Kabuto used to be my go-to place, we ate there once a week. I've been trying to support them during this pandemic / no dine in, yet can't get anyone to answer the phone. Beginning my search for a new go-to Japanese Steak House. read more

I ordered my food from Kabuto's over the phone at 11:40 am. The man on the phone told me it will be ready in 10 minutes, my lunch starts at 12 so perfect that gives them 10 mins to get it ready and 10 mins to make sure it's ready. (Normally it's always ready in 10mins) I got there at 12:05 which means it had been 25 mins, 15 mins over the ready time. I go in and the guy asked me how can I help you, I let him know I had a pick up order for myself (there were 2bags on the counter) He says OK then he proceeds walk off to go and help 5 other people before even checking if my food was out/ ready or anything. 10mins pass by, And then after that he goes in the back & I see him packing up another bag, which ended up not being mine and he ask me if I ordered online or on phone, I said on phone, he said what did you have? I said express hibachi steak he with what? I said do you not have my order in? He said no. So now it has been 35-40 mins since I've placed my express lunch order and they haven't even started it! Normally I wouldn't be upset BUT he would have known this had he checked on my food when he asked me how he could help me. As well as because now I have to go back to work hungry because I don't have time left in my break to wait or eat anything. read more

If you are going to eat here you need to call ahead or you will be waiting an hour or more. The food was really good and plentiful. There was so much food you could take it home for next day meal. Staff was friendly and of course the birthday singing gets the whole place fired up. read more

This place is always good and vibrant always great customer service very clean. Smiley faces good hit and fresh tasting food one of the best in Pineville.... read more

Horrible! Service/food...horrible. Damn chef dropped half of my chicken breast on the floor while trying to flip it. Apparently he didn't think anyone noticed...so he cuts my other chicken breast in small little DICED pieces to make it look like I received 2 breasts. What an idiot!! When I complained to the manager, he took over 10 minutes to come over to the table and the idiot chef was already heading back to the kitchen. When I pointed out the breast on the floor (yep! idiot chef left it there on the floor), the manager claimed it was there from earlier and was not part of my meal. Idiots I tell you.....IDIOTS! And the carpet is filthy, bathroom has no heat...you can smell bleach while eating dinner. read more

Every time I come here the food is amazing. Fried rice is well made and the garlic noodles are to die for. The chefs make it a good time as well. I always get either vegetables as my main dish or shrimp and my boyfriend gets steak and we share, it has always been very good. The lunch menu price is unbeatable. I have nothing bad to say about kabutos! I've been coming here for a while, I will continue to come :) read more

Ok, I will not say its bad, but I expected more from the reviews. I just found it super fast and very messy. I was given my soup and then the salad 2 minutes later, then the guy was out to cook before I even to go my salad and he was not very entertaining to say the least. He had food flying all over the place. Then I ordered some mustard sauce and it was placed in front of me and 2 minutes later the guy came and took it way thinking it was the said and I could not catch him. The entire staff was hispanic, not Japanese. I will say the shrimp was tasty but the Spagetti was odd and tasteless. I just expected a nicer meal for that kind of money. read more

Oh no, Kabuto. Went with BF's family for a family celebration. We had reserved the large room for our group. When we arrived, we were told by the hostesses to wait to speak with the manager. The bedraggled manager plodded over and informed us that the room had been mistakenly double-booked and another party had already been seated in the room. She tried for about 25 seconds to be pleasant and apologetic, but then her willingness to make her customers happy wore thin. She harumphed and threw her hands in the air while saying, "We made a mistake. What do you want us to do?" Well, I definitely want you to learn how to act like a professional. We declined being seated amongst the party in the large room and took one of the tables in the middle of the dining room. The place was shabby and the floor was filthy. I mean, I typically wouldn't notice, because I'm not looking at the floor, but it was noticeably dirty. The food was average. The one highlight: the chef was professional, light-hearted and entertaining. He couldn't save the day, though. I would not return, and I cannot recommend. read more

Love the day I found out that Kabuto's had an excellent sushi bar - I go once a week or so - sometimes for take out and sometimes to sit in. they often have dine-in specials on sushi Tuesday to Thursday which we took advantage of today. Fresh, tasty and just perfect for lunch. read more

