lonni f.
Yelp
Not sure whether I'm just spoiled by high quality Japanese food where I live, or if the standards around Hilo are low, but our experience here tonight was beyond disappointing. We had a reservation for 5:30pm, and were promptly seated, and placed our order. My son ordered the tonkatsu, I ordered the special combination dinner with fresh tofu & sesame chicken, and my wife ordered the special combination dinner with sesame chicken and beef terriyaki. My son's food was served first, then mine a good 10 minutes later (without explanation). After waiting another 15 minutes with no explanation, my wife flagged down a server to inquire when her food would be served. The (wrong) response from the server was "oh, you didn't get it yet?". Seriously? She then waited another 5 minutes without so much as an explanation, and flagged down the server again to ask what was taking so long. The only response was "it will be out soon". Huh? A full 35 minutes after my son's food was served, my wife's was finally brought out, with no apology or explanation, although it was clear that the order was lost somewhere, and they started over from scratch. Both I & my son had nearly finished our food by that point. A minute later, they gave us a bowl of fried tofu "on the house", but still no apology for the excessive delay in my wife's food. It is less than amateurish of the wait staff to not keep track of whether their orders have been served. Worse that the customers have to repeatedly flag them down simply to remind them that the food hasn't been served.
As for the food itself, it could best be described as mediocre. The sashimi was almost tasteless. The tempura was somewhat soggy. The sauce on my tofu was sickeningly salty. The sesame chicken was decent, but definitely not anything special. Oh, and the complimentary fried tofu was sitting in a pool of broth rendering the entire thing a soggy, mess.
I simply do not understand the large number of glowing reviews. This is by no stretch of the imagination good Japanese food, and the service is simply horrific.