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| - Food: 3/5
Service: 2.5/5
Ambiance: 3/5
Overall experience: 3/5
(1- Terrible; 3- decent; 5- Fantastic)
I normally don't visit downtown sushi restaurants because it's annoying to find parking and the prices are usually higher. However, I took advantage of a Dealfind coupon and came here with a friend.
Koto is surprisingly large with plenty of seating - you won't be sitting elbow to elbow with the table next to you. It is a fairly 'upscale' Japanese restaurant with a beautiful contemporary Asian inspired decor. We had to take a "later" reservation, but when we arrived it wasn't overwhelming busy and there was plenty of seating. I guess they staggered the reservation times which allowed our food to come out fairly quick. I thought there weren't enough servers working. Once we received our food, our waitress didn't come by to see if we were okay or needed anything else during the meal. We saw that she was busy serving new arrivals.
I really enjoy the restaurant's menu which consists of items found at your typical Japanese restaurant with a few modern Koto twists like crab cakes served with wasabi tartar sauce and coconut tempura shrimp. The prices for their non-sushi items are decent: hot appetizers (~$8-$10), cold appetizers (~$12), tempura (~$8), teriyaki with soup (~$18), and sushi/sashimi combos from $19-$37. Their maki sushi rolls are around $7.50/ 6 pieces, and $9-$12.50 for their signature rolls (~8-10 pieces).
My friend and I love sashimi but we didn't bother ordering it since it was pretty expensive and we wanted to get our money's worth (from $2.50-$4.00/pieces). We decided to get the 'Spicy Salmon Roll' ($7.50/6 pieces); the 'Spicy Salmon Volcano Calamari' ($8.75/6 pieces) with albacore tuna, calamari, cucumber and volcano sauce; and the 'Koto Seared Hamachi Roll' ($12.50/8 pieces) with seared hamachi, Korean sweet and spicy sauce, imitation crab, mayo, cucumber, and avocado.
The portion was average (just slightly bigger than a toonie), but I found some of the pieces had more rice than filling. The rice was bland which made non-sauced rolls taste "bleh". Koto's 'Spicy Salmon' roll doesn't come with the usual mayo/siracha sauce on top. Instead, it had a tiny chunky spicy mixture. If you want something like the above, I suggest getting anything with 'volcano sauce' on it.
The 'Seared Hamachi' roll was good for the big piece of velvety Hamachi, but I DISLIKED the rest of it which was essentially a California roll soaked in an overly sweet teriyaki/soy sauce. If you left the roll for too long, the sauce would completely soak the rice so it fell apart when you picked it up.
I also shared the 'Beef Tataki' ($12) appetizer which I thoroughly enjoyed. The meat was lightly seared, sliced to a perfect thickness, and bathed in a tasty Japanese citrus based sauce called shichimi ponzu. Crunchy sesame infused oil and garlic chips were sprinkled on top to add a unique texture to the dish. It's definitely some of the better beef tatiki's I've had, but some might find the sauce overwhelmingly vinegary.
Getting good takoyaki in Calgary is hard to come-by, and after visiting Tokyo nothing in Calgary compares. Koto's 'Takoyaki' ($8 for 6 pieces) were small, and the insides were overly mushy, slightly greasy, and only had a tiny piece of octopus inside.
Overall, Koto felt like any average Japanese restaurant. I neither hate nor give Koto a good recommendation to come here. There are equally better and cheaper Jap restaurants in Calgary.
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