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I was taking to this restaurant for a birthday party for me and it was very pleasant. The place first of all is very nicely decorated and much to my delight it was extremely clean! The service was very attentive, and the food was especially delicious. There were so many in our party that I do not recall what everyone had to eat, but I didn't hear any complaining just people eating. My only disappointment was that I couldn't order sushi for lunch. But what I did eat was so good that I decided to go ahead and give them five stars because I can get sushi some other time. read more

Sub-par service Food was just okay.... Quite sure they use MSG and other preservatives in their food.... Too many other options to go to Kabuto again. read more

My closest sushi is complemented by a neighborhood friendliness in the staff that makes the environment a great meal. I've never received an order of sushi from the chef, in either take-out or at the bar service that wasn't followed up with friendly care and conversation. I even feel guilty that I can't recall his name tonight. In today's post-modern chill, Kabuto staff works to keep a neighborhood feel at the sushi bar, and congenial conversation if you're looking for it. I've always been pleased with the sushi, as well as treated to a few of the chef's off-menu creations every once in a while. To most establishments the art of service is lost, here it is practiced with Eastern respect. read more

This location is the best! The sushi chef was so cool. We got the sashimi martins and it was worth every penny!! We had a wonderful time, and props to the sushi chef, he was absolutely amazing!!!! Definitely tip him well if you sit at the sushi bar!! The sashimi was absolutely beautiful and fresh. 100/10. read more

Zero social distancing. All the tables are 100% full and you are sat shoulder to shoulder with strangers. Won't be back.

Double date night out. Chef Diego. Very entertaining. Pleasant surprise had noodles, my preference. Fried rice too. Too much at one meal. Took home. Standard medium shrimp appetizer. Clear broth soup. House salad with ginger dressing too much dressing. Salad swimming in it. New York strip. Good. 2 ladies has jumbo shrimp. Great. Other guy has New York strip & chicken. Good. Really like fried mixed vegetables. We shared a variety of sauces. Soy, ginger, mustard. We had a good time. Disappointed no Koi fish in pond to feed. Sushi chef said they used all up for dinner that night. read more

Well it's not the place it use to be. We went there for my birthday per the kids request and we had the typical experience which was a lot of banging, a lot of yelling and a lot of fire. I can understand why kids love this place, me not so much. I use to enjoy their food back in the day but now you don't get nearly the amount you use to get and what is with "Japanese Katsup?" That stuff is nasty. Didn't they use to give you two sauces? I had to ask for something different and truth be told that sauce wasn't much better and the chef seemed upset with me when I told him I wasn't a fan of the Japanese Katsup. Dude get over it and go make your ring of fire. The food was MEH. Miso soup which really was chix broth with a little (and I stress little) sliced scallion and 2 thin slices of mushrooms, a salad which was Iceberg (BLEH) and their famous Ginger dressing, which I do admit, I like. The entrees were MEH as well. I had the fillet, scallops and shrimp. My husband had the fillet and lobster. Our steaks were cooked perfectly but I think the chef was upset at the seafood because he MURDERED it. Every piece of seafood was so overcooked, it was like we had the fillet with rubber bands. I understand you want to put on a show but can you at least do it with the zucchini and leave the seafood be? That evening my son and I had some sushi as well and I will say the fish was VERY fresh. Had I known the chef was going to incinerate my entree, I would have just stuck with the sushi. read more

My kids love this place and judging by the number of other families in the place their kids love it to. We usually split the meals between the kids and my wife and I split also. They give you so much food you can never eat it all. We've asked for special order food here before (due to food allergies) and they have bent over backwards for us. If you are looking for high end sushi or Japanese food this isn't your place. I'd say it is a nice place to take your kids, they get entertained by the chef while mom and dad eat in peace (at least as much as you can get). This resturant is right behind a highshool field so watch out if it is a game night parking can get crazy. read more

The food is... OK..... The atmosphere is... Ok... But how does a Japanese hibachi not know what an unagi roll is? (No, it's not crab sashimi, contrary to what our waitress thought. So not worth it. read more

The Erin Roll was so yummy!! Hubby had the steak & chicken. Man, that lobster someone else ordered looked so good too! Our chef was fantastic too, of course! read more

I ordered the steak and chicken. The steak was perfectly cooked as was the chicken. Everyone loves their meals except my 9-year old daughter who ordered the "teriyaki" wings. She bit into it and started panicking because it was so spicy. I tried one and agreed it was far too spicy to be just a teriyaki wing. My wife was eating teriyaki sauce, so we were surprised when the waitress told us it was correct and teriyaki is always spicy. The teriyaki they served was not what was on the wings. I would have given this four stars for the food, but the fact that the waitress just shrugged and walked off without even asking if there was some way to fix it was disappointing. read more

