Cant recommend this place to anyone. We were a party of 10 all family. We had reservations although the staff up front had issues with where we should be seated. No masks for any of the servers only the cooks. (Not sure if the COVID rule in NC since I was visiting from out of state). Server came to take our order and was less that enthusiastic. I get it's tough right now due to staffing and people's attitudes so I overlooked that. Our soup and salad arrived. Soup was great, the ginger salad dressing was very thick and off tasting. Chef came to start cooking. Started of with an introduction and a few "show" tricks. After that he had no true interaction with any of us. I was very confused with the veggies as with other Japanese steakhouses I've been to you get all veggies. This place has you choose which you want. The zucchini was sliced extremely thin so ended up being soggy and unappetizing. Overall the food was decent. Not the best by any means but passable. Doesn't meet my standards for what I would expect for a restaurant of this type. Prices seemed to be much higher that average. My fiancé and mother ordered cocktails which tasted water-down to them. I stuck with a beer but was told they had no glasses and had to drink from the can. Automatic gratuity was added to the check. Along with a food and drink tax. (The tax may be a NC thing but I'm not sure). If you do try read other reviews first and approach at your own risk. read more

Does not follow Covid-19 guidelines. Sat us at a table all piles on top of each other. We walked out due to my health concerns.

The service was quick, but the food wasn't anything to write home about. Lack of flavor and overall dissatisfied with the quality of food. Unfortunately, not a place we will be returning to. read more

Not bad food but small portions left me wondering where my money went. (takeout)

Looking for some food after spending a few hours other shopping. Stopped in and they offered seating at a habachi table or a both. We selected booth and enjoyed lunch portions of habachi chicken and steak. Nicely cooled with good flavors. Lunch for two with beverage and too was $28. Nice alternative to fried foods. read more

I haven't been to Kobe's in well over a decade, due to the low quality and flavor for the price. I decided to take my wife there for lunch today and give them another chance. First off, a small sign was posted up front that I didn't see because someone was holding the door for us to go in (dinner prices only). We were there at 12:30 for lunch. I would have turned around and left if I had of seen that. I'm giving this a 2 star because the Godzilla Roll was pretty decent. Outside of that, the steak and shrimp was extremely bland! I paid $89 for my wife and I (she had steak and chicken. I had steak and shrimp, one sushi roll ($12 or $13) and sodas). Definitely staying away permanently now. read more

Sashimi deluxe was poor quality. It was mushy and the escolar was discolored. Not impressed at all. Watery... in fact the to go tray was full of water. read more

Pros: only "non-express" Japanese restaurant anywhere near here. Soup was excellent. Salad was fresh and ginger dressing very good. Steak and shrimp were good. Sauces were good. Service was friendly. Cons: hibachi vegetables a bit mushy, portions aren't very large for the price. Overall pretty good and I'll definitely be back. read more

I wanted noodle and they have my noodle soup even they are mainly serving habachi and sushi. One lady who is serving us are very welcoming and really nice. Other younger ones not so much. read more

Sad customer service. Called ahead to place a lunch order and gave the restaurant 15 minutes for the estimated wait before I headed over. I ordered a chicken hibachi plate with broccoli, which was a surcharge of $1.95. No big deal, I said that's fine. I get there and I wait an additional 15 minutes before I receive my order. The total came to around $10.50 for my plate to look like the picture I posted below. I have higher expectations for a portion size for the money I paid for this area. I won't be going to Kobe again. read more

Kobe - Japanese Near Me - Smithfield, North Carolina

This place doesn't even deserve one star. Every time we come the service is terrible. We will never be back.

