Nakama

I am a little sad to have had this experience with Nakama in the last times I’ve been here because it used to be my favorite sushi place in Pittsburgh. My last time here was yesterday, the worst experience ever. I went there with a friend and we sat down in the high tables area, and the table was super dirty and STICKY! #Ew we informed the waitress about the situation and she cleaned it. The quality of the food that night was bad also, we had the steak hibachi and it arrived cold and tasted like it was there since yesterday. The food quality was really bad in the last times I’ve been here and I wanted to give Nakama one last shot. After this time, NEVER TO COME BACK AGAIN.
The service was never that great and now the food quality has gotten just as bad + coming to a dirty table = really disappointed

I’ve been coming to Nakama for many years and have typically enjoyed the experience. Yesterday a friend and I visited for lunch. Our sushi roll was delivered almost 30 minutes after ordering it. It was dropped off without chopsticks and no waiter returned to offer any. The hibachi lunch has always included vegetables… Until yesterday. I did not order shrimp, but it ended up on my plate (good thing I don’t have an allergy). Even the little things, like getting a water refill seemed too much for the staff yesterday. Disappointed.

The only thing good about this place is the people watching from a table by the window. The drinks are watered down and over priced. The sushi is lack luster. And the hibachi will more than likely ruin your night because you’ll spend all night with epic diarrhea.

Food here has finally gotten to the level of the service. Fish used in the Sushi is of low quality and is no longer worthy of eating. Service at the bar in the daytime is very lacking.
The bartenders act like they are doing you a favor by waiting on you. Oh almost forgot to mention… The still have Oktoberfest beer on tap in mid December. The beer is from August. Throw it away and put a Xmas beer there. Or wait till may to do that…
Another case of the owners just milking the gravy of what they built. Can’t blame them I guess. Place was really good 8 years ago when it had to be.
Update… 1÷1÷16
Had to meet a client there today. Black curly haired bartender acted like she was doing us a favor by giving us a menu.
SHE WAS RUDE AND IGNORANT!!! For zero reason. Just plain mean. If she is not an owner or related to them then she must have pictures of the owner in a compromising position. Otherwise who would want her in a service industry position.
She gave me a menu that looked like it was out in the rain for 3 days. Was really ignorant about it too. I just suggested we go somewhere much more worthy of our money so we left. But not before I apologized to her for being a bother by simply sitting down at the bar she was working.
Although I work on the south side and love sushi, I will never go back into this place. Zero management I guess. Sad…

Went here with my son and decided to sit bar side! My son ordered shrimp hibachi I ordered chicken fried rice. My son got his food and finished and and I still had not gotten my rice! When I mentioned it to the waiter she said it’ll be right out! 5min passed and she walks back by and says your rice will be right out! When I finally got my rice it was Nasty burnt sticky unflavored! Not one time did the waitress apologize for any mix up!!! Never again and I visit this place every time I come to Pittsburgh drone Orlando Florida!!!

I was pretty disappointed with my experience here the other night. We were there for a birthday dinner and made reservations a week in advance. When we arrived, we were told it would still be another 15 minutes as they were a little backed up. We were okay with that, but we didn’t end up getting seated until 45 minutes after our reservation. The hostess then tried to tell us the reason was because our whole part wasn’t there, which we all were at the time I checked us is. So that was a little off-​putting that she lied to us.
Our party ordered several glasses of sangria and it was very watered down and not good at all. We told our waitress who then told us that their sangria does get watered down towards the end of the night. We all had one drink from the sangria and asked for a different drink. She got us different drinks, but would not remove the charges for the sangria, even though none of us drank it.
Overall, I was not very satisfied with the service. I will probably only go there now for the sushi as a takeout item.

While this is still primarily a Japanese hibachi, it is clearly better than the numerous chains that have been popping up everywhere. The major difference being the quality of the ingredients and cooks. My steak and seafood is always cooked perfectly to temperature, which can be spotty at some of the competitors. Also, I would rate the sushi here among the best in Pittsburgh. Also you can get some menu items you just don’t find elsewhere. I particularly like the Diablo preparation with a spicy sauce and soba noodles.
The one knock would be the showmanship can be pretty hit or miss here depending who you get and there is really no innovation. A pretty standard show.

