Shogi Hibachi Express

I went when it just opened, and it was pretty good. The price was okay, and I enjoyed the hot sauce which was pretty spicy. While it was good, it was nothing spectacular. Good place to go if you’re craving asian food that you can custom
order. However, it’s not that great.

Went here yesterday after seeing their website and wanting to give them a try. IT WAS CLOSED, with a sign on the door saying Coming Soon!!!

Went there on a weekday for lunch. There was fungus on the broccoli and the other veggies looked soggy. Sad because most restaurants in Sugar Land City Center are above par.
Highly Disappointed in their quality of food and service. There is also a $ 2 charge if you share your food with a friend.

Not enough options compared to other places, like Genghis Grill. It is also overpriced and generally not as good considering the options (particularly the sauces) are so limited. I like the fact that we have a separate bowl for protein. I do appreciate that they put two scoops of rice as opposed to one (like other places), but this means there’s more rice than stir fry in the bowl. The service is nice and so is the restaurant. We’ve only gone for lunch so it’s been pretty quiet/​empty. They do have a bar, but it’s missing a lot of popular brands of liquor.

out of all the different stir fry restaurants, this one is definitely my favorite, if ur food tastes bad, its ur own fault, lol, thats just the nature of this style of eating.
pretty extensive vegetable choices including bok choy and other items most other restaurants don’t offer, and lots of meats and seafood also. sauces are all pretty good and they taste even better when mixed. noticed that the asian chef is the best cook there, the others sometimes slightly overcook the food or make it jus a little too dry. the fried rice is pretty good and so is the yakisoba, have yet to try the other carb options.

I go to these build your own bowl places all the time, aka at least once a week, and this one was just awful. First, the selection of protein and produce compared to the others was just nonexistent. The sauces were bland. They also ran out of one of their main starches and didn’t both to tell me before I made my bowl with said item in mind. You have to know what starch you are going to build upon to get the best flavor, and that would have been helpful to know ahead of time. Also in general I hate the places with the two bowl system. If you are a veggie for the most part like me, or a complete carnivore like my dinning partner, you really do not get what you pay for. The service wasn’t very friendly either. The only saving grace this place has is the location. Right across the freeway is another place like this with great service and selection and one bowl aka much better value for your buck.

«Shogi Hibachi.» Sounds good. «…Express.» Umm, doesn’t sound so good. That was my thought process when a couple friends and I came across this place last night. Hibachi… express? How has something «express» ever been extraordinary? I don’t know, but Shogi’s done it!
So this is how it works. First, you choose your base — noodles (udon, pad thai, etc.) or rice (steamed or fried). Then, you stroll down to the bar and choose whatever vegetables, meats, seasonings, and sauces you want. The customization on this thing is RIDICULOUS! Yet oh so satisfying, knowing what you want is exactly what you’re going to get. After you’ve customized to your heart’s content, the cooks will stir-​fry up everything up for you.
I thought service was great. The hostess/​server asked if this was our first visit, and upon hearing it was, she made sure to show us the ropes and she continuously checked in with us to make sure we were okay. Super sweet girl!
If you’re in Town Centre, check this place out! All the goodness of hibachi, plus crazy customization, minus the hefty price tag!

Service was alright, the ingredients were fresh and tasty. My food turned out very yummy. The thing is, it’s too much work. Basically the customer does everything… I don’t mind getting some of my own ingredients, but when I got to the spices, how am I supposed to know what to pick? I didn’t go to a restaurant to guess how to season my food. Luckily I have SOME home cooking experience, so I sprinkled a bit of what I knew I liked. I moved on to the sauces and put what looked good (a combo of four sauces) into my little sauce cup… and my dish turned out delicious. I just wonder about people who DON’T know anything about cooking… i’m sure there are people who have messed up their bowl and dumped like a huge bout of seasoning because they didn’t know any better.
Here’s my major gripe. I brought the coupon that was in the mass mailed Town Center promotional book for $ 1 Edemame or dessert. So I brought that and said I waned edemame. They were out, So I said, OK fine, give me the dessert. Turns out they only had half the amount of mochi flavors that they were supposed to have. If a business is going to print a coupon for a certain item, shouldn’t they make sure they HAVE that in stock?
So to summarize, it tastes good, if you have some knowledge on cooking and spices/​sauces, the ingredients are fresh, but just be prepared to do most of the work yourself when you go here to eat. It seems like a good place for a very pick eater, or someone with dietary restrictions and needs to make sure he/​she knows exactly what’s going into the food.

