DISGUSTING. Horrific experience. Extremely disappointed. Owners should be ashamed. Such a waste of money. No Japanese flair or culture. Management is a joke. Our server Allie was all over the place she gave us no eye contact or professionalism. When asked question about recommendations she rolled eyes and had an attitude. Told host and person on phone we had a birthday special and had to remind server we had a birthday. (Took away from the surprise) Food is gross. Very overpriced for basic food. Overcooked rice. Mediocre meat. Salmon was over cooked. No entertainment or tricks. Rubbery vegetables. Watery salad. Bland soup. Basic factory made cake for $7. Several employees touch face, hair, skin and don't wash hands. Ruined my birthday. We will be telling friends and family to stop coming here. read more

Nakato - Hibachi salmon - Japanese Near Me - Charlotte, North Carolina

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After several years, and two recent visits Nakato is still a solid 4 stars! From the servers, always friendly and several around to assist with everything, to the food and entertainment. The menu has a wide variety of items, including sushi, which definitely accommodates any customer. And, expect a lot of it...most people leave with to go boxes. One thing to keep in mind, depending on what time you go, expect a 30-60 minute wait. But there is a large waiting area with a nice bar to grab a drink. read more

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Loved the food. Our waitress Ally was amazing and despite being busy, she was very attentive to what we needed and constantly moving to get things for people. read more

Received the absolute worst customer service from manager Miria. Have no idea what she is doing in the hospitality field! She demonstrated complete disregard for customer experience. Sad to say we will not return after many years tradition of birthday dinners at Nakato. read more

Thursday night is the best night to go. You don't have the huge crowds and the beers are cheaper. We like Nakato's when we want to go somewhere special but have no babysitter. The chef keeps the kids entertained and the food is good. I really like the dragon roll and we usually get edamame for the kids. Another great reason to go on Thursday is the early bird special. You get chicken and steak for a much cheaper price than on the weekend. I also order the spicy mustard sauce for my steak and sriracha for my shrimp. I recommend the fried rice over the white. read more

Went because it was right by my house. Had the hibachi steak and chicken. All the food was really good. We will go again.

What a complete joke of a sushi restaurant. Simply horrible. Ordered a roll with tempura shrimp. I think the entire roll had one tiny little shrimp. Everything was VERY salty, so freshness across the board is questionable. Not questionable was the hard and discolored yellow tail. Definitely the place to go if want a horrible meal. read more

I have enjoyed eating here. This place has been fast, enjoyable and staff are prompt to get you drinks and food. Definitely try this place it's pretty good! read more

absolutely disgusting!!! wouldn't recommend to anyone!!! service wasn't better either, paid $90 for food we didn't even touch.

We made 2 reservations over call making sure to tell them we want to sit together at the same table. We arrived the day we reserved and the Hostess was seriously rude. She refused to let us sit together when there was many open tables. We asked for the Manager and she was just as rude as the Hostess. They then proceeded to tell us to leave if we weren't going to sit down. On top of that, as soon as we entered to tell her about the reservations and how we made sure to tell them to put us together, she really said"you have the wrong restaurant", it's almost like she wanted us to leave as soon as she saw us. They lost 14 people they could have served that night all because they refused to put us together. That was seriously so childish and a waste of time. read more

11.21.2019 Thought we would give this a try for family night dinner. Was looking forward to a night of entertainment and great food. As we drove up to the restaurant, we notice so many cars and thought this would be a great place to try. Being from the north, we have frequent the Benihana's and are use to the entertainment that comes along when having a Hibachi dinner. We arrived shortly after 6 pm, hoping it would be early enough to grab a table. As we walked in, we literally smacked into a wall of smoke! The receptionist was on the right and was taking down names and informing the patrons it was a 45 minute wait. We agreed to wait because it was so busy. The waiting area was not the cleanliness I've seen. A bench along the walls, a bar and chairs placed randomly by the bar. The carpet was filthy, old and very dingy. The decor could use a bit of color and dusting. We waited over an hour for a table and it was not a bad wait. Gave us a chance to catch up with days event. We notice there was several parties celebrating special occasions. There were also many children around which made us think that this would also be a great choice for dinner. Once we were seated, our drink orders were taken by our waiter we reviewed the menu to see what we would like to decide for dinner. Menu was simple enough and the sushi menu had a great variety. Let's move forward toward the entertainment part of the dinner or lack of. Not sure if I'm missing something but the chef for the evening only asked a few questions - "How's everyone doing tonight?" We had the chance to see onion volcano but that would be the extent. Again - we have attended a few in the northeast area and although it's cheesy entertainment, we are there for the exact thing. Unfortunately, we didn't see any catching of the veggies with your mouth, or beating heart fried rice. Didn't seem the ventilation in the restaurant was that great. With so many Hibachi tables going on at once, the vents should running at all times. The food was mediocre and that's being kind. The food was drowned in soy sauce and was salty. Butter was barely used and the oil that is required to cook was not used enough. Can't say I would come back for Hibachi. I also ordered sushi to tie us over for a bit. Spicy salmon roll and a shrimp tempura roll. The Sushi was better than I had thought. I may come back for the sushi but that's a huge maybe. I'm not sure I would come back on my own account. read more

