Hamada of Japan

Yesterday July 5^th was the last day for Hamada of Japan. The entire restaurant chain is closed in Las Vegas, NV.

Came for Teppanyaki for a friends birthday on Friday. This place is small but nice. As another Unilocaler mentioned this place is not cheap. Our chef was fun and entertaining but pricey. I guess for the strip it was average. They must have a full bar now as our friend had a vodka cran no problem. Nothing to woo about but good over all.

Was here with a rolls crowd and for that, just fine. Good sized rolls for the price and tasty. Leaves in the tea, waitresses in kimonos, & they speak Japanese. Solid value for the Flamingo.

So I’m in Vegas just for one night (mon) with my bro and mom, so we decided to have sushi. I Unilocaled a couple spots walking distance and picked here, food was good not spectacular. The service is what was lacking would have been nice if this could be our new spot but its not.

With so many great choices in Vegas for Japanese food, Hamada of Japan definitely ends up near the bottom of that list IMO.
Hamada is located in the Flamingo hotel/​casino on the strip. I normally would have advised some out of towners where the better places to eat were, but they insisted on going somewhere in their hotel. Fine, I’ll go I figured.
The restaurant was nearly empty at 7:30 the night we went, and immediately red flags were going up. We were seated quickly, but service was terrible. We had to ask for our drink order to be taken after 10 minutes, and when some friends who normally don’t eat sushi asked for some suggestions on the menu, we were told she would give us more time and be back in a few minutes. How helpful of you.
After ordering the sushi/​sashimi combo platter and a few rolls for the table, our food came out after not too long The sushi was not the worst, but it’s just OK, nothing special. The bill came and I was shocked at the cost, nearly $ 50/​person and we didn’t order that much. Normally this amount wouldn’t be too surprising for good Japanese food, but seriously we didn’t order that much.
When considering Hamada of Japan for you dining experience, take your time to choose a better place. It shouldn’t take you long.

I would give a zero if I could. Was staying at flamingo and last night opted to try out Hamada. Omg. Bad idea. The place was pretty empty. We sat at a table with nice folks from New Mexico. We were the only four. Our waiter sucked. Forget silverware for salads and sushi appetizer. Asked three times. Also forgot drink orders. Maybe first night??? The cook was ok but not even Asian which was weird. Food was average at best. Same old Habachi tricks. Entertaining I guess. Our bill ended up being $ 225 for two people!!! Had habachi, steak and shrimp and steak and scallops. Three hot house sakis. Two miller lites (no Sapparro here) and a sushi appetizer. Unreal. Never again… and I really like the flamingo so it’s kind sad.

I recently ate dinner at Hamada of Japan. The food itself is good, but I have to point out that the average tab here is NOT $ 25 per person, as the Flamingo’s website states. If you order from the off of the teppan grill menu, entrees cost more like $ 80. Very deceiving!
Anyway, now that you know that, feel free to eat here. It’s not a bad place to eat. I only ordered sushi, which was decent. Not the best I ever had, but OK.
Another thing to note is that this place doesn’t have a full bar — beer and wine only. Annoying! WTF??? I thought this was Vegas! How can you not have a full bar!!!
Service is OK. A little slow. The hibachi guys are really great and entertaining.
Honestly, I don’t know if I would go here again. I feel like there are so many better restaurants in Vegas.

Don’t ignore the reviews: this is some of the worst food at the most ridiculous prices you’ll ever find. In fact, it belongs on the restaurant equivalent of the list of movies so bad, you have to see them for their hilarity. I ordered a New York strip with tempura and got back one of the worst cuts of meat I’ve ever been served. Fatty, possibly old. I mean, this «steak» was more suitable for your dog. The tempura was unremarkable. The salad was lettuce with some dressing. Miso soup tasted like it had a non-​fish base. (Touch of beef broth? I don’t know). All this for $ 36.
I’m still trying to decide which was worse, this, or Estiatorio Milos. At least I could eat the food at Milos, even though it was mediocre and I had to arrange financing. This stuff. .. this stuff was plain BAD.
The service was equally bad. I wanted for a refill many times. The ambiance was tomb-​like. Should have been a tip-​off, but I wasn’t thinking. Oh, the regret…
Terrible, just. .. terrible. Don’t eat here. Go to Chipotle or something. You might at least walk away satisfied.

Ehhh, passable sushi and Japanese food that’s been watered down in quality and taste for the American tourist crowd. This tastes like previously frozen sushi found in a restaurant in the midwest, with sushi standards depressed because the clientelle just doesn’t know the difference. I ordered some sushi (which is dinner only) and donburi, and both tasted like something I would get in the mall. I just expected something better I guess, but they’re located in Flamingo Hotel so I should have expected it. I wouldn’t come back, there’s so many more better places in the area.

We love Japanese food and figured we would try this since it was in our hotel. We ordered their two for meal and spent almost $ 90. Included in this meal was miso soup, salad and two choices of things off one special menu. We got some sushi rolls. It was just okay, nothing like Koi. The service was pretty good. The hot sake was the best part of the meal though.

