Kobe Japanese Steakhouse

I can’t believe some of the bad reviews I’ve seen here. I just can’t understand or imagine any of those things happening at this restaurant. I’ve been here many times, it is often my go-​to special occasion restaurant, and I have never been disappointed. Kobe ranks at the top of my list of hibachi restaurants, and I’ve been to a few. Tonight, however was absolutely over-​the-​top amazing. Well exceeded my usual expectations. Our waiter was named «Bruce» (like Bruce Lee, he said, but not as fast or lethal) and he was funny, & attentive. The Chef was «Vince» and he was by far the best I’ve ever seen, and I have NEVER had the food taste so good. (I mean it’s always good, but tonight was exceptional).

One of the worst experiences we’ve had at a restaurant in a long time. We had reservations for 7pm. When we arrived, there were several empty tables. Four groups came in after us and were seated. There were still two tables available, but we were not seated. We inquired about when we would be seated, we were told they were waiting for a family to leave an occupied table. We asked about the two empty tables, why couldn’t we be seated there? The response was because we reserved that other table for you and those people are taking longer than expected. I would understand if the restaurant was full, but there were other empty tables available. Finally at 7:30 we asked one more time for one of the other tables, again we were told no, we had to wait for the occupied table. We called the other Japanese restaurant down the street, Kokoros, they had a table available, so we left and had a wonderful dinner at Kokoros.
We will not be returning to Kobe.

Every thing about this place was great the food the staff was great and on top of everything and the food peroration was great entertainment the price is good for the amount of food you get we had to get Togo boxes we did have to wait about 30 minutes but they do take reservations

I ordered the Sirloin Steak and Shrimp and requested the steak be cooked medium-​rare. When the chef cooked the steak it looked a little red to me but I trusted the chef. About five minutes after finishing my meal my stomach started rumbling and I destroyed their restroom. I don’t know if it was the meat or something else but now you know my reasoning behind the 1 star rating. It was definitely the meat. :O

This place is great for anyone who enjoys dinner and a show. The prices are affordable and the chefs are entertaining and friendly. They are quite skilled with the cutlery, as well. The sushi is actually very well-​made and at a reasonable price. Great place for a small group!

This place gets two stars for the service, because our cute waitress was fast, funny, and friendly. The food was not so great, but was okay. Oddly, they didn’t have a sake menu, they only had «hot sake, cold sake, or a sake bomb» with no selection within each. Miso soup was basic, simple, nothing special. Vegetable tempura was good, but more oily than it needed to be (i.e. turn your deep fryer up or change your oil more often!). Seaweed salad came with Krab legs, which was odd but okay no problem. The two rolls I had were heavy on the rice and all the tuna and salmon was pretty bland in flavor, even the white tuna which is my favorite and usually very buttery smooth and creamy. We didn’t try the teppanyaki grill, just the sushi bar.

We had to wait around a long time before someone even approached us (at least 15 minutes) and once we were seated it was pretty slow compared to other Hibachi places I have been to. The food was decent, but some of our food (particularly our rice), was overcooked and some of it was burnt. They were pretty busy when we went there, but I do not think they were busy enough to justify waiting for so long without someone at least coming over and greeting us briefly.

I believe the company we were with fared better than the food itself. It was OK, nothing to write home about. Typical hibachi grill with a fast-​food sort of mentality. Chicken was doused with teriyaki as was the shrimp. Rice was a tad greasy and veggies were nothing to write home about.
Ordered some sushi rolls, a spicy tuna and a dragon roll. How about not making the roll as big as one’s fist? LOL
Sake bombs galore of course! Not to mention the college frat formal that was going on. Fake ID’s in the house? Me thinks so!

The service and drinks were excellent, that being said, the rest of the meal was less than impressive.
I did not order anything from the hibachi grill, hopefully that portion of the restaurant has better food than the sushi bar.
All orders come with miso soup (which is a personal thing for me, I just don’t care for it), salad, and edamame. The edamame was cold and unsalted. Everywhere else I’ve had it, it’s warm (which has a more inviting texture) and has course salt on it.
For the portion size, the seaweed salad was overpriced, and came with a heaping side of… imitation crab? And then on with the imitation crab. I ordered a spider roll which is supposed to have fried soft shell crab, but in its place, had salty, chewy, imitation crab; which was also present in the other roll I ordered. The rice was not fresh, so it had a not good stale texture. The roe on top of my roll was nearly flavorless. Overall, the ingredients did not seem to be fresh at all. The food just seemed dry and flavorless.
Good thing my frozen delight and my complimentary rainbow sherbert were good.
As for the other reviews that say the sushi was good, either they were having a really off night when we were there (which we were pretty much the only people there, so that shouldn’t be the case), or the other writers have never had good sushi. I’ve had better from the Dillons and HyVee refrigerator cases. I will never go there again.

Sushi was good. Hibachi was good. Chef could have been a lil more entertaining. But we had fun and left full!

THE BEST SUSHI I’VE HAD IN MY LIFE!!! the california rolls are to die for and their wasabi sauce is amazing. i also ordered from the hibachi grill and wasn’t too impressed with that. i’ve had better hibachi experiences. but this place gets 5 stars, alone, based on their sushi!

We love this place! Although we can afford to eat here all the time we go once a month. The portions are huge and delicious, we always sit at the hibachi and order KC Strip and chicken. We share our entrée just so we can order a ton of their delicious sushi! The only downfall is the service is never that great but gets better every time we go. Hands down one of my favorite restaurants in Lawrence!