Masa Hibachi Steakhouse & Sushi — Restaurant in Silver Spring

For my birthday on Jan 18, I decided to have dinner at Masa Hibachi because I love hibachi and thought it would be fun. Boy, was I wrong, eating at this place was probably THE WORST experience I have EVER had at a restaurant. My original reservation was for 14 ppl at 8p. I arrived at the location at 7:45p and was greeted by absolutely NO ONE as I walked in and I had to shove myself to the host stand because it was so packed at the front desk (bc they have no waiting or lobby area). By 8:07 p, my entire party had arrived minus 1 person, so I went to the host stand to inquire about when we could be sat, and a very rude man named Matthew let me know he couldn't seat me unless everyone was there. I told him we are only missing one who is on the way now and will probably make it by the time we sit and on top of that she was a vegetarian so she wasn't eating the hibachi anyway. Matthew replied he would seat us if we were prepared to order for her. So, I said we would just so we could sit, to which he replied okay and that he had to get the table ready. He proceeded to come up missing for 20 minutes, and while he was gon a group of non-people of color came in and were waiting on addtl people in their reservation. However, when Matthew returned he proceeded to sit this party first like we had not been waiting on him for 20 minutes to get our supposed table ready. And after he sat this non-people of color party, I asked him why he sat them and when he claimed he was getting ready to sit us. To which he replied that we would have to wait on that back table to finish their Hibachi and then eat and then he would sit us. This confused me, so I inquired as to why they were sat first and to which he replied that they had an 8p reservation. So, I advised him so did we and we were there first. Long story short, he advised me that both parties were 8p reservations and both were late bc the full party was not there, but he had no explanation for sitting them first. After this disagreement I requested a manager and he stated he was the manager and rudely tried to advise me that next time I came I should make sure my whole party was ready (to which I replied there won't be a next time). Another member of party, noticing i was getting mad decided to help and asked to speak with another manager. The new mananger was Anna, who was nice but unfortunately worked at this trashbox. And she advised me there was a party getting up and the table would be ready in 20 minutes and for the time being she offered a round of drinks for our trouble. They then gave all 13 of us, 1 menu to share to order drinks from. Fast forward 45 minutes we are still standing in the lobby with no drinks, no food, and no table. We were finally sat at 9:25p and received our drinks 15 minutes later after arguing with the server that we were indeed offered free drinks. We finally met our chef and while I advised him I had a shrimp allergy, I still ended up eating chicken cooked by the same utensil and on a surface with shrimp(and found out later that he cross-contaminated my food). For which I ended up having an allergic reaction later, in which my ears and next swelled (pics included below). To top too everything off the food had no favor and was rubbery.

I would never commend this place to ANYONE or go here again. To make up for my terrible hibachi experience,  I ended up going to Benihana a day later (which is where I should've went at first) and had a great and safe dinner....If I could give this place -5 stars I would! Don't waste your money here just go...

OMG! This place is good! I still think about it now! I came here for the first time on Valentine's Day in 2018. I recently came back in February of 2020. Somehow, the food was 100x better than what I remembered the first time! We (me and a friend) were hoping to sit at the hibachi table where they cook the food in front of you, but unfortunately, we got there pretty late and they had already closed that section off. But I didn't mind that because it was reasonable. So we sat down within a minute of getting there (since it was late and barely anyone was there). Our waiter came over and introduced himself and helped us make a decision on what we wanted. It seemed like he was the only waiter working at that time so we did not see him that much, but again, I did not mind because I got to enjoy the food without being bothered too much and he checked in with us at the right times. For appetizers, we ordered the Yakitori Beef (grilled beef in bamboo stick). It was pretty good. For entrees, we both ordered a hibachi entree, which includes hibachi soup, house salad, and the meal. The meal comes with vegetables, shrimp, fried rice, noodles, and your choice of meat/fish. I had the steak and lobster hibachi. My date had steak and chicken hibachi. Man, was the food good! I would rate it a 10 out of 10. That's how good it was. The soup had a really good flavor to it. The salad originally came with dressing but I didn't like it so I asked them to return it without the dressing, which the waiter promptly did, so kudos! The meal itself was wow! It was totally worth the price! You get all of that food for about $25-$30! That's pretty good. AND IT DOES FILL YOU UP! I will say that at the end of the night, when we got our check, there was a gratuity already added on. We were confused because it was only 2 of us. I asked the front desk and he thoroughly explained that it is their policy to charge gratuity after a certain time, so beware of that when you go. But because the food was AMAZING and the service was pretty decent, we didn't make a...

I first discovered Masa maybe a year or two ago and have been going there somewhat regularly ever since. The food is excellent and they have a great bar with many excellent specialty drinks. The service is also reliably very good.

I tend to stick to the Hibachi and sushi protons portions of the menu as the other items tend to be a little on the tame side, spice and flavor wise. I didn't deduct a star for this because it's more preference than anything else and I'm sure many who might go there would like them just fine. Also, a caveat to my previous statement is the udon noodles, which are amazing.

As far as the bar goes, they have no shortage of drinks to choose from and all the ones I've tried are very good. The bartenders neither mix them too weak or too strong, which is nice. I've been to plenty of places where they charge premium prices for drinks and they come out tasting watered down or, alternately, where they try to give you too much value for your money and mix them so strong that you might as well have ordered a shot because all you taste is alcohol. If you've never had sake, I'd recommend giving it a try because they have a number of choices and you don't find it in most other bars.

Lastly, the service, as mentioned before, is excellent. I think I've gotten literally one exception to prove the rule, and even then the waitress wasn't bad, per se, just somewhat aloof and not quite as attentive as is usually the case here. To be honest it was my girlfriend that drew my attention to it, since I lean towards preferring that than a waiter who regularly ambushes you mid-mouthful and makes it hard to enjoy the meal and whatever company one might have.

Overall, any gripes I might have about Masa are minor ones and more than made up for by the overall quality of the food, drink, service...