The service was amazing (mostly smiles from all the staff, swift service, and our drinks were never empty). The food was good. We've had better, but it was tasty and didn't disappoint. The "performance" at the hibachi table was standard. The jokes fell a bit flat and were mostly aimed at the 2 kids well known to the staff (regulars, I presume) even though there were several other kids at the table. Overall, a good night and fun time. read more

The food is always consistently good. We got it to go and our steaks were cooked perfectly, the serving sizes were great and everything was so tasty!!! read more

I've been to nakato probably twice a year for the last four years or so and they've never let me down. If you're looking for some run of the mill habachi, this is your place. Compared to other places I've been, the tricks are nothing special but what actually sets this place apart from others is the food is cheap and it's always delicious. Definitely give it a try, we always have nice/friendly service and they take reservations. read more

Went to Nakato for a family meal to celebrate my daughter's birthday. We had early reservations and arrived right on time. We were seated immediately and our server was outstanding. We had children with us and she was very good with them. She took our orders and quickly brought out the soups and then the salads. Our cook was also very good and entertaining and best of all the food was excellent. We enjoyed the evening very much and highly recommend this restaurant. read more

My husband and I went this past Saturday night. Everything was excellent! It had been a long time since we had been out to eat so we got there a little early before our reservation to have a drink in the bar. The beer on tap was icy cold and the bartender was super funny. Our table was ready right on time. I splurged and ordered the Hibachi 4 oz filet and lobster dinner. My husband had the Hibachi sirloin and chicken. The soup, salad and both dinners were delicious! If you have never tried the lobster here before I highly recommend it. I have had it a few times and it has always been excellent cooked on the grill. The other party at our table was celebrating a birthday so we were lucky enough to have some of their delicious birthday cake for dessert. Our chef and waitress also made for a great evening. Can't wait to go back! read more

So they are currently reservation only which is fine but we spent an hour trying to call and no one answered. We decided to drive up and the hostess was not very helpful with why we could not get through and they had no spots for us. I still gave it 3 stars because the only way we knew about the reservation only was a table outside. read more

Wow! I called 15 minutes before closing just to get a reservation for the next day and the young lady who answered hung up on me! I called back two more times and it went directly to voicemail. That's a guarantee to send my business to another steakhouse! read more

I went to this location April 2021- my boyfriend used to go as a kid with his family, so he wanted to see if it was just as great now. We were not disappointed at all. The hibachi experience was so fun, all of the food we ordered was amazing, and the staff was very friendly. read more

Recent update:- I recently visited this restaurant again, I noticed a strange thing.. I guess staff who allocates your table based on races. This can be working well for the smooth delivery of service, but being a regular here I noticed this clearly and felt little blue. Food is tasty. Well sautéed and great for your asian tastebuds. I loved the artistic way of sautéing the veggies and all shrimp and chicken. Our chef was funny he cut the veggies and chicken by his sharpie knife so smoothly; it's charming absolutely amazing to watch. The only thing I felt that I wish the food was little less oily. read more

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Excellent Japanese Food! Our favorite: Hibatchi Chicken & Shrimp! The food is fresh and their fried rice is amazing. The sushi is pretty good too, we usually get two rolls to share as our appetizers. The service is great too. This has easily become our favorite go to spot when craving hibatchi. read more

Nakato - Japanese Near Me - Charlotte, North Carolina

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Service was great, food very good had seafood platter. Little pricey but ok to splurge once in awhile.

