Hoshi — Restaurant in Vacaville

We had driven by this place on the freeway for years and we thought we'd finally try it. I had always heard how wonderful Japanese steak is so my expectations were quite high (perhaps too high). I'm very glad that we went during happy hour when they have some good specials (Sun-Thurs from 4pm - 6pm) because it wouldn't have been worth it to pay the full dinner price. We had never tried food grilled Teppanyaki style in front of us; so, I am glad we experienced that. And it was fun to watch the reaction of the boy seated next to us to the open flames the chef had flare up a couple of times.

My husband and I had one of what is called the Hibachi special - steak and shrimp. It is said to include: soup, salad, shrimp appetizer, veggies, steamed rice & ice cream for $29.95 for two people. The miso soup was fine and the salad good sized but rather boring. We opted to upgrade to fried rice, which my husband thought was way too much when he found out with the bill how much extra we had to pay - $3.95 each. The fried rice was good, not the best I've had, but it was fun to watch the chef put it together and I'm not a big fan of plain steamed white rice. I first tried one of the shrimps plain (without the serving sauce) and it did not smell as fresh as I would have liked, but with the serving sauce the slight fishy smell was covered and they tasted okay.

I ordered my steak medium rare and received it cooked to what I would say was medium instead. It wasn't bad, pretty tender despite only a couple pieces having any pink left in them. I found myself wishing for some pepper to put on it though. With my high expectations I was rather underwhelmed by it overall.

The veggies were okay, nothing special but edible - mushrooms, onions, carrots, zucchini, and bean sprouts. My husband and I both found ourselves wondering where is the shrimp appetizer mentioned in the special? We asked at the end of the meal and were told that two of the shrimps that we got with our main course were considered to be the appetizer. What??? Normally appetizers come before the dinner and aren't just one section identical with the rest of the main course. A lady across the table from us had ordered the chicken and steak; I hadn't noticed whether she got two pieces of shrimp included with her main course for her 'appetizer' and was too shy to ask her. We got more than enough food to eat what with the good sized salad and the bowl of fried rice filling us up, but we thought it was rather bizarre (not to mention disingenuous) to label two of the shrimps included in the main course as an appetizer.

They were out of the green tea ice cream which I would have preferred; so, I got the chocolate which was okay - a bit heavy. My husband got strawberry ice cream which was really good and fresh tasting.

We both just drank water with lemon slices in it and the refill service was superb. They had Japanese music playing in the background, which I appreciated since when I'm eating an ethnic-style food, I want that ambiance. I did have difficulty understanding the hostess, wait staff, chef clearly as all seemed to have very strong accents or mumbled (or perhaps there was a little too much noise in the Teppan Room, especially to understand a low voice).

While I'm glad we finally got around to trying the place, I doubt we will return any time in the near future. If we do though it will definitely be...

Don't waste your time. The management doesn't care if you are unhappy, they just want your money. Let me explain...

Last night my husband and I went around 7. It wasn't very busy so when we called ahead to make a reservation, it wasn't needed. When we arrived we were asked where we would like to sit, we chose Hibachi. We were excited to eat sushi because specialty rolls are half off during happy hour and that's one of the reasons we went. Good thing too because a roll is $15. We ordered 2 hibachi dinners, both with fried rice and two sushi rolls. The meal comes with soup, salad, rice, your entree choice, and ice cream. When ordering our waitress asked if we would like steamed or fried rice, not knowing there was an upcharge we ordered fried rice. When we recieved the bill our total was $90. Baffled, my husband went to the host stand because he couldn't find the waitress. The host was also the manager. Our rolls were not half price and we got charged $6 extra for rice. When my husband tried to explain this to the manager, instead of helping or listening to the confused customer the manager finds the waitress to "deal with it". Apparently, the sushi is only half off if you sit anywhere but hibachi even though it's all the same sushi. Our waitress didn't ask if we were first time customers and she also didn't ask "would you like fried rice instead of steamed for a $3 charge?" Or "just so you know, sushi is not half off at thr habichi table". Had she done her job correctly we wouldn't of been so upset. When my husband was speaking with her she was not sympathetic or helpful at all, she said that she couldn't do anything to change the price because the manager left. The manager that my husband initially spoke to at the host stand. What kind of manager leaves an unhappy customer and cares so little about their quality of service? My husband handed the check back to the waitress and told her to fix it. She took her sweet time and only took off $15, the price of one roll. Not the $6 for the rice upcharge or extra for our trouble. Apparently it costs more than a bag of rice to fry some rice in a bit of oil. Never have we been to a Habichi Japanese steak house that charges extra for frying the rice. The only reason I'm giving one star is because our chef was very kind and sympathetic.

As for the food, the salad dressing tasted like horseradish, the fried rice had no flavor, and my husband's steak was overcooked. The place is jam packed with tables so there's barely any room for the waitress to walk between the tables without touching you. The cook tops need replaced because they are bent and old burnt food gets stuck underneath and that is what the customer gets to look at while they eat. Makes you wonder what the kitchen looks like!

We just got stationed here at Travis all the way from Washington DC and this was not the kind of California welcoming we...

We made an appointment for 7:30 for my 11 year old’s birthday. We arrived on time, and were seated. The server came over and took drink orders. My husband and I ordered diet coke. She brought the drinks. One sip and we knew it wasnt diet coke, it was root beer. The server looked confused and went and got us new ones. Nope- still root beer. She clearly hadn’t tried it herself before. So she took those back and we never got a diet coke. Only water. We were waiting to order, and the server came and asked if adding 2 more would be ok. We thought it was odd, as we know at these places you sit w/ other ppl too. We finally all ordered. I then told the server I wanted a bloody mary with a salt rim and extra olives. She didn’t understand me. I said it 3x. She nodded and walked off. She brought the newest guests their drink, and told me she would be back w/ my “apple martini” and walked off. I was so confused how she got apple martini out of what I ordered. I went up to the bar to tell them what I wanted. There was a person who spoke more fluent English, advised me they dont have bloody mary ingredients. Our waitress struggled to understand us. When we ordered our food, I clearly said shrimp jr. hibachi, she heard chicken. We waited 40 minutes for a chef to arrive!!!!! The chef, he spun his knives around very fast and proficient like all of these type of restaurants. We have been to many. We were excited to see more “show”, because thats what we pay for. Then he heat the grill with a big flame. As he puts food on the grill, I expected him to talk and do cool tricks and jokes, like the egg roll and such. Nope. Just cracked the eggs, put the rice on. Then he did attempt the onion volcano. It failed miserably. After that 1 and only thing, it was just quiet watching him cook. No throwing shrimp in his hat, the crawling lobster tail, etc. very very boring!!!! The food quality/taste was just okay. But the meats were cooked with a TON of sauces. Other places use just a nice garlic butter. Just not worth the price for just okay food. The show was non existent, and a language barrier made...