You get to make your own food so it’s a fun atmosphere and good tasting asian food. There are a few reason’s that keep me from wanting to go back though:
— Your clothes stink after eating there
— The Cooks do not speak English (I asked if there would be anymore spinach coming out and received a firm «no.» Although, 20 seconds later, someone came from the back with a fresh batch.
— The food/​sauces/​seasonings are not always labeled correctly so it can be frustrating if you’re trying to experiment, but want to know what you’re using.
With that said, the wait staff are friendly, the décor is nice, the food is tasty, and the portions are more than enough. Shogi’s gets 3 ½ stars.

WOW, fresh veggies, fresh meat, and you make your own mix???
I wish they had one these in NYC, I’d be there every week.
Its a little overwhelming at first because you have hundreds of options in making your dish. Onions, peppers, bamboo, chicken, steak, scallops, shrimp, sauces, spices the list goes on!
Once you decide what you want the chefs throw it all on the massive grill to make a tasty stir fry.
Make sure you get noodles as your carb, not the rice. I made that mistake my first time and never looked back!
SHOGI SHOGI SHOGI!!!

The only thing holding me back is that this place is EXPENSIVE!
All dishes are $ 10 a plate, though the meal could definitely feed you for a few days.
Shogi Hibachi Express is a unique experience, and the staff is extremely friendly. The place also has great hours — I believe it closes at 11PM on the weekends.
You are given a menu card upon sitting down. With a dry erase marker, you choose what base you want for your dish, whether it be noodles, rice, etc. While that is getting set up, your waiter brings the drinks. When the base is ready, you walk down a buffet choosing your veggies, meats, sauces, spices, etc. The chefs prepare your meal on gigantic open skillet in the middle of the kitchen, and the waiter brings it to you hot and fresh!
If you want to split your plate with a friend, it costs extra. Keep that in mind because if the manager catches you sharing, she will get mad, so let your waiter know ahead of time!
A completely customized dish has been made, just to your liking!!! Absolutely amazing.

Food was good and I’m glad it was mostly healthy, but that’s the ONLY good thing about this place.
We showed up on Sunday at 1pm for lunch with the boys. It was full, but not really packed. The waitress showed us over to where the line started and explained the colored bowl thing. We then proceeded to stand in line for 20 minutes! There was only one «chef» and he only had 3 – 4 meals cooking at a time. We stopped one of the waitresses to ask about it and she replied that they just called someone in. He finally arrived and the line finally started moving.
Overall, the service was horrible. She would disappear for long stretches of time. Then we found her standing in a corner talking to the other waitress or the manager. We had to wave her over for refills and David had to get up to give her our card when the bill sat on the table for too long. Pitiful for a place that has such potential.

So good! Make it however you like. I’m picky so this is perfect. Plus kids under 4 eat free!

