Domo 77 Steak House – Fox Valley

What a disappointing experience, or should I say lack of experience? We had intentionally made a reservation on Monday for a Saturday evening out before Valentines Day. Imagine our surprise when we show up to a line going out the door with EVERYBODY having ‘reservations’ only to be told by the host that they had no reservations for the entire evening! Are you kidding me? So we are left trying to find another place to eat on a Saturday night without reservations… needless to say it didn’t happen. What a huge mistake! I will be telling everyone I know that this is not the place to eat if they can’t even get their reservation policy implemented. Looking at the other reviews, it sounds like this is not a first time occurrence. I will not be going to this restaurant in the future (oh, and this was my first experience with Domo 77)

–Cleanliness 1 out of 5 stars:
When entering the lobby was dirty, look up at the rafters. There is literally an inch of dust on them. Food was all over the ground inside the restaurant. It was a busy Saturday night before Valentine’s Day though.
–Ease of being seated ⁰⁄₅ stars:
Just like other reviewers say, the reservation means nothing. It’s similar to a crowded bar or night club in the fact that you have to walk in and bypass all other customers in line (who also have reservations but aren’t as aggressive as you) and go right to the front. You have to aggressively hound the older hostess manager to be seated. It’s literally like ordering a drink at a crowded bar. A little weird when you come with family.
–Food and presentation ⁵⁄₅ stars:
Chefs do a great job and all meat seems quality

Food was typical of a hibachi place. Was told after we sat down and were ordering drinks that there was «an issue with their liquor license» and we would not be able to order alcoholic beverages.
That would have swayed our decision to eat there had we been told upon entering.
Probably won’t go back because of this.

Great show for kids first time at hibachi grill, but way overpriced. As others have said, food is not seasoned at all. You need salt and pepper, along with soy sauce. Child portions were exactly same size as adults. The 3 stars are for the show and service. They lost a star for prices (188 incl tip for 2 adults, 3 kids), and for lack of seasoning. Should gave gone another day with coupons.

A forewarning, RESERVATIONS MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT THIS RESTAURANT. Do not expect to sit when you have reserved. Very poor management. It doesn’t even matter what the food tastes like. I would never return. Rude, and zero communication. Awful, awful, awful, and again awful. Go some place else.
The restaurant completely disregarded not just our reservation but other folks around us. We were seated at our table and it took from 810pm till 940 before the chef came to our table. Yes, they were busy but this was just a terrible experience. Our entire table was debating on getting up and walking out.

Ok, so I was worried about going after reading some of the reviews. I was pleasantly surprised. The service was great. The chef very entertaining. We did not get the shrimp appetizer that comes with the meal. Neither did anyone at the table. Strangely no one noticed or said a word about it. The food was pretty good though,

Let me start off by saying that this place isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t deserve a 2.5 star overall rating.
I have been to Domo 77 many many times. I think the first time was for one of my dad’s birthdays, which was more than a decade ago, yet I still come back time to time. For this location specifically, (the one by the Fox Valley Mall), it is much nicer and bigger than the one in Wheaton — I have been to the Wheaton one about 5 — 7 times and the Aurora one only twice. The first time was a regular weekend, the second time was this past Christmas Eve. The founder and owner of Domo 77 was the Host for the night at the Aurora location. A very nice man who is now much older than his picture on the main menu. He served us rather quickly and the server was very prompt and the food was delicious as usual. We actually made a reservation for Christmas Eve, but it didn’t matter as the owner didnt even check or really care that we had one. He seated everyone the same — which I guess is fine since the restaurant had room, but I thought that it was kind of, I guess, disorganized.
In terms of food, the Hibachi options are always great. I have had the sushi a few times as like an appetizer, but sushi at these types of places are always overpriced when compared to AYCE places like Sakura or Sushi City, so I rarely ever order them. But still, it was good!
And if you’re wondering about the dress code, some people were dressed really nice, while others were wearing sweat pants and t-​shirts, etc. I feel like you can dress classy or not and you could still fit in here.
Overall, the food was great and my cousin, who was visiting from China and had never been to a hibachi grill before in her life, really enjoyed the performance and the food as well.
This place does offer groupon and
coupons that are like 25 $ off a $ 50 restaurant bill, that you can get for around 10 $ or less. But as you can see from some disgruntled Unilocalers, they do not accept these on holidays because they want their waiters and waitresses to get the tips and what not they deserve. They have a giant sign at the front door that claims so. Fair enough for me. Stop being so cheap and just come back a different day.

Get the Groupon deal, then go, it’s a better deal. It’s a great date night. Also you do not have to print the Groupon, use the phone to show them your voucher, this way it saves you time.

