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| - Two of my friends and I decided to go out for lunch the other day, specifically craving some sushi. Since two of us live on the west side of the valley and the other lives on the east side, we decided to find a place in the middle. We settled on Koi Sushi. Big mistake.
Upon entering the restaurant, the place was decently busy. It is not a large dining area, but there were about 10 tables and almost all were full - I also noted there were 3 servers. So, server to guest ratio was good. I was greeted and told the server I was waiting for 2 more. She then walked away. Okay, my mistake, I should have specified that I needed a table for 3 and was waiting. Since I was a server myself in college for 3 years, I understand how frustrating it is when patrons don't make themselves clear. By the time the server came back around, one of my friends had also arrived and we were seated at a table. We were handed menus and then left alone, without even asking if we'd like something to drink. The server came back about 5 minutes later and took our drink orders. We also ordered some edamame, since our other friend was running behind and we were hungry.
Our drinks came out pretty quickly...and that was the last we ever saw of our server. Our other friend showed up about 15 minutes after our drinks, and we still hadn't received our edamame. We waited another 5-10 minutes (not sure how long, we were busy chatting) before we finally stopped a different server and asked if we could place our meal order, and if our other friend could order a drink. We ordered our food - I ordered a spicy tuna roll and a Wisconsin roll (the menu states that it is unagi, cucumber, and spicy tuna to top it off). I also mentioned that I am allergic to avocado, so could you please be sure to leave it off my roll. The server was nice and told me no problem, and took our order away.
I need to note that both my drink and my friend's drink were empty when she came to take this order. I'm not very picky about service since, again, I did the job for 3 years and totally understand how you can get behind/swamped/forgetful. Really, all you have to do to keep me happy is keep my drink from being empty (and I usually only need one refill). That did not happen. We had to ask for refills when we could grab a server.
The sushi itself was pretty disappointing. My spicy tuna roll was REALLY tiny. Maybe I am used to my regular sushi haunt, and for this reason I am spoiled? I'm not sure, but I paid $5.50 for a very small, bland roll.
The Wisconsin roll was misrepresented on the menu. It did not come with spicy tuna on top; they had regular tuna atop the roll. No big deal, as I enjoy both, but false advertisement is sad. The roll itself was cut randomly - some pieces were fat, some were incredibly thin. Weird. The cucumber inside the roll took up 50% of the space, it was huge. This roll was also bland and incredibly disappointing. The roll was $10.95, which is normal for this time of roll, but the quality of the roll just wasn't up to par. Both of my friends agreed with my assessment of the sushi - they had similar feelings about their own food.
I also ordered a roll to go, and specified this to the server and I also wrote it on the menu. I was taking it home to my boyfriend. They brought it out on the plate with our food. So, I had to remind them it was to go and that I needed a box.
After all of this, we had to grab our server after sitting with empty plates for 15 minutes or so to get our checks. We asked for separate checks, which they did just fine. Also, we never DID get our edamame.
This is the first time in YEARS that I have tipped under 20%. I felt terrible leaving 15%, but I just did not enjoy the experience. If you are looking for good sushi on the west side, stick with Tomo or Nakama. On the east side, I go with Stingray. If anyone has a good suggestion for places in the middle, I'm all ears, because Koi is NOT it.
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