Address: | 19 S 13th St, Richmond, VA 23219, USA |
Phone: | +1 804-643-8080 |
Site: | kobesteaksandsushi.com |
Rating: | 3.6 |
Working: | 11:30AM–2:30PM 11:30AM–2:30PM 11:30AM–2:30PM 11:30AM–2:30PM 11:30AM–2:30PM 1–10:30PM 3–10:30PM |
QU
Quinton Wood
I dont write restaurants reviews because I used to work in the service industry I know and acknowledge the challenges faced day in and day out. Whenever I have a bad experience I just dont cross that restaurant out because it could have been the cook or just a bad day, which doesnt excuse it as I have higher standards. However, again by knowing first-hand the challenges face I tend to give another opportunity to see if the restaurant, staff, food quality or management have redeem themselves. Well, I gave Kobe two opportunities and both were just terrible to the point I feel compelled to write this long bad review to detail my experiences and to warn you, this may happen to you. I picked the restaurant for my birthday celebration and my husband made a reservation for the whole family. Its the weekend of San Patricks and they can’t find my reservation, nor will one be available within 45 minutes or so. We were able to secure another reservation at La Grotta. No apologies and no sympathy. As we are getting ready to leave suddenly a reservation was cancelled and they were able to accommodate us. Its already 8pm for an original 7:30pm reservation. Also for a large group and a child, you bet we always make reservations for these types of events. The place is dirty, trash on the floor, dirty curtains covering chairs, boxes, just a mess that everyone can see so no need to have half curtains. The place was super-hot throughout the night. The ventilation was poor. Certainly not conducive of a nice dinner with family. Maybe the venue wasnt the right choice to begin with. The salad dressing is just tangy and leaves a bad after taste. Not like your usual ginger sauces in other hibachi places. The food was okay. Nothing glamorous and perhaps a little greasy. The filet mignon was excellent. Few weeks after we went to Kobe again for a co-workers birthday celebration. This time I didn’t make any of my co-workers aware of my prior experience as I wanted to be opened minded. Again, same lack of customer service when greeting you. Just not welcoming with a southern charm as other RVA restaurants. We wanted hibachi but we had to decide between express or with the “show”. Since we were celebrating of course we picked the show. We were out of there an hour and half later at lunch time on a Friday. The grill wasn’t on and when we arrived the couple in our same area had already been waiting for 20 minutes. Not a good sign for starters. On a Friday and pay date, they didn’t have Pepsi or diet Pepsi. We had to pick between sierra mist, water or tea. Few of my co-workers picked tea which had to be returned because it looks like someone’s pee on a glass literally. It was like warm sewage water with no ice. Pretty disgusting. After 40 minutes wait, we advise the server that we wanted to be moved to the express table and suddenly the chef appeared. Food was consistent and was actually good. Salad dressing again sour and tangy. What probably was extremely upsetting was that 8 people out of the 10 people at the hibachi got their tickets wrong. First server leaves with my credit card and took her like 10 minutes to come back. My ticket was fine but she just returned my credit card with no slip, so I wasn’t sure if she had run it or not. I asked her but she wasn’t able to answer. While this is happening everyone else realized that their tickets didn’t match to what they ate. Even involving the manager she was to frazzle to even be in control of the situation. Definitely will not go there again for dinner or hibachi. I do hear their sushi menu is fantastic and perhaps may try that sometime for lunch again. For a restaurant that has been in Richmond for this long, cleanliness certainly is concerning. Very messy and dirty place. If that is the front of the house, I can’t only imagine the back of the house- and this coming from someone that has managed restaurants before.
KE
kelly lemon
Went to Kobes to celebrate my cousins birthday on 6/23. We had a party of 16 which included 2 kids. Our reservations were for 8pm. We started out at the bar which was good service. The drinks were good and the bar tender had good customer service. Around 8:30 our full party arrived and we went downstairs to eat. So everyone ordered and about 10 mins later the waiter came back and advise that the company ran out of chicken. I was very surprised as it was a Friday night and we had reservations. When I first walked in I saw that there were other parties that had reservations so Im sure they could of anticipated how much chicken then needed to purchase. So half our party had to redo their orders. after that mishap the waiter came back and told us that the kicthen ran out of shrimp. Shrimp and chicken at a hibachi restaurant gone. By that time its 9:30. Extremely disappointing to the birthday girl. So they did not have enough chefs on duty to serve multiple parties at one time so half of our party was served hot food and entertained when the second half of our party literally look at us while we ate. At around 10:15 another chef came and started cooking them food. Unfortunately the ambiance had been ruined and everyone was annoyed. Also there was no ac. The staff put a fan down (the industrial ones that dry carpets after they had been shampooed). Im surprised that the restaurant is not using an inventory system to accurately forecast how much food to purchase. I was also surprised that the company would not have a proper hvac system installed. I drove 3 hours from md to va to celebrate my cousins birthday only to have her birthday experience negatively impacted by this restaurant. The food was ok, nothing that you could not receive at another hibachi restaurant. Oh and after all of the inconveniences they added a 20% gratuity automatically in our bills which I would of normally paid if the service was up to par.
PA
Papam Iaa
Very professional and kind services from starting to finish. I am from Virginia Beach area and I had to come up to Richmond for a business meting. And I have decided to reserve an appointment at Kobe. After I and few of my clients had finished the meeting, we found ourselves late to the appointment so I have called the restaurant and asked if we could still go there. (It was Saturday Night around 7 pm) The host(?) that picked up the phone has politely asked us to come in and informed us that we would have to wait since we missed our appointment. Anyway, all of us went to Kobe. When we got there, there was a long line probably because of the graduation(?) but the host was able to organize the parties and direct them to appropriate seats. Even though we were late 30 minutes into our appointment, we were able to be seated within 10 minutes we got there. The process was very smooth and fast even though the place was filled with people. We got our food a little late (probably because of the wait). However, the food was very delicious and fresh. We ordered few nigiris along with rolls, appetizers, chicken terriyaki, and hibachi plates with filet mignon and scallops. The most memorable service was how host and servers worked together. They supported each other when one was busy. Long story short, I and my clients had a fantastic dinner that night and if I ever come back to Richmond, I would like to go there with my family and friends. Very memorable!