Nabe AYCE Hot Pot — Restaurant in Spring Valley

We came for dinner and had planned to celebrate a birthday but left having the most unpleasant experience to date.

We called ahead to see if they would take reservations for a party of 6. After several attempts to call, someone finally picked up the phone and in a curt manner stated that reservations are not allowed and that our party had to be present in order to join the waitlist before hanging up.

Once there, the restaurant was busy, and we were told it would be a half-hour wait, which ended up being almost an hour. There was no waiting area, so we were left to wait outside in the cold. While waiting, we were approached by strangers asking for money, which made it feel unsafe given the time of day.

After a long period, we were told that we were about to be seated only for them to proceed to sit at another party that came after us. They set us up in the back corner secluded from the rest of the restaurant and by the restrooms and kitchen entrance.

The first thing we checked were the utensils provided. The ladle and tongs had not been properly cleaned as there were still food remains on it from a previous use.

We then proceeded to get our condiments and sides and noticed that it was set up buffe style.

As food started arriving, we were given everything but the meat we ordered. We attempted to flag down several employees to ask, but all of them ignored us. They had to have seen us as we were sitting right next to the kitchen entrance in their direct line of sight, even making eye contact with a couple who simply walked off. Eventually, our main server, who originally took our order, returned, and we explained that we had not received any meat from ours.

Noting that our server was the only slightly pleasant interaction we had. But even he was confused as to why we were not served the food we ordered. An hour after being seated, we eventually got our order.

The food itself was ok, but nothing special or unique would stand out out from the rest.

Unfortunately, at this time, the uncleanliness of the restaurant also started affecting us more directly. One of our party members has a severe nut allergy. A few bites in, he started feeling his throat close up despite not having ordered anything that would contain nuts. Luckily, he was able to return to his car and take medication to relieve his symptoms, but at this point, our disapproval with the location was set in stone. We spoke to the server, and the most we were offered was a call for an ambulance.

In the end we could not finish our meal due to the anxiety and distress of one of our friend's health. At this point, we were being avoided by staff and not a word from management. We were presented with a bill and not even an apology for almost sending our friend to the hospital.

The time spent at this location was mediocre at best and deadly at worst.

If you have a nut allergy, please be wary if cross contamination.

If that wasn't enough, as we were heading out yet another of our friend's car was broken into. We were told by another employee as we were frantically trying to contact the police that this wasn't the first incident of a car being broken into at this location. It's said that authorities are aware of the crimes in this location but have yet to do anything about it.

TLDR: The place was dirty, the area was unsafe, service was lackluster, and the...

115 degrees today and thought it would be nice for some hot pot and sushi (insert sarcasm), and so we went to Nabe to try it out after being recommended by my daughter and her bf. We are from Texas and so we are excited to try new places to get some grub. Her BF called ahead to check the wait time and was told there was no wait. We arrived a little after 5:40 on a Monday night and when we walked in, Joseph the host said there was a 30 min wait.. we were fine and proceeded to wait inside. We moved a bit further in because customers were walking in. We were then told by Joseph that we have to wait outside until we are called, mind you, it is 115 outside.. confused and pissed, we proceeded to wait outside. Walked to our car to get some AC running. 1 min after we started the car and got situated, we recieved a text that our table is ready. Walked backed in and again, Joseph, informed us that the table will be ready in 10 mins..

At this point I am ready to throw hands. I noticed there were people waiting when we walked in, and so I asked Joseph what was the point of us having to wait outside when obviously, he was allowing others to wait inside. His response was, he was getting them in his system. He then proceeded to grab bowls and showed us our table. All of this while the other group was allowed to stay inside.

Terrible way to start dinner coming from an exhausting trip in addition to just how hot the day was.

Fortunately, Marie, our server came to save the day. I told her how displeased we were at Joseph and she said she will make sure to let the owner know. Marie didn't just take our orders, she made sure that we were taken cared of.

Marie's attentiveness made for Joseph's lack of front house know how and professionalism. He even did not ask how many in our group will eat hot pot so he can accurately place us at a table to accomodate our needs. Marie had to explain and give us options.

We got the miso and sukiyaki soup bases, meats were just like any other meat anywhere else. We also got nigiris where I was impressed. The rice and fish ratio was on point as some places tend to skimp on fish and more on rice, Nabe did this the right way. Tuna Belly has a cap on how many you can order, which was weird but I get it.

Oh and also, this is the first time I've seen raw egg in a shell provided as an option to cook in the same soup you plan to consume. That is definitely not hygenic as it could have salmonella.

Overall, food was good. Not a wow factor. Our server was supperb and host...

My family and I went to this restaurant for my mom's birthday. We were told there was no large table for the seven of us so they put us in a small table. Which it was way too small for us to put all of the food. When the large table become available before they bring in the next group of people we kindly asked them if we could have that larger table instead before the food had arrived. They told us they could not because it's reservation for someone else they came after us we were already in the restaurant. And from the beginning we told them we wanted a larger table. We were offer options that were not working for us at first that's why we took the smaller table. I think these people don't even understand what the word reservation means because these people did not reserve the table until they came to the restaurant. Because there was no reservation ahead of time online on the website whatsoever. So it's basically reserved by first come first serve at the restaurant so if we were already in the restaurant and like to change our table before our food come I don't understand why we couldn't do it. The other group of the people that was offered the larger table did not come into the restaurant until after we asked nicely if we could switch to the larger table. This is absolutely ridiculous and we were only offered to have more time to eat. And honestly all the sorry did not cut it for the comfort that we could have had if we had a larger table. The food was okay it wasn't nothing to be proud about so honestly we were never attend to this restaurant again and definitely would not recommend to anyone else. Because of their poor customer service. Not to mention there's always a long wait and they will rush it out so they can get...