I loved eating here and should have passed on even sitting down with their health food score being a 92. I told my mom we should go to Nakato's maybe instead and she was like..."it's not a big deal, they could have lost points with a sweater being on the counter" ugh should have trusted my gut My dad and I had the shrimp and both of us got food poisoning. read more

I've been to the University area and Tyvola locations and this year we tried this one for my oldest sisters birthday dinner with the fam. I found a buy 1 get 1/2 off coupon online and brought it with me. It was pretty empty at 5:30 on a Wednesday, so no trouble getting a table and we were sat right away. Our server was nice and he got our drink order and soups our right away. Had some mai tai's to start, sooo strong it took me the whole dinner to drink mine. we all pretty much got shrimp and it was fishy, should have gotten the jumbo shrimp which is what they used for the shrimp appetizer. Everything else was pretty good though, love the veggies and they give you noodles in addition to rice here. I only wish they did the sprouts here, I love sprouts!! Our chef was done really fast since we had all shrimp and 1 rare steak. The server at one point asked whose birthday it was and then that was it, not even an offer if any of us wanted dessert, just gave us the check. No big deal since we were stuffed, but different from any other Japanese steak house I've been to where they usually sing and give a complimentary dessert. Oh well it was still a decent reasonably priced meal and the nephews love it so I'm sure we'll be back for her bday next year! read more

My family is gluten free & really wanted the Hibachi experience of having the food cooked in front of us. Ray & the rest of the Kabutos team could not have been more helpful! We had our own table and chef dedicated to gluten free cooking. They were very knowledgeable about gluten free foods & cross contamination. It was a great experience & the food was fantastic! read more

Kabuto is your run-of-the-mill Japanese Steakhouse. Different stations with chefs slinging shrimp tails around the communal dining areas like it's a lunchtime magic show. Always a plethora of laughs and gags going around the group. This place is great for lunch. $9 and 30 minutes and you're out the door. Uhhh...If I'm craving a salad with ginger dressing, which I always am, (you do too. admit it) fried rice, steak, shrimp and white sauce (DUDE) then Kabuto is king of lunch options in my book. Always super clean and full of kindhearted staff. The parking lot is super difficult to get in and out of though. 51 traffic at lunch is a beast. Good luck getting stuck behind someone trying to cut across traffic at 12pm on a weekday. It's murder. This place would greatly benefit from another exit/entrance or a stoplight. Here's hoping.... You can't really shake a stick at balanced lunch when you can have soup or a salad, veggies, fried rice and a choice of a protein for under $10 and be back out the door and headed back to the office or meeting. Glad to see these guys have taken this into account. Though, you should know that the $10 offering mostly comes in the protein department. Some may require more steak or chicken, which can be sparse. Service is always quick and friendly. They do a wonderful job of memorizing orders. Rarely has it come to pass that my order has been mal-delivered. Quick on refills and I love that they always offer a to-go beverage. "Why, yes! I would love a diet coke to go! How thoughtful!" Pretty much always my thought process. This place also does full dinner options and has sushi. Neither of which I have tried to date, but would happily oblige if the option was presented. Thanks for the quick and entertaining lunch/service, Kabuto! read more

We enjoyed a nice dinner. My goddaughters and I love going here. The service and food were excellent. The chef accommodated one of us who needed gluten free and was very nice about it. Very nice evening! read more

Fun dining experience with my family. The food was excellent and would say that every staff member we encountered was very friendly minus our server taking our order. She seemed very unhappy being there. Luckily, we were able to block her bored attitude out while being entertained by the hibachi chef. read more

Bad experience on Mother's Day. Difficulties making a reservation. (no on-line reservations, multiple calls unanswered several days ahead, call answered, put on hold, then shuttled to voicemail after several minutes) Special Mother's Day hours and menu not communicated on website or during phone call. Stood waiting to be seated for 35 minutes after "reservation" time. Then waited again for service. Food and entertainment were good though...only reason the star rating wasn't lower. ...and if you want door dings in the parking lot, this the place to go. read more