I really don't care what others may say about this type or even this specific restaurant. No gourmet, nothing fancy, and smoke in the air.....this is our favorite place to eat in Charlotte/ Pineville area. Soup, salad, shrimp appetizer, noodles, vegetables, fried or steamed rice, and your main course (I always get filet-rare). My family absolutely loves this place. Always attentive service and chef. Always need a box for leftovers. Plain and simple....relaxing and great fun for the kids. Side Note: I love the green apple hot sake read more

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We asked our 15 year old where he wanted to go for his Birthday Dinner and he said a Japanese Steakhouse. We've been to both Nakato and Kabuto and both are good, but Nakato stands out a bit more for us so that's what we decided on. We arrived at 5pm on a Sunday night and didn't expect much of a wait so imagine our surprise when the waiting area was full and they said it was a 45 minute wait. Oh well, it was what it was AND it was my son's bday so we waiting...and waited....and waited. Finally, after 50 long minutes, they called our name. We were seated in the "traditional" teppanyaki room and that was a first for us. We loved it! It was a bit awkward to get into, but worth it. I've been trying to watch my weight so instead of the massive feeding frenzy of the traditional hibachi meal,. I had a bowl of the Onion Soup, a side of Edammame and the Tuna Tataki appetizer (portion was entree-sized!). All of it was very good! My family had the steak and chicken hibachi meals and loved it all. My son especially loves the "Yum Yum" sauce (the pink sauce) and has me convinced that he would eat "anything" if he could dip it in Yum Yum sauce! We opted for the $10.00 birthday package. The package included a birthday cake (Pepperidge Farms vanilla cake) with a candle, a family photo in a souvenir cardboard frame (came out awesome, BTW), and the waitstaff sang Happy Birthday in English and Japanese. Well worth the $10, in my opinion! read more

Nakato - Family photo taken as part of the "birthday package". Nice memento from a special occasion dinner. - Japanese Near Me - Charlotte, North Carolina

Let me start by saying, if you have a gift card, do a u turn. Secondly, our waitress acted like it was a huge burden to be a waitress that night. Finally, our chef was fine but not very engaging at all. Go to Kabutos. Seriously. The food was meh. It's like they have been here so long they are like an old cranky relative. read more

Nakato - Japanese Near Me - Charlotte, North Carolina

I've heard rave reviews and they did not disappoint. I have to say my favorite part of the entire experience was receiving my sushi on a boat!! Both mine and my friend's rolls were really good. I would definitely return. Service was really good as well. read more

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We came in just for sushi and, while I know their main feature is the hibachi grill-style cooking, they also advertise themselves as a "sushi bar" in huge letters on their building. If you promote yourself as a sushi establishment, the product should be of decent quality. Red flag #1 was the fact there were only 3 total rolls sitting on the 20 or so sushi boats. They had a separate sushi menu, so it was fine... just odd for this type of sushi bar. We know sushi/sashimi very well and their fish was NOT fresh, at all. It borderline smelled fishy and it was pretty mushy. It hadn't gone bad... yet. But it was almost there. Further, spicy tuna should be diced with some texture, not a paste. It was gross. My husband was so grossed out he stopped eating after trying only one or two bites of each roll. He has never refused to eat sushi in the 18 years we have eaten sushi together. This was a first. On the upside, the food is very reasonably-priced and the staff was pleasant and attentive. That is the only reason I gave 2 stars instead of just 1. Unfortunately, we will not be back. read more

Nothing extraordinary. Basic hibachi. Service was basic as well. The ambiance was dull. The restaurant needs remodel.

Visited here after having a not-so-good experience elsewhere and I was glad that I did. Our server was nice and the cook made sure our orders were correct and had the server bring more shrimp as soon as he realized that there was small mix-up. Also, if you're a fan of sake and/or have never tried and don't want to break the bank, they offer $4 Gekkeikan served warm/cold. As with any hibachi, the price per plate is going to be around the $20 range but it's well worth it, considering how much food you receive. The only drawback, the closeness of the table to the grill and all the smoke (if sitting right in front of the chef) will have your clothes smelling like food afterwards. But being the fat kid that I am... I take it (lol)! Definitely coming back! read more

I ordered doordash and I got an extra side of garlic noodles and it was more like 1/4 cup of spaghetti covered in black pepper. The chicken was okay, but a little dry. Not interested in trying this place again. read more

I am utterly disgusted at the wait time I've experienced here tonight. There was an extreme lack of customer service as well. I am unwell at the fact that I have had to wait over an hour and a half for a small entree. No one apologized and no one checked on me. But there were several others who received their meals ahead of mine. I also witnessed others offered a refreshment as they waited, meanwhile, I'm overlooked. There should have been something done to ease the fact that I had such an unnecessary wait. The kicker is, after I had obviously been lied to that my meal was being tended to, I was then told that my order was never made. So after my hour and a half wait, I still had to wait an extra 10 minutes for my order to finally be worked on. I understand busy nights, what I do not understand is lack of communication and customer service. I really and truly hope that I was not being discriminated against. I would hate to think that that would be allowed here. read more

