Ohana Steakhouse — Restaurant in West Des Moines

I saw a few negative reviews out here, which prompted me to share my experience with this fantastic restaurant. I get that everyone’s expectations are different, and that not everyone will have the same exact experience every time.

With that being said, I have been coming to Ohana for over 10 years, and I have never once had a bad meal here, or had anything less than fantastic customer service.

Sure, some of the chefs are more or less experienced, and some put on a bit more or less of a show, but that’s part of the beauty of it... It’s never exactly the same two times in a row. I’ve never felt underwhelmed, and I’ve certainly never left hungry. I’ve been to many teppanyaki restaurants all over the country (including some very famous, very expensive ones) and Ohana is by far my favorite.

My wife and I like to come here for such special occasions as birthdays, visiting out of town relatives, days ending in “y”, scallop-thirty, and very importantly, cold-smoke Saturday.

I usually get the Royal Combination with filet and scallops (sometimes with a side of panga), and my wife usually gets a full order of scallops (sometimes with a side of calamari). The filet is always flavorful and cooked perfectly to your preferred doneness. The scallops are the best I’ve ever had outside of specialty seafood restaurants on the coasts, and the scallop sauce is worth the price of admission by itself. The calamari is always perfectly cooked and crazy-tender (calamari can get super chewy if not done right). The panga is always crisp on the outside, and flakey and delicious on the inside, and the orange parmesan sauce for the panga is my absolute favorite.

On top of the entrees, you get soup, salad, shrimp appetizer, fried veggies, fried rice, mushrooms, and noodles. If you leave here hungry, it’s your own fault.

A special note about eating here during the pandemic. They follow all of the guidelines and recommendations, everyone is wearing a mask, and they separate groups at the grills with extra space. I feel 100% confident and safe eating here during this challenging time. They are spot-on with...

Made reservations for 8 initially, but did have to change it, spoke with hostess 3-4 times before finally settling on a reservation for 4, time and date were confirmed. On day of reservation I called just to see if I could add on 2 more people, only to find out I had no reservation under my name. If I had not called ahead of time we would have showed up at 8:15 for our table to only find out we did not have one, and to late to find another place to eat. I spoke with Danny the manager the following day, he assured me he would look into this matter, but never followed up with a phone call, which he assured me he would. We loved this place and always went with a large group, but I’m not sure I can trust their ability to handle reservations correctly.

In response to the owner’s response:

Lol, what great management skills, imply that it’s somehow the customers mistake because a person’s going to show up at your establishment that only takes reservations with a party and be adamant that they get a table. Thank you Danny for the gift card… oh wait didn’t receive that along with the call back must have misinterpreted the conversation. What stellar customer service. Only received a response after having left a 1 star review, still not even a personal phone call. Way to make customers want to come back. I see you like to sign your name to all the positive reviews, that’s ok I totally understand, I wouldn’t sign my name to your response back...

We tried this restaurant while visiting from out of town and were 100% disappointed and disgusted. To begin, we did not have reservations and were told the wait was 20 min. This was not a problem and we waited at the bar. 1 hour and 45 min later they finally could seat us. They didn’t check in with us to let us know it would be a longer wait and were right next to us as we waited. When we got to the hibachi grill, everything was filthy. We proceeded to wait longer. Once orders were all taken, the miso soup arrived which wasn’t even miso soup. The salad arrived and was inedible. The hibachi started and was the slowest most disorganized meal prep we had ever seen. If you have ever been to a true hibachi grill, this is not it. Served one part of the hibachi at a time and by the time the chef got around to cooking the meat portion no one was no longer eating as the rest of the food had been sitting on plates for 30 minutes or more. The chef kept stopping to drink his Mountain Dew and wiping his face and neck with a washcloth and putting it on the food cart. We paid 90.00 for the meal we didn’t eat and paid as to not create a scene but we gave traveled a good amount of our lives as well as frequented many different restaurants and this was by far the worst we have ever had. We also were there over 3.5 hours. DO...