Okay so last time I was upset with this place because it was an overly crowded Saturday night. But now that I’m not hangry I can think a little bit more clearly.
We stopped in here yesterday while walking in the sweltering heat. Most of the nice places on Carson street opened their windows but I was looking for air conditioning. Luckily nakama was right there when we needed it.
The place had a good crowd for a Saturday afternoon but it definitely wasn’t packed. We sat at the sushi bar and the waitress came right away. She was short and cold but efficient.
The ceviche lacked flavor as did the Pittsburgh Penguins roll. The bonsai roll was actually quite tasty.
This restaurant fulfills your basic sushi cravings but it’s by no means fine dining. It’s great just to stop by for a quick drink and a roll.

Nakama: Overall, I give three stars due to okay food and varying levels of service.
Service:
I came here for my friend’s birthday. We had a pretty large party and made reservations ahead of time. When we got there, we ended up still waiting for another thirty minutes or so, which was fine with us. What got us a little annoyed was how the hostess was not kind to us or anyone else that was there at the time. When we were getting seated, they were unsure where to seat us and we had to walk around the restaurant once before settling.
Our waitress was one of the sweetest people ever. Her name was Stephanie and I want to say how much I appreciated having her as our waitress. The whole restaurant is loud and super crowded, and she remained calm and helpful throughout the entire night. I would often see her running from place to place.
The manager was also very sweet. My girlfriend made an ice cream cake for our friend and he was the one who brought it out for us, helped us cut it, and even washed the cake pan afterwards. He is obviously very proactive in customer satisfaction. In addition, the restaurant didn’t charge us extra for all of this, which many restaurants do.
Food:
Food was only okay for me. I got the chicken diabolo and my girlfriend got the steak. The chicken was not fresh, extremely dry, and chewy. The steak was not the greatest either, it seemed to have the same problems of being a little dry and chewy, not as bad as my chicken was though. I was definitely very full after all of this though, it was a lot of food. If I ever come back, most likely, I will get the shrimp, since that was pretty good.
This was my first Hibachi restaurant experience. While I understand the excitement of the show, etc., I don’t think it’s worth it for the quality of the food.

Good sushi! The price wasn’t cheap, but the quality was worth it. The issue is space. There are people who come solely for the bar, but there isn’t enough space. I had some blonde chick shaking her hair in my saki! It was so bad that the waitress had to ask her and her friends to either sit or move away from the table. It was ridiculous. I rate on both product and atmosphere. The food was superb, the drinks delicious but Nakama needs to fix their atmosphere. The sports bar/​bar environment does not suit this place well. It’s sexy and classy, they need to keep the drama away. Food saved this place.

Decent Hibachi food. Solid 3 stars.
My boyfriend and I came to Katama for a Hibachi dinner on a Wednesday night. We have high expectations when it comes to Hibachi because our taste buds have been acquired to meet the Hibachi standards of Nakato in Atlanta, however I will TRY my best to give an unbiased opinion.
To start off, Nakama was fairly empty for a Hibachi restaurant. We were seated immediately after arriving and ordered drinks. I orders the Slush Puppie which I thought would be a frozen mixed drink but instead it was not frozen at all and tasted like a melted Blue Raspberry Slushie from Quick Trip. For entrees, I ordered the Teryaki chicken and my boyfriend ordered the Shrimp and Chicken. We noticed that the prices were on the more expensive side ranging from $ 18 – 40 with an additional charge of $ 3.75 for fries rice.
Our Hibachi chef came out moments later looking a bit unenthused and seemed to be new to the Hibachi grill. I sat patiently waiting for the big fire opening at the beginning of every Hibachi experience but this time it didn’t happen. Our chef started right on the appetizers! I ordered the Shrimp appetizer which was pretty standard, and my boyfriend opted for the mushroom appetizer which was yummy. Next up came the vegetables lacking in flavor. I ended up having to sprinkle my veggies with soy sauce for taste. The fried rice tasted a little off to me as well, as if it were cooked with margarine instead of the traditional Hibachi seasoned butter. Our entrees were decent but well portioned with enough to take home for left overs.
Overall, their Hibachi recipes lack in flavor and seasoning. The prices are comparable to Benihana’s however the portion sizes provide enough for left overs.

We hit up nakama in the southside for my birthday. Went on a friday night, the crowd wasnt too bad. Nakama is a place ive been by a bunch of times and always wanted to give it a try.
For the money, what it was, and coming from Westmoreland county it was really not worth it for me. The habachi was decent but no different than the places in monroeville or greensburg. We also had sushi was was decent but nothing fantastic.

