Kampai Sushi & Steak — Restaurant in Stonecrest

If you want to be disrespected, ignored, and under informed, this is the place for you. This is not just an angry person review; it's the straight up truth of what happened.

This is going to be a long review, so a few points here:

5.50 extra if you decide to share your plate of food, even if you're both ordering something. Massive amounts of rudeness. Our waiter would not pour water on you if you were on fire from the hibachi grill. Intense smell of gas. Nasty bathrooms. Policies that pop out of nowhere and slap extra money onto your tab. Extremely greedy people. We didn't even eat there because of the disrespect so I can't say much for the food, but my sister read somewhere that they had a C.

Now for the foolishness:

We were very excited to try this place. My sister had been before and had a lovely time, so naturally for her 20th birthday she decided to have a get together there. She called twice in advance, making a reservation to make sure that our party of fifteen would be able to eat there. They assured her that it would be fine. Once we got there, they informed us that we would have to wait for our entire party--people with lives, jobs, and extracurriculars, to arrive before we could be seated. They never spoke of this on the phone. We agreed and sat in the cold waiting room for an hour and a half while EVERYONE (because they insisted on everyone) came. When we asked exactly what the policy was, the waitress called someone over, snapped, "You explain it to THEM, and walked away." That was on us, apparently, but still strike one.

We were (finally) seated. The waiter argued with a young woman about what an iced tea mixed with lemonade was. "It's a Tiger Woods. Do you understand? Do you understand?" (It's not. It's an Arnold Palmer.) The young lady kept her composure. Strike two.

My mother was in the bathroom fixing herself up. The waiter, concerned about our numbers, kept asking if someone was coming. When she did come, he accused her of just coming into the restaurant. Strike three.

My boyfriend's mother noted that my sister was ordering pretty much the same thing as her, along with a few other things. She pointed out that they could share her huge meal after she ordered it, and my sister agreed. The waiter proceeded to snap at them that it was $5.50 extra if they decided to share THEIR food. When her husband protested and pointed out that we didn't HAVE to eat there, he was aggressively told that he could leave. So he did. Strike four.

The waiter and manager and other staff ducked in and out and realized that most of us were ordering sushi or other things at the hibachi table. In a party of fifteen, only one of us had ever been to a restaurant like this. Instead of explaining that we needed to order hibachi to sit there, he argued with another waitress ("Let me see something!!!") and went around the group demanding everyone's orders. Then proceeded to yell at us all about what we could and couldn't order in order to be in that room. Strike five.

Some friends decided to put up enough money for hibachi so we could all sit there. My sister, the birthday girl, was politely explaining that it was her BIRTHDAY and she wanted a little more respect, when he abruptly turned to the next person in our group and snapped at them to get their order (the first time around, he had never actually written our orders down.) Strike six.

Needless to say, after that we all left together.

ALSO. During all of this, strangers were being ferried in and out of the room and sat down at our table, then rushed out. I would love to know what they were thinking. Strike seven.

In the end, fifteen people who spent two hours waiting to be seated walked right out. The managers were begging us to stay, one of our group (who has plenty of restaurant experience) let them know where they could use some adjustments and let them know that yes, we were leaving and no, I do not want you LITERALLY holding on to me as we go.

Then, we went up the street and had a WONDERFUL time at Don Tello's...

When I arrived to Kampai, we had to wait a good 3-5 minutes to be greeted at the door before being seated. When we were seated, we had to wait a good moment to be seated and accommodated. I have been working within the hospitality industry for about 5 years, and have always made it a point to ensure my customer leaves happy, and I did not experience this while dining here. A few minutes roll pass, and we are finally greeted and asked for our drink orders. It took the server 5-10 more minutes to return with drinks and get our order taken. Remind you guests who were seated after us got their orders in prior to ours which is not good customer service and the server, Kristine seemed overwhelmed with 3 other tables who were seated. Orders were finally put in, and we waited for our food. When food finally arrives and I bite into my “shrimp teriyaki” it tasted like the sauce was a great value sauce that they got from the Walmart around the corner. They offered to make it like the hibachi shrimp on the grill, still was mediocre and tasted bland. I’m so dissatisfied, and I asserted that I did not like the shrimp they said because it was already cooked they could not do anything about that. I don’t think this is a professional proper way to handle business especially if the guests aren’t satistified with their food or something wrong has occurred. I was expected so much more and walked in here with a smile, but now leaving with an empty stomach and bad taste in my mouth. & for the shrimp teriyaki to cost $20 and be nasty. I’m disturbed. The sushi was good we ordered as an appetizer, but we had to get up and ask for eel sauce and that cost $1. They charge for every little thing and the YUMM YUMM sauce did not taste even like YUMM YUMM SAUCE ! That’s what blew me too! Like how’s the sauce discolored and off too. Totally disturbed and will not be returning. The experience and service wasn’t accommodating or swift. Overtime there was about 10-12 people waiting at the door to be seated and greeted for about 15 minutes, which they had to literally GRAB A SERVER themselves to be dealt with. This is so sad especially since it was their birthdays. The server made me seem like she didnt care to deal with none of...

Horrible!!!! Horrible!!! Horrible!! This was the the worst habachi restaurant I have ever been to. Upon walking in, the restaurant was super dark...hmmm...what are they hiding I was thinking. We were them seated and place our order. When the cook arrived he cleaned off the burner top and was ready to begin cooking. I noticed the utensil he was about to use was not fully clean and should have cancelled my order then. I couldn't cancel due to the certain rules they have, Of which they have many so please check them ALL before you are seated. The chef proceeded with the eggs for the rice. He added so much oil to the eggs that the oil was running off the side of the burner. He then began on the rice using so much oil once again and boy was he messy. The rice was flying everywhere. He proceeded to build a volcano with onions and almost burnt the restaurant down. My 5 year old nephew yelled "that's not a volcano, that's just fire"! As he continued with the rice and veggies, he moved the veggies to the side and placed the meats on the burner, fish, chicken, steak and shrimp. He used ONE utensil without wiping it off to cook all of that meat. He touched the raw chicken and then flipped the salmon and shrimp then flipping the steak. He drowned all of the meats in some sort of sauce. I never saw him Use salt and pepper. He placed my large portion of rice on my plate and then my shrimp. The veggies continued to cook and cook and cook. I even asked, "haven't those veggies been cooking long enough"? I know the nutritional value had been cooked out of my veggies by the time he placed them on my plate. By the way, did I already mention the food was TERRIBLE?? They add a 15% gratuity automatically to your bill and it was just my husband and I. I normally tip 18% but okay since that's all you require. Overall, this place is honestly disgusting, a waste of money, calories and time ! I am so serious when I say, DO NOT GO HERE! Board of Health needs to check on this restaurant on a regular! You have been...