Hokkaido Japanese Express

Le sigh … Wait this is Japanese not French .
Gosh I gave this spot 2tries, my first was good… got everything I ordered and the taste was yummy enough for me to come back, but unfortunately 2stars. 2stars because the service is great but who’s cooking the food? I think the entire hibachi chicken dish was swimming in water which made any attempt for the flavor to cling to the chicken and veggies hard. Even the shrimp sauce tasted different, there wasn’t a taste at all the second time. Usually you can drown the unseasoned food in mounds of white sauce but not here :(. I’m just heart broken, will there ever be a good hibachi take out in Charlotte? Will my urges for soft steamed rice, moist seasoned chicken, crisp, & bountiful veggies stirfried to perfection ever be served on a whim? I hope this owner taste the food and will try to remedy their meals before another one bites the dust.

Tucked away in the back parking lot of Walmart is a gem of a Japanese restaurant that you wouldn’t expect to find in this area. It is family owned and staffed, and they are from Hokkaido Japan, thus the name, and assures you that when you want Japanese food, you are getting Japanese food, made by real Japanese people. So often you find an «Asian» behind the counter or in the kitchen and that is where it ends, but to the travelled foodie it isn’t enough. If I want authentic Italian food I want an Italian preparing it, not a latin looking dude from Greece or Mexico. So on to the review. The service is very good, very polite and attentive, however, they could brush up on their English some in order to avoid confusion when ordering. Again, family run so their options are limited until they can hire professional front staff. In the long run it will help them greatly. The food is outstanding. The Sushi/​Sashimi is fresh, tasty and properly prepared. The rolls could be a bit bigger but are equal in size to the price so the ratio is spot on. The Japanese food is very good, although catered to the average American taste (Teriyaki, Tempura Udon, etc.) so don’t expect anything unusual or traditional Japanese or any Hokkaido style foods or recipes. The staff is so friendly and nice and will bend over backwards to make the customer happy. They also have very nice daily specials like «buy any 2 sushi items and get 1 free» and there are no special rules, so it is easy on the wallet. I really hope they are able to catch on and stick around for a long time. This area needs places like this.

I really wanted to like this place. It’s close-​ish to work and I love a good good hibachi chicken plate for lunch. It was okay. It’s in a strip mall, and the food is quick. I had the hibachi chicken with fried rice.
The chicken was okay. The sauce was… different. I like a really light, clean taste with fresh veggies. It was just… off. The veggies were plentiful — unlike what other reviewers have experienced so maybe they’re working on veggie portion size.
There was plenty of rice — very plain but edible.
Service was nice and attentive. I wish them luck, but don’t think they will be around long, and doubt I would visit again. Overall, edible and extra star given because veggies were fresh and crisp and service was good. Iced tea was good as well.

This restaurant was not very pleasing the didn’t have my hot sauce the steak didn’t taste all that great they did try to fix it which was good but still left a bad taste in my mouth I probably will not return to this restaurant.

The restaurant was clean and the staff was very polite. However the food tastes bland. A woman sitting at the table next to me threw her plate away and said to me «Your Sushi looks delightful, this Hibachi was horrible». I let her know the look was far from what this tastes like.

Since this place has opened, they’ve cut some corners that are hard for me to ignore. The chicken is no longer tasty or good. It has that odd texture from really cheap chicken, you know what I mean? The texture is wrong so they overcook it so the customer ends up with very little broccoli, lots of onions and hard little chicken-​like chunks. The «Shrimp» sauce is now simply watered down thousand island dressing = yuck! The portion of rice has vastly increased while the portions of vegetables have decreased. The little carrots are tasty, too bad I’m only getting 4 of them now :-(
Then there’s the drink issue– their tea isn’t tasty so I’m forced to drink a soda and on a few occasions, the soda machine has been inoperable so I’m left with paying a full drink price (just to get the cup) but only getting water :-(When I tell them the drink machine is malfunctioning, they don’t offer to refund my drink or anything, they just say «ok» and put a sign on it. How does that actually help me, the customer? Let me answer that: It doesn’t help me at all.
I was so excited to have a fast Japanese option when this place opened, but it hasn’t taken me long to tire of what they’re serving :-(It’s a shame.

I prefer to take shorter lunches so I can get out of the office in a timely manner so I am always looking for a great quick lunch option in the general area. Hokkaido has some potential but my last visit was not phenomenal.
I walked in not far past 11:00am and waited an awkward minute or two for someone in the empty store to come to the front. The woman who did was cheerful and took my order with no problems and the food came out fairly quickly.
The disappointment arose when I returned to my desk to find what I think was hibachi sauce everywhere. There was sauce at the bottom of the bag, in the sushi and in the salad. I kept the food level while I was driving so I am not sure where the massive sauce exodus came from but it put a damper on the whole meal.
Some of the items in the bento were better than others. The worse was the salad I think because the sauce had drenched it and given it a weird vinegar taste. The rice was underwhelming plain fried rice with a couple peas and carrots throughout. The steak was pretty good as was the broccoli and mushroom but I swear I must have had a whole onion in the mix! The spicy tuna was the best of the bunch even with a little hibachi sauce soaked on the bottom.
This place is close and the price wasn’t terrible so I think I will go back and try an order of hibachi chicken and an order of hibachi vegetables (hold the massive amounts of onion!) to see if the experience is better when there is no possibility for cross contamination. I also might pick up the buy 2 get 1 free sushi rolls for dinner one night.

I have eaten here regularly since they opened. The range of selections on the menu is great, and everything I have tried has been excellent. The staff is very friendly as well. Don’t hesitate to give it a try.

