Tokyo Steakhouse

We were celebrating a birthday with a group of 12 friends. Started off in the bar with drinks where the waiter/​bartender had no idea how to make drinks. Another waitress had to show him how to make a screwdriver. We then moved to a private area with 2 tables of 6 each. Our 2 waitresses were like night and day. We, unfortunately, got Jessica who was extremely slow and inattentive — and very forgetful. We ordered drinks and while she brought some of them she had to be reminded twice about 2 of the drinks — and there were only 6 of us. We spent the entire dinner staring at our appetizer plates and salad bowls as she never bothered to pick them up. When the chef came to our table his only trick was singing, no knife tricks, flinging food, etc. Boring! If we wanted this we could have gone to any Asian restaurant for half the price.
The food was good with the exception of the bagged, pre-​made salad with Sysco bottled dressing. The restaurant is very dated and needs a good, thorough cleaning. Also, some background music for ambiance would be great.
After waiting 40 minutes for our bill, the other waitress informed us that the 15% added tip was for the chef — she mentioned this 3 times. We find that very hard to believe — and nobody in there was worth 15% !
We will not be going back and will be taking our business back to our trusted restaurant Formosa Garden where you get a show with your meal and superb service.

We love this place. It doesn’t seem to get much business anymore, but the food is great and the service top notch. excellent and my kids enjoyed it as well!

As everyone else has already said. Don’t waste your time. One cook took forever to come. Too expensive. Totally not worth it. They never even acknowledged us after thirty minutes. Dude save yourself from this place. They tip themselves automatically and $ 70 bucks for barely any food? Ridiculous man.

We didn’t eat for two hours after being seated. The place is dingy and dusty. Worst hibachi grill I’ve ever been too.

This was one of the most amazing dining experiences ever. I would say most people walk in here with high expectations, as did I. Well, be ready to have those high expectations taken up several levels! We opted for the Chef’s tasting menu and each of the courses were prepared, presented, and explained exquisitely. The service was like no other experience, hats off to you Mr. Ripert!

The service was kind of slow. It took a while before the hibachi chef got there to cook food after we ordered. We also ordered 3 rolls and those took a while too. The hibachi was not very tasty in my opinion, the meat was more on the overcooked side. The sushi was pretty decent, both in flavor and price; wouldn’t mind coming back and sitting at the sushi bar. They have pretty good eel, especially the eel sashimi.

Overpriced, smelly and sticky floors. Dinner for two cost us $ 70 and included half a steak, half scallop portion and half a filet of swordfish EACH. Btw the gratuity is calculated into your check.

The absolute worst japanese steakhouse that I’ve ever been to. The floor was sticky. The chef seemed inexperienced. The shrimp was undercooked. The waitress was inattentive. We should have taken heed to the previous reviews. Never again!

Smells like urine when you walk in. The table/​grill is very old with old rickety 1950s chairs wooden chairs. Urine smell got worse when we sat down and there was grease every where.

