Hana Japanese Steak House and Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Town of Guilderland

Terrible experience. They DO NOT implement proper Covid-19 precautions with regards to social distancing between parties as they wait to be seated. (Many restaurants have implemented test/phone call while waiting in the car or provide additional areas to wait to ensure their guests safety & comfort). When I asked if there was another open area where we could wait I was told "they're getting your table ready right now". points to room. We waited 35mins after our reservation time to be seated. Also, I watched as the employees "cleaned" the area we were about to dine at. They used a wet cloth (with no cleaning agent in sight) to wipe down the surfaces surrounding the hibachi grills, which was just occupied by at least 3 separate groups. At this point I was skeptical about dining here but it was my mothers birthday and she was in such a good mood about being able to be around family so my goal was to rectify the situation without alerting or upsetting her. I decided to pull the employee that was cleaning to the side and ask that they use a proper disinfectant. He said "sure", walked back and proceeded to wipe with the same cloth and put plates down. Again, no cleaning agent in sight. After being ignored I went to grab the manager who brought the disinfectant spray out and cleaned the area himself. Moving along to the actual dining experience: the shrimp tempura roll was tasty but didn't arrive to the table until after the chef had plated about 3/4 of my hibachi entrée. The drink that I ordered 5 mins after sitting down came even later. Six people in our party confirmed with me that the hibachi noodles were overcooked and ridiculously soft, and the rice had that "bottom of the pot", burnt taste. Two people in our party ordered non hibachi items from the menu and after patiently waiting decided to ask the waitress for an update on their food- because everyone else was well into their meals. The waitress INSISTED that they did NOT order anything from the regular menu, offered no apology or the chance for them to re-order their food. We requested the manager. Eventually the manager came & apologized. By this time people were done with their meals (most of us decided that based on taste- it wasn't worth finishing). Multiple people half fed and two people hadn't touched any food at all. I learned that there was a $100 deposit required to make the reservation. (The restaurant informed my sister that if her personal tab was less than $100 she would be refunded the difference.) And after this subpar experience they had the audacity to ask if she would take the refund in the form of a Hana gift card. SMH. As if any of us plan to return. There was no discount or gesture offered by management but we did get the gift of automatic gratuity being added to the tab. There are plenty of other hibachi restaurants in the area- don't waste your time going to Hana.

Update: 3/10/21 It is clear that a representative of the restaurant has replied to my initial review and attempted to discredit my experience with false information. It is clear from other reviews that my experience is not an isolated incident and is consistent with the service that many others have received. My account of what took place is accurate and without exaggeration. Insincere apology...

A representative has replied to my initial review (written a few days ago under the same name) with false information and I would like to respond.

Unfortunately, typing "we do a fantastic job at cleaning" does not negate what I observed during my time in that restaurant. What I relayed in my other review regarding the lack of cleanliness and proper Covid-19 precautions is factual, precise and without exaggeration. The lack of proper cleaning is extremely concerning and people deserve to know what they are potentially getting into. 2. I recognize that the ingredients may have been fresh but that doesn't negate the fact that the noodles were VERY soft (overcooked) and that a portion of the rice had a burnt taste to it. While the restaurant rep claims to "remember my party", that cannot be the case. We DID mention that the taste of the food was lack luster, we DID mention that two people never received their meals, NO ONE stated they did not want to pay their tab (the bill was paid in full w/o issue). We only mentioned that we wanted the two meals that were not received to be taken off of the bill-which is a reasonable request. There WAS in fact a $100 deposit made by the individual in our party that called to make the reservation. In my initial review i did not suggest that anyone was "forced" to take a gift card. I stated that one person (the one who gave the deposit) was ASKED to take the remaining balance in the form of a gift card. And again, after this poor experience we have no plans of returning thus the gift card has no value. The option for a gift card was declined and the remaining balance was accepted in the form of cash. In the reps reply they claim to have given us "10 complimentary fried ice cream" for our troubles, which is false. No one in our party requested, was offered or received fried ice cream- plus we we were a party of 20. I'm guessing that whomever is responding does not remember my party at all. Its more likely that they're referring to a different party that had similar issues when dining there.

They wrote "we are trying to survive this hard time and you all have shown no mercy to us." The general public is happy to continue to support this business during a pandemic and in exchange we only ask for two things 1. Good service/product 2. A commitment to keeping us as safe as possible while we dine.

Denying that there are issues does not help.

The issues that I mentioned in my initial review can be easily fixed. Take the time to implement a system that allows for proper social distancing while parties are waiting to be seated. Use proper cleaning solution on table tops AND seat surfaces between each party. Make sure that all guests within a party get their food. Try your best to get the appetizer + drinks out before the entrée and when this isn't possible, offer your apologies for the inconvenience. Should someone mention that the food is a bit lackluster suggest another menu option in its...

This is a hibachi-style restaurant. You sit around a giant griddle, a waitress will take your drink orders, and then what you want to eat. Everybody pretty much orders something that's going to be cooked on the large griddle in front of you. That is why most people come here. I had a dish that was a mixture of scallops, shrimp, steak, and lobster. You have your choice of fried rice or noodles. These are all flavored with various mixtures of flavored liquids. The noodles were definitely tasty. The kids in our group were super amused. Because the cooking is done quite theatrically, with large fires at the very beginning before they start cooking anything, a lot of spatula, tapping, and flipping, flipping zucchini pieces into people's open mouths, and that sort of thing. So part of eating here is that show. If you like that sort of thing, this is definitely your place. All of the proteins that were cooked on the hibachi grill in front of us were actually cooked quite perfectly. The scallops were perfectly cooked, the steak was perfectly cooked, same with the lobster, etc. And they have a good variety to choose from. If you have a somewhat picky eater, they can just get edamame and white rice for example. They have a nice selection of sakes, but they come in a small bottle, so it's a little bit too much for a single person. They also have a number of cocktails, and they are definitely on the sweet and tropical side.

The service was great, and the theater of all of the fire making and spatula tossing can be quite fun. My problem was that there was a very large group of what looked like late teens or early college aged individuals on a table behind us. And literally they screamed every 2 minutes. They screamed when there was fire, they screamed when their zucchini pieces were tossed at them, etc., so it was really, really loud. We were in the room with a very high ceiling, so I'm sure that made it worse. If you make a reservation you can ask for a seat on the quiet, bar side. It was clear that it was a lot quieter there.

The service was good, plentiful, and properly cooked, although I wished they had picked up our empty soup and salad plates sooner. Our chef had clearly learned the routine, but a bit of smiling would have been nice. However, in his defense, it was probably really, really hot over that steaming hot griddle.

All in all, if you want a bit of theatrical cooking in front of you, you will get a kick out of this place. I always lean towards a...