6:30pm she immediately got an attitude with us and, with many other customers around, started accusing us of trying to skip out on the bill or not being able to afford it. I said I had no problem paying full price as I understood we were there too early and she kept going on and on insinuating we couldn't pay the bill or were trying to cheat her. At one point she said if you order now you'll get the special to which I replied if you came and took our orders 20 minutes ago, after we were already waiting for 20 minutes, we would have. She then started lecturing me about how busy she was and that we were too slow deciding what we wanted, which was untrue because we were never even asked. We finally were able to get her to stop insulting/lecturing us after a few minutes, she grabbed the check and cards from my hand and she sent another waitress back to give us our bills.

In summation: A very nice location with a friendly hostess, good drinks and sushi, mediocre other food and terrible staff. Needless to say I will never step foot in this place again and I'd highly recommend you...

Very disappointed. We have frequented this location in the past and have had good experiences. Yesterday, Saturday the 28th, unfortunately, we experienced the worst service we’ve ever had. We went for my birthday celebration with a party of 7, including a 12 year old child. The male server we had was terrible. He questioned my daughter’s age after their menu has a “Kid Hibachi” for ages 12 and under. He questioned and shook his head in dismay muttering. I was offended but offered to show the rude server my daughter’s birth certificate but my husband was outraged said no, and said he was out of line. He also forgot our noodles so the hibachi chef had to stop and ask for it. Which is no fault to the hibachi chef (he was good) but to the server. The server couldn’t figure out the bill which was also annoying. It wasn’t rocket science. All meals on one bill and if anyone ordered alcohol, it was their bill. We weren’t the only ones that had an issue with this server. The table next to us also had issues with the male server. The couple with 3 young children told the server the wife is vegetarian and apparently he did not tell the chef so he began to cook her food with the other orders! Then he forgot her vegetables. I don’t feel we will go back to this restaurant which is sad because they were very good at one time. They should also not add tip in because if service isn’t great, they should NOT receive what a good server is entitled to. I would probably go to Saki up the road or try another Hibachi restaurant. I honestly hope this a learning experience because going out is a treat and with inflation being high you expect EXCELLENT service especially with struggling restaurant businesses. This place apparently doesn’t care about customer service. Definitely put a damper on my birthday celebration. Very...

Asian Bistro has amazing food, but a recent experience left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I certainly look young, and had my ID ready to go, (I’m 23, going on 24); my friend I was dining with is 22. —The waitress asked for drinks and I ordered my glass of my favorite sauvignon blanc oyster bay. The waitress proceeded to take away our drink menus before my friend could order, (—let alone take a look at the menu for her respective choice of drink) — and leave. Shortly after, she came back and asked to see my ID and I gave it to her, no problem. Then she came back with the menus. ....... Weirdness continues: Next, a new waitress took my friends drink order and everything seemed fine. (She didn’t get IDed, LOL!) Next thing I know, the previous waitress appears and slams my wine down without looking at us. (Embarrassed maybe?) We got our food very quickly. However it was from the chef, who angrily was taking off his apron and gave us our food.

The experience continued to get even more bizarre: My friend did not get her drink for a considerable amount of time. By the time we were nearly done with our meal, she had to waive down someone to FINALLY get her drink.

Still talking and drinking, they began to hassle us. The second waitress took the rice right out from under me, while I was still eating!

The situation made us uncomfortable and we paid the bill. They took the (justifiablely low) tip as well, in front of us.

It was 8:30 pm and the restaurant was occupied by people, a bunch at the bar; but the dining room was filled with us, and two other couples.)

We quickly left for another restaurant. Needless to say, I am not sorry to state we are...