Samurai Japanese Steak & Sushi Bar

As you see on Unilocal page its crappy place to eat.
I tried lunch buffet by hungrr of sushi… oh well i should listen to what Unilocal said… they dont have that much selection of sushi and only you really eat is fried rice… so if u have $ 10 try it… lol

First things first, came here for sushi before going to a concert at the eagle bank arena, place was quite packed. Host seemed nice, gave us a table. But that’s when this place lost my interest. TWO tables that came in after me got a server, not once did I receive a server. I was excited for the sushi because of the prices and it looked delicious. But horrible HORRIBLE wait staff. Never coming back.

I’m a broke college student with little money to spare so, when I choose to eat out, I try to get the most bang for my buck.
With rain soaked socks, an empty stomach and a big appetite, I made my way over to Samurai for their $ 8.90 sushi and hot food buffet.
Once inside, I was greeted (?) by a waitress. She walked up to me and stared… «I would like the lunch buffet,» I said. She made this face like I said something wrong before walking me to a table tucked away in a corner. There were only 4 people in the restaurant, but no worries. This is still going to be great, I thought.
It wasn’t until I grabbed a plate it dawned on me the waitress might have been trying to tell me something, her stare a warning to leave. There were only 10 barely warm dishes at the buffet, the only Japanese inspired dish among them, vegetable tempura, which had uncooked flour caked in the crevices. The rice had a foul aftertaste, like it was cooked in booty sweat, and the sushi was, to this sushi virgin, unremarkable.
As I sat, struggling through my plate of lukewarm orange chicken and noodles, [the only half decent dishes on the buffet]* I found myself daydreaming about the restaurant being shutdown for its heartlessness; for robbing poor college students, for crimes against hungry stomachs.
Having paid my bill, I put on my coat and headed into the dreary, rainy, mess outside. My socks a little more dry, my stomach a little more full, but my appetite no more satisfied then when I arrived.

We were left standing at the front for a good few minutes before we were greeted and sat. Food is overpriced, for the quality you get. The chicken soup tasted like they used a chicken flavored top ramen packet, and my salad to dressing ratio was just sad. When I got my entrée everything on the plate was barely warm. The food was also super salty, and if felt like I was eating sand paper. The shrimp also wasn’t properly cleaned. Post meal my tongue hurts because of the food. Wouldn’t recommend.

It took over 40 minutes for new server to understand and get our bills right – she had to re do it twice and still was wrong –I’ve never experienced this. No one helped her, another server came by to say she was new-​so then I said go help her then! I don’t blame new server – it’s poor management decision to put a new server on a busy Saturday night.
Our food was good! Service needs improvement.

I love sushi and hibachi…
Very nice service here…
Server is very friendly ***** Star

I saw this post from a previous review of this restaurant, and I TOTALLY agree:
«The yumyum sauce is now yuckyuck. I don’t know why they changed it, but it wasn’t a change for the good.»
We used to LOVE they yum yum sauce at Samurai, but when we ate there this week… the first think we noticed is the yum yum sauce was… um…yucky! It looks totally different, and its now bright orange, with almost the same consistency and taste of French salad dressing… and it really is YUK YUK. Bring back the good Yum Yum sauce, Samurai! This change in the sauce alone will make us go elsewhere for Hibachi form now on.

I want to make it very clear that whoever had uploaded those photos of the sushi selection might’ve been at a different lunch buffet, cause it clearly wasn’t at Samurai. The photos uploaded are extremely misleading with regards to the sushi selection. The sushi selection was comprised of your typical rolls (ie. shrimp tempura, California rolls etc) which by the way tasted like it had been refrigerated the night before. You honestly could get better, if not, the same quality sushi from your local grocery store. There was no nigiri sushi available.
The hot food was simply ok. The buffet is $ 8.95, which in majority of instances is very reasonable, but in Samurai’s case, is $ 8.95 too much. Please save yourself the time and money and go somewhere else for lunch. Their lunch buffet is terrible.

I like the food here, but every single time I try to order to have my food delivered they always say they aren’t delivering right now and never can answer specific times when they allow delivery. I even ordered on the delivery website from Unilocal and I got a phone call 10 minutes later saying the restaurant isn’t delivering and they cancelled my order because the «restaurant was closed», when it was actually open. The delivery fee is a high amount at $ 5, which I am even willing to pay for convenience, and I don’t live that far away. I’m not sure why it’s such a problem to simply get food delivered from this restaurant. Don’t waste your time with this restaurant if you want delivery.

If you love hibachi, at a good price, then this is a good fit.
Friendly, clean and has a nice atmosphere.
The «show» is nothing special, but it is priced for a fun family night out.