The avacado bomb was terrible and repulsive. Noodles were subpar. Service was great however , will not be returning whatsoever. Have I hit my word limit yet, gosh how many characters does one require. read more

I recently tried Kobe with my father and we both were happy with our experience. The food is good and the price point is excellent. And while a lot of reviewers say the wait staff were slow, I found them efficient...until the end. Our experience was probably 4 stars until after our chef left the table. Our waitress hadn't been seen in a while, in fact other waitstaff was checking on our water because they noticed our drinks were low. Another waitress even helped with an order because she could not find our waitress. We waited probably 10-20 minutes for our check after we finished eating, and when we finally found our waitress she was helping another table instead of closing out our table. There was a pretty long wait outside and we had a large grill table, so I would assume that she would want to move our table along to seat new customers. But by the amount of time it took her to bring us the check, I guess she's wasn't too concerned. We will most likely go back, as everything else was good, however if we get this waitress again we may request a change. read more

called ahead to place an order. was asked to hold while he sat the phone down. I continued to listen to them talk, play, laugh.. everything except place my order. after 6-7 mins of this, i got to the store and walked in, while still on hold, to a young woman who knew nothing about a customer on the line. this other gentleman came to take my order and said he was the best thing I could get to a manger. He also knew nothing about a customer on the phone. This is absolutely the worst customer service I have seen in a while. I don't want an apology, I want you to do the damn job you are paid to do. What I am paying for as well. read more

Before we start this review I'll just say that I have not yet reached maturity, I'll be 13 in a month, but with my limited brain development I'll have to say this is five stars! The food is great! I've gone to this place twice, the first time I ordered the special roll called "delta force" and eel and crab sushi, the second time I ordered the "Delta force" special roll, the special roll "lobster tail roll" and the crab sushi. The service is amazing from my experience, if you care about service sit at table 17 the waiter at that table is Rio (if he's not in that day I apologize and if 17 is occupied and your not to shy you could ask for him to be your server maybe) he's a awesome server, he doesn't wear a traditional waiters uniform/attire he just wears a Hawaiian shirt and shorts wich is super cool! The first time I went I was wearing my shirt that says "you got a dog? That's cute! I raise a tiny little dinosaur" with a picture of my leopard gecko on it and he started a conversation with me about it, again he is super cool and one of the best waiters ever! That's all I really have to say five star service and five star food! Here's a picture of me enjoying myself at this wonderful restaurant. read more

Kobe - Japanese Near Me - Smithfield, North Carolina

We went and everything was good until we sat down. They usually bring out soup and salad well they told us they were out of soup. When the soup was done we already had our food and she brought everybody else's soup but ours. We ordered the hibachi chicken and our chicken was way too overcooked I couldn't even chew it. read more

Don't do it! You will need stomach pump. I have had bad food before, but this is sooooo bad. I threw up the food before leaving parking lot. Horrible read more

Kobe - Don't do it! You will need stomach pump. This is sooooo bad. I threw up the food before leaving parking lot. - Japanese Near Me - Smithfield, North Carolina

Utterly disappointed by the incredibly slow service. They need more staff. I walked in and there was no one at the reception. After a 3 minute wait, someone at the kitchen noticed and came to me. Once I was seated, my server promptly got me the menu and drink. I ordered a their popular crunchy roll. Just that. One roll. Then I waited for 50 minutes!! I get one hour of break for lunch at work. The roll tasted really good but certainly not worth the time! I finished my roll in less than 10 minutes and couldn't wait any longer for the server to take the money so I took the check to the reception myself and paid for it. read more

I saw the negative reviews but I tried to give this place the benefit of the doubt. What a mistake... terrible service. Terrible food. I was missing half of the food that was supposed to come with the steak dinner. Tried to get my servers attention for about 10 minutes. When she finally returned to the table, I told her what was missing from the meal and she suggested that I was lying and that I had already eaten it. Not worth arguing about. She clearly didn't care about her job or providing any sort of service. Decided to just pay my bill and leave the crappy meal on the table. read more

Worst experience I have ever had at a Japanese Steakhouse. We chose to sit in the regular seating instead of the grill for hopefully a quicker meal. Wrong. The bartender was our waitress and it took so long for her to take our order in the first place we weren't sure if we were supposed to do it online as they have "scan to order" printed on a piece of paper on the wall. When we finally received our food, my and my fiancée's steaks were both over cooked. We both ordered medium rare and it was medium well. My sister-in-law had asked for broccoli and lo mein instead of fried rice and vegetables. Received neither. We asked the other servers for her food but I was waiting for our waitress to tell her about my steak. I finally made eye contact with her once my food was now cold and she came over to ask how it was. I relayed my dismay and she went and talked to a manger and told us she would give us 15% off... great but I just wanted my steak cooked properly. We asked to speak to the manager and she said she would have the kitchen recook then steak. Medium rare should take no more than 5 minutes. After 40 minutes we asked for it in a to go box.. Over an hour from my re-cook I finally received my steak. No manager ever came to speak to us even though we specifically asked. Overall terrible. read more