Server forgot to put in my order, told me they have brown rice when they don’t, didn’t refill my drink or clear dishes promptly. Sushi very average. Brought me out my appetizer which was crab told me «here’s your shrimp» I said «you mean crab» she said «yeah it’s the same thing.» Um no sweetie you’re mistaken they are two different sea creatures please go home and study your menu. Will request another server next time

Perhaps myself or others in our party were bad in another life and this was residual karma coming back to bite us, idk? Last minute desperation and lack of planning ahead of time led us to book a double date for NYE at Domo 77, one of the few restaurants that could accommodate us at the last minute, or so we thought…
Objectively speaking, what would you have to say about a restaurant establishment that seats you 30 mins after a reservation that you have made (8:30 reservation, seated at 9:00) and serves you bland food a full HOUR after the reservation time? After being seating by the wait staff my obligation to write this negative review could have been avoided if only the service was great or even good, but the understaffed kitchen and waitstaff were super slow in getting around to our table, even serving food and drinks to a table that had been seated well after we were. The service was so slow that we made TWO trips to the bar ourselves to get drinks before any drinks that we ordered arrived at our table.
Now, to be fair, we were given a free order of pot stickers and «salad» for our trouble; the former of which was mediocre and the latter of which was unfathomably disgusting. I’m fairly certain that neither free consolation was worth the valuable NYE celebration time we irrevocably lost in waiting. Moreover, the cocktails were priced above average but not a good deal relative to the average quality that was delivered in return.
It was New Year’s Eve, and I counted maybe 7 wait staff and 6 teppanyaki chefs on the floor for the entire, über-​packed restaurant. This is very basic economics fail: the meager supply of the Domo 77 staff could not have possibly kept up with the robust demands of their customers on a huge holiday like NYE. Completely unacceptable!
To make matters worse, our party must have been situated next to a drafty [southern] wall or air duct blowing cold air right down upon us, so on NYE – one of the coldest times of the year – it was somewhere in the 50 degree range at our table – cold enough to compel us to keep our winter jackets on. Seriously?!
I have waited over 7 months to write this review and I STILL believe that Domo 77 should only be given 1 star even after my cooler head has prevailed with hindsight and reflection. However late this review is, I nevertheless believe strong that our story needs to be told. There are may terrific options for a Japanese steakhouse in the DuPage/​Kane County areas. Caveat emptor: avoid the Domo 77 Aurora location in particular at all costs during busy times or risk repeating an experience like which we experienced. Ultimately, this leads me to conclude that this Domo 77 franchise is only still in business because of its terrific strategic location next to the Fox Valley Mall in Aurora, because I cannot fathom any other reason why, outside of consistently poor consumer taste, that it should still be.

I don’t prefer the hibachi grill side but I do enjoy the sushi.
I only go when I can take advantage of the groupon $ 25 for $ 50.

I think this place is awesome!!! Get the scallops with yolk on top. 3 rd time here love it. MJ is the best chef!!! I think this place is great. Ive eaten alot if Teppan in my day and this is the best with the yolk.

A little hesitant to go hear given some of the reviews. But location is convenient and wanted to have my 4 year old experience a hibachi experience for the first time. Good experience.
My wife got the steak & chicken. Shared with my son. I got the lobster and scallops.
Lobster was with the egg sauce was great. Scallops were good. My wife was happy with both chicken and steak. Veggies were good. Fried rice was ok. Food was good, not the best hibachi I have had, but good enough.
Waitress was kid friendly. Was considerate and made recommendations that was best for us (not maximizing our spend).
Cook was engaging. Did what you’d expect a hibachi cook to do. Son liked him.
In summary, we experienced great service and good food. Great experience for son. We will be back.
It seems like the root cause for many other bad reviews were issues with coupons/​group and long waits at busy times. These weren’t relevant to our visit.

Honestly, I love hibachi and sushi but I did not find the steak and chicken hibachi very good. It was extremely bland for $ 28. It was not worth the money at all and have had better hibachi for a few bucks more.
I will admit their fried rice is extremely good and their chefs were very nice and fun.

This review is not about a Hibachi Steak House, because this is average to all of them. It offers the same experience of eating with strangers… which I find to be a lot of fun. This is not even about the show they put on while cooking, because it’s also average.
This review will treat this place as just a restaurant.
So in a restaurant, you want good food, good service and a great experience. They are right in the middle of the spectrum in all those areas. Nothing has ever stood out to me as really good or really bad.
When I go to a Hibachi Steak house, I always look forward to the rice… and in the times I’ve been here I’ve only had great rice once or twice. The rest of the time, it’s like pizza to me… even when it’s bad, it’s good.
Now the reason you should go here is because you can get some good bargains by going on Groupon on most days. They honor them, just make sure you tell them before you order to avoid confusion.
A friend told me that at other location, they only expect one special deal per table… this is not true for this location. Everyone at the table can have the exact same Groupon and they will take it.
The parking lot may look busy, but I’ve never had to wait for a table.
So go here for casual, cheap dining that doesn’t over do it.

Excellent wait service. This place is a total step up from Benihana’s. The cooks are fun and friendly, dedicated to their job. They certainly didn’t half ass our meal, beautiful presentation. I can’t wait to frequent this place once again.

