The Last Samurai

I really don’t like that I’m even having to write this review… mainly because I didn’t want to eat here to begin with. I am a TRUE Unilocaler, and when my people tell me a restaurant isn’t the business, I listen! But, being the good sport that I am, we made a trip to this place, (perhaps named after an odd Tom Cruise movie?) for a birthday dinner celebration for a friend and wife of Manfriend’s coworker.
To be quite frank, I was hesitant about even ordering food after reading reviews involving food poisoning… food poisoning is literally one of my biggest fears. along with clowns and confined spaces. So, when the decision came up of whether to go with sushi or hibachi, my gut (ha) told me to go with the cooked choice. Plus, its always fun to watch the characters of hibachi chefs get all crazy on their flat top. This is completely unrelated to the restaurant, but seriously, how bad ass would it be to have one of those in your home? I have added this to my mental list of «Things I Need to Have When I Get Rich». Thanks for the lack of lottery, Utah.
Anyway! Being that we are new parents and rarely get out for a meal, I went ahead and ordered myself a glass of Pinot Noir, which wasn’t bad for being $ 7. Our server was great. Very efficient and quick, considering there was about 12 of us. We decided to go with the special meal they had on the menu for 2 people. which included soup, salad, a choice of either shrimp or veggie tempura appetizer, 2 entrees and either rice or teriyaki noodles. The server, being the cool young lady she was, allowed us to do a half and half kinda thing for each of our entrees. So I ordered the chicken and shrimp, Manfriend decided on the steak and shrimp. She also allowed us to swap the shrimp tempura for calamari tempura, since calamari (when cooked correctly) is one of my very favorite foods.
First, the soup. What the hell… I’m pretty sure that it was similar to something that would be served to inmates in a Syrian prison. It was seriously warm, slightly flavored water with a couple mushrooms floating. Terrible. The salad was okay I guess… pretty much Dole iceberg salad mix with a creamy, sweetish dressing that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, flavor wise. The calamari was actually pretty damn good. Maybe slightly overcooked, but I have never had calamari cooked this way, and it was the highlight of the meal.
Our hibachi chef was entertaining, of course doing the obligatory tossing of shrimp into mouths. (Caught mine, by the way. You don’t go wasting shrimp!) But the food… meh. My chicken was dry and rather flavorless. The shrimp was cooked pretty well, but also lacked flavor. Manfriend requested his steak medium-​rare. it was definitely well done. And again, no flavor. The teriyaki noodles were okay. I wish I had gotten the rice. It was much better. Luckily my man likes to share. ;)
Because it was a birthday celebration, they brought out some asian-​style fried ice cream. Not bad at all… but I would love any type of fried ice cream. Now here comes my MAJOR irritation with this place. the automatic 20% gratuity on the bill. Come on… I know that with larger parties there may be an assumed gratuity… but 20%??? The server was great, and I would have tipped her VERY well, but it pisses me off when the restaurant owner decides what I am going to tip. ESPECIALLY when the food is overpriced and pretty much sucks anyway. Even with my 10% discount (thank you Unilocal Deals!), the check was ridiculously high for what we got.
I KNEW this was going to happen. The selfish portion of me wishes people would let ME choose the restaurant for their birthday celebrations. I know things!

Surprised this place is still open nobody in there at lunch should have been my first clue. The ambiance is lovely but the sushi is mediocre at best not much better than grocery store quality. And the crab is imitation crab! Um hi… You are a sushi restaurant and you are serving cheap fake crab???

Having recently flown into Salt Lake, and never been here before, I just walked across the street from my hotel and ran into this place. It’s nicely laid out with tables, booths, and a cool-​looking sushi bar.
Upon entering, a few staff saw us but went about their business without asking if we’d like to be seated. After walking through the entire place once and finding ourselves back at the front entrance, a server approached us and offered us our choice of seating. He apologized for the wait and said they were short staffed this evening.
No big deal. But I counted at least six employees and no more than 20 customers. Okay so moving on…
I ordered the steak and chicken combo, which consists of a combination of steak and chicken (tee hee). It was decent and contained very generous portions. Even though I was hungry after flying half the day, I did not finish it. Neither did my dinner companion, who ordered something similar. Like I said, it was decent just a lot of food.
Just as we were about finished, the power went out and the place went completely dark. This is beyond their control but I was surprised there was no emergency lighting. It was flashlights and candles for a few minutes until the power came back on.
All in all, not a terrible place. But I would not make a special trip to come here.

‘ll be straight up with you-​I struggle with raw fish. I’m all about fish, and in fact I’m a big fan. Got a good piece of salmon with teriyaki glaze? I’m all over it. Fried cod with chips? I’d down that.
But raw? Sorry. I struggle.
With that in mind, I headed over to the Last Samurai downtown off of 600 S for a mid-​day lunch meeting. The restaurant is clean, pristine even, and attractively decorated in a faux japanese style that should be enjoyed more than by the one other person we saw when we came in the door.
Seated quickly, our waitress was quick to serve our drinks, speedy to refill them, and prompt with our orders. I cannot make one complaint about the service.
Heck, even the food was good (if you like raw fish). Add enough soy sauce and wasabi, and raw fish is the last thing you notice… primarily because your nose is running.
Check it out. Make at least one trip over to the Last Samurai to see how much you like raw fish. And if your stomach won’t do it, they have steak, too, as my lunch partner ordered. Who doesn’t like steak?

The food was OK. Service not bad. I think I’ll continue to look for other sushi places in the area.