We have been here a couple time before and have always had a great experience until this evening. We ordered the imperial dinner for 2 since we both wanted chicken, steak and shrimp. The guy who was at our grill seriously skimped my husband on rice after giving one girl double rice, he also skimped on lady on veggies after he skipped her until there was very little left. He also skipped doing the fire stuff cause the baby at our table was crying when she saw another table but the mom got up and went walking to give him the chance to do it anyways and he didnt. He was not very talkative/ entertaining. Our waitress was only seen at the beginning and end of our meal. I'm so glad to see the sign y'all are hiring cause service this evening was not on par. read more

Went to meet a friend in the area and so we stopped in to try and WOW!! I've always meant to stop by, but never got around to it but I'm so glad I stopped in. We got the sample platter and crab rangoons for appetizers, and a variety of rolls for entree -- the sweetheart roll was by far our favorite!! Service was quick and the staff was so kind! read more

I hardly ever take the time to leave a review even with bad service but this place warrants it. We came right when it opened at 4:30 and were Sat down immediately. We got our drinks and soups fairly quick after ordering. Miso Soup was delicious. I ordered the Sushi Deluxe and my wife had the Hibachi Chicken. My wife's food came out 10 minutes later while mine took another 15. My wife didn't wanna start without me so her food got cold, granted that was her choice. Her veggies were mainly burnt Onions and like 5 mini mushroom halves. Disappointing... After my food finally arrived I was confused as my whole plate entailed 8 pieces of Nigiri only 4 pieces of crunchy sushi rolls that already come with the meal. Although it specifies Chefs choice I didn't think sushi deluxe would hardly have any sushi. It only came with a blob of wasabi and ginger. I had to ask for chopsticks and soy sauce was never provided. I wanted some kind of sauce so I asked my server for some spicy Mayo but she was busy and said she'd bring it to me. After 15 minutes of waiting I decided to ask the sushi chef right across from me at the bar and he blew me off and told me to ask my server. Pretty rudely yelling "Whose your server ask them!". I'm not the confrontational type so I just sat down and ate my Nigiri with my wife's Yum Yum sauce they gave her. One of the Nigiri was overpoweringly Fishy (it's raw fish I know) but as a regular sushi eater I knew this meant the fish had gone bad. I gagged and barely got it down. The rest of delicious. The server eventually brought my Spicy Mayo out once my wife literally finished her meal. We only got a refill on our drinks when a different Server came and filled them up for us once I got the check. Here is the Real reason behind the review, I can forgive everything else and call it square as a place to never come back to but once we decided to pay and ti, I gave them 15% on our bill of around 58$. I check my account 4 days later and this sneaky server decided she deserved a 40$ tip making the charge 98$. This has never happened to me before and my wife even left a nice note for her hard work on a busy night on the receipt. Never ever coming back to this place and I suggest you do the same. Food was Mid not worth the price anyway! read more

I didn't get the Hibachi Chicken with vegetables and no rice as a side order, or special. My chicken didn't come, but was added later to the grill cook. I ate with others who were getting their meal cooked by the chef at the table. I didn't get much to eat. The chicken breast that was brought for me was cooked at the end of the meal and served to the entire table of 10. The waitress didn't know what was going on, neither did the chef at the table. Most of what I got was cold or poorly cooked. The veggies were served by their self and was cold by the time I got any meat. I will not eat here again. Lousy show, lousy food. read more

Kobe - Rice, rice and more rice, even though I ordered chicken and vegetables and no rice. - Japanese Near Me - Smithfield, North Carolina

Not sure why this place has a 2.5. It was clean, the food was fresh (I got the vegetable hibachi) and flavorful, and the service was great. Our cook was hilarious. My friend got the steak&chicken and it was a good size steak. We all ordered for lunch and sat at the grill. Massive portions and probably the best hibachi I have had. Highly recommend. read more

