Saito Japanese Steakhouse — Restaurant in West Palm Beach

If you just need some eatable food and do not care about price and comparison to the "typical" or even an “untypical hibachi” experience - go for it!! If you have been to and like hibachi - you will feel like you're on an episode of punked here.

My Background- I have been to 20+ hibachi establishments. This place though, I’d say took Chic-fil-a’s handbook and did the opposite of everything in it, in a hibachi setting.

Upon arriving at the hostess desk, I couldn’t help but notice the unusual sign that reads ‘we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone”. Should’ve been a tale tale sign of the evening to come. It’s a Saturday evening in a busy town square and wait was only estimated 5 minutes. Although, when asked the server how I would know our spot was ready (since they didn’t take a name, phone number or anything) she replied we will find you – without directing us to any specific designated area. You know, due to the American Disability Act I have low expectations for certain positions – so no issue.

We get seated at the table the dinner menu is hanging from the ceiling, that was expeditiously rolled up immediately after everyone ordering. I can’t confirm but as with every other review surcharge for plate sharing, fried rice and 18% on every check, I would assume they do not want to allow you have full informed consent about that. Realistically, if you left your glasses at home, you would easily miss those things. Seeing the geographical area – price was not an issue for me. The method and premeditation behind this are what really amazed me.

With high standards and low expectations, long as the food was editable, I would’ve been satisfied. The salad you can tell was previously frozen. The ginger dressing =subpar. The soup and the white rice another guest in the party ordered were the best things ordered. The chef proceeds to cook saying nothing aside from “how you like your steak”. No spatula knocking and tricks aside from the onion volcano.

The vegetables were only accompanied with some salt, a little oil and a heaping handful of butter (its whipped so a handful is only a tablespoon). The fried rice similar preparation ….no garlic, or onions or anything aside from a small amount of what was supposed to be soy sauce (I 100% feel that was watered down). So, he proceeds to prepare the protein (chicken and steak) and I let the chef know that aside from putting teriyaki sauce on my chicken I’d like some on my steak as well when preparing. Up until this point the chef has ignored any type of conversation not just from me, but other guest at the table. He proceeds to say “ok” and informed one of his teammates. Which, returned to the table with a side dish of teriyaki sauce for me to dip my steak and chicken in.

I could be biased and assume that hibachi chicken is just supposed to have some kind of teriyaki substance on it after going to over 20+ hibachi settings or could just be me. The chicken and steak (a New York strip – that should’ve been just called a Rhode Island Strip …given its size) were cooked hibachi style with just oil, butter and soy sauce (that was watered down) with a drip of lemon. Overall, everything ordered seemed to be strictly portioned (I can almost say even weighed to the gram before touching the table) . The quality was just to being editable vs hibachi experience qualifying.

So, at this point I seen the manager, got his attention. Simply to get my check and leave the food there, because damage was done at this point. I’m the fool for not reading the reviews beforehand (impromptu trip vs my usual read reviews vibe). He waved back , keep walking and directed another staff to me. I cashed out, left the food there and as walking out I asked the manager how his night was. He said “terrible as usual”, before openly acknowledging he intentionally declined acknowledge me vs sending a do person staff...

Nice place - Horrible service. My wife and I chose to go to Saito's in CityPlace for our Valentine's dinner. We chose not to sit on the hibachi side which seemed extremely busy and would likely mean that we would not be able to have a private conversation. We sat in the booths across the bar instead. The booths are some what small and we felt a little cramped, but we were willing to look past it if the service and food was as good as we thought. We didn't see a waitress until about 30 minutes after sitting down. I used to be a waiter and I know sometimes you get double seated and they are busy handling someone else at the moment so we were not upset. When we finally met the girl who we thought was our waitress, she rushed us through the order, didn't explain the menu and as soon as we gave her our drink order she walked away and didn't see her again for the rest of the night. About 5 minutes later, we got our drinks brought over by the food runner from the bar. We sat for close to 45 minutes wondering where our waitress could be, since we hadn't ordered anything. After a while we caved in and asked the first staff person we saw if they could take our order. The gentlemen we approached was the manager of the place, but we didn't know it then because he looked more like a chef/bartender. We ordered an appetizer (negimaki) figuring it would take some time before they remember we were still there, and two Udon (Yaki/Shrimp) plates. The gentlemen was nice enough to help, took our order and, just like the waitress, disappeared into the restaurant's inner workings. So within 10 minutes we get our entrees, but no appetizer. We started looking around to see if we could find our temporary waiter, but he was not around. I figured I would probably end up having to go to the front to have them comp the appetizer since we didn't receive it and likely got billed for it. So we started eating dinner hoping that at some point the manager would waltz by to see how things are going and we could express our concerns. Didn't happen the only people we saw were food runners and the bartender. Mid way through our meal, our appetizer arrives. It was supposed to be hot, or at least warm, but it was ice cold, as if it had been sitting for a while on a counter somewhere. My wife and I tasted it and lost our appetite. We spent about 25 minutes looking around to see if we could see anyone that would be able to help us, meanwhile contemplating just walking out on the check after the horrible service we had to put up with. We managed to get the attention of the hostess as she sat another unsuspecting couple down for what likely was the longest meal of their life. The hostess brought us the check and a couple of boxes since even she couldn't find our waiters. By that point, we were already tired of the neglect so as soon as we had the check ready, we grabbed the first person around and had them run it for us. If we hadn't grabbed someone, we would have likely been there for the rest of the night. The food was good, but its not worth the trouble. There are plenty of Japanese steakhouses around that offer up much better service than Saito's. Needless to say, I'm...

Food was great but we were very disappointed in the staff. 6 of us ate dinner during Covid, restaurants are allowed to operate at 50% capacity. It appeared clean, although, no hand sanitizer available for customers and not once in the time we were there, did I see anyone wiping the front entry door handles. Huge menu board at the table (great idea), staff in masks. We constantly had to ask for refills on our drinks, the woman didn't seem too happy about getting us refills and approx 7 minutes after the chef (who was great) left the table, we were asked if we needed to-go boxes. All 6 of us, 2 adults, 4 teenagers, had forks (or chopsticks) in hand, STILL eating! It was so rude! You could tell they wanted to "turn over" the table. No one was waiting for our table, other parties were there before us, and it was now 9:00 pm. We noticed others coming in for dinner and they were given an empty table, so why rush us? They didn't even bother asking if we wanted dessert. The best was when they were giving the girls to-go boxes, one of the girls needed a larger box (because she wasn't given enough time to eat her dinner) so the woman asked for the box back and used it to pack up someone else's food. Keep in mind, the box was touched by a teenager with (now) dirty hands and used for someone's else's food. Hello?!?! Pandemic!!!!! You can't do that, it wasn't a sanitary thing to do before the pandemic, let alone after! Ugh..... Lastly, we had 4 separate checks. I did not notice they added gratuity into mine and my daughter's check. 18% (we are 2 people, who does that? ). My total was $57. I left a $20 cash tip. The lady grabbed my tray faster than a speeding bullet and I didn't understand why. As we were leaving, I noticed 2 of the single check girls didn't leave a tip and I told them they needed to leave one, they said the tip is included, it was already added (and they showed me very small print where it explained that 18% was added). That's why she grabbed my check so quickly, she was afraid I would have kept my $20!!! Had I known....... Let's say, none of this would go down at the Saito's in Palm Beach Gardens. Should have gone to that one!...