Hanzo Japanese Steakhouse — Restaurant in Town of North Greenbush

I should have taken my cue right from the start when my party of 16 arrived 10 minutes early for our 7:30 reservation. We checked in and advised the manager that there were 3 in the party running a little late, they refused to seat us until the whole party arrived. We were then told by the manger that if they were going to be more then 10 minutes late that our reservation would be cancelled. We were all ready to have a great night as we celebrated an important birthday. I truly wish i had read these reviews before choosing this restaurant and spending close to $1000 for a meal. This owner/manager seems to make it a point to call her customers liars when, in fact, she is the liar and needs a lesson on business ethics, etiquette and customer service. She definitely showed a lack of class and education. Without repeat paying customers, you will not have a sustainable business. Throughout the meal she was loud, rude and obnoxious. It is no wonder as to why they were dead on a Friday night, yet we were told they would give our table away if our whole party wasn't there within 10 minutes of our reservation... really?? I couldn't help but think "To who exactly?" With the exception of a few customers, the rest of the tables were empty. We were rushed through the entire meal and we had barely finished dinner before they brought the cake out that we had bought. We had a few people that had gotten up from the table and when she saw this, she exclaimed quite loudly... "Are you f%&king kidding me?, too bad we're not waiting!". And let me just say, she did not wait. She lit the candles and she started singing loudly, almost yelling happy birthday. We all started singing along and then she abruptly walked out of the room. The staff then returned with boxes for leftovers. Not one member of the staff even offered to serve coffee. I also did not mention that in there haste to get us out of their restaurant, they smashed the back of my nieces birthday cake. Please keep in mind, businesses can pay for good reviews.

I'm sorry that you're not a happy person and that you take whatever anger and hostility you have inside out on the people who are essential in providing your livelihood. However, please let me give you some good advice. Hire a manager with an excellent customer service background. The negativity from one person on that staff permeated to the rest of the team and made what should have been a great experience, a miserable one. The way you respond to people's reviews is appalling. Keep in mind that not only are these reviews public, but so are your responses. It shows that you don't care about your business or your customers. There are way too many places to go that do the same thing as you, yet they provide excellent customer service. I am a business owner in the Capital Region as well, and I can promise you that my customers are my number one priority. Mistakes happen. It's how you react in a positive manner that keeps customers coming back. In business, when a customer has a great experience, they may tell one or two people... When they have a negative experience, they will tell anyone who will listen. You have a decent product, but the rude service is going to cost you your business. Nineteen people left your establishment after dealing with a rude staff and having a very negative experience. It is obvious that you do not possess a background or education in hospitality or customer service, but how good is your math? Nineteen people X everyone...

I dropped in for lunch at this new restaurant in a relatively new strip mall and was hoping that four months was enough time to iron out all the problems of a new restaurant. Hmm. Maybe another four months may be required.

Upon entering, I was pleased to find a beautiful, well-lighted, open dining area, albeit a little noisy, despite being only a quarter filled. I was escorted to the sushi bar, as usual, doing my best to avoid the teppanyaki room. My server brought my drink and then promptly disappeared for the next fifteen minutes.

I used this time to look around at the semi-interesting decor, including plastic sculptures of fish that are not on the menu, a small tequila truck over the bar lights and three giant (muted) televisions overseeing the bar / waiting area. I did notice a prepared sushi plate which sat uncovered on the serving pickup area (photo) for over 45 minutes from the second I sat down. I was away from my seat when it finally disappeared, so I never saw where it finally went, but I just hope it was not served to a guest.

My experience did not get better. My slow, inattentive server, after she finally returned, was not very familiar with the day's menu, and I had to re-order my selections a couple of times. I finally found they were out of bass, fluke, so the server recommended the (off-menu) chutoro. At least she didn't recommend the tilapia.

Tilapia? In a sushi bar, marketed on the menu as "Tai"? Really? But that's a topic for another time.

Anyway, I usually order a couple of maki and a handful of nigiri, to allow the chef to demonstrate their basic skills. There was only one sushi chef behind the bar, but he seemed able to keep up, with only occasional errors and omissions. Understandable, as he spent half his time joking with his friend sitting next to me at the bar. Maybe chef-customer interaction will get better in another four months.

Following a forgettable soup and salad, my two-plate main arrived, then became three plates as I had to wave down the chef to add the forgotten pair of nigiri that were not on the plate. The plating (photo) was very simple, and hurried. The presentation of the eel-only maki was less than spectacular and the bland spicy salmon was not spicy.

The nigiri was a mixed bag. The chutoro and the hotate were pleasant enough, but not enough to compensate for the poorly executed ikura, and the saba was unforgivable. The edges of the mackerel were dried out almost into a fish jerky. How long had this fish sat around unwrapped? I grew especially concerned as I remembered the first fish plate I noticed sitting on the sushi bar for 45 minutes. I rudely spit this back into my napkin.

I didn't get sick from my meal, if that's any recommendation. I really can't see returning for a long time. Maybe the bartenders make good drinks, because my food and service experience gave me no reason to return...

This is an entertainment restaurant more than a restaurant. With hibachi you get a show of the chefs preparing your food. A frequent destination for special occasions such as children birthday parties. The food is okay and you definitely get a very good portion size if you order hibachi stuff. $30+,)

That bring said both the service and food are decidedly subpar...

(despite the entire restaurant staff being fellow Chinese so culture was not an issue, and my uncle owned a restaurant so unfamiliarity with restaurant culture not an issue either)

Due to high cost of hibachi they seated us with another group of two people. (We were a party of seven).

Okay not great but understandable..

Despite them seating a group of 4 white people in their own hibachi table.

Pressured into ordering despite telling the service we needed to wait for the last two of our party to arrive (who took 7 minutes to arrive).

In that 7 minutes we were asked to order 4 times despite ordering drinks the second time they asked us.

Third strike, gave my sister in law a really really hard time about asking for no soy sauce for her and her young children. As you all know salt is considered a national crisis and silent killer with 9 out of ten Americans being exposed to insane levels of sodium.

They stonewalled her and kept mentioning how difficult it was, until she apologized and said it wasn't an allergy but a dietary preference since she didn't want her kids to become diabetic.

They complained how hard it was to serve food without soy sauce and how unreasonable a request it was and maybe they could find a chef to accommodate her but just this one time and no other time could we expect this high level of accomodation.

(Keep in mind this is for a birthday party or we'd have left.)

They then cooked to the hibachi food by seasoning it heavily with no soy sauce but extra like 2 ounces of pure salt which my poor sister in law felt obligated to thank them for.

They did however in fairness give my niece a free scoop of ice cream for her birthday. Which is why they get 3 stars instead of two

The hibachi part was fairly entertaining for the kids and measured to our expectations . 5 adult entrees and 2 kids meals with 3 large orders of sake roughly $165 without mandatory gratuity or tax.

We understand how stressful it is to run a restaurant and less than one in forty restaurants succeed nationally... That being said we...