I'd give zero stars if I could. They sat us down and with covid and all didn't even allow for a chair in between parties (make you sit with strangers). Especially the 6 ft apart. However my main concern was how rude the chef or whoever the guy cooking is. Didn't get his name but he is the worst. Told me this isn't Burger King have it your way because I simply said my mom and I were sharing veggies and if I could please have some on my plate. He then proceeded to say "it's burger king here without a tip I guess" mind the fact that it wasn't even time to pay out..he was still cooking and our food wasn't even served yet. He then told us "I guess y'all are rolling your eyes at me huh" at this point I was already annoyed with how we were getting treated that I didn't even acknowledge it. By far the worst customer service and treatment. I was still eating (I was served last) and they handed out to go boxes and the checks basically kicking us out. Literally avoid this place. read more

This place does have issues, but I think the staff is trying. Maybe it is the management that is lacking. And the cleanliness.... I hate when my shoes stick to the floor when walking to and from the bathroom... YUCK! The food cooked at the Hibachi Table was very good... the Sushi was excellent (we shared a Rainbow Roll). But the Waitress was training a new guy and bless his heart for trying but he just wasn't getting anything he was being trained to do. It is a strange Kobe, this one in Smithfield. Overall we had a good experience but I much prefer the Kobe here in Clayton. read more

Kobe - Japanese Near Me - Smithfield, North Carolina

Apparently making a substitution is asking for a lot here... I mean let's face it who wants cream cheese with their sushi other than obese Americans? All I wanted was some traditional Japanese food... Very limited so she may selection of which most not Fresh... fortunately when I asked if the scallops were fresh the girl was honest and told me know because I would've known...it is what it is it's basic at best but I come here often for business and this is the only sushi place everything else here in this town it's a bunch of crappy chain restaurants and everything is fried and gross read more

Kobe - Japanese Near Me - Smithfield, North Carolina

This was absolutely the worst experience I have ever encountered. We waited 45 mins for a table which is fine. It was a Saturday night. We got a text saying our table was ready, we waited an additional 15 mins just to be sat and had to wait for the table to be cleaned. Then we finally got sat and the waitress got our drinks and everyone at our table which was some people we didn't even know had to wait an additional 30 mins just to get our drinks. Then when the table got their drinks every drink was to the wrong person. That is unacceptable. The hibachi chef was great and made it fun for my kids. But the experience till that point was terrible. Not worth the 250 i spent on dinner. They did t even offer a discount. read more

*** IF THERE WAS A ZERO STAR BUTTON I WOULD USE IT*** never had service so bad. waiter didn't bring drinks for 20 minutes, forgot about our appetizer, chef completely disregarded our presence clearly due to our race. as well as ignored a seafood allergy allowing steak and chicken to touch shrimp and lobster. also had flies flying around our food while we were trying to eat. do NOT recommend at all!! read more

Service is excellent and food is delicious! I love that is a little hidden from the main road. Excited to come back again. read more

Kobe - Japanese Near Me - Smithfield, North Carolina

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I urge you not to eat here. The waitress wasn't listening to anyone at the table and the cook couldn't cook food properly. The waitress brought my friend's sushi and didn't get mine. I reminded her, it didn't come. She came around,, is everything good? More drinks, anything else? I say Yes, my sushi! The cook seemed to be in a big hurry and not getting any food done. The shrimp wasn't cooked right, the veggies were hard and crunchy, and then when I bit my not fully cooked chicken, it was over!!! The people on both sides of us had other issues as well (not cooked steak and forgetting the vegetables they ordered.) I told management about the horrible experience. She said she would discount the bill. I said that there was no way I was eating that or paying for it. So she took the food off the bill, and said she wouldn't charge us for the soup and salad (that comes with the meal that I wasn't eating). So she proceeded to charge us for the sushi roll that my friend did get and my soft drink after all this mess! Wow, how disappointing and a large waste of time. read more

Food was ok. I got the special-drunken soba noodles with shrimp, scallops and crab for 15$. I did not think that there was any crab in the dish, but when I asked about it, they said the crab pieces are really small...it had a lot of eggs in it though if you like that. I also got the spring rolls and a yellowtail roll with scallion. I didn't have enough room to eat the sushi until later that day. It was a piece of plastic in the last freaking piece. Kind of disgusting. Spring rolls were decent. My husband got the steak and chicken hibachi. The steak was cooked nicely. Unfortunately, I will not be back due to the sushi incident. read more

