Kabuto Japanese Steak House

OK, just the points: We went at lunch time on a Sunday.
We had to wait for enough people to fill a table, about 10 minutes.
Got our drinks quickly, and refilled as soon as they were not even half empty. But took a while for soup and salad. Soup was slightly flavored with a couple thin slices of mushrooms and some chives. For the salad I got house dressing, watered down thousand island with ginger.
The cook was entertaining, the food was ok. They give you sauces that you can purchase at most stores. Not a lot of zing to the food. The veggies were mushroom, zucchini, and onion. The only veggie that was in the fried rice was corn, and it tasted too sweet. The Shrimp tasted fine, but was very small. The steak was overcooked. We most likely will not return to this place.

I visited this restaurant and I found that it was a great experience the cook was friendly and paid attention to every detail I found this was a great place to celebrate with family I will come back keep up the great work

Sushi was ok. Service was horrible, but I’ve grown accustomed to bad service in Japanese steakhouses. They act entitled and barely talk to you. Our food took exactly one hour after being sat to get to us, and when it arrived it was cold. We didn’t seat in habachi seating because we were told it would be a half hour wait, but I bet the food would have came sooner. Also 5 min after we paid, the waitress came back and made us pay for something she forgot to put on the bill. We won’t be back.

Today everything was fantastic. Our server was new, but did a great job. Our drinks were never empty. She was very polite.
The food was amazing. My wife and I ordered the steak and shrimp. I’m still disappointed they don’t serve croutons with their salad anymore. For lunch you can’t beat this place. The prices are very reasonable. $ 10.95 gets you steak, shrimp, fried rice, vegetables, salad, and soup. I do recommend the white sauce over the ginger sauce. The white sauce is so good… it must be laced with crack!

My family and I really like this place! The staff is nice the cooks do a great job at entertaining you and they make the kids laugh.
The food is very tasty, they give good portions and I highly doubt you’ll leave this place hungry! Usually you don’t have to wait too long to get seated, we like to sit where you get to watch the cooks prepare your meal in front of you!
Another quick note is I personally think they do a great job at keeping the place clean!

I’m usually not a fan because I find the food to be bland. I found the food to be very flavorful but the problem was the hostess. She was very unconcerned about us waiting, I think more could have been done. But once you were seated at the table you forgot about what you had been through to get to this point. The rice and vegetables were surprisingly very good. Overall my table experience was very good.

I love Japanese steakhouses. It is very entertaining. The chef talks to you and does tricks. It’s an experience you should definitely try and it’s not a bad choice to have your first experience at Kabutos. I’ve only been to Kabutos once, but I can tell that their customers are very satisfied and regulars. Not only had my friend I went with to the restaurant been there several times, I’m pretty sure everyone at the table were also regulars. The food was good. I have had better, but it was not bad at all. Between things set on fire and the tricks, you should definitely try this place or a steakhouse in general. I can’t promise of others will be good lol. But this one, I can.

I love going to Kabuto. I have frequented this place for years and years. Their sushi is pretty good, but not the best in town. But the hibachi is my favorite ever. It’s WAY more flavorful than Benihana! I think that the only downfall is the wait for tables. Sometimes it can be 30+ minutes before you’re seated. Once you get in and order, you are taken care of pretty well leading up to the preparation of the meal right in front of you! I’ve ordered take out hibachi and sushi from them before too, and it’s delicious (just not as fresh.)

The person who sat us seemed really upset and just did a grunt-​and-​point at where he wanted us to sit. He threw one menu at the two of us and didn’t say anything.
Our server wasn’t much better. I asked for a second menu and she just walked away. She wrote down our entire order, but had to come back and ask what we wanted more than once. She never refilled our waters or came back after dropping off the food.
The food… Somehow everything tasted exactly the same. It was all bland and boring. Our worst restaurant experience in a long time.

I was dragged here by a friend who told me the white sauce and rice would s me me to heaven but they put me in hell.
This restaurant is a bit of a circus and has a local lore about it. People come back solely because they are fascinated by the Chefs but they’re not even GOOD PEOPLE. Get off your arse and go downtown or to Bloomington if you want to see knife, blade and chopstick mastery.
I couldn’t believe how people were pouring the white sauce over everything. The meat was cheap and the sauce is a coverup. The sauce itself was so unappetizing and naked the meat and most of the vegetables were past their best to below par.
The rice was the saving grace, well cooked and flavored. A glimmer of hope in a dark pool of mediocre mush.
I’m never going back

We walked in… and we walked out.
The server walked over to us and said that it’ll be a few minutes. She walked back to the sitting area in front of us AFTER grabbing her cell phone and sat there doing God knows what. The sushi chef behind the counter glared at her, but was of no help to us. We were sitting there for more than a few minutes (me and my family). At some point, even after making verbal remarks no one came over to assist us. An elderly waitress came out with a full tray, saw us, and motioned to the server to help us. The girl didn’t budge.
Like I said, we walked out. The place was open for already 15 minutes.
As for some who is familiar with Japanese steakhouses not just here in the States but also back home in Asia, this was a let down in the first go.

Customer service at sushi bar is horrible! The only pleasant service i got from there was the guy when i went in for more than sushi who cooked the food. Besides that food was not all that great. Sushi is good but again customer service is horrible they act like they don’t want to wait in you. If you don’t want to provide a service then don’t work there!

