Soho Japanese Bistro — Restaurant in West Chester Township

Passing through West Chester yesterday on my way home from work, I decided to try Soho Japanese Bistro for the first time based on its rating here on Google. Sadly, I may not return (more on this later). It's been a while since I've had good Japanese food and I needed to hunt down a place closer to home. Upon entering Soho, I was cordially greeted by this Asian girl with flowers in her hair... A nice start. The Wait staff was lagging a bit, but I had time to burn. Couldn't help but notice that the Asian girl who greeted me seemed to be rushing around doing a good portion of the work. The food quality was good, and on par with other Japanese-Fusion restaurants I've been to... , but again the Wait staff was lacking... After asking, It took more than 10 minutes to get a refill on water. Now for the reason I cannot recommend Soho Japanese Bistro to others and it's not about the water or lagging service... While I was waiting for a phone call, I overheard the Caucasian hostess ("Courtney") and some Asian guy (who I believe was a supervisor named Ray) having a conversation about customers who had just left the restaurant... It was laced with insults and disparaging remarks... It didn't stop there... They both stood there continuing to make insulting comments about other diners who were still in the restaurant. This went on for about 4-6 minutes. Either they were both oblivious to the fact that I was standing there within an earshot, or they trully don't care about customers. Made me think about what kind of comments they were going to make about me after I left. This is not the kind of treatment I would want to reward in a review... This is NOT the kind of treatment I would want anyone to receive...So to the Owners/Operator of Soho Japanese Bistro, I'd fire these two and replace them with people who REALLY want to work. Additional Experience:

December 31, 2014 My coworker and his wife wanted to eat here on New Year's Eve even though I recommended another Japanese restaurant not too far away... Even with reservations made, they took almost an hour-and-a-half to seat us after our reservation time... The service was really slow. We all ordered teriyaki steak. We asked our steaks to be cooked medium rare. Only one steak came medium rare... The three other steaks came either rare or well-done...and the vegetables were under cooked to our liking... When we asked to speak to a manager... We were told one wasn't available (or wasn't there on site.)... What kind of restaurant doesn't have on-site management??? This is the most expensive Japanese restaurant in the area, and it does not deserve anyone's business from the way it's run... Poor food quality, poor service and over...

I'm not writing this out of spite. The people at soho are very nice people and the wait staff did what they could. How ever, the food is poor. I found foreign objects in my food and the manager never once came to my table. I've been to Soho a handful of times, and I've tried something different every time I've been there. I've found issues with each dish that I've tried. The dishes are either bland, or over seasoned. I've had the hibachi, and it was okay, but I think every other hibachi I've been to have been better than Soho. If you go specifically for the hibachi I think you will be okay, but don't expect anything extraordinary.

The fried rice, is bland, not seasoned and overcooked. Every time I've had it.

The Veggie Tempura, well cooked, the pieces are that come out are too large though, and the sauce that comes with it is bland. Which makes the dish its self lack luster.

The Veggie entree, always has too much sauce, it's almost like a soup. The sauce is not tasty, and the last time I got the dish, it had so much garlic in it that was all I could taste. The veggies them selves were over cooked limp, and mushy. Between the large amounts of sauce and the over cooked veggies it was hard to eat with chopsticks, everything was just slipping. Also, the last time I was there I found metal shavings in my dish from the cleaning brushes they used.

Sushi, the rice is over cooked, they bring it out on this big over sized boat that takes up more than half the table, it's really unnecessary and makes it difficult to have room for more dishes. The rolls them selves are just not well executed and not much as far as taste goes. (also they don't have a sweet potato roll, come on REALLY! lol.)

The Decor is really nice, but it's also very dim. It's good ambiance for a date night, but also hard on the eyes a bit.

A personal note as a animal lover, the small koi pond they have. The fish that are in it are way too large for the amount of space that small pond has. They have almost no room to swim and the pond is over populated with large fish. I've done research on koi fish in the past and spoke with pet care professionals about stocking ponds. The pond that is there is not deep enough for the fish in there, and one of that size could only hold up to 5 large fish that are between 15 and 21 inches. They have about double the mount of fish that size in there, plus many more smaller than that.

If you go here, you are paying for the view and entertainment, not for good food. It's no wonder their prices are so high. Avoid if you dont want to pay too much for food that is lackluster at best. I hope that if Soho reads this they take steps to better their food. I probably will not come back...

Wish I could give negative stars. Left crying over how horrendous our experience was. My friend and I were celebrating my birthday but the chef was terrible. He decided to talk to only one person and cater to only her due to her picky requests. She wanted extra of a lot of things so not only did she get her own separate bowls of things but he continued to take food out of the rest of the groups portion to set aside for her. Therefore, while all this catering was happening there was no show part of the hibachi experience and our rice and veggies were cold due to sitting there for 20-30 minutes while this catering happened. Upon removing myself to go talk to the manager the manager said nothing to try to address the issue. Instead he came in and told the chef that I was having an issue so then in front of the whole group asked me what was wrong. Trying to not make a scene, I said your manager can talk to you about it later. He laughed under his breathe followed by mumbling it’s funny that you think that. It’s already been addressed. Then decided to mock me by as he finished putting food on people’s plate said here you go best friend when he hadn’t said a word to anyone but the one lady the whole time. As he left the table, the manager stopped him again and then they both proceeded to come back and address us in front of the entire table and restaurant and make us so aloud what was wrong. So unprofessional by both the chef and manager. When we said very little, the chef proceeded to stand over top of me with his hands on the table hunching over me to show dominance. We packed our food in to go boxes and as we asked what the manager was going to do about it he said he could do was give us 50% off but at that point after the verbal harassment, terrible experience and service, unprofessionalism and horrible management, we were done. Save yourself and go to Miyako right next door. DO NOT GO HERE! No customer should ever leaving crying better yet be treated that way by feeling inferior and embarrassed. I will not be returning and will be advising all my friends and family to NEVER GO HERE. They do not...