Ginza Buffet — Restaurant in Mauldin

My main issue was service. The waitress waited on her tip after she brought out our change. The hibachi and sushi was excellent. The rest of buffet had decent selection, could have had more choices like sweet & sour chicken. The dessert bar was disappointing and very limited choices and it was 8pm and some desserts were out but never replaced by time we left about 930.

Main issue was service. Our drinks were refilled once after we had to ask and not again, my husband ended up drinking my water as he was thirsty. At end of the meal patiently waiting for the bill, our waitress walked past us and sat in booth directly behind us while another waitress was nearby sweeping for at least 10 minutes. We were finished eating as evidenced by the stacked plates and all 4 of us just sitting there for at least 26 minutes. I had texted my son at his job that we were done eating and waiting to pay and would be on way to get him is how I know exact time we waited. She was sitting directly behind my husband in the booth. We finally stood up to leave and go pay up front as no check was ever brought and she jumped up immediately and said you can pay here so we sat back down.

But the worst part was when the waitress brought the change back, bill was around 70 ish and paid with a $100. She stood directly in front of table waiting on us to get her tip. It was so awkward. The bf said thank you and was picking up the coins and bills and she stood there. She stood there long enough even after we said thank you a 2nd time. He was trying to count the change to tip properly as we wanted to leave around $15 or so. But she just stood there expectantly waiting. We got back 2 $5 bills and about 8 $1 dollar bills. He was checking his wallet for $5 bill to keep the ones But with her standing over us we felt awkward and he just left $10. She was still standing there and reached for the change tray off table as I started to get up. She was blocking him from getting up standing more on his side.

Outside I looked at receipt and realized she shorted us 5 bucks but we had planned to tip her 15 anyways so we just left as we had already been inconvenienced by the delay in bringing the bill and her hovering over us, and I was trying to make arrangements for someone to pick my son up so he would not be waiting over 30 mins outside for us to get there. That's why we chose buffet so we could leave in time but our waitress who was within eyesight and earshot of our table did not realize we were ready to pay or didn't care until we actually stood up to to leave after just sitting there waiting 15 minutes. By time we paid, left tip, and was exiting booth it had been 26 mins since I told my son we were done.

I did not like the server hovering at the table after bringing the change. I'm not sure if it was to intimidate us to not count it or to make sure we tipped. She could have sat back down in booth behind us again and waited till we left if she was worried about the cash tip being stolen.

I have never had a server stand there waiting on the tip especially after being told thank you when returning change/card. Most servers stay nearby but not at table edge and considering she only refilled drinks once and original drinks were wrong when brought to table, it was extremely awkward of her to stand and wait on us to leave tip on tray and pick it up before we even exited booth.

I honestly will not choose this place again because of that reason, the poor service. This is 2nd time eating here but we believe it had a name change since first visit. I would only come back for hibachi and the kids loved...

Lemme tell you...you may want to read the full story ... Likes: they have an all you can eat hibachi section....you select your own ingredients and meats and once completed, the cook will take from you, let him know which sauces you would like for your food to cook in and he cooks on a first come first serve basis...gives you time to select from the other buffet stations on what else u want to eat .. you'll know he's done once he rings the bell...go up and see if it's yours that's complete ..if not just listen for the bell again... there's a tip jar on hibachi station if you would like to tip the cook(s)...they have variety of seafood including "crab legs" if your a seafood groupie...(I'm not into nothing but certain fish so I didn't eat the seafood)

Dislikes: the hibachi food wasn't all that different than eating from the other stations...just more hot and I guess more "fresh" than the other buffet stations...my steak was tuff and chewy...I guess be cause I wanted it well done and it was a thin piece of steak... my hibachi dish wasn't as flavored as I thought it would've been, neither, with my choice of soy and hibachi sauces. The other buffet food was average...nothing special..

