Nagoya Cafe

First off, their website allows you to place an order for takeout even when they aren’t open… So my boyfriend and I placed a $ 73 order & waited 2hrs. Once we had our food we quickly realized a cheap drive-​thru would’ve been more appetizing. Here’s a breakdown of our order:
Fried calamari — firstly, they’re giant. Like large onion rings. The panko breaking is too thick. The calamari is over cooked & chewy. There’s no real flavor. No seasoning, no sauce, just blah.
Beef Yaki Udon noodles — oily. Not the most disgusting thing on earth, but mediocre at best.
Hamachi Kama — it’s rare that you see this on a menu, so whenever I do I order it bc it’s a fave of mine. This is the neck of a yellowtail. It’s like the fattiest part of the fish, yet it was pretty dry & tasted too ‘fishy’ which means it likely wasn’t v fresh.
Pepper Tuna appetizer: Again, not so bad we gagged, but only at 4 thin slices. Just mediocre & not super fresh tasting.
Tuna Naruto Roll — boyfriend spit it out & I couldn’t bring myself to even taste it.
Crawfish Roll — it’s pretty hard to mess this roll up. It’s even pretty decent from grocery stores. Yet again, no fresh. Not only was the crawfish not fresh tasting, but the avocado inside was bad.
Crab Rangoons — this is really all we could eat. I never really like them, but my boyfriend does. They’re just standard Rangoons.
I definitely wouldn’t recommend & wont be returning.

Three strikes. Strike one: eel roll fell apart and the eel was terribly skinned. Strike two: overcooked and bitter miso soup. Strike three: Bad miso soup AGAIN and missing components in my meal (such as rice at the side of my beef teriyaki entrée). Don’t come here, there’s a reason cars and customers are never there.

1^st visit. Definitely coming back. We had the Dragon Roll and Eel with Avacado roll. Also had gyoza. Everything was very tasty, sushi was well prepared, fast and fresh. The gyoza was also very nice. Pan fried and soft with very good flavor. Inside was suprisingly nicer than expected. I was able to witness a few of the Habachi acts, very entertaining and everyone seated seamed very happy. Prices seemed good and recieved great service from sushi chefs. They even made us a prompt to desert while we took everything in on the house. Waitress was very helpful and when she couldnt answer a question she got the help needed and took care of us. Would absolutely recommend to a friend.

Great entertainment (hello, hello, hello!). Long wait to start the grill but the portions made up for the wait. Noodles were great additions most hibachi restaurants I have frequent does not offer. Vegetables were soft and cooked for to long. LSU roll was rolling just like the tigers! My sister’s Dr Pepper was just like she likes it. No Mo, No Mo 35% off for first timers which is disappointing. Gratuity is included for group of 6, which is 18%, so it’s fair.

The food is always fast and fresh! We go at LEAST twice a week! Amazing! There is nothing comparable to this hole in the wall. My husband and I have moved all over the south we have tried it all !

Great food and entertainment at the hibachi grill. Service was friendly and prompt. Great way to spend Friday night. I have been back since my first visit, same quality every time!

I’m being a little generous with 3 stars. The waitress we got it was only her third day… but the speed of food coming out of the kitchen was ridiculously slow. We were the only people in the place and yet it took a long time for our food to come out. We all decided on the all you can eat dinner, which is definitely worth the $ 25 per person. But our waitress was extremely forgetful and we constantly were having to remind her of food we had ordered. In the end, good food for the price… wait staff could use some training on common sense and paying attention. Hint to the wait staff: if someone orders ice cream, bring them a spoon for the ice cream.

We tried the happy hour. We sat at the sushi bar and ordered a spicy tuna roll in which we split. The sushi was fresh and pleased my palate. My friend ordered the seafood soup. Let me talk about that soup. It looks very strange when it comes out, I guess it is because of the fish in it. However, the soup was really good. I didn’t eat the fish. I ordered the shrimp tempura with a spicy mayo. It is only three pieces but it is ONLY $ 3. The shrimp tempura is absolutely great. The staff went out of their way to get know us. They wanted to know our names. This place has been added to my favorite places.

Our party was seated for sushi due to a «long» wait for hibachi, however there was a hibachi table half full. The sushi we ordered did not taste fresh. Our table got our sushi well in advanced before another person got his cooked entre. The facility was large with around 4 large hibachi tables and decent décor. The hibachi chefs seemed very entertaining. There is also a large bar area for those sitting at the sushi bar. Our waitress wasn’t very good and only checked on us once. The pricing was decent, not cheap but not overpriced either. I wouldn’t recommend this place or return for sushi but would possibly return to try the hibachi if I were in the area again.

