Kabuto Japanese Steak House at Lake Norman

Believe the negative reviews. This was a horrible experience. The service was awful, wait staff were not attentive and quite unfriendly. I understand being busy and a delay in service, but the place was almost empty. I almost walked out as soon as I walked in because of the dreary feeling in the place. But, we never visited this location and wanted to give it a fair shot.

The atmosphere was weird and uncomfortable and the restaurant itself could use serious updating. The bar in front of me was sticky and when I asked for it to be wiped, they brought a dirty towel, that looked like it cleaned the grill, to wipe my area. Again, I understand things are missed sometimes but please don’t bring a disgusting towel to wipe off where I’m supposed to eat.

As far as the food… it was not up to par for the money spent. The chicken was crunchy, noodles and rice had so much pepper, myself and the woman beside me kept coughing. Neither of us ate anymore than 2 bites. The lettuce in my salad was brown and wilted. The food got two stars because the shrimp was actually decent. The soup was basically water with a hint of flavor.

The chef, Daniel, was the only positive experience. He was entertaining, personable, and interacted. I think it’s the restaurant procedure to serve veggies last, which I don’t understand nor did I like.

We will never visit or recommend this location to anyone. I will drive the extra distance and go to Charlotte or Pineville for a better experience and better food.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 2

Service: 1

I will never go to this Kubutos again. The wait for food was too long. The Chef didn't have enough dishes, and had to keep getting other items to cook and towards the end, the stove malfunctioned and he cooked on another table. I will stick to the Kubutos off WT Harris.... much better experience...

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 2

Service: 2

Horrible service. The server was distracted and seemed as if he could care less about us. When the meal was over, he brought the bill. He didn't give us 5 minutes to hand over our card. And when I asked for another top for the sauce container he threw it at us. Then went to the back to plead his case to the Mgr. The Mgr told me someone would call me today and of course no call. I am a veteran and my daughter works for Fox 46 news. Please do NOT visit this location. Other Kabuto's get calls all the time about this one...I am going to let other Vets know about the service they have.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 3

Service: 1

When you approach the table in a loud voice to announce your pronouns before saying welcome to Kabuto. Well you should have been loud and proud of your job and been on top of your game. Drinks were left empty for 15-20 minutes and when we ask for refills for water, sweet tea, and sodas and show up 10 minutes later with only water well that speaks volumes to me (I was paying the bill). When I ask you to remove the 20% gratuity and you give me a GFYS look without knowing the tip WAS going to be cash, well you screwed yourself.

Rant over. Service was below 1 ⭐️, food was 2 ⭐️ at best. The only thing that happens quickly is the check being placed on the table and the girl waiting with the CC machine.

No reply needed I will not return. Hope this helps someone save $50 a head.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 2

Service: 1

Cook good, hostess/ waitress is a bit socially awkward with is ok but many mistakes made.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 4

Service: 2

Ok let’s start from the beginning I would not suggest that anybody go there for any special occasion or if you just wanna eat your dinner. My wife ordered sushi at the beginning and throughout our dinner never even received it and we had to go ahead and cancel it after we got the check. So Rachel had no food. I had to get up and go find other waiters to even get water or other beverages as we waited for our food. But don’t be fooled once you get your check there’s no option for gratuity. They already tack on that 20% so in reality they don’t care with the Services because they know they’re getting a tip.
Now I could never go to hibachi again for my birthday
Says Rachel. Let’s be real I’m not a hater, nor am I not understanding of situations but this was one of the worst laziest experiences I’ve had. At least the cook took his job seriously and was focused on giving us food and doing what we needed done which was eating.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 3

Service: 1

Very slow 2 hours!

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 3

Party of 7 had to find some one to.seat us only 6 other people eating,waitress was terrible and I mean terrible had get up twice to find some one for refills it was like we bothered her at end of meal my kids tried to order cakes and seemed like she didn't want to help us saying she didn't no.what was left for cakes(ok so you go look)nope she didn't do.that
If i.could i would have fired her 3 times
I do not recommend going there,I have been to.other kabutos pineville great
And other place called Tamara is in monroe.
So disappointed for bday dinner

Packed on a Saturday night, service was not very good. We were celebrating our nephews birthday and we reminded them it was his birthday 6 times, they got the cake when we were walking out. Kinda disappointing but the food was ok.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 2

Takeout food order not complete. Called back and told them. They stated take out menu does not come with soup, even though menu says it does. The reason given "we don't have the containers for takeout soup." I told them that that was wrong and got hung up on. Service terrible and food was salty and not worth the cost. Consider yourselves warned people.

False advertising. Take out says dinner set up includes soup. Did not get soup and told we don’t have containers for takeout soup. So they advertise on menu something they fully acknowledge they do not give you. Customer service absolutely terrible. They hung up on us. 65.00 dollars to keep people like this in business. Nope! All done!

Food was great, the chef was fun and friendly. Even with a reservation, we still ended up waiting a long time to sit and get started. Wait staff was forgetful and seemed like they didn't even care to be there.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 2

The food was barely cooked and the bananas were cold in the middle, we drove and hour out just to eat here and waisted $200 on uncooked food

Took a group of 18 for my granddaughter’s birthday. When the reservation was made, we were assured that our large group was “no problem”. We were seated 45 minutes late - not totally unexpected, but problematic as we had young children in our group. We were seated together at one of the large “U” shaped tables which have two grills - one on each side of the “U”. We were assigned only ONE chef however. He proceeded to cook for his half of the table as the rest of us sat and watched. After the first half had been served and had neerly finished eating, a second chef finally showed up for the rest of us. Since they were clearly way off schedule, the second chef skipped most of the “fun” cooking stuff and went straight to preparing meals - much to the displeasure of many of the kids attending. Totally ridiculous experience with mediocre food and with no apology or regret whatsoever on the part of the restaurant - never again will we even consider this establishment.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 2

Service: 1

I will not visit this location again, as we had several people visiting from out of town, and had our hearts set on this today. We were very disappointed due to the fact that we had a confirmed reservation for 12:15, the web site shows that they are open for lunch on Sundays from 12-2:30, as well as a message on their answering service confirming that they are open from 12-2:30. Not only that, but there is an 8 foot banner out front saying they serve brunch on Sundays.
When I called to speak to them after the fact, they said it was a Google issue. I might be able to overlook the fact that they stated that it was an issue with Google, but their website sent me to the Google reservation service. This is a very poor excuse.