Favorite Restaurant until latest disappointment from last night
I have been dining at Japanese Village for over 12 years now, I have brought many friends and co-workers to experience the amazing steak sauce that everybody is raving about, and I had even host few company events at this restaurant. Sammy and the crews have always treated me and my guests’ right; that was why I keep coming back and bringing more friends. However, this had all changed from my last night visit (Aug-09-2010), I am really re-considering if I would ever visit this restaurant again despite its great foods. Here is what went out, please leave me your comment(s), if I am being overly rude or unfair about my comments. Here is the story: We were party of 9; my family of 5 and my friend's family of 4. My family had ordered Shogun's Special with NY Steak, New York Steak & Shrimp Combo, 2x Yakimeshi addon (fried rice), 1x Japanese (Shitake) Mushrooms addon, 2x large Asahi Beers and Tempura udon for my kids. My friend's family had ordered Shogun's Special with Filet Mignon, Chicken Teriyaki $19.00, 2x large Asahi Beers and Tempura udon for their kids. By all means, we did not order anything custom or not on menu. Anyway, at the end of the live cooking show, my friend had noticed that he did not get any grilled, Scallop and Jumbo Prawn as part of his Shogun's Special; so we question the chef. His immediate response was he made mistake and had given his shares of scallop and prawn to my side of Shogun's Special, and he would want us to change our order (to accommodate his mistake?!). My friend insisted that he would like to get what he has ordered, meanwhile the chef insisted that we change our order. After a little struggle, he finally ask the waitress to bring over from kitchen the missing foods; now it got more interesting, he proceeded on cleaning the teppan and asked his co-worker chef at the table behind him to cook the missing foods. I really do not understand why he can not just cook it at our table in front of us? rather, it was cooked by another chef. At this point, obviously something wasn't right, atmosphere wise. Anyway, my friend did receive his prawns and scallops, but scallops were not chopped up to bite size like how they usually prepare them. (Maybe to show us their unhappiness, because we did not change our order to accommodate his f*** up?!). Through out this entire incident, we had NOT received any apology from the chef; rather we only got this repeat message of "change your order". I have never been nor ever heard a restaurant chef to request their client to change the food order to accommodate their mistake; this is simply ridiculous and unacceptable at all! Needless to say, we left not very happy. Finally, when I brought my family's portion of the bill to pay at front, I casually mentioned this incident, just hoping someone would make sense and offer me an apology. NO, I did not receive it! the cashier dodged the question by asking for the manager to talk to me. I explain the matter to the manager; he went to talk to the chef to get a better understanding of matter (I think). Upon his return, all he kept emphasizing was that we got our foods after all! This was not my point! All I wanted is an apology for the hassle that caused us; why does a client needs to insist repeatedly on getting what he/she had ordered? And NOT to have to change the order to make up for the chef's mistake?! It turned to a slight argument, which leaded no where at all with this manager. I gave up and said I will contact Sammy regarding this matter, and then I left. By the way, the restaurant was not busy at all that night.