So I was recently in town as part of that annual convention involving tails and ears (If you’re from Pittsburgh I’m sure you know what I’m talking about!)
Anyways, my friends and I decided to give this place a go on the last night as a final hurrah. Folks who had been dealing for the convention were running late getting their trucks packed up so we didn’t even get to the restaurant until after 9:30 PM. We called and asked if they would still do the hibachi grill for our party and they were very welcoming of us and said sure, absolutely! So despite getting there so late we all got treated to a fabulous meal and a fun show, we’re all thankful not just to Nakama but to the whole city of Pittsburgh for welcoming us to their city every year!
On to the food, I tried their Diablo Seafood hibachi which was shrimp and scallops cooked up with udon noodles in a spicy sauce. It was very unique from the other hibachi meals due to the noodles and spicy sauce so my order had to be cooked last but it was more than worth it. Everything was delicious, the spicy sauce actually makes you sweat a little bit but certainly is not over powering. My girlfriend had some hibachi steak and, well, any time you got a beautiful cut of meat cooked up right in front of you like that you just know it’s going to melt in your mouth.
Everything was great, we’re already talking about coming back to Nakama next year, hopefully at a much earlier time in the day though. Thanks again!

All I had here was sushi which I found to be okay. Between the two of us, we got the Boston Roll and the Rainbow Roll. Rainbow roll was really good, except one of the pieces of fish tasted a bit slimy to me, so that was a little unsettling. Rest of the roll was great, however. The Boston roll though was very underwhelming. It was supposed to have cream cheese in it, but for the life of us, we could not taste the cream cheese! How are you going to advertise cream cheese as one of your key ingredients when there’s basically no cream cheese except for maybe in one measly piece? Quite disappointing.
Service was good. Our waitress was nice, quick, and efficient. Just how servers should be. A little on pricier side though, so watch for that.
Bottom line: sushi-​wise, this place is okay. I won’t be craving it, but if someone were to invite me out to dinner there, I wouldn’t put up a fuss. It’s not a place I would go out of my way to eat at.

I think my bartender was having a bad day.
I have been to Nakama a few times. I usually meet to discuss business. This was my least favorite experience at Nakama. The food was pretty good.
I just cannot get over the service. The bartender was short and gave the impression we were putting her out when she took our order. I agree with some other reviews where the place is not the same when I originally moved here.
I will get my hibachi /​sushi fix elsewhere. There are plenty of options on Carson. What a shame :-(

I’ve been going to Nakama for years now. I have never thought the hibachi was anything special, especially since you’re paying that much for it.
Now onto the sushi, while it isn’t fantastic, it is on the better side for Pittsburgh. Definitely not my favorite, but it’s consistent and good. Whenever I have a craving and don’t want to get all dressed up for the night, Nakama is my go to.
Service is alright here, rarely is it quick, so make sure you have some time to spend. It is definitely pricey, for 4 rolls and 2 beers it was close to $ 80.

Nakama might be a little pricy, but it’s well worth the cost. I recommend incorporating the seared Ahi tuna into your selection. It melts in your mouth! The atmosphere is lively, but still conducive to conversation.
The Hanalei Roll, a tempura flash fried sushi roll, is my very favorite sushi roll.
The cocktails are tasty and extremely strong. The Slush Puppie Martini is my favorite!

I went here with my friends to celebrate joint birthdays and we all decided in checking out this place, because who doesn’t love hibachi? Right?!
Anyway we had made reservations for about 15 people and were seated at a hibachi table. Everybody made their drink orders and were given our drinks in a reasonable amount of time.
Hubby and I went for the hibachi, while the majority of our party opted for sushi. Anyway, one of the things that I expect from a hibachi joint is a cheesy, interactive chef and this guy was none of those things. He just basically cooked his dishes and did one onion volcano and that’s about it. No crowd interaction or goofy jokes… this is something I always expect. Also there were no acknowledgement of anyone’s birthday despite telling the waitress.
People that ordered got their fried rice, but I ended up ordering steamed rice, which never arrived when my scallops and steak and veggies had arrived. I was starving at this point so I just proceeded eating and noticed that the waitress did not come back to the table, even to refill drinks. I actually had to flag her down to inquire about my rice. My husband has finished his beer and actually wanted another one but was nowhere to be found. The service was pretty disappointing overall. Another thing that I found disappointing was the small portion size for hibachi. Usually I am used to walking out with left overs for two days from one order of hibachi. The sides were just a small portion of rice, vegetables, and soup and salad, but no lo mein or other hibachi standards. Not even a small scoop of ice cream at the end. So needless to say I was kinda bummed out about this too.
In terms of the food I will have to say that my scallops were perfectly cooked, and my steak was pretty awesome, but overall I found the customer service here pretty lacking. At one point my husband was walking to the bathroom and was nearly run over by a member of the wait staff and didn’t even receive an «excuse me». The lack of service kind of overshadows everything else.
I also think that their décor was pretty cool and really liked their vibe, but overall my experience was just meh.

