Kobe Japanese Steak House

This is a really nice place! I go there for lunch sushi buffet myself or sometime with coworkers, it is tremendous deal for all those great sushi you can eat for 9.99. One of my friend said he travel around mid-​IL couldnt find any place even close to this. Sad point is they dont have the names for those sushi, one of the managers explained to me said because they rotate a lot of more rolls then the bar can fit and it is confusing if put a name tag on. I can understand that, and more important point is it doesnt really matter, I love them all!
I am surprised people dont leave reviews for a good place like this, I normally dont write review too until I was on Unilocal checking some other things, and saw Kobe.
Also, my family came to visit me for the holiday and we came to Kobe for the hibachi grill, it was absolutely amazing! I cant believe I never try the hibachi side, the chef was fun and food was great. My kids love the fire and volcano and ask me all the time, can we go kobe this week? lol I just know they do Thursday kids eat for free, so yah, we are going.

Our family loves this place, even the kids. Soup, salad, veggies, pasta, n meat. Only once did we have a bad waitress but food n chef made up for it. Also lunch specials are vetter than dinner, but i also think they have great sushi

One of my favorite places in town. Week days, the buffet is great. They cook your hibachi to your liking from the buffet. The show at the grill on weekends is awesome. Love this place

This is for sushi only!
This is one of my favorite places in town to order sushi from. It is fresh, delicious, and then have a wide array of choices. Their sushi lunch buffet allows you to try different kinds without a commitment and the chef is standing right there making new ones.
Delicious.

Great place to take your family. Very professional chef and great food.

Excellent Sushi and Hibachi selection. The lunch selection and pricing is very reasonable considering the great quality of food and the experience. Our chef Louis was funny and well mannered. Our server Jamie was very attentive and pleasant. Overall our experience was top notch and we will be back for sure!

Have gone for the buffet and for normal meals. As a sushi enthusiast, I can say this is one of the better spots in town but definitely not incredible sushi. The fish isn’t very fresh, and the rice on the rolls is a little bland (needs to be more vinegar-​y). The best thing on the menu is the cream cheese wontons. Do not miss that! But honestly, if you want great sushi take a train up two hours to Chicago for some amazing finds.

The food is overrated and overpriced, the servers are rude and far from attentive, and the cooks try too hard being funny and end up being rude and inappropriate. Don’t waste your time.

Since my last review, Kobe had offered a complimentary dinner due to our less than great experience. I didn’t have my receipt, so I did not take them up on the offer, but we’ve been back several times since.
We just left the restaurant 10 minutes ago, and I’ve gotta say. Hats off to our cook, Oscar! We had an unpleasant experience tonight, and I’m sure he did too, as well as our server (can’t recall his name). The family sitting with us which seem to have been partially from South Carolina and New York were absolutely the pickiest, rudest, most inconsiderate people I’ve ever seen.
The parents offered absolutely no supervision of their young children. The father was yapping on his phone, the wife insisted that the fried rice be cooked without onion, totally disregarding everyone else at the table. The old ladies, which at least one was from NY, they were off at the video slots and not there to tell the cook that she didn’t want garlic in any of her food. Which meant the cook had to get more rice and eggs to make some more fried rice special for her, which meant we had to wait for our meat to be cooked. And another gal in their group didn’t want teriyaki. I was so angry that I just wanted to lecture them. Our cook, Oscar, was very patient and polite despite the rudeness he received, being flat out ignored when asking them specific questions.
Our experience was completely beyond anyone’s control, and I commend the staff for keeping their composure, because I know I wanted to explode.
I did leave a good tip for them to hopefully show that we at least appreciate the effort.
We will definitely be back.

This review is for the sushi off the menu and off the buffet.
Absolutely quality, fresh and wonderful. No other sushi in town beats Kobe.
Thanks for the A+ food.
Service is so so. I don’t like having to ask for drinks. ;)

Went here with a party of 9 for my daughter’s 20^th birthday. Amazing food. A variety was ordered and all cooked to perfection. The service was impeccable and our Hibachi chef was out of this world good!

