Koto Japanese Steak House — Restaurant in Tampa

To Tytiyana Wheeler and all the viewers in this website, I feel it is very necessary for me to defend myself. I am the server that Ms Wheeler's described as "Horrible" but she can't even find a detail of what kind of horrible service she received that she can write about. So now let me tell everyone what is the truth. It was on Friday night, Ms Tyriyana Wheeler and her friend were sat at my table with 7 other customers, they ordered Sherry Tamples with extra cherries and extra grenadine to drink, Spider Roll without caviar as appetizer and 2 Hibachi Dinners. They were greeted by me with smiles, their drinks with special requests were served quickly and correctly and they never have a chance to see the bottom of their glass because the timely refills I offered. Right after everybody gave their dinner orders, everone was served with a soup and a ginger salad as quickly as within two minutes. After Ms Tytiyana Wheeler drank her soup, she asked me to take her salad away and give he another soup instead, and I brought it to her right away. Their Spider Roll was served before their dinners and they ate them all. Right at the moment the chef arrived to their table and ready to cook, Ms Tytiyana Wheeler's friend wanted to change her order, she wanted No Noodle but Extra Fried Rice, and then Ms Wheeler wanted to change hers too, so I talked to the chef who is right behind me at the table about the changes, he went right back to the kitchen and came out with extra rices then he started cooking. During the cooking and eating time, I constantly went back to check on table every few minutes and ask Everyone like "How's everything so far?" " How's the food taste?" , and the responses were POSSITIVE at all times. Yap, possitive response from Ms Wheeler and her friend too! When they're done eating, Ms Wheeler ask for togo boxes for leftovers and Yumyum sauces togo which they got it rightaway. And all these times they were served by me with smiles on my face and friendly tone of voice. . Now come to pay points, Ms Wheeler wrote a BIG "0" on tip section on her credit card slip, so I figured there might be something wrong at this visit and I am possitive it wasn't my services. So I asked them again "How's everything tonight?" They answered " It was good." Then I asked " How's my service tonight? Did I take good care of you ladies ? " . They answered " Oh, you did great, service was good" . Then I showed them the credit card slip they just signed with big "0" tip and ask " So the service was good like you said , why you don't want to take care me? ". And thsee following words poped out quickly from Ms Tytiyana Wheeler's mouth " I HATED the food! ". WOW, what a dramatic turn on that !!! So I told them if there was something wrong with the food or they don't like it they could always tell us at the beginning or ask for a manager at the end to solve the problems , so they asked me for my name and ask me to get the manager for them. I sent them our manager, and he refunded Ms Wheeler's dinner despite the other 7 customers at the same hibachi table enjoyed the exactly same food so much and taking the leftovers home as second day's lunches. Remember this part, Ms Wheeler and her friend asked for boxes too! After Ms Wheeler's bill was adjusted and refunded, I handed her the new credit card slip and walk away to give her privacy to sign, and she wrote a big "0" on tip again after her problem was addressed and solved and just left quickly. Now she left this review after she left the restaurant saying the sevice was "Horrible" , I must step up and tell everyone the truth that Ms Tytiyana Wheeler tried to hide and tried to misdirect our customers, trust me, some people are good at this kind of...

Update As Promised – Know Before You Go:

Be aware that an automatic 18% gratuity is added to your bill—I didn’t see this disclosed anywhere in advance. And for clarity the issue wasn’t the wait—it was the fact that we were blatantly ignored for most of our time there. It was a belittling experience to be so overlooked.

Our visit lasted just shy of 3 hours, and during that time, the only staff members who acknowledged us were our chef, Augustus, and our server, Madison. The food Chef Augustus prepared was phenomenal! 🤌🏾

As for the food from the back: the salad was underwhelming and heavy on mayo—not what you’d expect if you’re used to a traditional ginger dressing. The clear soup was full of flavor, but the breaded onions in it had a strange, very unpleasant taste.

We were a party of three—two adults and one child—and we didn’t order any drinks, just waters. Our check came to $88.15, and with the automatic 18% gratuity, the total was $104.02. Outside of the surprise gratuity, I think the food was fairly priced for what we ordered: chicken and salmon, kid’s chicken, and filet with salmon.

While I still would not return to this establishment because of how we were treated, I can say the food itself was worth it—at least thanks to the incredible chef.

Original Review:

I arrived at this restaurant at 6:50 PM. While standing in line to add my name to the waiting list—as they were quite busy—I was passed over and ignored for about 20 minutes. Once I finally got my name entered, I sat at the bar around 7:15 PM and remained there until 8:15 PM, completely ignored.

At one point, two women walked into the restaurant and came over to the bar. The bartender literally shouted over me to greet them, asked what they wanted, and immediately served them—without even acknowledging me. Not five minutes later, those same women were escorted back to the hibachi, while I had been waiting for over an hour.

I was finally called back only after I was on the verge of walking out the door. I stayed only because my child is hungry—and by this point, it was 8:30 PM. But let me be absolutely clear: I will NEVER return to this restaurant, and I will never recommend it to ANYONE. And there is a camera sitting right in front of me pointed at me. I invite the owners of this establishment to watch it. I will update the review if the food is good, but my review stands at zero stars...

I have never in my life felt inclined to write a yelp review until after eating at this restaurant. I have never experienced such terrible service like this before. My group of 5 arrived at 8pm on a Saturday night without a reservation so we expected a long wait. Immediately the hostess denied us service and after asking what she was talking about she said she could seat us in 2 hours. After waiting another 20 minutes to get her attention we ended up getting seated. We waited for our food and drinks for a solid hour but we didn't complain because we understood it was busy. We didn't even receive the appetizers we ordered without tracking a sever that wasn't ours down. We didn't even know who our server was because he came to our table once. My friend was served an entire piece of raw chicken i\on her dinner plate. A server that wasn't ours made no effort to grab her a new dinner or apologize without us asking her to. All of our chicken was overcooked and chewy as well. The portions we received were all different but we were all charged for a premium price. After eating we went up to the hostess stand not once but twice in the span of 40 minutes asking for our checks. Once we finally got to speak to someone we asked for the manager and didn't see someone for another 20 minutes. The manager refused to refund my friend for raw chicken in her meal or even a discount for us all for the horrible service. They also charged us for a tip that was already added to the check without being able to change it ourselves. I would never tip a restaurant under 20% until here but they wouldn't allow me to change the tip. She said she could only discount her for her meal not take it off. We are all waitresses and am appalled at the quality and lack of service we received. We went out of our way to give them the benefit of a doubt since it is a saturday night but it was absolutely horrible. We arrived at the restaurant at 8pm and didn't leave at 11:30. If I could I would...