My roommates and I decided to try this place out since it was right down the street from the house. When we entered the restaurant, it was pretty slow (2 other tables) and we were asked if we wanted to eat hibachi or at a table. We asked if we could order hibachi from the table since only 1 person wanted hibachi but the hostess looked lost so we opted for the normal table. This should have been a sign to get out while we could have.
Our waitress was very nice but was supposedly in training and spoke very little English, so we had to repeat our order a few times.
For appetizers, we ordered:
— Hamachi Enoki Mushroom
— Hamachi Kama (which later found out that they were out)
— Baked Salmon
— Crab Rangoon
For our entrees:
— Sashimi Dinner
— Buddha Belly Roll
— Nabe Yaki Udon
— Mackerel Sashimi
— Sweet Shrimp Nigiri
When the hamachi enoki mushroom came out, we noticed that they made the hamachi shitake instead (there are subtle differences between the two). When we asked the waitress about it, she brought it to the chef and he insisted that it was the correct order. I showed her the menu and described to her everything that was supposed to be included with it (ohba mint and a butter sauce; it came without ohba mint and a ponzu sauce instead) and the chef said that there was no more ohba mints and that the manager changed the sauce from the butter sauce to the ponzu sauce. However, when the buddha belly roll came out, there was ohba mint inside of the roll! We were lied to!
There were also numerous other problems with our dinner service:
1. The sashimi dinner came with 4 types of fish, one of them being frozen tilapia which is appalling. For $ 22.95, I expect better.
2. I ordered mackerel sashimi, but it came out as nigiri (this could be an honest mistake)
3. The baked salmon was a ball of snowcrab topped with a cooked piece of salmon. The salmon was warm, but the snowcrab was ice cold. The snowcrab here is also pretty terrible. It was very dry and tasteless.
The worst part of the evening was at the end when we requested to see the manager to let him know of our problems for the night (we always wait until the end so we have no surprises in our food). The waitress came out and informed us that the manager was not in yet we saw him walking around. We told her about all of our issues with the dinner service and she was very apologetic and offered to remove the items off of our bill. When I saw the manager walk by, I asked the waitress who that was and she replied «oh that’s the manager… uhh no thats my boss». She knew she was busted but she kept saying how busy he was, and at that time we were the only table there!
We informed her that my roommate and I were sushi chefs for years and that the manager should come talk to us or else he will be losing business by losing customers. She was surprised and proceeded to ask us how they should make the butter sauce with the appetizer or how to improve the baked salmon. If you’re going to open up a sushi restaurant, you should know how to do these things. If not, don’t sell them!
At the end of the night, we found out that Nagoya Café is owned by the same owners as the Nagoya buffet. This explained everything! We just spent $ 125 pre-​tip on buffet quality food. The owners need to rethink their business plan, and find better quality chefs if they want to survive and increase their customer base. The manager also needs to man up and confront problems instead of forcing their servers to handle problems.
tl;dr If you want buffet quality sushi at restaurant quality prices, then eat here. If not, save your money, time, and appetite and go eat at the other well known sushi joints in the area (Geisha, Sushi Yama, Ichiban).

The sushi and other buffet items (salmon rolls!) Are delicious, but they are a bit expensive for dinner.

The sushi, apps & salads are delish! I haven’t tried their hibachi yet.
I’ve had difficulties with the free delivery service– they’ve forgotten to send my orders multiple times & I’ve had to call to remind them of my (already-​paid) order. Don’t recommend the tempura cheesecake– glorified panko-​esque fried frozen cheesecake.
Again, the sushi rolls, seaweed salad, miso soup & other apps we’ve tried are great! If you can get them to deliver your order, it’s worth it! Yum!
I also recommend ordering to-​go orders online, as trying to order over the phone presented a tremendous language barrier issue & they never got my address correct, even after passing the phone to multiple people & hanging up on me accidentally.
THE VERDICT… Food=delish…the process of getting it to the table needs improvement.

Went there last night with family. Ordered spicy salmon roll and rock n roll. Both excellent and fresh. Ordered three adult hibachi meals (ny strip and shrimp, chk, and shrimp) and two kids hibachi meals. Chef was great and entertained kids. Food was excellent and portions were huge. Took home enough food to last for another meal.

Our first experience there was amazing! we start with they new appetizer which is Jalapeño tempura and its very good… my wife order sashimi entrée and wow! they served and decorate it so beautiful over the ice, and the fish very fresh too. My daughter order super american dream roll and poboy roll and she really like it, and for my self i order Hibachi combination Filet Mignon & Lobster, the meat very tender and the sauce sooo yummie! LoL… no joke but this place gonna be my favourite place for japanese cuisine in baton rouge. Over all it was excellent, good service too… we will come back to nagoya café!

The service kind of creeped me out at first. A lot of waiters just standing around and staring at me. However, the service quickly gained speed when the chef came to prepare our meal. The culinary humor, along with excellent food provides a fun atmosphere for all ages. I will definitely consider this place a second time.

It is really good. On par with Ichiban but without the long drive.

I hope the owners read this and take some advice. Nagoya is an outstanding LOOKING place and location is exciting right outside my neighborhood.
I really was not impressed with the food and service. We were the other table in the dining room and my food took almost an hour to prepare. I honestly think they forgot my order. For the service and so so quality of food, I give it a thumbs down for value as it is quite expensive.
I have high hopes for this place but improvements will need to be made!

The sushi was very good. I ordered the spicy salmon roll and the rock n’ roll. I also brought my three boys and my wife, and we all ate the hibachi (n.y. strip and shrimp, chicken, shrimp, and the kids got n.y. strip). The portions were huge, and the food was fresh. Also, the kids portions for the price were really large.
The only negative was that the waitress was very stressed out, and seemed to be overwhelmed, even though, the place wasn’t that crowded.