So you’re ready to go out and have a delicious and entertaining dinner with the family., but nothing run-​of-​the-​mill at the end of a long week. How about some in-​your-​face, hot-​off-​the-​griddle deliciousness? Teppanyaki style meals are all about choreography. Upon seating, your drink orders are promptly taken so while you wait for the rest of your table to fill up, you have something to enjoy while you peruse the menu. When they’ve filled your table with available patrons, or given up trying (hopefully), the servers carefully takes down the order according to the seating arrangement at the table. When the cook comes out, he confirms what everyone ordered because he’s about to mix it all up and then portion it back out. Then the show starts! You get the egg-​roll joke, maybe a beating-​heart made out of rice, shrimp tails flipped into the chef’s hat, a morsel or two flung across the cooking surface into the waiting mouths of excited children, and then of course the volcano or steaming locomotive, complete with wooden train whistle. It’s a fun experience, you get to see your food being prepared, and have a chance to enjoy conversation with some strangers and banter from the chef. All and all a fun night out, and well worth the cost.
While Tokyo Steakhouse has been a San Antonio icon for quite some time, if you were at our table this evening, you’d be quite disappointed with this meal. The service from the waitstaff was superb — no complaints at all. Drink orders were taken promptly, the salads and soups were delivered with perfect timing, and our glasses never reached a state of emptiness. The food and it’s preparation, however, was a complete disaster.
Our waitress took the order and read it back according to the seating. We put in for the standard fare, chicken, steak, shrimp, fried rice, and I ordered a couple of sushi pieces to tide me over. Everything seemed on track, so we settled in and started conversation with the other folks at the table. The first sushi order came out — Ikura (my wife’s favorite) and we split the two Gunkans. I should have known at that point that something was not right in the back of the house. Fresh Ikura has a very delicate flavor, often a hint of fish and pleasantly salty. The roe pop easily, and present with an almost refreshing sensation. As it ages, the roe become rubbery and the flavor intensifies to an almost unpleasant anchovy likeness. What was served to us was very similar to little rubber tires cured in a mackerel barrel at the bottom of a salt mine. I know Ikura is hard to keep fresh, but come on, rotate the inventory from time to time. A good sushi chef inspects the quality daily, not annually.
We persevered and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, we needed a lot more than hope this evening. Up next was the remainder of my sushi order: Ika and Unagi. Judging from the brownish color or the Ika (normally white with a glistening iridescent sheen) I knew I was in for a bad ride. I took a picture so my wife would have evidence of what caused my demise, should it come to that, and dove in. I immediately started looking for somewhere to spit it out. Words cannot begin to describe how foul this piece of sushi was. At that moment, the teppanyaki chef decided to ask how I would like my steak prepared and I couldn’t speak as I was frantically trying to find a disposal location. I just pointed to my mouth, gave a «just a minute sign» and stood up and took the sushi plate with me. After disposing of the horror residing in my mouth into the appropriate receptacle, I went and had a few words with the sushi «chef» He came across as more of a busboy than a chef, which explained a lot. Our server intercepted me en route back to the table and inquired about what just happened. I explained the situation and she offered to take the sushi off the bill. I was grateful for not having to have that discussion with the manager.
Not wanting to be a wet blanket on the evening, I returned to the table and crossed my fingers that the freshly prepared food was of better quality. We couldn’t have been more disappointed. How, exactly, do you screw up fried rice? Well, apparently, you cook half of it too long, and the other half not long enough while making jokes in poor taste for a family setting and singing 80s songs. The chef was not putting his «A» game forward. No beating rice heart, no egg-​roll, no shrimp tails, just a half-​assed attempt at a volcano, crappy fried rice, and really distasteful jokes at the expense of everyone sitting at the table. Quite uncomfortable.
Finally, nothing was plated correctly. It’s almost as if the chef disregarded what the server turned in and served what he felt like to who he felt like. The last straw was my shrimp tasting almost as rancid as the sushi.
Overall, not nearly the usual enjoyable experience from Tokyo Steakhouse. Off night, perhaps? Maybe next time… or maybe never again.

We were hungry and found this place on accident. Worst mistake ever!!! It took the cool 50 mins before we can have our food cooked.
We ordered dinner for 2 and we usually share our food with our 4 year old.
THIS HAS TO BE THE ONLY PLACE THAT CHARGES FOR A SHARED PLATE. I was surprised when our absent waiter us that.
Don’t eat here. Just drive down the street yo Kobe Steakhouse.
It’s expensive and the food is okay.
The only thing good about the place is a friendly attitude other than that it’s horrible.

First time here. Hardly any patrons so you get a lot of attention. The fried rice was so delicious but that could be due to the butter our habachi chef added ;) I ordered teriyaki chicken. Portion very generous. Vegetables crisp and delicious stir fried. Too much sauce for me but I don’t really like mine swimming in it. Overall I would come back again.

After our order and we received our salad and soup, we had to wait an hour for the cook to come out. Service was good but the wait time was incredibly poor. Not sure if I would recommend this place and especially happening on a Saturday night.

My family and I have been coming here for the past 15 years but, after our last two recent visits, we all agree its time to move on. It’s hard to eat at a restaurant that’s as unkempt as this one. The carpet is sticky and stained and needed to be replaced 10 years ago. The fixtures all around the restaurant are covered with dust and — yes — cobwebs. It’s disgusting to look at while you’re eating. And both last visits we’ve had our food made by the «famous» Tokyo Steakhouse chef Shamu and it’s been a subpar experience. He burned our food both times (the shrimp and fried rice were nearly inedible) and was generally in a bad mood (he truly appeared to be tired, overworked, or hung over– or all three!). Not a good experience to have with our family and children. We won’t be coming back.