I tried this restaurant on a summer Monday evening. There weren’t many patrons at 6:00 PM most likely due to normal DC traffic. When we sat down there were 2 other tables in the dining section. The hibachi section had two tables that were already served. By no stretch of the imagination was the restaurant busy.
5 adults, one toddler and one infant were seated immediately at a laminate table made for 4 people forcing my father-​in-​law to sit in the aisle. The chairs were uncomfortable and tables were small; both the chairs and the tables looked as if they were purchased in bulk from possibly another closed restaurant.
We ordered two sushi combo platters and 4 Chinese dishes. 30 mins later Happy Family, fried rice, and beef with broccoli are served. Now I’ve been to quite a few Chinese restaurants around DC, my favorite being Peking Gourmet Inn. They are the gold standard for a great Chinese restaurant. No matter how busy they are (and they are always busy), their courses are served in the correct order at regular intervals. At Samurai, the Happy Family, fried rice, and beef with broccoli came first at the 30 minute mark followed by the sushi 15 minutes later, and lastly the crispy beef our fourth Chinese dish a little later.
Now let’s talk about the food. All the Chinese entrée portions were laughable. For a entrée at $ 13.00 to $ 14.00 range at dinner I would expect a charger plate sized plate filled with a generous portion of food. All 4 Chinese dishes were served on square dinner plates and were mostly filled to cover the surface of the plate and no more. The Happy Family was a seafood, chicken, beef, and vegetable dish that had a nondescript and flat taste. The fried rice was standard fried rice, nothing noteworthy. The beef and broccoli was seasoned with pilus (hair) and was immediately sent back. The best dishes of the night were the sushi combo platters and the crispy beef.
I wrote this review to highlight the terrible management problems and disregard for customer experience. Chinese food cooks faster than Japanese food. If this restaurant is wants to be successful at pan-​asian cuisine look to manage the the time between the two types of cuisine better. Don’t skimp on the portion sizes and please keep the food sans pilus. At least buy some Ikea brand chairs and tables; they are inexpensive, look like they belong in a restaurant, and fairly comfortable. Lastly hire more people like my server. She kept a horrible experience from becoming a disastrous one.

I honestly don’t write reviews but I have to write my first EVER review about ANYTHING because this restaurant warrants it. I am actually writing this review while sitting here in Samurai. I would give no stars if I could.
It is currently lunchtime on a Tuesday. 6÷23÷15. Maybe this has something to do with it but still shouldn’t warrant some of the things mentioned below.
— the pictures posted here on Unilocal are SO DECEIVING.
— No management whatsoever when we arrived
— 2 waitresses that only seemed to be interested in each other. Talking LOUDLY amongst each other, loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear
— buffet very sparse and food was cold. TINY (and I mean TINY) selection and there is no «sushi». If you think rolls that only have a piece of avocado in it is considered «sushi», then you’ll be okay eating here. there are fewer options in this so-​called buffet than PANDA EXPRESS.
— both waitresses show no professionalism as everyone in the restaurant can overhear «fuck» and «shit» in their conversations with each other. A little child sitting at a table got up and actually looked around to see who was cursing. A CHILD knows better.
— also no professionalism in serving. Rudely asking what we want without any greeting/​salutation/​etiquette/​etc.
— one waitress was eating on the job.
— owner/​manager (?) walked in halfway through our meal, apparently coming back from a delivery? Why does the owner make deliveries? Also, this doesn’t make sense. Buffet and hibachi and deliveries?
— owner was asked if there were fresh dishes coming out for the buffet. Owner nonchalantly/​rudely responds, «oh they’re probably cooking in the back» (a little bit of the rudeness is lost in translation). Instead of apologizing and offering to check the kitchen.
— the rice used for the rolls is absolute crap. On top of there being no sushi, the type of rice used for the rolls is incorrect, wrongly cooked, and just… bland. First description that came to mind was… clumpy glue.
— towards the end of our meal, we noticed that the owner and some other employee were replacing air filters in the ceiling?! During a mealtime?! Pulling out a ladder and grabbing dirty filters from the ceiling?! Where dirt, dust, and grime can fill the air and land on people’s food?!
I will add more to this review as I remember them. Too many things to note.

This place gives me a case of the sads. *loooooooong deeeeeeeeep sigh*
We used to come here and it would be packed on a Saturday night. Last Saturday, it was empty. And I see why.
We were shown to a hibachi table. I couldn’t wait for them to turn on the fire, because it was freeeeeeeeeezing in there! The servers all had on jackets.
We waited for a few minutes — I guess they were trying to see if anyone else was coming in. Nope. Just us. The server took our order.
Pretty soon, we were given the standard soup and salad. But this wasn’t how I remembered it at ALL! The soup was pretty much just salt water. No flavor. The salad was the center part of the lettuce — the bitter part. And it had a dressing that was nowhere near like what they used to serve.
The chef who was cooking for us was really nice and since i told him he didn’t have to do the whole show for us, we just chatted. That was cool.
The yumyum sauce is now yuckyuck. I don’t know why they changed it, but it wasn’t a change for the good.
The meal itself was ok. The prices have gone up. I can’t see why. The money certainly didn’t go toward quality of anything.
So, needless to say, that was my last time ever going there. I feel like prices are rising and quality is dropping and that’s just insulting.

