Kobe Steak House of Japan — Restaurant in Wichita

I have been to a lot of Japanese steakhouses and Kobe's is better than most but not the best. I went twice this month. I'll tell you about both experiences now.

The first visit we had reservations at 730 pm. The pager they gave us did not go off and we waited in the bar area for 45 minutes. They finally came to get us and rushed us off to a table by ourselves at 845 pm. The chef was fun but he hurried through cooking our meal. The veggies were not cooked all the way through, the food was bland (definitely didn't use enough Japanese ketchup lol), and we went there for the Friday Night Special which they charged us full price for until we had to remind the server again. They didn't offer us the hot tea, was ignored on any drink refills, and they didn't remove our dirty dishes till after we we done (the soup, salad, etc). I did not get my reward points for the visit.

The next week friends wanted to go so we joined them hoping it would be a better experience. We only waited 30 minutes this time for our reservation. We paid at the bar for our drinks (again didn't get credited for my rewards). After being sat we once again didn't get the best service from our server. No refills on drinks and by the time the chef got to the table we had 8 people's worth of dirty dishes and empty glasses we were passing down the line to get them out of the way. The chef was pretty irritated. This chef definitely was a better cook. The food was delicious except for the mushrooms which were not cooked all the way and lacked any sauce or flavor. Sadly they were horrible and normally those are fantastic. Afterwards when we paid for mine and then a seperate ticket for a friend of mjne. No reward points were given for our meal but it picked up my friend's for points. All in all I ran my reward card on 5 transactions over the last 2 weeks and only got the points on my friends meal for $11 worth of points (She had a $20 off coupon for her bday. Btw her bday is 5 days before mine and I didn't get the coupon in the mail. She dod after her bday for a belated gift. I have been a rewards member for over 7 years).

The manager did honor giving me $20 off because he could see I had one of the original royalty rewards cards (purple) and explained to me if the card is not used every 90 days it goes inactive. I was irritated because I regularly get $10 reward coupons so there was no reason I shouldn't be getting my bday one too. Regardless, I checked the app on my phone a couple days later and found out that once again that most of my transactions didn't get the rewards posted and to be honest I'm pretty irritated. I spent well over $200 on both visits for only my friends meal of $11 to be counted towards rewards.

In short as far as service and food goes Sumos has Kobe's beat by a long shot even though Sumos has cut their portions significantly over the last 10 years. Sumos still has superior flavor, service, and they offer sushi which Kobe's does not. My past two experiences didn't feel like it was worth what we spent but we had a decent time with our friends. I do hope they will work on these things so service and food quality will be better as well as fixing their...

This visit was a miss for us. We were part of a Sunday reservation for eight which gave us a whole table. Wait was reasonable and not a problem. We sat down and our drink order was taken. We weren't supplied a drink menu so I asked what beers were on tap. The server suggested I name one and he would tell me if they had it. Well I can probably name hundreds of beers, none of which they would have. I asked for whatever IPA they had on tap and he brought me a can (no glass). OK, whatever I can deal with that. I was never asked if I wanted another. We ordered our food and first was served a very nice starter soup. Things went downhill after that. A salad was brought out and my wife and I had to pick out a lot of old, wilted and poorly cut lettuce on top of a fairly tasty dressing that was carelessly dropped in the bottom of the bowl. OK we will move on. Veggies were cooked and served next prior to providing the usual dipping sauces (one for veggies) and were under seasoned and poorly cooked. Not under cooked necessarily but lacked the color you would normally get if cooked properly. It felt rushed. Next came the bland fried rice that was crunchy because of overcooking on the teppan table or under cooking during prep, I'm not sure. The proteins came out next but in a weird order. The steak and chicken I had were average at best and cooked beyond the medium rare I requested. My wife had ordered bean sprouts with her meal which were put on the grill prior to cooking anything else and left there untill her steak was served, which meant they were a pile of mush. About halfway through eating dinner the dessert sherbet was brought out along with the bill. It was essentially a puddle by the time I got to it and I don't eat slowly. This whole experience felt extremely rushed. I understand the need to turn over the tables but it took away from the experience and the quality of the food. My wife and I had our check just for the two of us and they applied an automatic gratuity for some reason so watch...

Always great food, although portion size has shrunk quite a bit...they need to bring it back up to where it was when it started. Also I understand that the prices a above average but you are paying your chef to perform cooking a meal in front of you. Why I only gave three stars:

1. You make a reservation and then they proceed to cram as many people as possible into the booth. If I'm paying generously for a meal I don't want to have to have an elbow shoving match to enjoy my meal
2. People who are too damn busy on their phone of talking during your chef's performance. Not only does this make the chef cook as fast as he can to get a better table you ruin the whole experience. The chef also does the bare minimum to get people involved and he feels slighted because people aren't watching his chosen career as an artist.
3. If I want to sit on top of other people I'll go to a bar not pay to have it forced on me. To the hostesses, I know you're told to pack them in but it's getting me really upset and not wanting to even recommend going there.
4. I'm not greedy or a gluttonous but when I first started going back when they were on the East side and Chef Sal was the star. They gave you what you paid for i.e. a heaping portion of fried rice, generous portions of your chosen meal (you choose the steak, chicken and shrimp you had to say I need a to go box please). Now I'm wanting to know why this choice was made.
5. Higher quality of their chosen house sake. Before it was great now it's only good on half price day. They also carried several good choices of premium sake served hot or cold. Because of these things I now only go for a special occasion or because my kids have been asking and they deserve a good fun meal. Leaves me to question of "Who's in charge now to not want to be a premier Teppanyaki...