Kinjo Sushi & Grill — Restaurant in Calgary

I was very excited to try this spot as I’ve heard it’s the best in Calgary. If this is true, I’m very sorry for the locals here.

When we walked in, we were optimistic as the vibe was nice, the staff was friendly, and they had fun little boats floating around the preparation station. As we sat down, we were given a few complimentary maki pieces, which was very nice. This is where our good experience ended. The rice tasted old and hard, and one of them had a massive dollop of spicy mayo on top so I couldn’t tell what was inside. Even when I ate it, I had no idea what it was but it was tasteless and hard in a stale type of way.

Moving on to the terribly designed menu, none of the items had any description, and with a party that included people with dietary restrictions and allergies, this was quite the inconvenience. I was also shocked to find that at the original location on Macleod, they did not offer the chicken that was plastered all over their website. After we placed our order, we tried a couple of the dishes floating around on the boats. The inari was ok, but the scallop and seared tuna nigiri tasted old and the rice was hard, which makes me wonder how often they change out their dishes to maintain freshness. Maybe it’s my fault for trusting those boats, as they seem a bit like a novelty. The thing is though, I appreciate the novelty, I just wish the food was good.

As our dishes came, we were met with disappointment over and over again. All the portion sizes were quite small, if not half the size they should normally be, which in turn makes everything overpriced. The miso soup and the saba nigiri was bland, these things should normally be bursting with flavour. The gyu and lobster nigiri were also quite bland, they seemed more like a novelty than a thought out dish. Not the worst though. The worst was the spicy tuna rolls (one of which they forgot) which tasted extremely fishy, we couldn’t even finish them. Here’s hoping we don’t get food poisoning. Runner up was the yaki-udon (which was called something else on the menu but it’s obviously supposed to be a yaki-udon). It was smothered in mushrooms and unseasoned chicken and it was swimming in a thick tasteless sauce, they should call it yucky-udon. The only decent thing was the edamame, but let’s be honest, how could you possibly screw that up?

As we paid for our meal, they gave us two complimentary boxes of Pocky. This, along with the complimentary maki at the beginning of the meal, really made it seem like they knew their food was bad and that they were pre-emptively overcompensating for how atrocious their food is.

All in all, would not recommend to anyone, which is a shame because the staff was nice and the restaurant was cool. But as an establishment that sells food, I think that should be their first priority, yet it seems like it’s not even on their priority list.

One sad fish out...

Our family have been in this place many years at 2 locations (Macleod and North Hill), majority is at Macleod. We never had any problems until our last visit. Food is always exceptional. The service and the atmosphere used to be also excellent. But the service wasn’t good any more. They have many servers, but most of them are young and inexperience. We would give 0 star for the service. We came as a fam of 4. We were placed at a small table away from the centre. While waiting for the order, I saw some tables available near the centre where they have food floating around. I asked one of the servers if she could move us closer to the floating foods so we could pick up and eat some while waiting for our orders. but we were refused bc of the food we already ordered tied to our table even the food didn’t come out yet?? If they move us now, the cooks will confuse??? At first, I thought those tables were reserved but there were no reservation and the rushed dinner hour was also over (after 8pm). We were waiting patiently for another 15 min and more, there were more and more tables available but no one seemed to notice our needs. 2-3 servers walking around. Food hasn’t brought to us yet. I asked another server to move us so we can pick up the food from the floating boats while waiting again.... This time, the server said he had to ask his manager. 10 min later, he came back and said they couldn’t move us for the same reason. So they would rather to leave their tables empty than selling more food to their customers???? All they should do is simply switch the bill to the new table for their customer so they can eat more food. How difficult was that? I questioned the server again, and the manager finally came to talk to us. But at the time the food were served to our table so we didn’t bother to move any more. Bad experience ever at a restaurant...

It's been a while since coming to this location. I believe this is the original Kinjo. It used to be a great place to have rotating sushi and the menu is simple. Since after the pandemic, I think they made some changes to make more money through quick grab-n-go meals to Japanese models and snacks. I totally understand why they had to do that but it's a small space and it's very disorientating when you walk in. You really don't know if you walked into a market or a restaurant. We sat down next to the rotating sushi and noticed that there were more Model sets floating than food. And when there was food, you see the same items on the boat at least 5x, I mean the same item that no one picked up. We also noticed the menu is slightly different that the other Kinjos. We were hoping to get some Ramen and Fried Chicken but they didn't have that either. And why is there Ginger Beef on the menu??

The customer experience just doesn't feel the same as the other ones and it makes you question if this one is even a part of the rest or is it a rouge franchise. We probably won't be coming back to this one due to the experience we had here.

On the positive note, they did give Pocky's to the ladies at the table. This is something they've done for a long time in the past and then they took that away. I always love that...