CUSTOMER SERVICE: had an average guy server...didn't bother him much except for maybe once for water and once for the crab leg cracker for my daughter (she didn't like the taste of the crab legs..didn't taste like they wereseasoned per se)....prior to him bringing us more water ..there was a server lady who brought us more water because he was unavailable at the time ..other than that, we didn't bother them much...he took plates once we were done with them and that's about it...my daughter thought him strange to walk by and ALWAYS looking into her plates as if he wanted it, per se....and he did it every time he walked by was her statement...I caught him when he gave us our ticket...that was weird... but what put the icing on the cake was THIS: A LADY PICKED UP OUR TICKET when we mentioned we were ready to pay so we can go...it's like her keen sense of hearing became EFFECTIVE because she hurried up and came to the table asking if we were ready to pay(while our regular waiter was standing in the back waiting to serve whoever needed serving, I guess) and we told her yes and we looked at each other when she took my card to go and pay for the ticket.... We both laughed and said how quick she came to our table when she heard us saying that we were ready to pay cuz we were ready to go home...she dropped off the receipt for me to sign, stepped away, BUT NOT FAR, because once I signed it, she was there to pick it back up and she left the table, CAME BACK AND ASKED FOR ME TO CHOOSE WHICH TIP ON THE RECEIPT I WANTED TO CHOOSE FROM...AT FIRST I WAS CONFUSED BUT ONCE REPEATED, I KNEW EXACTLY WHAT SHE WAS WANTING, SO MY DAUGHTER TOOK THE RECEIPT AND WROTE "0"..THIS LADY ASKED US IF WE WERE NOT GOING TO TIP AND MY DAUGHTER SAID "NO" AND I TOLD HER I DON'T TIP OFF MY CARD....SHE LOOKED AT MY DAUGHTER AS IF SHE WERE SURPRISED, SNATCHED THE RECEIPT, AND WALKED AWAY WITH AN ATTITUDE FOR US NOT TIPPING, WHILE OUR MALE SERVER SAT IN THE BACK, STRAIGHT-FACED BECAUSE WE DIDN'T TIP....I DON'T MIND TIPPING (WITH CASH) AND HONESTLY IF I CAN AFFORD....BUT PLEASE DON'T MAKE US FEEL LIKE WE HAVE TO...WE DIDN'T FORCE NO ONE TO BE A WAITER NOR A WAITRESS ...OVERALL DUE TO FOOD AND CUSTOMER SERVICE....NAAA...WE WONT...

PLEASE PLEASE READ! we visited here for the first time and the food was HORRIBLE! It was stale, cold and had been sitting a while! We asked for fresh dishes and they said “NO” well we got what looked salvageable enough to eat and as we are sitting there conversing at the table, we see a ROACH crawl across the table and up the wall behind where some wall paper had been torn off the wall!! We immediately called for the waitress and she came over laughed and said “sorry” and got a napkin and killed it on the wall! We immediately got up and went to the register! We didn’t even get to finish our meal! As I am looking at the receipt while standing in line to pay, I noticed that they changed me and my friend the adult buffet which is correct but charged my 10 yr old for an adult buffet! So I politely told the cashier that they charged me for an adult when it was supposed to be for a child and the problem we had at the table with the ROACH and that we didn’t even get to finish eating our meal! She calls for the waitress to come over and they of course start talking in their language to which we can not understand which is RUDE if you ask me! You could tell by the tone of their voice that they were definitely bashing us! The cashier said there was nothing she could do for us, that we would be responsible for the entire bill! So I explained to her once again that we didn’t even get to finish our lunch because of the ROACH issue! She then said “mam I can give you a discount by taking one of the 3 adult meals and charge for a children meal” which was NOT a discount because the 3rd ADULT meal was supposed to be a CHILDRENS meal from the beginning! She smiled at me and said “sorry again but there is nothing I can do!” So needless to say since they want to be stingy greedy people about their food and their customers, then we will see how stingy and greedy they are when the health department comes in and investigates! I will be calling Monday (tomorrow morning) and filing a report...