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Came in with a party of 3. After finally getting a single menu the waitress immediately came over asking for our order and when I asked for a minute we got a very sarcastic and rude response. While ordering the waitress started correcting us on the entire menu as if were not reading what's in front of our faces. Never received the bananas that came with our meal and my sushi was completely falling apart. At the end of our visit we asked for 2 to-go boxes and the waitress flat out said "no u need to finish your meal here like u do at mommy's house". I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things about how awful this visit was but to sum it all up I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. read more

From out of town, stopped here because we wanted something non-fast-food. Kobe had good fresh sushi, and served us quickly. Good place to stop on a road trip! read more

On a Friday, I was fortunate enough to play hookie with a friend to hit the outlet mall. It was a gorgeous day which led to lots of walking around. We ended up hungry, and being from Raleigh, didn't want to wait the 40 minutes before eating. Seeing as how our choices were slim, this seemed like a safe enough bet. Who doesn't like Japanese food? We decided to take a risk and sit at a non-cooktop table...and order from the menu. We started with the miso soup. It was bad. I'm not talking bad cause i don't like miso soup and didn't know what I was ordering bad, I'm talking BAD and miso soup is hard to mess up. The waitress brought it out and said "careful, its 3rd degree burn hot." May be she was referring to the emotional scars we would suffer from its awfulness, i'm not sure. It was lukewarm at best and tasted like sewer water. The seaweed was alright, unless you got a bite with too much in it and then it also tasted like sewage. The tofu was probably not tofu. Second "course" was sushi. Yes, we should have made better choices but we were feeling whimsical and decided to just go for it. The pieces were cut very thin, not like traditional sushi, and were deep fried. The eel sauce and spicy mayo on top were good and if you smeared the sushi piece around in it enough it covered up the fact that the rice tasted funny and the inside stuff was not recognizable as food whatsoever. Our waitress was something special. I didn't mind that she was not over the top friendly, that doesn't bother me at all. She didn't seem to know the menu and didn't like the type of food she was serving so she couldn't be helpful with menu choices ("what's good here" led to "i don't like see weed" so...yeah...great). That being said, I have a bit of a soft spot for a really funny story and the whole meal turned out to be the two of us laughing until we nearly cried then laughing throughout the rest of the night. If you are in Smithfield, and have to eat something or you may die, please go to one of the other establishments. If you can wait till you are somewhere with good food, just go on and do that. My grandma lives right up the street from there and can cook a mean turkey. I bet she'd be thrilled to have some of you stop by. Just don't eat here. Please. read more

Been to many Japanese Steakhouses and even worked at one as a chef. The AC wasn't working at the tables and we were sweating, making the experience for my family miserable. The waitress was good but the chef sucked! He didn't do any show and when he squeezed the lime, he use his whole hand so the juices dripped off of his fingers! Disgusting!!! So if you get this short guy from Micronesia request someone else! The chef needs to be retrained by management ASAP! Food was fair in price and taste was below average, over cooked our med rare steak. Not coming back! read more

Terrible customer service. No hostess. We walked in, party of 2, no one greeted us. We stood there in a sea of people who looked like they were all in line to pay their bill. Why are they not paying at the table? Almost 10 minutes went by and still no "welcome to Kobe- we will be with you shortly". Walked out. After reading some of these reviews I'm glad we didn't eat their food. read more

I saw the bad reviews and was a little worried. We came out Sunday at lunch right as they opened up. We sat at the table where they cook your food in front of you. I honestly have no complaints the service was courteous and great. The guy that prepared our meal was funny, entertaining, and involved our kids in the experience. Would definitely go again. read more

Very disappointed with this restaurant. Was craving Udon and thought I'd give this place a try. Honestly what I should have done was checked the reviews before heading that way. The Chicken Udon was not worth the price I paid!! The chicken and veggies came out about 3 minutes before the the broth and noodles. (Two pieces of fried broccoli and mushrooms.) I may be spoiled with the other places where I have eaten udon but what I received yesterday at this restaurant was nothing at all like I am use to. Service was decent. This restaurant is not worth writing home about. read more