Jazzi K.
Yelp
I used to love Kabuto, but it's really taken a turn recently.
Last night, we had the worst service I've ever had at any restaurant. It took over three hours from when we walked in the door for us to get our food.
There was a "45 minute" wait to get a table which ran a bit long. That's fine. The host doesn't control how long the chefs take or how quickly other guests eat, and the host was extremely apologetic with updates. We had the information we needed to make a decision, and we decided to stay.
Then we were seated with two other parties. Our orders were taken immediately. We got our drinks, our soups and salads, and then we got abandoned.
We sat and watched in bafflement as tables that had ordered after us had their food cooked and served before ours. Occasionally, a chef would push a cart near our table, and we would all perk up, thinking our turn had come, but it was not to be.
While we were waiting, we got maybe three drink refills. For most of the time we were in the restaurant, we were sitting at our table with empty glasses, no chef, no food, and no explanation.
It turns out one of the parties at our table had requested a specific chef. And the restaurant had decided to seat them with us and make us all wait without permission or an explanation.
When the requested chef arrived, he seemed drunk. He was bleary and out of it. He burned himself twice before he even got the food on the hibachi. He spilled sauce everywhere. He overcooked everyone's food. If he could have cooked with both middle fingers in the air, I have no doubt he would have.
As soon as the chef was finished (literally, the food had just hit our plates), our server brought everyone to-go boxes. It was closing time. Time to get the heck out, even though they had made us wait for so long.
For this ordeal, one of the parties was given 10% off their meal. They were told that if they didn't want their food, they could leave it all and get a full refund. After waiting 3 hours, at 9:30 at night, when I'm certain they had neither the energy nor the patience to go somewhere else.
We were given $10 off. It was not nearly sufficient.
Also, this is a minor complaint, but why don't they have a cocktail menu to go with all the cocktail glasses hanging in the bar? It seems like that would be an easy money maker.