So I guess this place is under new management now. I don’t think this change is for the better.
My boyfriend and I came by here for lunch today. In the past, I’ve enjoyed doing lunch here on occasion because you can get all the hibachi awesomeness for a less outrageous price. However, upon arriving we learned that they no longer do the hibachi at the table at lunch. Lame.
So we moseyed into a booth and checked out the menu. I noticed they had a lunch special for two which seemed right up our alley: soup, gyoza, and your choice of two entrees (steak, chicken, or shrimp) for $ 22. That’s a pretty good deal, but when you add a salad for $ 3 and upgrade to fried rice for another $ 4 the price starts to climb.
The soup came out first, and I’m not exactly sure what it was. Miso? No, unless it was really watered down. That onion soup? No, I see no onions. It was some sort of mostly clear broth with a few sad looking mushrooms floating around in it. Still, it tasted pretty good. Next came the gyoza, which looked shockingly similar to those pot stickers you can buy in the frozen section at Smith’s, and whoever cooked them barely let them get browned at the bottom. Good to eat, but not restaurant quality.
The salad was nice. Yeah, it was your typical iceberg mix with the carrots thrown in, but the creamy ginger dressing was good. Our entrees (one steak and one shrimp) came out shortly thereafter. The shrimp entrée had five shrimp, you guys. Five shrimp. They were really tasty shrimp, but that’s more than a little skimpy. The portions of everything else (steak, veggies, and rice) were much more reasonable, and I have no complaints there.
Service was good for the most part, though occasionally slow. But what was once a nice deal for very good food is now too high a price to pay for pretty good food. Next time I want hibachi, I guess I’m headed to Benihana (where the food is better).
Overall, this just makes me miss Hibachi House.

Originally, my boyfriend and I were planning on Tepanyaki because he wanted some freshly-​cooked steak with grilled vegetables but unfortunately, we thought of them right when they closed. We thought of other alternatives in the area and Last Samurai came to mind. We arrived around 9:40 p.m. with 20 minutes left before they closed and were greeted by one of the co-​owners to a nearly empty restaurant.
Service was great from start to finish so I would’ve given them 5 stars in that criteria. However, I can never give a hibachi restaurant 5 stars because of the price range. I NEVER get enough bang for my buck and this particular meal definitely left me disappointed with the portions we received.
The reason why I am giving this restaurant 2 stars is because both my boyfriend and I got food poisoning after dining here. The steak that the chef cooked on the hibachi grill was raw in the middle although it looked cooked on the outside. I understood that the restaurant was about to close and the employees were, perhaps, trying to go home as soon as they could… but that doesn’t justify the fact that my food was negligently cooked.
I really wished that the cook had been more careful with our meal because I actually liked him. He had a fun sense of humor and was very entertaining. However, I should’ve known something was sketchy when he dropped one of his knives when he began cooking.

I was ordering take out. The host, Josh, quoted me 10 minutes for my food. I was waiting for 30 minutes. Josh was rude and very unprofessional. The food was poor quality. Jos didn’t know the menu. Never eat here.

Slow service combined with mediocre sushi is not a good combination!

Good looking restaurant. Food portion small, sashimi too. Taste ok, but not the best. Try something else next time.

This was the most hit or miss I’ve had with a single meal in a long time.
I mozy on up to the sushi bar, order and start chatting with the two other guys there, also on business.
First the seaweed salad came up, slightly better than average. Then the edamame came and it was old, wrinkly and brown. Yes brown in some areas… what the f*ck!
Then the veggie tempura comes and it is pretty greasy, like hamburger dripping greasy (which I don’t mind, but only on my burgers!). The spicy tuna roll is as expected and not half bad.
But then comes the Vegas roll and it is to die for. Creamy, streamy and delicious.
I’d go back for the Vegas roll, but watch out for old edamame!

It was pretty good but for the price I would rather go to somewhere better… Maybe a global chain that starts with a B? Ha ha

This was my first time at a Japanese steakhouse, and I was not sure what to expect. I was very pleasantly surprised at how good everything was. The service was great, and it was one of the best meals I have ever had. I had New York steak and chicken. It came with grilled mushrooms, onions, and zucchini. I have never had anything like it, but I certainly will have it again. My only complaint is that the fried rice cost extra. Definitely recommended.

Not bad, I have been to few of them. This is not the same Last Samurai in Boston. Food was fine and the service was good. Good place for a group of friends.

The food was so good. Our chef was excellent and very skilled.

Not bad but nothing to write home about. We just came for Sushi and the menu was fairly small. Got a fried roll (the Park City) and it was rolled to large. Had to take two bites. I don’t like that make it bite sized.

Great food and excellent service. The steak and shrimp were very tender and delectable.

In SLC for business and craving sushi. Lunch special are on moderate price range. California roll was bad. Spicy tuna was fair. Ordered teriyaki noodle bowl which was generous size and tasted fine. Salad was horrible, had to send back due to wilted lettuce. Overall not worth the price.

Went here for lunch to the Teppanyaki side of the house. You can certainly order sushi from the grill as well, but I didn’t on this occasion. The interior of the restaurant is nice and comfortably appointed. There is a large fish tank that greets you as you walk in, full of wonderfully colored fish. There is a sushi bar on the other side of the restaurant but on this day it was empty.
Our chef was nice and did a good job cooking our lunch specials on the grill. The food was okay, nothing to get really excited about mind you. I think I will have to come back here for dinner, but I won’t be in a rush to make that happen.

Color me slow but I thought this was going to be an exact «Benihana» copy place. Well, it is Benihana like – minus the good food, plus Samurai style tricks for the cooking show.
Our chef was crazy, for real. He was a bit aggressive and freak nasty. He was setting things on fire, making off color comments, breaking eggs like a mad man and forcing the male guests to catch shrimp in their mouths like they were seals. I must admit I liked him and really enjoyed his style.
The food was really duplicate of the Beni menu but not impressive, IMO. I had the fillet mignon and shrimp with fried rice. Just okay. Not too flavorful – lacking in overall taste bud sensation.