Let's start with the good things about this place. The theatrics by the cooking staff is great. They talk to each other, crack jokes, and have a great time doing what they do. It would be a great place to take your kids. There were a lot of young well behaved children there enjoying themselves when I went there for dinner. There is also a little Koi pond with a bridge that you walk over when you head to the Hibachi grills. The quality of the food at Kabuto is about average. One thing that was a little disappointing, was the portions. Even though I was the only one at the table to finish their meal, I feel that at similar restaurants I have gotten larger portions. Lunch time is a lot lighter as well, but for about $9 you get a protein and two sides. They say that they will get you in and out in 30 minutes for lunch. Sometimes this will happen and sometimes it will not. Another thing I should mention is that I got a 22oz Kirin that was past it's "enjoy by" date. Not far enough where I wanted to fuss but I would probably will stick to more common beers there (you would think that would be common). read more

Ok, I've had enough. My first 1 star review. I'm done with this place. The Sushi is garbage but I gave up on that a long time ago. I used to frequent this place because they had a $7.99 (now $8.99) hibachi lunch special - 30 min in and out . Or so they claim. First of all, Kabuto almost never fulfills that 30 min promise. Nope- usually more like an hour and I've been late getting back to work several times because of this. Don't make promises you can't keep, it hurts you more than it helps. Especially in the era of social media... shout-out to Yelp. What else. The hibachi lunch is extremely inconsistent depending on who your "chef" is. Now I'll admit, some of them are pretty good and when you're lucky - you'll get an awesome meal for a pretty damn good price. But from my experience this usually isn't the case (I've had the "express" lunch about 20 times now). My meal was complete garbage today and I'm finally done giving Kabuto another chance. read more

They are the worst thus used to be good and the sushi chef is the best in Charlotte but the new menu is a disaster and the staff is clueless nobody knows what's going on i left not getting my salad waiting 25 min for sake read more

Truly a Hidden Gem! The food, service and atmosphere is phenomenal. The menu offers a number of Hibachi classics. There is something for everyone. The specialty drinks are well prepared and delicious. The Hibachi Chefs are highly skilled and brimming with positive energy. The wait staff is attentive and delightful. My family will be coming back again and again. read more

My experience was okay. Hibachi meals are not my favorite, but my 9 yr old date was the boss, so hibachi it was! After a previous disappointing experience at Nakato, I chose Kabuto. The interior feels sort of uninspired, but I didn't notice that it was unclean. The menu seems a bit more limited than other hibachi grills, but there were still plenty of choices. In the end, it was all pretty standard - watery soup, iceberg with ginger dressing (although they do give you the choice of ranch), veggies, noodles, rice and protein. The white sauce was good. No ginger sauce - that was disappointing! The chef was fine, he was good with the kids at our table, but not as friendly with the adults. Our server was excellent though! She was very efficient and attentive. For two of us (adult and one child), the bill with tip was over $40, which I am frugal enough to feel entitles me to a really great meal. Kabuto was just okay though. read more

My husband and I are visiting and we are so glad we found this place. Caroline the waitress is so efficient and has great customer service. She is a 10/10. The food is plentiful and our chef was entertaining and very accommodating to our requests. For the price, definitely worth dining here. read more