I’ve been going to Mongolian BBQ places since college, so I know the drill at places like this.
However, the only thing Shogi has going for it is the price.
They have finally bothered to label some of the things on the line, although not everything matched the labels. So you have to guess at it and hope that when everything comes back to you cooked tastes good. This is especially problematic when you get to the end of the line and half of the sauces you use to season your food aren’t labeled.
So, I dropped $ 10 on dinner and created my own inedible bowl and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. Service was indifferent. (Hint for the server: you’ll seem more sincere if you say «thank you for coming in» while still facing the table and maybe even making eye contact instead of turning and walking away as you begin to say it.)
If places like this and Mongo want my business, they need to give some direction. I’m not a fan of Genghis Grill, but they have the right idea by putting out cards that you can carry with you on the line that tell you what sauces to use in what proportion to get a certain flavor. The Mongolian BBQ place I went to in college had a house sauce that you couldn’t go wrong with if you used 3 ladles of it; you could add a little bit of flavor with the other sauces, but you always started with their sauce as a base.
In other words, Shogi, your customers deserve to get more help than «put the veggies in a silver bowl, meat in a red bowl, and sauce in a white bowl.»
The idea of «build your own» is a good one, but a restaurant shouldn’t be asking its patrons to pick their own seasonings, especially when the patrons have no idea of what the restaurant has put out for them.
Also, sauces work better with Mongolian BBQ than powdered spices, because the powdered spices don’t get thoroughly mixed through the bowl. I’m reminded of this every time I go to Mongo.
I’m not going to pay $ 10 per attempt at trying to create something that is edible. It’s not what dining out is all about. It’s the same reason I stopped going to Mongo. After so many visits where I screw up my own meal, I have to ask myself why I can’t make a stir fry at a place like this that tastes good, yet I can whip one up in my own kitchen without a recipe book. (Answer: I know the ingredients in my own kitchen.) Until Shogi finds a way to make this a foolproof meal, I’d be a fool to return.

Ok, this place is pretty darn awesome! Great for the dieter, the big eater, the picky, the allergic, or just the plain hungry. Lots of food, fresh, quick, healthy, and tasty.
Great concept! Pick your mix of a starch, veggies, spices, sauces, and meat/​protein. They cook it for you and bring it to you.
Great deal, too. A one trip is a lot of food, but if you are REALLY hungry you can have all you can eat for $ 2 extra bucks!
My only issues with Shogi are:
— It’s a little overwhelming the first time and the servers were sparse and/​or somewhat apathetic in explaining the concept. There was one guy that was good and showed what to to in the line, but the girls there were too busy looking cute to really care.
— It was freaking hot in there! The big window outside from the bar was letting precious a/​c air escape. Plus the big hibachi oven puts out heat!
— Wish the bowls weren’t seemingly so cheap. Porous plastic skeeves me out. Glass would be heavy, but some kind of liner or something in them.
–I had a little of someone elses mix in my bowl, and I’m not picky, but if you have an allergy this could be bad.
— Better labeling and explanations of the foods, spices and sauces. It was kind of a crapshoot what you were going to end up with.
All in all, great healthy way to eat. Lots of variety. Fresh food. Work out the bugs, get some more interested help, and I will be back!

Ok the first time I went I had never been to anything like it before. So i was a bit disappointed about preparing my own food to be cooked. I mean I am no chef actually no even close. But after going back a few more times i got the hang of it. Its a small place when you get seated you get a plastic card write your name then check which rice or pasta you want. Next you go the veggie bar and grab all of your veggies then seasoning and then meat, fish shrimp, scallops and even ham! At the very end you add your sauce. When i go for lunch its around $ 8. I think its a great deal plus its really healthy. One word of caution there jalapenos are very hot so be careful if you like spicy, you can sometimes over do it.

This is a great place — went for lunch and service was prompt and helpful as this can be a new concept to some diners. Food was delicious and plentiful — couldn’t eat it all — brought it home and ate the rest for dinner — still yummy! If you have a hard time making decisions, this place might be a challenge since there are SOO many ingrediants from which to choose! Everything was fresh and clean — can’t say one bad thing about it.