I am currently at my table and just couldn’t wait to rave about my experience here!!! We came during happy hour and had excellent deals on drinks and apps! We got an array of sushi as well, my favorite being the Crunchy Philly. and that’s coming from someone who isn’t much of a sushi eater!
Everyone was also very happy with their martinis and they have a wide range of selections to satisfy any craving! Our server, Marissa was so sweet and very attentive to us! Our drinks never went dry and she was more than excellent.
We all enjoyed our experience here immensely! Thanks Marissa!

This used to be our favorite sushi & sashimi bar in Pittsburgh but it seems the quality & service are travelling down hill, or at least they were last night. We went here for my birthday and were greeted by the hostess with a blank stare. She didn’t say anything… Nothing… So I said, ‘Hi, we’d like a teppanyaki table’, to which she responded with another blank stare. Then I said ‘Hibachi…’ and she woke up and said, ‘That’ll be at least 15 – 20 minutes or so…’ and then went back to her blank stare. Nothing like, ‘Would you like to grab seats at the bar? Start your meal off with a drink? How about a sushi roll while you wait…’ nothing… So I said, ‘Ok, we’ll wait…’ and seated ourselves at the sushi bar. It took at least 5 minutes for the actual waitress to appear and it seemed like it was a chore for her to get us a couple glasses of water. She didn’t offer any help picking out rolls or sushi so we were on our own. We settled on a ‘Steeler Roll’ for $ 14. Looking around at the closest hibachi table to us, I could see 6 people seated and 2 empty seats. I figured they were waiting for someone– turned out they weren’t. I also assumed that maybe they had ordered already– they hadn’t. Had they ordered drinks already maybe– Nope… It was obvious that the hostess just wanted to be ignorant and make us wait for another table. Ok, fine. She doesn’t get tipped anyway. So our roll arrives and we start in on it. It tastes pretty good but the eel that we so love is being lost in the quantity of rice surrounding it. It even had trouble staying together. Then the hostess comes over and says ‘Are you ready???’ to which I look at her, then at the roll, and say, ‘We’ll need a few minutes…’
On to the teppanyaki table…
The restaurant was super loud because I think there was an ‘End of the Season Pittsburgh Steeler party’ in the back room and they were making all kinds of commotion so I can’t fault the waiter on how hard it was for all of us to hear him. Oh, by the way– our table was only half full when they started service. There was my wife & I and another couple. Maybe they were trying to get us in & out quickly, I don’t know… Our waiter started to take our orders and I heard him offer the couple next to us, ‘Would you like to upgrade your white rice for fried for an additional charge?’ and they both said no. Looking in the menu, I see that a side of fried rice without any purchase is $ 3.29 so when it came time for us to order, he offered the same thing and I asked him how much the ‘upcharge’ was. $ 3.29 was his response. Why wouldn’t he just ask if we’d like an additional side of fried rice for $ 3.29 instead of making it sound like you were getting a better deal by declining the white rice in favor of fried for $ 3.29??? Stuff like this really bothers me so I told him, ‘I would like fried rice but I also want the steamed rice I’m already paying for…’ to which he says, ‘Fine with me man, I don’t care how much rice I bring out…’ Nice customer service… Anyway, we ended up with the only American teppanyaki chef in the entire place, and he was just getting over bronchitis or something because he barely spoke and when he did, it was in a very low tone. Don’t get me wrong– he was a very nice guy… My wife had ordered the Bob’s Triple Combo (Strip steak, Chicken & Shrimp) and I ordered the Chef’s Choice (Strip steak & Chicken). They were both delicious and aside from the service issues, we had a very nice meal.
We both agreed though– next time we’re going out for sushi– we’re going to Sake at South Side Works. The chefs are much friendlier, the fish is fresher and the prices are much more reasonable (Half price on Sunday’s & Monday’s)