Witch City Hibachi, Inc. — Restaurant in Salem

Our hibachi chef was awesome and the food was good! Everything else was mediocre and the bartender absolutely sucked. Went with my daughter to celebrate her recent 21st birthday. While her license was expired (and had on her actual birthday the day before), she had a temporary ID (the paper version of her renewed license) and a passport. No matter. The bartender made a HUGE deal about not serving her (loud and arrogant, causing stares throughout the restaurant) then spent the rest of the evening shaming her/trying to make sure we had the worst time possible. After being confronted with but unsatisfied by my daughter’s two very valid IDs, he proceeded to spend 1 to 2 minutes glaring down everyone else’s, pulling them to the light, muttering to himself while he shifted his eyes back-and-forth between us and the photos that were -very clearly- of us. I am 44 years old and look it. Seemingly disappointed that we were legit, he refused to answer a question about IPAs on draft and copped an attitude throughout the ordering process, walking away twice in the middle of our order while we were mid-sentence. Confused, we watched him make us terrible drinks. We tipped well then checked out at the bar and moved to our table once our reservation was ready. We are quickly approached by a waitress. “Hi!” We exclaim. “We are here for a birthday-“ She cut us off, turns to my daughter. “The bartender informs me that you brought an invalid ID and will not be served tonight. You will. not. be. served.” Near tears, my daughter explains to the waitress that she has a passport and temporary ID, it is just her license that expired on her birthday the day before. The waitress collects both the valid and invalid identification and approaches the bartender. They appear to exchange some words; the bartender turns to us, glaring. The waitress returns and confirms he refuses to serve my 21-year-old daughter. Children ran around the restaurant, screaming and climbing on top of hibachi tables. A group of drunk men storm the floor, played football with a heavy set of car keys over the heads of eating guests, ordered drinks (no problem!) and left. Besides the pointed hostility our party experienced from the staff, it was clear this was a lawless land. Wanting to stick around for the meal, and just being an overall sweetheart, my daughter insisted we stay despite my frustration. On one hand, I am glad we did- the food was good and the hibachi chef cheered us up. On the other hand- it was very bizarre to be stared at by the bartender all evening as he pointed us out to other patrons and staff, talking loudly about our situation. Not sure if he was having a bad day or recently the victim of an undercover sting operation and outed as a rule breaker, but the extremity and rudeness with which we were met were strangely personal, unwarranted and the reason we’ll never be back.

TL, DR- good food, weird atmosphere. If you show up and see a bartender with pink hair and the worst press-ons CVS has...

I’m a new resident to Salem and my boyfriend and I decided to try our Witch City hibachi last weekend. Let me start by saying that this is one of the worst Hibachi restaurants I’ve ever been to! When we got there we ordered 2 sodas and I ordered the blackberry mojito, the waiter forgot about my drink and I had to ask for it because he literally forgot. For food I ordered eel sushi which was listed for about $6.50 on the menu, I also ordered the chicken and steak hibachi meal. When I received my food it was slightly warm and the steak was cold in the middle!!! Salad I received that came with the meal was like a soup because they didn’t dry the lettuce. My boyfriend ordered been udon and he received a very bland udon that had carrots and onion I believe, steak was overcooked and GREY!! He didn’t even want to finish it because it was so bland and not authentic Udon. By the time we got our check they overcharged us for the sushi, it was supposed to be $6.50 and they charged us almost $10!! Also our sodas came out to $4 each!!!

Now onto the atmosphere, we couldn’t even have a proper conversation at this establishment because of how loud the hibachi was, I understand the hibachi is a experience but I’ve been to many hibachi restaurants and usually there’s a divid between the grill and the regular seats. All we kept hearing was constant banging over and over again, it was so loud we couldn’t even hear each other. The overall experience was terrible and by the time we left the dinner had costed $112 dollars!! Two dinners, 2 drinks, 1 sushi app, and 1 cocktail. We will never be coming back to this restaurant, it’s a tourist trap!!! If you’re planning a trip to Salem please do not eat here!! Go to Rockafellas because it’s honestly cheaper and you get what you pay for and...

This restaurant is extremely loud. The hibachi tables are very close to one another. The cooking vent fans are at ceiling height and so they make noise for the whole restaurant. It sounds like you are in a blast furnace. Then everyone has to talk loud over the fans. Also the chefs bang their metal spatulas very loudly on the grill as part of the performance, and egged on patrons to cheer loudly. Fine if you like loud places like sports bars, and carnivals. My dad is partially deaf and I could not talk with him.

The food was average at best. For example the fried rice was greasy and wet. It was not fluffy and sort of slid and dripped off the chef's spatula onto the plate. The fried shrimp was not shelled properly so some had shells near the tails still. I had two shrimp like this and had to spit into a napkin. Not something you want on a date. At least filet mignon was cooked properly. My coke ran out in the middle of dinner and it was a bit hard to get the waitresses attention with all the noise. She was quick on the refill once she noticed. I gave a little above normal tip 18% because it is difficult environment to...