Lots of mixed reviews so I wasn’t too sure about coming here when my friend suggested dinner last Saturday. We went about 5:30. First thing when we went to put in our name, the person in front of us said they had a reservation and were seated quickly. Funny as my friend called a few days earlier and they said no reservations accepted. So we waited about 15 minutes, no too bad considering the amount of people.
Seated around the hibachi with 8 others and a waitress took our orders. We were ‘adventurous’ with a Midori margarita — pretty good! I ordered salmon and she ordered steak & chicken. As we were waiting for our grill master, looking around at other tables and they all seemed pretty lively with the griller interacting and joking with their patrons. When our guy came he was pretty subdued compared to the others — perhaps he was new or shy or just learning the ropes.
In most Japanese restaurants, there is much pride in plate presentation even with hibachi cooking, not so much here. To me it just looked like a ‘hot mess’ !
Tasted good tho and the white sauce added some extra flavor to the mix.
Like other reviewers have said — go at lunch time — more reasonably priced for the food and experience. Menu prices shouldn’t double for dinner.

Three stars only because the food is amazing.
Don’t bother calling in for carry out.
I called in for lunch for a Co worker and myself. Got Both of our orders in. She repeated both of our orders. Get there to pick it up and she forgot part of our order so I stood waiting on that. Then I get up to pay and there is only 1 of the orders I called in on the counter. Turns out it belongs to my Co worker… so she says that I completely forgot to order my own lunch and they are closing so I guess I’m just out off luck…

I give it 3 stars for the following reasons:
Sushi menu is extremely boring, and most of the entries are just other menu items with salmon or different sauce on top.
Their bar is awkward in that it sits low to the ground and is probably a sushi bar, and the actual bar is used for checkout. Weird and confusing.
The dumpling app was tasty and the dip was hot. Both good.
The Rainbow roll was bland and pretty small. I think I got 6 pieces, all about quarter diameter. Lame.
Drinks are expensive. I got a Jim Beam and Coke and it must have been about $ 7.50 given my takeout total. It was made well though, and strong, so whatever.
I haven’t dined in, or had their menu other than the items above so I can’t slam the place. The atmosphere was nice and they had a good crowd of people that didn’t look or sound like total dipshits. So that’s good.
I’d say give it a go and make your own mind up. I’ll go back to dine in and not order Sushi at some point.

We come here quite often because it is close to home, the food is great the majority of the time, and it is a little cheaper at dinner time than Fujiyama.
However, like others said, the service is always TERRIBLE. They are rude, non-​attentive, and very slow to do anything except rush out their customers. The chefs are decent– nothing particularly new or exciting.

In the world of Japanese Steak Houses (a.k.a. a meal where you also see a volcano made of onions and pray the knives don’t get away from the chef and kill you) this place is pretty average. The food was decent, hibachi chef talented, and the price was terrific. Beyond terrific, compared to normal JSH pricing.
BUT the service was beyond terrible. They were SLOW. Slow greeting us at the door, slow getting our table arranged, slow taking the drink orders, and the wait for actual hibachi time was insane. They were either terribly inefficient of short-​staffed.
Our waitress, to top it off, was just rude. Or maybe not rude, but extremely short with us. Bad day perhaps. If not for the pricing, it would have gotten 2 stars or even 1. But the pricing and decent food pushed it into 3-​star territory. We’ll try it again to see if our experience was abnormal, and if it was I’ll reconsider and think about adding a star.

I’ve eaten at less than a handful of hibachi restaurants, but my recent experience at Kabuto was by far the best. Not only was our chef great, he was very funny and engaging, but the food was fantastic.
I went for lunch with my sister in law and we both brought our daughters. I had the steak and my daughter had chicken. Everything was cooked perfectly and seasoned well. My very picky eater practically cleaned her plate she liked it so much. And the portions were very generous.
Bonus? Lunch prices are cheaper. But I’d gladly pay full price for dinner.

Some of my southside friends die for this place. I’m on the fence but tend to lean towards a «yay» vote since I’ve only been a few times. They have the hibachi grills, a sushi bar, and normal table setup. You can sit wherever, order whatever.
Most recently had sushi and friends dined on hibachi lunch. The sushi menu should be updated so you know what’s getting wrapped. I played around with my 2 rolls before digging in to figure out mine. Ginger was a little dry [sad face]. Friends hot lunch was good per them.

So so so many people hatin’ on the Kabuto. If only they had sat in the little sushi section and took a pass on the hibachi experience. I learned to eat sushi here because it was affordable and the quality was acceptable for the location. I get it, it’s not Chicago or New York or Los Angeles… it’s Greenwood, dude. Their house salad dressing is one of my favorites and their volcano roll is prepared differently than I’ve had it at most places and it’s the best.
I’ve always thought that the hibachi thing was a bit on the gimmicky side. It’s something similar to expecting the people at Papa John’s to answer the phone with «Allo…disisa a da Papa John’s howa can I helpa you». Expecting the chef to do the onion volcano seven times a night and be all smiles is bordering on mockery to me and its unrealistic. Give them a break.
It is not the best representation of a Japanese steakhouse in the state and the staff can be a bit cold at times, but I’ve never had bad food here of a dirty dish. It’s a great place for a date or a birthday party or to try sushi.