Never again.
Late night, post-​show, 10pm or so. Fond memories (of long ago) and a yen for some fresh, lighter fare led us to Hamada for a mix of sushi, teppan grilling, and old standards (a strong desire for fried rice was shared by my companion).
Walk in. Reverie broken.
The teppan grills were turned off. We asked for a quiet spot for two and were instead tucked in next to a large group and another small group of 3 or 4. No sushi and no fried rice.
What the???
Short and bitter:
The broiled mackerel I ordered wasn’t broiled as much as it was destroyed by some sort of hot, firey mass of anti-​food matter. It was flavorless, dry, and not even suitable for hockey season.
The grilled teriyaki steak he ordered was OK, doused in sauce, but ultimately cooked OK, if slightly overdone. The sauce was meant to hide the fact that it was not, in fact, grilled. It looked steamed, if that, and had a bit of an odd texture.
No fried rice because the grills were turned off… so they can’t cook some up in the kitchen with the rest of the hot food? No sushi, either. Because why… the grills were off?
Question: If you can’t serve the menu, and you don’t offer a special, late night menu, and if you can’t cook properly that which you do offer… why stay open?
The sake was low-​grade, bitter. We drank it to mask the taste (or lack thereof) of the food. The service was nonexistent, the food horrendous, and the atmosphere was dingy, left-​behind, and a bit sad.
My fish was supposed to be an appetizer. His steak was an entrée. We shared the sake. For $ 50?! Seriously?
Much like the rest of my Flamingo experience (
), if I could give 0 stars, I would.

OK, so I moved from Los Angeles to Minneapolis. I used to enjoy outstanding sushi at Sushi Go55 at 3^rd and Alameda and very good ramen at any of the Santouka or Daikokuya locations. Hamada at the Flamingo is the epitome of mediocrity. But they have to work to attain that height.
$ 23 for 3 small pieces each of maguro and sake and 2 VERY thin slices of hamachi in the sashimi appetizer. Now to the abomination they call shoyu ramen. Tiny and very dry (even in the «broth») pork slices. The noodles were from a package of instant ramen and were overcooked. About 7 pieces of green onion. And incredibly weak and characterless «broth». I could taste some shoyu but it was like the Japanese version of a poor man’s soup: luke warm water with some shoyu splashed in. I will say this though. There was a shitlload of bamboo in the bowl. Maybe that was the only ingredient the kitchen had. Or maybe they couldn’t reseal the container. Hamada should be ashamed of itself to call this ramen. Save your pennies and go to Sushi Roku in the Forum Shops across the strip. Their hakata ramen was decent. Not great but decent. And they have a much better selection of fish for sushi/​sashimi.

Leave it to me to go a Japanese restaurant first thing in Vegas. Though it may be strange sushi happens to be my hangover food. My hubby and I sat at the sushi bar, so I cannot review the habachi.
I was really surprised at how reasonable the sushi was, considering everything is triple the price in Vegas. It was $ 7 for 2 nigiri and around $ 10 for the rolls. The miso was really good (this is key hangover food).
Also, call me a snob but I appreciate the fact that the sushi chef and waitress were both Japanese and that I was able to have a conversation with them in Japanese. No one knows sushi like the Japanese– seems like that would be obvious right? But some places have not figured that out!
Overall great place to pop into to get a reasonable meal and some authentic sushi.

STAY AWAY! If your looking for a fun and good tasting japanese place this is NOT the place. wasted so much money here. Went here expecting a nice dinner with the family and was very dissapointed!
The place was empty (so hard to find in the hotel)
waaayyyy over priced
sushi was gross and not fresh
the chicken teriaki tasted like they thawed it out from the freezer
the salmon was over cooked
hair in the food
miso soup and tempura was ok
Dont waste your time and money please!

I’ve had better for less. I am a fan of Teppan grills so that is where I chose to eat.
Good:
Service.
The cook.
The other 2 folks at the table.
Not so good:
salad was limp and the dressing was sweet.
The piece of gristle in the meat, hard to cut it out with chop sticks.
I thought is was a tad pricey.
Very hard to find until you understand the map is telling you it is on another level.
Every thing else about the dinner was just OK. For $ 70 with tip I would like more than just OK.

It was in our hotel so we gave it a chance. The chef was super busy and didn’t acknowledge us at the bar until I almost got up to leave…15 minutes. Come on just a little eye contact or a «I’ll be with you in a moment» will work! The food was just fair to mediocore. I get 100% better sushi in San Diego and some of the places I call my cheapy sushi go to places. Rools were sloppy and very loose. I don’t do cream cheese… not at all a Japanese staple. We got a roll that had creamcheese, but was told it didn’t have any in it before he made it??? Wierd.

Located in the Flamingo hotel, this place does not have good sushi. The only people sitting at the bar were my wife and I and couple of guys who seemed like they were in Vegas for business. Everyone else was enjoying the teppan. Maybe that should have been the first indicator.
Mediocre sushi. But expensive. Yes everything in Vegas is expensive but its usually justifiable for some reason. Here, not so much. The salmon sashimi was good but not the tuna. The caterpillar roll was ok. It just wasn’t all that fresh.

Overall, disappointing. While our huge umbrella drinks were good, the edamame was wilted, and they use long grain rice in their rolls and nigiri! I’d never seen that before, but it affected the taste and made it hard to handle. Selection of rolls is somewhat small, too.

The fact that we could barely find it in the «FLAMINGO» should have set of my sensors. «eh» pretty much sums it up. There were a couple pieces that I wouldn’t even try. There was a browning ting… i swear! My BF said it was good, esp. the fresh toro. but there are somethings that I’m convinced I’ll catch worms from, and funky sushi is high up there.
Standard rolls, don’t expect things like the wabo-​kaboom or whatever. Its safe, regular stuff. The tofu appetizer is worth a skip. its a deep fried floating in «broth» dish. as in. poke it a few times with the chopsticks and watch the oil float on top.ew.
Just have a LOT of hot sake and beer and it will all be good.

My first sushi experience in USA. I remember feeling a sense of coming home the minute i stepped inside this small yet comfortable sushi bar.
Behind the sushi bar was this grouchy yet adorable old Japaneses chef who took it upon himself to show me how sushi is done in USA. If you’re Japanese or speak the language fluently, let the chef and staff know. This will guarantee extra attention to you and your party and once in a while they might even give you free dessert.
The taste? It’s very good. I wouldn’t give it 4 stars otherwise.