Tokyo Garden — Restaurant in Tulsa

This was the best meal I've had in months. I had an awesome time here. I'm really glad I took a chance on it after I saw the one star reviews.

So first the trivial stuff. I'm a pretty big guy so one of the things I really value in a restaurant is solid, comfy furniture. I did not get tired of sitting in my two and a half hours here. It's a very well built space that successfully fits a bunch of industrial grilling areas surrounded by seating without feeling cramped. You're thinking yeah its hibachi they are all like that, but no. Most of them feel dark and small and claustrophobic. This area has a high ceiling, lots of lighting, and plenty of room between the tables. As a big guy another thing I value is being able navigate a restuarant without rubbing my enormous belly against people and the back of chairs. The decor was very good, a lot of hibachi places have cheap and tacky "anything Asian" kind of themes, but the decor at Tokyo Garden was sumptuous without being austentauous. You can tell it's all expensive, good quality stuff. It may seem like extraneous detail, but I feel that most places that skimp on design will skimp on food ingredients.

Also I will note the restroom was immaculate, but only because I saw other reviews saying otherwise. I dont usually think about that kind of thing but there you are.

The bar staff are friendly and happy to chat while you wait for a table. Tokyo Garden South is still new and so there is a bit of the typical new restaurant wait times from everyone wanting to be here. They serve hot saki in little cedar boxes which was really cool. Their whiskey selection was not huge, but they have several japanese whiskeys and everything they do have is excellent and reasonably priced.

On to the dinner experience. Our waitress was still in training and being shadowed by her trainer, but she did an excellent job. She didn't confuse any drink orders, and was very diligent on refills. Our chef came to this location from the original Tokyo Garden. He made some jokes about us being patient because "It's my first day" but it turns out he has 14 years experience cooking hibachi, and it really showed. He was an excellent showman, and had a very easy report with customers. I got the Calamari and Steak, it was great! Highly recommended.

I will definitely be going here as...

The only reason I am even giving this restaurant 2 stars is because I remember what it was like pre covid. Which is the reason we chose it for our first outing since being in lockdown. It is nothing like I remember. We sat at the bar to stay away from others. They have no seating restrictions (I was unaware), so no social distancing. The bartenders (there were 2) had clearly got in a fight or something before their shift. They had no desire to be nice to one another or any guests. I love their mai tais, and especially loved that they were hand made. However, this time, my drinks were poured from a pitcher that had been sitting out since before we got there. No cover, didn't put it in a cooler. Food, we ordered sushi. That was the best part of the whole experience. It was very yummy. Main meal. We ordered a filet and shrimp hibachi meal. We ordered the steak medium rare. It came out well done (along with the rice and noodles that were inedible). The salads were kept in the cooler sitting one on top of the other. No one washed their hands the whole time we were there. When I told the bartender something was wrong with my food, she wouldn't even let me finish explaining, said ill handle it (in a very rude tone) and never once said sorry, got the manager, or even tried to make me feel better about this whole situation. My last straw is when they were extremely rude to this older gentleman who had just asked a question. I literally started crying. We had been cooped up for months doing what we were supposed to do. We just wanted one night in public to enjoy ourselves. And instead I ended up so distraught from the negativity that I left and have no plans of returning. Im a strong woman. But man, this experience was one of the worst I've ever had. And before anyone starts saying that, why don't you work in the service industry and see how it is. I HAVE. I WAITRESSED AND BARTENDED FOR OVER 10 YEARS. No matter how bad a day im having I always made sure my guests were taken care of. This was a horrible experience. I do not recommend. And I will not...

I just wanted to say that I made a reservation 4 days ago for a party of 20 and I called today (the day of) and confirmed the total amount as it went down to 16 people. I was told by the lady on the phone “Maria” that my reservation was cancelled and she would have to “squeeze us in since others took priority” I then told her that I would appreciate a it. She then told me over the phone I had to be here at 5pm on the dot or she would cancel our reservation. We then showed up by 5pm and she made us wait until 5:15 to be seated, we then went over to our table and sat down and our waiter bombarded us on having our drinks and orders ready as the lady in the purple sweater “Maria” told her we needed to be a “get in and get out” type of table. This is completely unnecessary by the managers even telling the servers that. We got our drinks and food in by 5:30 and we didn’t receive our drinks till 5:45, just to get our food made by 6:15ish and rushed out with Togo boxes 5 minutes after they were done cooking at 6:10ish. Overall with everything tonight the food was amazing but the service by the managers was completely unacceptable as overall together we spent over $500 and I believe that this kind of establishment could benefit from not having a manager like Mrs Maria who only came over after all the food was packed away and not during our meal like she did the rest of the tables surrounding us. The tan sweated manager (did not get her name) was fantastic and attended to our every need as we went multiple minutes on end without refills. Overall I would score tonight being a 6/10 and not worth the money for the price you gotta pay for getting treated how we did by the management staff. Mrs Maria, definitely needs more management training as she is also wearing open toed shoes behind the cooking counter running all over the place in slides holding sushi and a water pitcher with the same hand while a plate in the other. Food handing service classes need to be in her future and it was very interesting to think about the cross...