So I will try to keep my emotions out of this review as tonight's experience is still raw. It was a party of 4 celebrating our daughters 14th birthday. We ordered two appetizers. Hold that thought for later. Waiter ask what we all want. Before we ordered we mentioned that my wife is allergic to shrimp and she wanted to make sure that they cooked the steak and chicken before cooking the shrimp as we have had done many times in this restaurant, as well as other hibachi places. He had a very poor understanding of English, but after many attempts he seems to understand, and promised that her entire meal would be prepared out back. As he got to my order I told him I wanted the combination of fillet and chicken. Do you want fillet? No. I want the fillet and in addition to the fillet I would like you to also add chicken. So you want the chicken? No, I would like for you to place the following order - the following two items at the same time..the first item being something called fillet..and the second item is something called chicken...and I would like for you to bring them out at the same time - which is called the combination platter of fillet and chicken!!! So you would like fillet meat, and some chicken? Yes! Yes! Yes!...as I'm showing him the menu and tapping with my finger on the picture of the fillet in the picture and of the chicken and repeating four or five or six times that I would like for him both with the hibachi chef, the fillet and the chicken. He smiled and nodded and I thought it was ok anyway since once the hibachi chef was going to come out I will just remind him. Fast-forward 15 minutes. The hibachi chef at this point starts prepping and we realize that we have no appetizers that we ordered. Everyone at the table - all three families have soup and salad and they hibachi chef is starting to prepare the vegetables the rice and the noodles. (I'll save another paragraph - we got our apps about 20 minutes after the food was already provided ) I asked chef if he knew that my wife had an allergy and that he was going to be preparing her chicken and steak separately. He looked confused and after 3 or 4 attempts to re-explain it to him, he told me that her food was being prepared in the back. I nodded and we proceeded to wait for the food to be prepared. At this point the chef wanted to go around the table and confirm the temperature of everybody steak. He asked me how I wanted it cooked and I said medium. I also wanted to re-confirm for the 10th time that he also was cooking me chicken. I told him again that I was getting a combination platter which included both the fillet in the chicken. He said that he didn't have any chicken on my order!! I said that was a mistake from the prior misunderstanding so I was 100% certain that I wanted to order both the file in the chicken together. He looked confused again and I reiterated again for the 11th or 12th time that I was having the steak and the chicken. At this point the other family sitting in our hibachi table started laughing because they could not believe that I had requested something as simple as steak and chicken 15 times from two different people. After getting the uncomfortable not I guess everyone agreed that I was going to get medium fillet and my chicken. We waited for our meal to be prepared. So now at this point the veggies, rice, lo mein are done, and he starts to portioning out the food to entire table. Now, bear in mind, that my wife still has an empty plate since all of her food for supposedly being prepared in the back kitchen. So she just sat there looking at everybody eating their own food. Now that the steak has been cooked everyone liking, the chef starts chopping and placing everyone's steak, including mine and my kids - we all got a big plate of steak. We looked at the hibachi table to see what was left in there was a little bit of chicken and a bunch of shrimp. My daughter and I looked at each other as we contemplated whether there was enough chicken for two or three people since it did not look like more than a single serving. Our fears proved correct. The chef gave the entire chicken to my daughter and zero for yours truly! Now I will admit, I ONLY reminded him as well as the original waiter 20 times that I wanted both - I guess it was not going to happen for us! After everyone started to eat..me without my chicken and my wife with zero food, I was livid. We looked and finally found a manager who was dumbfounded and and ran back and forth 3 times to realize there was nothing, ZERO, food being cooked for my wife! We ended up getting her food after we were all done eating our dry, under-seasoned, steak. This was by far the worst single disaster in a restaurant I have ever had the displeasure of visiting. They ended up comping us two meals (mine and wife's). Jeez, so nice of them! I will never eat there again, and will make sure I do everything in my power to make sure no one else does either! What a joke. Stay away! read more

It was so sad!! Host was so awful!! Not there at front door and I have to wait five min for her to come to get our name and there is a few table available and ppl start to come in so what suck!! I used to love come that place all time bec of one cook who take cook foods for us and I know him for long time and now wow!! What a surprise!! Hope this things need to be fix!! Or I can tell how bad it is thnks read more

The food was really good. The only problem I had was the chicken was really dry and salty but everything else was really good

I'm not one who typically writes reviews, but with my experience I feel compelled to. Right when I walked in and asked for a table, I was turned away because a person from my party had to take a phone call and was in the parking lot. Rather than simply saying, "oh I'm sorry, your whole party needs to be in the building" the manger stated, "that's kind of dumb to ask for a table, cause the experience starts right when you sit down". Okay cool. My missing person came in a minute later and the manager was no where to be found, and didn't show up until, I kid you not, 15 minutes later. By that time a party of 20 walked in through the doors and was seated before us. Great food, bad treatment. Would have rather driven 5 more minutes to get to another hibachi style restaurant than be treated badly. read more

My friends and I have been coming here for the lunch special for years. For $9.25, you get around 3 lbs of food made right in front of you. People acting like the service here should be comparable to a Michelin star restaurant are probably the type of pessimists that complain about everything. It's a Japanese Steakhouse in Pineville, stop lying to yourself. Come for the lunch special, it ends at 2 on weekdays and 4 on weekends. They also offer sushi, sake, and a decent Japanese beer selection. read more

I used to come to this Restaurant twice a month because, we liked it japanese food, especially the vegetables, grilled Meat, and shrimp. My daughters liked to see them cook in front of us. The staff were excellent and very friendly. read more

Felt rushed by the server because the kitchen was closing at 5....we got there at 4. After the meal, Mr. Cockroach decided to start walking around after his nap. Gross! They comped the bills but never going back! read more