Mm hibachi! & double thumbs up for express!
This place has an awesome concept. I recently came in here for lunch with a group of friends. We were seated promptly, and had the best service. The staff is very kind and helpful.
I‘m a big fan of hot and sizzling food. Basically you get to choose your meats, vegetables, spices and sauces. Jazz it up, and be comfortable with what you create. Once you are done picking your ingredients, you hand over your bowl to the chef who cooks it up. The service is quick, and you receive your yummy creation as soon as possible. You also get to try samples of sauces and spices before you choose to work with them. Just ask one of the friendly staff, and they are pleased to do so. I choose a blend of Sichuan sauce and Teriyaki sauce. It complimented my dish well, with the blend of spicy and sweet.
I‘ll be coming back soon enough. Probably even sooner?
This week. Yes. =)

I went there for lunch and I was really impressed. As someone mentioned on here I wish the vegetables/​fruits were labeled how the meats are. I do like the arrey of choices they have. Great prices, and if you chose your food/​combinations correctly then you will definetly enjoy. You are in control of picking what the food/​spices/​combinations are, and they cook it. If it doesn’t come out too good then it may be the selections you have made to your bowl. I will be back that’s for sure. They give you a huge amount of food as well as quick and timely service.

A new restaurant in Sugar Land’s Town Square area is always a welcome sight! We’ve been eying this location for quite a while, waiting for Shogi to open and yesterday was the day! We walked in and the hostess greeted us in quite a dry manner, I expected a little more excitement for opening day. That was the only unexcited person we encountered. All the employees were friendly and more than ready to help us. I was a little hesitant, because I knew that this restaurant is the sister restaurant to Taisho which was just one block away. Taisho hadn’t been the best when they first opened and subsequent reviews kept us from returning. I’m glad I went to Shogi, as it proved to be really good!
Shogi is a partial do-​it-​yourself type place. I don’t know how to cook and therefore tend to stay away from anywhere I need to have some knowledge or skill concerning raw ingredients. We sat down and a nice waiter greeted us and explained the concept. Basically:
1. You get an order card and choose white rice, fried rice, noodles, tortillas, or some other starch (I don’t remember all of them).
2. You walk to the buffet style line and get a tray. You load up a silver bowl with any or all of the veggies available. There are more veggies than you can imagine. I remember counting at least 4 different types of mushrooms alone.
3. You load up your red bowl with meat (beef, pork, chicken, fish, shrimp, scallops, etc…)
4. Season the meat with one of over 20 different spices and oils.
5. Select your sauce and fill the white bowl with it. They have a variety of sauces from sweet and sour to super spicy. You can choose one sauce or many.
6. Give your bowls to the chef and have a seat, they bring you your bowl. While you wait you can order a drink from the bar.
They use this HUGE metal circle in the chef’s area to cook the food on. The food comes to you in an asymmetrical bowl with your starch of choice (mine came with two mounds of friend rice). Then food is extremely hot (I have a burnt tongue as I write this).
The flavor was good, but it’s really about you! What I really liked about this place:
–the décor (beautiful and much nicer than I’d expect from a place where I have to pick out the foods).
–the variety of veggies and meats… I was really impressed with all the different types of food that I could throw into a bowl.
–the willingness of the waiters to walk us through every little step!
–the ability to put tons of one ingredient in and leave something else out entirely. I love water chestnuts and never get enough, well I can at Shogi!
What I would change:
–the veggies and meats aren’t labeled and for those of who don’t cook, it’s quite daunting. No one wants to ask what every one of 30+ veggies is.
–the sodas weren’t mixed right (the syrup to carbonation ratio was off).
As we left we were puzzled by the bar area that has a large open window to the sidewalk. Can you sit out there and eat? Yes, we saw order forms… so does that mean you have to come in and do all the preparing and then claim one of the few seats on the outside bar? It looks fine, just a bit confusing.
Overall, we plan to go back. For $ 9.99 I got a huge bowl of food. If you are really hungry you can get a bottomless bowl at dinner for $ 11.99. I can’t imagine needing more than the regular bowl, as you can pile on as much as you can fit in the bowls on your first pass.
I’ll add this place to my arsenal Sugar Land eateries… it may even become one of our standard dinner location!