Went here for my son’s birthday dinner. Food was excellent and Hibachi chef put on a great show. Waitstaff was prompt and attentive. The atmosphere is fun, but a bit too casual for the prices. The décor definitely needs updating. Amount of food worth the more expensive bill and will be back again.

The food was ok. The cook was horrible. He thought he was funny, but he went too far and was very rude. He put sake in my drink when I said I didn’t want him to squirt it in my mouth (what if I was a recovering alcoholic? Or pregnant?). I had to wait forever for the waitress to come back to ask for another drink. He kept saying «I don’t like you.» He threw food at people at my table. He didn’t give us the dipping sauce until someone asked for it and we were almost done with our meal. He was just very obnoxious and I did not appreciate it at all.
The waitress was not attentive and it took forever for her to take our order or refill or drinks.
I will not return.

This is our favorite place togo for birthdays and special events. Food is always good. Can always accomodate large groups. Love the fillet!

I have liked this place in the past but this evening meal i didnt care for. The best part was the salad, soup, and my appetizer. The soft shell crab was breaded lightly and had a good flavor. The rest of the meal they cook in front of you was so so. I thought everything had too much of the sauce on it and also tasted oily. The sauce they were calling japanese coca-​cola. The routine they do while cooking is also getting old. Come up with something new! I will not be returning. I will say the service is still good but some updating to the building inside and out is needed.

Only can review their sushi. Have been here twice, once was good and once not so good. However I find that the case with all the other sushi places in town. Your experience can vary.
They have a decent menu, but missing items you would see at other sushi places. No one ever heard of salmon skin rolls, for example.
I know it is only a job, but it would be nice if staff would learn some about sushi /​sashimi.
I like their other Japanese entrees, salmon teriyaki, udon noodle bowls.

They offer the best sushi in Blo-​No at this point, and their lunch buffet is at an unbeatable price ($ 11pp). The sushi is pretty fresh for a Central Illinois sushi place. The hibachi is pretty good and just as entertaining as any other hibachi you have been to.
I cannot give Kobe more than 3 stars because of their actual restaurant. They have managed space poorly, have dirty ceiling tiles, and it seems to always be under construction. I do think they are under-​construction, but it certainly seems like it is. Pretty dusty, dark and uncomfortable. I’ll be back but not very often.

From the outside, I was left wondering what to expect when I opened the large wooden doors — it’s a bit run down looking. The Hibachi tables were nice, décor was a bit cheesy, but we came to eat not for interior design.
We ordered Filet and Filet w/​scallops. You are also served vegetables (not that great), fried rice (pretty good), noodles (not too bad — served with some sort of sauce which gives them flavor), and 2pc grilled shrimp (tasty). The meat was cooked perfectly but was a little tough due to the quality of the meat itself (chef did a great job preparing so no fault of his!). My scallops were very good although he put some kind sauce on them, similar to teriyaki, which really worked. Our waitress was really good, very efficient.
Food — C+
Chef — B+
Wait Staff — A
Facility — C

It is dinner and a show! The hibachi grill is the area to go to. The hibachi cooks are awesome funny AND they give out free squirts of Saki. For the kids they have watermelon kool-​aid to squirt (that way they do not feel left out). The food is plentiful and so delicious. You can’t get any better than that.
They have a salad dressing that has a wonderful ginger flavor. I have seen so many ginger dressings over done on the ginger. Not this one. It has a hint of ginger and a lovely refreshing taste. When I was visiting Bloomington my husband and I went there twice in one week. The service is polite and helpful and you will not leave there hungry.
I cannot wait to visit again so I can go here again. More places should be like this!

My friend and I ate at Kobe’s this weekend and we noticed that the menu was mislabeled. I’ve been eating sushi for more than ten years, so I should not have had a problem ordering.
In general, the waiters were very nice, and the décor is great. They had random loud noises and music that didn’t match the ambiance of the place.
It was okay for a small neighborhood like Bloomington, IL.