I've seriously never eaten here and been able to eat my whole meal. I'm partial to the combination plates, either the steak and chicken or the shrimp. All three are great choices that you can't go wrong with. My favorite parts of the meal are the noodles I think. They are down right delicious probably from the butter used to cook them. Don't come here on a diet, you will be in trouble. Another thing to note is it's probably good to get a reservation because the place stays busy. But if you don't, don't fret. We recently did an impromptu visit and even though they stated an hour long wait it was really only 30 minutes. I think they are just managing expectations. read more

Ordered Togo due to covid. Took 20 min longer than projected, which is totally find if it's fresh and hot. Is was neither. $50 on what tasted like food court Japanese.. actually, food court Japanese is better. Will not be back. Wish Kabuto was open! read more

Nakato - Hibachi chicken scraps, paid $17 for this and didn't come with soup or salad. It was cold and tasted half cooked and old. - Japanese Near Me - Charlotte, North Carolina

I went to this place with my family on a Friday night and it was packed! We were allowed to be seated faster if we decided Traditional Dining (basically sitting without your shoes). Although it was interesting, I would probably not do it again. I do not want to even know what my socks touched on those floors (even though the restaurant appeared pretty clean). As far service, the waitress was nice and the chef was entertaining (pretty much the same as other Japanese restaurants). As far as food, it was quite disappointing. The soup was pretty good, but the salad was pretty bland, I didn't even finish it. For the main course, I ordered the chicken and the NY strip steak. When I saw the food right before it was going to be cooked, I could clearly see that food quality appeared sub-par. The steaks were thin and were not that tasty, especially when I had mine cooked medium-rare. The chicken was alright along with the rice and vegetables, but it was not memorable. Overall, this Japanese restaurant was alright. It's serves its purpose if you are craving Japanese food and do not want to drive far, but it is definitely not a place to go if you want to impress someone. read more

Amazing service and food is amazing aswell and always is fresh and tastes so good the dragon roll is very good one of my favorite sushi's and there hibachi anywhere from steak to lobster to salmon to noodles is all very good. read more

I went with a 2 - 2.5 might be more accurate..... not a fan of nickel and diming - so to charge a couple of extra bucks for fried rice (at a Japanese place!!!) then not bring you the steamed rice that was supposedly included with the meal is annoying - but some people will not care about that so let's focus on the food.... I got the shrimp & chicken, the chicken was actually both seasoned and cooked very well (not over cooked and dry) - the shrimp however had so little taste that when I shared with my 4 year old she said, "is that real food, or are you pretendin'?" I said, "yes - why?"... her reply, "because it doesn't taste like anything!!". The soup was extra good, the salad average at best (I make a much better ginger dressing)!!! My daughter said the noodles were good but she also thinks McDonald's nuggets are good...... My wife got steak (strip) and I tried it and it was pretty good... ALL portion sizes were tiny (except the shrimp appetizer- it was the normal 2 shrimp).. I was here for a birthday dinner - and sort of glad I came - it reinforces to me that Tsuki is 10x better at minimum -food quality, taste, portion size and price (no nickel & diming)... read more

This is probably my favorite Japanese Steakhouse that we have ever been to. It is always crowded, so make sure to make reservations well in advance. We eat here at least once a week, and I recommend trying to eat here if you can on Sunday at lunch. That is the only day they are open at lunchtime, and the prices are much cheaper than usual, plus the fried rice is included. We all went just last night, and couldn't have asked for better shrimp, tender chicken, and perfectly cooked steak. The kids love the onion soup, and salad they give you as an appetizer. They don't care for the ginger they put on their salads, so they substitute shrimp sauce for the dressing. The show the chef puts on while making your meal is very entertaining. We enjoy the way the in which the meal is prepared, and the order in which they prepare it. They start off by giving you a two shrimp appetizer. The noodles are to die for. I always order two orders of them! I've never had noodles cooked anywhere like they cook them at Nakato's! They give you huge portions, so be prepared to leave stuffed, or with a box to go! I highly recommend this restaurant for the food, the service, and the great entertainment. It is a little pricy, but well worth it once you've tried the competition. read more

Nakato - Japanese Near Me - Charlotte, North Carolina

I had Pacifica roll sub fresh fish with salmon. It was delicious. The sushi was good. This place gets pack pretty quick

Had a family night out with son and daughter-in-law. Good food but service was a little slow.

Limited to reservations only due to staffing issues. Sushi roll was OK -was expecting better given size of sushi dining area. Huge hibachi space - venting is tough very Smokey. Hibachi chef went through the motions. Food was plentiful and tasted good. Not bad at all just not great, I would go again. read more