| rev:text
| - I find myself to be a fairly generous reviewer, so when I have to give a restaurant 1-star, it would have to be for an experience that leaves a very bad taste in my mouth for days after coming here. Kasa Moto did just that with my experience with them on brunch on Sunday.
It was my second time here as my first time with them was alright. The weather warmed up and I wanted to check out their patio, given that the restaurant has a nice vibe in a cozy area of Yorkville. The brunch prices are also pretty good given that it's in a somewhat upscale environment. It's also a nice departure from the usual brunch items you see at most restaurants as they offer a Japanese-fusion style kind of brunch, such as chicken katsu sandwiches.
However, the brunch service got off to a bad start when no one came to take our order. I think we were placed in a corner where servers generally tend to miss us, but I couldn't even figure out who the primary server of our table was as I had to call down for anyone to help us every single time as the service was so inattentive. Turns out there was someone assigned to our table, she just either had an off-day or just had a terrible demeanour overall.
The worst part of the service was when I asked for the salmon to be returned. The salmon teriyaki they served me was undercooked to the point where it was like ahi-salmon. I opened up the middle of the two small pieces and they were completely raw. I asked for the salmon to be more cooked, and the server didn't apologize, didn't acknowledge that it was raw, and just took it back to the kitchen. We had a giggle about it, but maybe she didn't want to apologize for something that wasn't her fault - if that's ever a good reason as a server.
The salmon came back and to my disgusting surprise it was the same piece of salmon that they recooked with the bitten piece cut off to make it seem like a new piece - and it was STILL undercooked. I had to take a picture this time to show how undercooked it was even after requesting for it to be cooked again. Also, because they just straight up re-cooked the same piece in a pan, obviously all the marinade came off the salmon and it ended up just being a bland undercooked salmon. Even the outside wasn't salvageable anymore. I also can't imagine a chef taking someone's bitten piece of food with their saliva on it touching their cutting board, their knife, their hands, and their pan - while also making other people's food.
I barely took a few bites extremely disappointed with my food and just wanted to leave by that point, embarrassed that I gathered a group of friends to suggest coming here based on my first pleasant experience with them. When the same server came to take our dishes, she even saw that I didn't eat anymore of the salmon after asking for it to be returned and didn't make one comment about it or take notice of it what-so-ever. I still couldn't figure out what her issue was, maybe she just was in an off-mood or she's just working in an industry that's not the right fit for her. The chicken teriyaki my friend ordered was also slightly burnt but salvageable, while the chicken katsu sandwich my other friend ordered was decent so I have to admit not everything was terrible.
But after a very overly-dragged out frustrating brunch, I got fed up waiting for the bill, went up directly to the entrance and just asked for the lady at the front to immediately call anyone to just give us our god damn bill. She was extremely apologetic about the inattentive service and got us someone right away despite me being quite irritated by that point - if I could give individual servers stars, she would deserve a 5 for how she handled my frustration. Excellent response on her part, very professional and seemed very experienced. Then another lady came to me and comped me a $50 gift card (~1/3 of the bill) for the ordeal and gave me her business card and told me to call her the next time I come to make up for the experience. I really do appreciate the gesture but I doubt I'll make my way back here any time soon even if the entire meal was free. It was just that bad.
If it was just the one server's fault I probably would have given them 2-stars for how they handled the situation, but the fact that they sent me back the exact same piece demonstrates that there was also something very wrong with the kitchen staff. Any chef would have known that recooking the same piece of meat would result in a loss of flavour, so you should cook a new piece - maybe salmon just happened to be scarce that day but I personally think they were just being lazy. Maybe our server's vibe also rubbed off on them.
Anyway, that was my experience at Kasa Moto. I'm sure yours won't be as bad, but it was bad enough for me to avoid this place in the future - even though it's right next to where I live.
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