Maybe just maybe they don’t understand Cold plates with hot food = Cold Food, tasteless food, got cold because plates are cold. Nothing special maybe the sushi is good, cause it’s cold and so are the plates. Service is ok, but not great, small selection on buffet, not many choices, disappointing. Go somewhere else.

We headed to an impromptu dinner/​movie combo Monday night, all three of us starving. Samurai is conveniently located next to the University City Mall Theater. We arrived at 6pm and were going to the 7pm movie showing. When we walked in, and noticed we could sit at either the hibachi grill or a table, we collectively decided we should sit at the hibachi and enjoy a show before the show. The host asked what time our movie was and recommended we sit at a table and have them cook our dinner in the back. Sounded good to us.
We ordered the Shrimp and veggie tempura and an order of shumai, then a few moments later ordered our hibachi meals. After a good 30 minutes I asked where our appetizers were, and they brought out a white plate with six little albino looking dumplings, no sauce. Chris took one look at that plate and said, I’m not eating that! The dumplings were soggy, fishy and had zero flavor. They looked just like the shumai you can get from Trader Joes and microwave at home.
Then came the soup and salad. A+ for the salad! Fresh and crisp and served with a ginger/​peanut combination dressing. The miso soup, D-​, cloudy, flavorless and barely bathwater warm, served with a chuck of tofu smaller then my pinky nail.
A few moments later they brought out the tempura which I have to admit was really good. Very flavorful and super crispy. That was the highlight of the meal.
Immediately after dropping off our Tempura, they came back with our entrees. Ugh… biggest pet peeve while dining out! Do NOT bring appetizers and entrees at the same time!
Anyhow… I ordered steak and scallops. Scallops are my most favorite thing ever, even when they aren’t stellar I am still pretty happy… however, these were frozen, defrosted and bland. They had no sear on the outside and had an unpleasant fish taste that had been muddled by sitting in defrosting water. The steak, however cooked well, was cold. The carrot/​mushroom/​zucchini combination was cooked well and flavorful. They rice was okay, not good, not bad, perhaps a bit dry for my taste. Also on the plate was a pile of greasy noodles that I left untouched after the first bite.
Everything was luke warm or flat out cold.
The ginger sauce was pretty potent and really refreshing but the yum yum sauce was a serious disappointment. I LOVE yum yum sauce. This… was «Ranch dressing with a little coloring added to it.» (Illysa’s quote!) –ugh.
Dinner for the three of us was around $ 108.00, not including the tip… and all of us still had a plate full of uneaten food. I wasn’t impressed. Considering the likes of Sakura in the area, I don’t know that I’ll be back to Samurai anytime soon.

Very disappointed with the food quality, quantity & service of this restaurant. Sushi & hot food could be better. Once the waitress (Michelle) sat me down, she’s never once come to ask me if everything was well & if I needed anything else, such as a refill on my green tea. She did come by my table 30 minutes later & brought me my check even though I didn’t ask for it. Keep in mind this is a buffet & I not even ½ done with my 2^nd plate. My waitress has not once smiled at me.
If you must eat there, request for Tom to serve you, he’s been very attentive with his tables. He smiled & actually talks to his guests.

Oh dude with a ponytail, this place is awesome was my first thought when I came in which made me laugh
I asked my gf where she wanted to go for a special night and they came through for us. Great service. Great atmosphere and John our cook was amazing showman. The time I had with my gf at the hibachi bar, I will never forget. It was a great time. We came in two hours before closing on thanksgiving eve and the people were all cheerful, even playing Christmas music.
The food was ok, no where as good as the show by John but was still really good. I liked the steak and rice but didn’t like the chicken. The prices are high but I understand why. It’s worth it.
I will be back

Okay listen! I only come here with a Groupon deal. The catch is when u come w/​a deal, you MUST sit at a hibachi table. Their sushi is pretty good too. Try not to judge my life, but I definitely enjoy this place. The food is always good. The restaurant can definitely be updated, I won’t deny that. The drinks are cheap! I’m talking happy hour prices basically.

We eat A LOT of asian cuisine and the Japanese Steak place is by far the best. They offer many selections and the quality of food is great. Also the portions are huge so come hungry.
Can’t wait to go back!

Giving it a 3 out of 5 because Service is a little slow but I enjoyed the habachi and sushi. Food isn’t bad. We ordered the combo deals with filet mignon + chicken and filet mignon + shrimp and the Tuna’s lovers maki. The habachi was a bit too salty for my taste buds. The tuna maki was amazing though. I’m not a big habachi fan mainly because the show isn’t ehhh in my opinion so I came tonight for the food and to use my groupon. Not bad of a place
Food 3 out of 5
Service 4 out of 5
Atmosphere 3.5 out of 5