Tokyo 101 — Restaurant in Wilmington

Google Review Community: It doesn't look like management or ownership looks at these reviews given the lack of replies to other reviews. Here's hoping they read this one.

Man, this one is a tough one for me. I have tried all of the hibachi restaurants in the greater Wilmington area, and this restaurant has, by far, the best hibachi. Their sushi is decent, and the decor and atmosphere are very warm and welcoming. The adult drinks are reasonably priced and well-made. That said, I just can't shake the terrible service experience my son and I had there on June 30, 2025. Our servers first initial is 'R', but I'm leaving out her whole name to avoid public embarrassment and in hopes that ownership can take a look into it. I closed out my ticket at 1:52 PM, order number 003-44413, Table A7, ticket number 28. The service experience was terrible.

When she greeted us, she seemed extremely annoyed and in a hurry. We ordered an appetizer, and I had a bento box and my son had the yakisoba noodles. Our food was not brought out promptly, or even complete. I had to go to the hostess stand to get our drinks refilled. When our server never checked back in, I once again had to ask the hostess for the soup that came included with my bento box but was never delivered to my table. The few times she came by the table she was not courteous or helpful. I chose to not comment because the hibachi was so good and I wanted to bring my wife back to try it out before passing judgment.

To be fair, I did bring my wife back a few days later, and the service, food, and atmosphere were absolutely perfect. We did have a different server, and she was excellent. The one server I had on my initial visit just seems to be a hindrance to the excellence that this restaurant could be. Again, I don't want to embarrass her, she may have just been having a bad day. That said, having been in the service industry as a bartender for many years, it's really hard to get me to tip less than 20%. She made that decision really...

I have never in my life had an experience like I did at this restaurant yesterday. First we go in to sit down and the hostess is practically begging us to sit outside. We say no because it’s HOT outside and we have two toddlers with us. Then we go to our table the waiter was nice but after we got out food another waitress comes over to our table and tells us to turn our kids tablet down and have them be quite because other tables have complained. EXCUSE ME. IM A PAYING CUSTOMER JUST LIKE THESE OTHER TABLES (there were 3). WHY do I have to sit in silent with my child because they don’t want to hear my child. ITS A RESTAURANT EAT AT HOME IF YOU WANT SILENT. the waitress who came and told us to be quiet which we weren’t even being loud at all. Wasn’t even our waitress and was probably just worried about her tips. It was verrryyyyy rude and disrespectful. After this we didn’t see our waiter again for the rest of the time. He stopped coming to our table and stood behind the sushi bar and wouldn’t help us. We finished our food and waited with still no help. Finally I guess they got tired of us and the hostess came up and asked what else we needed trying to rush us out the door. IF YOU DONT WANT KIDS AT YOUR RESTAURANT PUT A SIGN ON THE DOOR. I have never been so humiliated in my life. Just because I have a child should not keep me from going out to eat with my child bc other tables around me and the staff don’t like children. I will NEVER be back to this restaurant again. I work in Mayfair as a retail employee and at a hotel and when I tell you I will never recommend this place to any of my guest/customers again and make sure everyone knows to stay away. Also the food is bland af the sushi has no flavor at all. The white sauce was...

We used to love going to this place. We had friends in from out of town who absolutely love sushi and the FIRST PLACE I thought of to take them was Tokyo but yesterday, June 20, 2023 around 5:30, our party of ten was turned away at the door.

We weren't given a waiting time, we weren't given the option of splitting up the tables 5 and 5, we were told by a rather taller long haired girl that they just wouldn't take us because they only have 4 servers and two other big parties (one was a 14 top). It wasn't even all that busy. Those two parties must have been taking a toll on the staff. One of the other hostesses (along with a young male host) seemed eager to take care of us but this one young lady pushed her weight around and, unfortunately got her way.

However, as we were standing outside, completely appalled at what just happened, a party of 5 came in and sat down, then a party of 7 came in and sat down, then another party of 4 came in and sat down. I get it, the wait staff might have been overworked but don't turn people away. Give them the option of waiting, give them a time, let them know that they're a valued customer.

One of the ways we wanted to show our vacating friends a good time was to take them to one of our favorite restaurants, to give them a cool experience, even show off our town a bit and, unfortunately Tokyo couldn't help us do that. Fortunately, Cochina had plenty of hospitality to go around. We'll be sure to go back there the next...