Kanji Steakhouse and Sushi — Restaurant in Tinton Falls

We have been going here for 15 years. This past Saturday night we had an experience that was worse than any I've had at a restaurant. We had 18 people there for a birthday party. The hibachi chef that did our table was a complete disaster.

They must've been short staffed, so this guy ran in and threw food all over both sides of the hibachi grills. he was dumping gobs of whatever sauces they use all over the place. They typically add garlic to some of the meals when we saw he wasn’t putting any on. He puts a pile of garlic, cooks it separately, and then takes that pile and puts it on somebody’s plate . He did not do any of the typical presentation or show stuff that they normally do. He burned the rice and noodles and barely scraped it off as he put the next food item on top, obviously ruining what was cooked on top of it. He was in such a rush that as he scraped up piles of rice and noodles, they were flying all over the place, including our feet. I literally had an entire shrimp on my shoe.

He couldn't figure out who ordered what, so he was asking everybody. He ended up missing my steak. He came back with a new piece, cooked it for about 30 seconds while pressing it as hard as he could in little cubes onto the grill, squeezing all of the juice out of it. He gave me a first piece to sample and it was still refrigerator cold in the middle. I told him to take the whole thing back and forget about it. After he was done throwing the food around on all of our plates, he takes out the zucchini and offers to do the little trick where they try to flip it into everybody's mouth. We were like, "Dude, get outta here - you just ruined a $700...

This was one of our favorite hibachi locations. We loved the fact that it was a byob. They have 5 large tables, so 10 stations so you can almost always get a table. Food is good, both hibachi and sushi. However it all goes wrong with the service. Don't get me wrong it wasn't always bad about 2 years ago they were on the top. However the last few times we've been in it was slow. On jan 3rd we went. They had 2 hibachi chefs. Our soup and salad were brought out very scattered and spaced out. After about an hour and half the chef came out to cook. He put the food on our table and cooked on the other table. My 8 yr old didn't get a show only the chefs back. A vent was broken and our food got terribly cold quick. People were wearing their jackets to eat. We complained and when the bill came it was discounted 50%! Wow! That is unbelievable and I thought too much and I told her so. We agreed on a 20% discount and I said we would be back. So on valentines day our 8 yr old decides she wants hibachi. I called for reservations and as always was told they don't take them...But some people walked in and had reservations, but that really didn't mean anything. If you only have 2 hibachi chefs on valentines day you can't move people. After an hour and half, having had soup and salad with no chef insight we told them to cancel our...

I'm only giving a star since I have to to start a review. I've had sushi for lunch at Kanji a number of times and the food and service were very good. This evening my husband, granddaughter and I had a 7 p.m. reservation for hibachi. The restaurant was crazy, The waiting area was packed. The poor hostess was also answering the phone, filling water glasses at tables, setting place settings among a number of other duties. I didn't see anyone around who looked or acted like management.

At 7:30 we were seated with others at a table. It took 1/2 hour to serve soup and salad. . The chef finally came out and was cooking for one half of the table. At 8::20 they had rice on their plates and nothing else. At that rate, I figured we'd be served after 9:00. We had the only child at the table. Wouldn't common sense dictate to cook for the 1/2 of the table where there was a five year old waiting? We picked ourselves up and left, telling the wait staff we couldn't "wait" any longer. This was probably the worst service I've ever had at any restaurant. And the kicker? The chef didn't " entertain" besides clicking two knives together once and lighting oil on...