HOKKAIDO Sushi & Teppan — Restaurant in Winter Springs

Visited on 2/17/24. The evening started off well. We called and made a reservation for a large party. Seated within 10 minutes of our scheduled time. Waitress came over and greeted us. She was a bit disjointed when taking our drink orders. Normally orders at a hibachi restaurant are taken in seated order. We tried to help by correcting our party to let her take do the drinks in order. She said it's fine, she can handle it. Cool! Didn't have a full bar so we just ordered soft drinks. This is where the service began to take a turn. Brother in law ordered a lemonade but asked the waitress to please dona half lemonade and half water. Waitress was confused and offered to bring the lemonade and water in separate glasses to have him mix it. No idea how to accomplish that with 2 full classes but ok..... Drinks come out and 3 Pepsi glasses on the table. 2/3 normal color the 3rd was the color of ginger ale. I clarified what my sister ordered and she said Pepsi. We told the waitress and she said yeah, she noticed it and just said it's probably because syrup needed to be swapped out. Why serve it to your customers is beyond me. We just asked her to please give us something different. Appetizer time.... As she was taking an appetizer order, she was explaining the difference between sashimi and sushi. I had some fun poking fun at my brother in law... supporting the waitress as she explained it.. all fun no ill intentions. Waitress again going out of order and skipped an entire section of my party. We had to call the waitress back to take their appetizer order. Soups come out, brother in law didn't care for the onion soup and wanted miso soup instead. The waitress said if you wanted a different soup, you could have told me during ordering. If I have to switch it now, I'll have to charge you for it. We weren't aware that was an option but ok..... The rest of the soups come out and the broth was darker as she went around the table until the last 3 were brown. Not eating that. Told the waitress and she told me that it's fine it's just because the soup comes from the bottom of the pot. I told her no, we can't eat that. She then repeated what she told me only slower like I didn't understand. I told her to change them. She said they have to cook it. I told her that we aren't the only guests who would need soup, I'm sure you would have fresh soup to serve us. She repeated again that they have to cook the soup. At this point we requested a manager. Someone came by and we told her about the soup, we were offered miso soup with no issues. The waitress returned with appetizers and we attempted to encourage the waitress. We told her that we're not being difficult but we can't eat something that doesn't look right. She just gave a face and mouthed "whatever". At this point my sister told the waitress that we needed to see a manager immediately. The hostess came over and as the replacement soups were being served, there was a bug in one of the soups. Really!!?? The waitress wanted some context and told us that there has been an issue with the waitress all night. Manager came over and we told her the situation. At this point they switched out the waitress. The new waitress and the hostess said that this has been occuring more frequently with this waitress.

We saw the waitress one more time but I believe she was sent home soon afterwards. The food was ok but the experience really ruined the evening. We were offered nothing except for the...

Nothing here is too posh or overly fancy, just clean and straightforward with very high quality meats and surprisingly good sushi for those wishing it as an appetizer or an alternate meal to the most common experience here, the hibachi complete with chef show.

Prices are very fair, especially considering the quality. House wines, for example, are a perfectly good choice for most palates, reasonably priced by bottle or glass.

That's the charm of this place. Dependable quality with cooked to order teppanyaki choices that don't disappoint. Chefs are fun, but not overly crazy as can sometimes happen with such places.

The fish and shellfish choices are all quite good, just be sure to specify if you don't want everything tasting like teriyaki which is pretty much the basic seasoning sauce applied, although it's done sparingly so for those who enjoy it, it's the default.

But they are always very accommodating and I get the salmon and whatever white fish they have and I requested cooked only with butter, salt and lemon, and I can always instruct the chef to go medium rare on my salmon and he will make sure the edges are all perfectly cooked with the inside exactly to my liking, rare.

They have re-added Wagyu beef to the menu but I didn't get a chance to try it on this visit. It looked beautiful and fatty, as Wagyu should, when prepared for others at the adjacent grill.

The service here is outstanding, and you will never feel abandoned. If you're constantly ordering little things, like an additional soup or perhaps chopsticks, or a beverage refill, you will never be made to feel like you're troubling your many servers, and that makes this place always a comfort stop where you feel at home and welcome.

Desserts at Japanese places are a bit sparse in general, but here you get a couple of exotic flavors of mochi and a nice ice cream pairing if you like, with traditional Eastern flavors.

It's a can't go wrong kind of a place where you feel like you're in a neighborhood joint but you're getting so much more. If you're not too extravagant it's the kind of place you could go a couple times a week and enjoy the special without mortgaging the farm.

There used to be an early bird deal and I think that will be started up again if it hasn't already restarted. That's a good choice for families, students, seniors, or anybody else on a budget.

Give this place a try for the quality and the consistency and a nice little dinner show by the chef. Or get a cozy table and order from the kitchen and sushi bar. Nice...

If I could give this place zero stars I would. We had a groupon and presented it before we even sat down at a table. Took 10 minutes to get a drink without a straw, even though she had some in her pocket. Asked for water with lemon and took another 10 minutes to get a simple lemon. Finally brought my straw minutes after the lemon. ( Chef was great we actually really enjoyed him. He was very friendly.) waitress on the other hand....a joke. She tracked us down outside as if we were doing a dine-n-dash and asked us to come inside to tell us our Groupon doesn’t qualify for that we got. Reminder we presented it when we came in. No problem paying though. Left a $5 tip which was really for the chef since the waitress didn’t do much but make us wait thirsty and have a nasty attitude the entire time. And to top it all off as I was walking away she said “10% tip thanks”. So I walked back inside and she was no where to be found. Spoke to the manager and left, won’t be returning to use the groupon I’d rather just get the money back I used for it. And to the waitress, whatever your name is. The 10% tip wasn’t even for you, it was for the chef :). Have a...