Worst service ever. Husband and I went to dinner. Should have left after waiting more than an hour for a chef to make it to our table. Chef burnt most of dinner (eggs, rice, veggies, and shrimp). However ordered our steaks well done and he cooked them medium and gave them to us telling us he cooked then medium because they would taste better that way. If we had wanted them medium we would have ordered them that way. Then had to flag down a server after waiting at least 20 minutes on a check. To top it off they include a 15% tip to check. Tips are earned not forced. I’ve been in the service industry long enough to always be fair on tipping. Tipping is for service, no service doesn’t get you 15%. After reading previous reviews we were very surprised at our experience here. :-(

I was very excited to take my husband to Tokyo Steakhouse since he had never experienced Hibachi. What a letdown it was. Our crab rangoons and sushi were wonderful! However, the steak had absolutely NO flavor and was very tough. The chicken was dry and the shrimp tasted old. The fried rice was delicious, but i don’t want to have a $ 100 meal just to enjoy some rice.

An absolute dinner show! The staff makes you feel at home and «Shamu» is a true entertainer … Every time we go there his delightful personality, personal treatment and let’s not forget his culinary skills, keep you coming back! My family enjoys his singing as well… A must for groups and family!

Great lunch specials… inexpensive and a lot of food! I have been going to Tokyo for over 15 yrs and love it! They did change one of their sauces which I don’t think tastes great at all but everything else is delicious! Great great customer service and wonderful with kids! Would recommend over any other hibachi steakhouse in town. They even have a coupon on their website!

Japanese food and San Antonio can’t seem to get along. I went here for the first time last week for my birthday. I have had Japanese for my birthday since i was a little girl so i am knowledgeable about the food and the whole dining experience.
This place is overpriced. The food is GOOD!!! The service or maybe just our server was ghetto, she looked disheveled and was just a better fit maybe at a waffle house or a biker bar. ANYWAY, the sushi was good, fresh, decent, and room temp. not too overpriced. We got the dinner for 2 for $ 43? it was shrimp, steak and chicken. not too bad but they charge you $ 2.95 for fried rice, i guess we gave her a «seriously?» look because the ghetto server followed up the price announcement with «because he cooks it out here»…WHAT??? that seems a lil voyeuristic, like we gotta pay extra «to watch»…haha…They do have AWESOME homemade ginger dressing, its a mayo base instead of the usual vinaigrette
Anyway the place i loved in Florida was $ 16 for chicken and shrimp and it included everything, PLUS soba noodles. It was great and in business forever, always busy
I would go back here if i feel like wasting money or being entertained by the server who took any level of fine dining out of that place. i would go back for sushi.
COME ON San Antonio get a decent Japanese restaurant. PLEASE!!!

Definitely not a «knock-​off» of Benihana, but a great place to go if you like Teppanyaki. We were lucky enough to be seated at a table where the head chef (they said he worked there around 25 years) was cooking for us. His humor was great, which you expect from a teppanyaki chef, but the food was excellent (something I DON’T typically expect from a teppanyaki meal).
We started with hot sake and gyoza. I wasn’t super thrilled with the gyoza, but they definitely weren’t bad. I may have misread the menu as I had hoped for pan-​fried rather than steamed dumplings. After the appetizers we were quickly served soup and salad. I found the onion soup to be great, far better than I’ve had at any Benihana!
For the entrée I had the New York steak which was cooked to order medium-​rare. The steak was perfectly seasoned and ultra tender. I felt bad dipping it in the steak sauce because it was absolutely perfectly seasoned to begin with. The chef also made a mound of fried rice which had a wonderful flavor, not just «rice fried with soy sauce» like you get at many restaurants. He balanced the flavors of shoyu, mirin, and the vegetables VERY nicely.
Prices were extremely approachable for a teppanyaki dinner with steaks hovering around $ 20, chicken around $ 12, and combination entrees near $ 25.
If you’re in San Antonio and looking for a nice fun «dinner and a show» experience, don’t miss Tokyo Steakhouse.