Kyoto Japanese Steak House — Restaurant in Tewksbury

Terrible first time experience. Went here with a party of 10 for my mother's 69th birthday. From the beginning it started out bad. I came in 10 minutes early for my hibachi reservation and the lady looked at me confused as if the reservation was never made. I told her I only called 2 days ago and her voice sounded familiar so I'm positive she was the one I was talking to. As soon as we got our server she sat us and gave us dirty looks. I told her it wad our 1st time and I kid you not. She said " well you have to look at the menu and figure it out you have 5 minutes. Saying that with attitude we felt rushed. She comes back not even to minutes and angrily says "what do you want" to all of us and takes the order hastily. We had our beginning salads and soups 1st which we did not get to even eat enough of and she took it away. Rushed the chef in and whispered in his ear. I've seen hibachi before and most experiences are the same anywhere our chef was lackluster, barely joked with us and didn't even spray sake in our mouths once. He cooked everything so fast with no jokes and everything had wayyyyy too much soy sauce and was salty. I truly felt we were uninvited into the space while everyone else around us was having fun. The chef cooking took no longer than 15 minutes. He then goes to another table and puts on a different show. He was happier loud and even giving sake multiple times. It was obvious we were not liked because of our race because everyone else was white and we were a darker skin Asians. Crazy that even though we're asian as well they treat us like dirt because we're of darker complex. The old lady server came with boxes and the tab before we even got halfway through our plate. For eating somewhere that was supposed to be family friendly and for a $350 bill I will never step foot in this place again and I will tell everyone I know about this experience. If you are not white they will not treat you kindly. Left a different taste in my mouth for how I thought of the Japanese people and culture. And if the manager even cares to see this and take it seriously. The server was an older woman with Grey hair and the chef was young with only 2 years of being a hibachi chef. This is America and customer service should be taken very seriously. You can be mean to minority in your...

I'm so bummed to be leaving this review. I genuinely cannot remember the last time, if ever, that I've left anything other than a positive review for anywhere, but there's no other way to put this in front of the right person.

My partner and I LOVE Kyoto. The sushi is phenomenal, and my partner loves the chicken katsu. I could eat 80 of their Celtics roll. We typically have them delivered through DoorDash, but we often talk about finding time for a rare date night so we can actually come in. Unfortunately, we likely won't be doing that now.

I have a gluten allergy. I get REALLY sick from gluten. I understand, it's annoying. I managed restaurants and bars for 12 years. Believe me when I say I know how irritating an allergy can be, especially when you're not sure if someone actually even has the allergy. Because of this, I try to be as good about it as I can. I always make a note of it, offer a solution if something does contain gluten, and on the rare occasion that I think something is gluten-free and isn't, I'm never upset or rude about it; I just choose something else. I did what I always do for this order - I clarified gluten allergy on all 4 of the rolls and requested that mine be in a separate container, always making sure to say "please." Apparently, my crime was asking for "tamari" on the side. I genuinely thought this would be helpful, as I didn't even know that tamari was gluten-free until I had to be gluten-free.

Kyoto called me to clarify what I meant, but when I answered, it was just 2-3 women making fun of me and expressing extreme anger over the fact that I said tamari instead of gluten-free soy sauce. I listened for about 20 seconds before saying "hello" over and over until the person on the phone very abruptly said "yeah hold on," and put me on hold. No hello, no nothing. When she came back she said "did you mean gluten free soy sauce?" and I said "Yes. I'm sorry. Is that an issue" and she said no and hung up on me.

It's a really lame way to treat someone. I genuinely feel bad that I said tamari, I had absolutely no idea it would cause an issue. I also don't like being gluten-free and wish that I weren't. I was just trying to...

This review is for those of you who are gluten free and want hibachi. I don't have Celiac's. I'm just gluten intolerant.

It was OK. They did offer to either make my meal on the grill in front of us first or back in the kitchen.

I chose in the kitchen. I also asked for no onions in my stir fried vegetables. I had salmon and filet mignon. I asked for medium rare (pink in the center) on the filet.

It started out OK. I got the soup and salad. The soup was just broth and there only dressing they had was vinegar, oil, salt and pepper.

Then the waiting started. Everyone else was getting food and eating. I continued waiting. Finally near the end of everyone else's dinner, mine arrived.

It was not very hot and looked like it has been sitting under the warming lights back in the kitchen. Additionally they had put onions in my vegetables. The fillet was cooked more than medium rare, the chunks were a bit large, a bit tough at times and I didn't have a steak knife to cut the pieces smaller. The salmon was not cooked through. I verified that it was sushi grade (which it is) so I was OK with that. I like raw salmon, but no everyone does.

The waitress was awesome, but so overworked. I felt bad for her. She offered to get me fresh vegetables. I said sure, but I never got them.

Overall the food was a bit salty to me and only so so. YMMV.

We decided to take a serving of tiramisu home and do dessert there. I had left my gluten and milk enzyme tablets accidentally at home. The restaurant comped us the dessert as an apology for the mess ups.

I probably won't return for hibachi, but I may go back to...