Niki's Tokyo Inn — Restaurant in San Antonio

We drove in from new Braunfels due to a recommendation from a trusted source. First the good stuff. There was a waiter and a maître d or possible chef/owner serving us. The service between them was 4 out of 5. The waiter was a young man with a great attitude and the other was an older man who brought us items from his garden (grape tomatoes and persimmon in this case) . These guys were awesome and made our evening. We started with the Gyoza and edamame appetizers. The pot stickers were the best I have had in my life, and edamame is what it always is. As we waited we were once again delighted to be served a delicious egg drop soup that we were not expecting. Our Maître d stopped several times to explain things about the restaurant or food, even showed us how to enjoy a the fried head of a prawn. That is pretty much the best of it. I ordered teriyaki ribeye steak and my sweetie ordered the sashimi dinner. The steak is not even worth 7 bucks 3 out of 10 at best. Sorry folks but I can post some photos of $16.00 steak that will blow the pants off what i was served, and if you enjoy this steak let me know because My honey can make steak for 2 with a side for that price and it is the best I have ever had. Sashimi was pretty but nothing special. in fact i went to a local restaurant and ordered pretty much the same thing for less money the next day. Now for the location/ambiance. If I could give a zero I would. Terrible all the way around, I was embarrassed when we pulled up and saw the restaurant. My love was so excited to go there and enjoy our evening and it was difficult to even locate much less get out of the car once we were there. (drive by and see if you can find it on the first attempt.) My adorable love would not even use the restroom in the area while we were waiting for them to open, and did not use the restroom while we were there. Which I will say was a good choice because I needed to visit the facilities 2 times and it was odd to say the least. Sorry guys but get a new place and it will change the entire thing. If you are looking for a good Japanese restaurant just go to the local place and skip this dump.

I would love to give 2 stars but other than the appetizer and the service I was worried I caught something while sitting on the oldest and grossest pillows I have seen in any...

I wanted to love this place like non-other! I had read reviews that spoke wonders about the ambiance and food, however my experience didn't match these reviews at all. My guest and I arrived at about 6ish on a Saturday night. Immediately, we were greeted by a host and asked if we had reservations, when we said no, she rolled her eyes and seemed annoyed. (NOTE, there is no website that could possibly inform us of our need to place one.) As you can see from the picture, it wasn't busy. After being seated in the traditional Japanese seating, we waited a bit for the waitress. Of the entire time we were there, we only saw her 4 times. We ordered off the menu which for a newbie was overwhelming because we didn't know what most of it was and wasn't offered help even when asked.

Once the food came, after a very long wait (45 mins, in which other tables after us received food...we ordered 6 individual hand rolls and one sushi bowl) we get our meal and its really nothing to brag about. It was fairly basic sushi, the hand rolls were so packed with rice and very little of anything else that it wasn't very appealing. (What you see in the picture is the only filling in the roll other the rice throughout the remainder of it) I left most of it on the plate once it was all said in done.

The waitress was inattentive and only showed up again to provide our bill (which we flagged her down to receive). Instead of waiting on her to return we simply paid cash and left.

Needless to say, I wouldn't come back. Maybe it was just that night but between the service and food, the cost...

Mixed Review...detailed why. We arrived, family of 5. Asked if we had reservations. Said no. Waiter made a face, told us to sit on bench and wait. We had been here before and knew about the Japanese style seating in private rooms. Asked for a room, waiter asked if we were sure and informed us there was $10 fee to use room. We accepted. He turned to one of the girls cooking and attending at the bar area. She giggled and laughed at us, they exchanged a few phrases in Japanese, giggled some more. Looked at us like we were lost. Finally took us to our room. Took our drink orders. Took about ten minutes to get drinks...tea and water. Took our order: tempura appetizer, gyoza, udon soup, ramen soup, family platter, and yakisoba. Our food took 50 minutes to 80 minutes to arrive. Our waiter never came to check on us. We were close to leaving when Pat, another waiter came to ask if we needed anything. He wasn't even our waiter. He brought us some items to eat while we waited for food, made kind conversation...all in all, was great. He brought put our food. Our waiter cam till the end only to ask if we had received our food. Wow! Overall: food was ok. We have been to Tokyo 3 times and have been blesses with tasting authentic Japanese food. Food here comes close but nothing extraordinary. Service, or better yet, the lack of service was sad. We were the only latinos here and hope that was not the reason.. but who knows. The other tables were visited numerous times by their waiters. The one great thing here: Pat....