This review is given just on the fact that they wouldn’t honor a groupon on Christmas Day. It clearly states on the groupon that it’s not valid on Christmas Eve but there is no mention of Christmas Day.
There was a large sign at the door that said they wouldn’t honor it & I asked the hostess & she said no.
Groupon will refund the $$ if a restaurant won’t honor it so I’ll be talking with them tomorrow.

What a disappointment! I have been to almost every hibachi steakhouse in the Chicagoland area and this one by far placed in the very bottom. My boyfriend and I stopped here for lunch on a Sunday afternoon. We actually attended a gathering in Oswego and stayed the night in the suburbs. I have had Domo 77 before but i believe it was a different location and it was a few years ago.
When we arrived we were seated right away and our server came pretty quick to take our orders. The restaurant was empty so i didn’t expect nothing but prompt service. She was very nice and checked in with us regularly. I ordered the Shrimp and Scallops with a side of egg yolk sauce and my lovely mate ordered the Chicken and Steak. We were pretty hungry and i was convinced that this meal would make my taste buds happy people! BOY WAS I WRONG. Sometimes i ask myself «why in mother Theresa’s name do i get stuck with bad food».
So since i have been to a million of these hibachi steakhouses, the drill is always the same. Looks like our «Cook’s» drill was off and i am using the term «Cook» very loosely my friends. First off the rice was way over cooked. My non cooking self would have done a better job preparing the fried rice. My Scallops were nearly burned and my shrimp barely cooked. My boyfriends steak was supposed to be «Medium Rare» but instead he got almost well done. The Steak was super tough and i thought i was chewing on gum when i tasted a piece. Now before this so called «Cook» started cooking he verified the order with us but was still able to somehow screw it up. NOT TO MENTION HE DID NOT SEASON ANY OF OUR FOOD. NO SALT, NO PEPER, NO NOTHING!!! I don’t understand why he didn’t.
Hoestly the food was just bad and i would not recommend this place. Our server was a sweetheart but that does not matter when you food is c

Might have been the worst Mothers Day ever. Had a 6pm reservation arrived at 5:45 waited til 6:30 to be seated. Waiter arrived to get Drink order at 7pm. Then spilled a sugary drink on the hot habatchi grill and left it for 45 minutes. Then they tried to clean the grill with a dirty old towel. By 8pm we were moved to another table. The manager «Suzie» offered us a free drink lol.
Worst service, ownership and manager ever. We will never go back

Years ago, Domo was our go-​to place for sushi. I was a huge fan of the Wheaton location because they had some of the best specialty rolls. But then they got rid of them, and the selection began to dwindle.
I’ve been to this location maybe two or three times, and each visit has gotten worse. On this most recent visit, we arrived a little after eight o’clock. Not a soul was seated in the sushi bar. Not one. I think I saw maybe one party on the hibachi side, and they were wrapping up their visit.
After we were seated, our server came over to bring us the sushi menus. He took our drink order (we each chose our go-​to beer, a large Sapporo). He came back with the drinks, and also gave us glasses of water, which was nice because usually I have to ask for them.
For our first round, I chose the Spicy Tuna classic roll (tuna, cucumber, and spicy sauce) and Jalapeño Spicy Tuna from their Specialty Rolls (spicy tuna, cumber and jalapeño with tempura crunch flakes drizzled with sweet soy and spicy mayo). M ordered Fire Kamikaze from the Specialty Rolls (Fresh tuna slices draped over a spicy tuna roll and seared on top with spicy mayo and chili sauce), Spicy Salmon classic rolls, and some a la carte salmon and yellow tail. M mentioned to our server that we had two $ 25 gift certificates (signs on the table state that you must mention any coupons or gift cards you have before ordering), to which our server looked at our order and stated using the gift certificates wouldn’t be an issue.
After placing our order, a few minutes later our server came back with some miso soups. Normally we order them but didn’t this time, but nonetheless we were glad to receive some.
About ten minutes after finishing our soups, our order was brought out by the hostess that sat us (weird?). Now, most of the time, we are told what rolls are what but this lady left us on our own to figure it out. Luckily the sushi chef leaned over the counter to explain which roll was which.
I wasn’t thrilled with my choices. I’ve had them before without complaint, but they just didn’t taste the same. And one of the yellow tail pieces I tried had a piece of gristle or something weird in it. That’s the first time I had to pull a piece of fish out of my mouth and put it on my plate.
M ended up ordering a second round (Double Maguro and a Philadelphia roll). After that, we waited for our check. While waiting, we witnessed the main phone ring twice for multiple rings and no one answered. I know they close at 9:00 p.m., but you’d think someone would answer the phone and state «I’m sorry but we’re closing soon. Our hours tomorrow are…» But no. Pretty lousy business practice there. We got our check, paid, and left. Despite the lousy food, our server was super friendly and accommodating.
We used to do the AYCE at both this location and the Wheaton one, and had no issues ordering 4 – 5 rounds on average and spending over $ 100. It’s a sad day when I didn’t even finish my entire first round and M was done after two. Despite still having tons of gift certificates for this place, I really have no desire to return. Domo is definitely not what it used to be.