So I didn’t have high expectations for this restaurant because generally speaking express Japanese places aren’t the best. However I just wasn’t cooking tonight and I’ve been craving some food like this for awhile. I ordered a takeout order for the house and here’s how it went. I ordered teriyaki chicken and hibachi steak and it came with veggies and fried rice. My chicken came hibachi instead of teriyaki so I wasn’t thrilled about that however it wasn’t bad. Basically your typical fast food Japanese. We also got the Phoenix roll, the dynamite roll, and a spicy tuna roll. Apparently sushi is buy 2 rolls get 1 free… That earns a star right there! The sushi was grocery store quality with restaurant prices. That was a little ehh but for a quick fix it did the job. The point is if you go into this place knowing it is a fast food Japanese restaurant you won’t be disappointed because that’s exactly what you’re going to get. I give three stars because there were some glitches in my order and the pricing is a bit steep even if you get a free roll. I’ll probably try it again at some point… They are still new so it could get better!

Very impressive!
This place goes the extra mile. I am very happy with my meal. Very underated. Very glad I stopped in.

Pretty good for quick order Japanese. They have a sushi menu and various cooked dishes, so everyone should be able to find something that they can eat.
I chose the chicken teriyaki bento box, going with crab salad, california roll and brown rice. I could hear the chicken start cooking as soon as my order was placed, so I know it’s fresh. The crab salad was surimi of course. Topped with spicy sauce and on top of a tangy vinegar, it was pretty good. The california rolls were nothing special. The chicken was fresh and hot with some onions and broccoli mixed in and sesame seeds sprinked on top. Brown rice was not very fresh (a little crunchy), but it was 4 in the afternoon.
Over all, a reasonable meal. Even when the 20% «grand opening» discount goes away, it’s not bad. It’s certainly fresher and probably healthier than the buffet at the other end of this little building.

Nice clean restaurant. Great service and good food. They are giving 20% off for their grand opening.

My husband and had lunch on Saturday at Hokkaido Japanese Express after a quick trip to Wal-​Mart. It’s by the Wal-​Mart garden area and two doors down from Luigi’s Pizza. They offered 20% off your entire order (Grand Opening Special). We had a variety of sushi and a few appetizers. It was fast, fresh and pretty good. They also offer a basic Hibachi menu. It’s a little family-​owned business with a friendly, clean atmosphere. They even have a little sushi bar with stools. I counted 97 different types of sushi from their take out menu!!! The Shrimp Groza was amazing. The Neon sushi was awesome. The fried rice was so-​so. This is a very casual place with paper plates, plastic utensils and a few vinyl booths. If you are in the neighborhood, looking for something fast and like sushi it’s worth a try.

My girlfriend and I were so excited that a Japanese express restaurant opened nearby. We were even more excited to see that they were offering 20% off of the entire meal for their grand opening special. It was very clean and the staff were very friendly. I had the bento box (steak hibachi, spicy tuna roll, squid salad, and brown rice) and my girlfriend got the hibachi chicken. The portions were of great size and the food tasted amazing. The steak was cooked medium well and the chicken was not undercooked nor overcooked — just perfect! Our only complaint would be the shrimp sauce. The consistency was a little thick and more on the sweeter side, and I do not feel that the one dram cup was enough for the amount of food they gave us. Overall, I think this place was great! We definitely will be returning.

I got suckered in… they’re new and offering 20% off on your entire purchase.
What did you expect? I’m a foodie.
Anyhoo…Since they are the new kids on the block, the place was empty when I arrived, a quick check of the menu and I knew I wanted to try the Filet Mignon hibachi. It comes with your choice of rice (brown, steamed, fried) and a mix of broccoli, carrots, onions, mushrooms and zucchini.
I didn’t have to wait long for my order which was impressive since I assumed they prepare each order as you request it. I opted for to-​go and the presentation still looked good when I got home.
The steak was okay (I’m being generous), not quite cooked as I requested and it was just lukewarm and could have used a tad bit more seasoning. But I managed to eat it. The veggies were cooked really nicely though (by far the best part of the meal). The rice was awful. No flavor or veggies and it was cold. Yuck. No, thank you.
They have a pretty decent selection of sushi, so maybe I’ll go back and give that a try and update my review based on my next visit.
But for now, I’ll pass Hokkaido…

The people are friendly, but the prices are way too high for the amount of food given — at least on the sushi side of the menu.

The food was good. I really enjoyed it. Very nice atmosphere for a Japanese express. Will be returning

Background my boyfriend is a former hibachi chef and I used to a work at a different Japanese Express. So we can be kinda picky but tbh this place is overpriced for the quality of the food. The rice was extremely dry almost like it wasn’t cook. I could not even finish my food bc the rice was so hard. On top of that the «shrimp sauce» didn’t really taste like it at all it probably could have used more mayo it taste more like sweet sour sauce. The only reason why I am giving it 2 stars is because the sushi was actually pretty good other than the presentation and price. I personally thought many of the rolls were pretty pricy for a Japanese Express joint but maybe it was pricy because they are offering 20% off? I’m gonna cut them some slack because they are new but dry rice is a deal breaker for me. I will not return.

Worst japanese food ive ever had! Starting with the wierd lady who served the food… shrimp sauce was more like sweet and sour sauce it was red instead of the normal orange yellow color. soup tasted like hot water. food was extremely bland. the only decent thing we had with the entire meal was the sweet tea. We definitely will not be returning!

Language barrier
Was told had ranch when ordered salad with meal but then told no when served. Served a ginger sauce with salad that tasted more like sesame/​teriyaki.
Hibachi chicken was dry, no real flavor.
Hibachi steak chewy and charcoal
Shrimp sauce had a thousand island taste.
Maybe first day jitters!
Everyone was very nice!
3 stars for trying.