Sagano Japanese Bistro & Steakhouse

Reviews 6

KI

Kirstie Stroble

This rating is not based on the food. The food is quite good here. This rating comes from the unprofessional attitude and disrespect that I saw displayed by staff and management. The day I went to Saganos, we arrived at 2 p.m. The door says that lunch is until 2:30 p.m. A number of people arrived at the same time due to the clearly displayed hours. One staff member said that only those who arrived before 2:15 would be seated. Therefore my party and a few other groups remained. Then another staff member came and said that in actuality it was 2 p.m., which cleared out another group and left a few more parties. All who had to leave expressed their frustration on their way out on how unprofessional the restaurant was in stating something that was not displayed on their door. When it still appeared that the crowd was too much for them to handle, the owner was summoned by one of the staff members. She came and said that it was really 1:45 p.m that they stopped seating individuals. At this point it was around 2:35 and those who had been waiting for over 30 minutes became quite frustrated. The female owner, openly began to yell at the customers and tell them to "Get it! I cannot serve you!" She began to complain that she did not have enough cooks to serve everyone waiting and became irate. Her mannerisms and tone was so preposterous that everyone thought it was a joke at first. Everyone just had a look of shock on their faces as she spun around and screamed at everyone. It was around 25 people waiting there at this point. She then walked away abruptly, turned around and charged at everyone again telling them to leave the restaurant. It was horrifying! Some stormed out saying that they would never return, some confronted her as she spoke harshly to them in front of their children and families. It was an extremely, horrible and embarrassing ordeal. I could not believe what I was seeing. My three children looked at me in shock and said, "Mom, people are not supposed to speak to their customers like that!" My kids have never been to a restaurant where a staff member "flipped out" and began to treat customers so poorly. We have always seen Saganos as a restaurant that was considered more upscale for the Flint area -- one person can easily spend $30 on their meal, let alone a family of 4. At one point she yelled at a young lady and asked her why she was still there and the lady replied, "I am an employee and I was just coming to pick up my check!" It was disgraceful and unbelievable.

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A

A Private User

I have dined at Saganos for a few years now, generally with at least 6-9 other friends at a time. We know to expect a wait for the steakhouse side due to the popularity, and the food is worth it usually. However, with our latest visit, I was very disappointed. The first of our party arrived 20 minutes prior to the opening for dinner. The door was locked, so he went back to his car to wait. When he saw other people arrive, he went back up to the restaurant, and to his surprise, the lobby was full of people already! He had no idea how they had gotten in, when the restaurant wasnt supposed to be open yet and he had been watching the whole time. So he put his name on the list, and was told a 20 minute wait. The rest of us arrived a few minutes after opening, and watched as multiple parties who arrived after us were seated. We were told they had reservations, but I have to wonder what time they the reservations were for, as 45 minutes later we were finally seated... a far cry from the 20 minute wait we were told. If there were that many reservations, they shouldve been taken into account when estimating our wait. It was rather embarrassing as 3 of 7 people in our group had never been to Saganos, and we had told them such good things. When we were finally seated, one of our party hadnt realized how high the prices were (and to be fair, they had been raised again since my last visit earlier in the year) and to accommodate him we ended up leaving the restaurant anyway. I was actually quite relieved as at that point, since I wasnt wanting to give my money to them for such bad service. Ive celebrated my birthday there for the last 3 years, and doubt I will do it again when it comes up in a couple months.

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RH

Rhyan Lang

We come here a few times a year for our familys monthly girls night out. During out last visit on 7/24/17 a waitress (not ours) tripped and spilled an entire Dr. Pepper down my aunts back, completely covering her white blouse. Not only did the manager not come over and offer an apology or anything I had to inform her upon our check delivery what had happened. I asked her for some sort of compensation for the blouse (that is ruined) and she gave my aunt a whole $5.00 off of her bill. FIVE DOLLARS? Personally working in the food and bev industry for over 12 years I cannot believe they didnt just comp her meal. I understand accidents happen, but it was handled completely unprofessionally. The manager still did not apologize for the incident. Also during our visit a few of the guests drinks at the table were refilled with tea when they were drinking mai tais. No apology there either. We will not come back.

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ME

Melissa F

I used to enjoy this place. Went to order carry-out and never again. It is very hard for me to speak on the phone, I have a speech disability. I tried extremely hard to speak as clearly as possible and I think I did a good job with saying "Hi Id like to place an order for carry out" and "Yes, Id like a chicken hibachi dinner please." Which is what it says on their website, I attached a picture of it. Anyway, the woman on the phone said "What?" four times then passed the phone to someone else. Im not sure if she forgot to mute the phone or didnt care but she started laughing, repeated what I ordered and laughed some more. So I was clear about what I said, since she repeated it, she just wanted to belittle me and laugh. That will be my last interaction with this place. Shame that they treat people like that.

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DA

David Brown

Ive been a patron since saganos opened and have seen a general and slow dimmunition in the service, up to and including seeing staff openly chastised by the owners wife. Tonight took the cake and makes me question whether I will return. We typically eat at the sushi side of the restaurant. Their posted hours are 9:00. We arrived at 8:30 to be informed that they had prematurely closed because they ran out of sushi rice. The problem was that they were making sushi in front of us and their menu has plenty to offer other than sushi. Its unfortunate that the restaurant has turned this way in failing to treat their patrons correctly. Tonight we were left with little more politeness than to just say "get out".

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MO

Morgan Walter

I would give this place five stars because its one of my favorites, but the past two times Ive been Ive gotten my drink with disgusting floaties in it. I returned my water three times before switching to a bottled beverage. I brought it to the servers attention EVERYTIME and still received a new drink with gross huge white floaties, they couldnt be missed. I brought it to my next servers attention before I received my water (with a six month old in tow, a bottled beer was not a choice) again my water was filled with floaties. Its almost as if they dont clean their ice machine or ice holding tanks. Ugh so frustrating to love a restaurant and lose your appetite over things floating in your beverage.

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