Kumo sukiyaki restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond

We went to Kumo Sukiyaki on a Saturday night, we made a reservation and was able to sit down within 10 minutes. Parking is a little weird as it wasnt designed very well, but so far easy to get to and parking is free.

A reminder that a set up fee of $16.99 on top of your set menu, unsure if they charge double for two pots. But to be fair, the set up is pretty unnecessary it could have easily done inside the kitchen or even with instructions by myself.

After picking your menu, an iron pot was set on a gas stove with beef fat, followed by onion and green onion then sugar. Two tea pots were also provided, one for soup and one for water.

Menu wise they have 3 levels, the more you pay the fancier meat you will get. Since this is the first time we went for the sliver one with pork belly, AAA chuck and Angus beef short . The highest bring black and gets one slice of japanese Wagyu beef. They also offer an all you can drink menu for additional 5 bucks.

Staff will only take your order the first time then the rest you scan the QR code for placing food items except meat plates.

The soup base is overly sweet and salty, no balance between the two, although we added in water trying to see it helps. Meat seems to be fresh but because of the sweetness you might feel full a lot faster than you normally would. Unlike hot pot, sukiyaki contents a lot less soup and does evaporate a lot faster. Food to be honest not worth the price, a lot of their items were frozen / re-fried. So like yours appetizers and other balls you add in pretty much just meh. The drinks selection was huge, but I wouldn't recommend to order since you honestly can't drink that much anyways. Lastly, the more you eat the more it doesn't matter of the meat you order. Dessert obviously from Costco, so it is okay.

Staff will pretty much just take your plates away, not very attentive. Friendly? Sure, but not to the point where it's top notch. Environment was noisy, seating in the middle was not comfortable and often time me and my partner needed to yell in order to hear each other. Not a very enjoyable dining experience in this sense.

I honestly don't think I would go back at all unfortunately. Just simply not...

Atmosphere was nice, warming and super busy the time we came. Typical Asian place.

I believe most of the servers were Chinese as we couldn’t find any Japanese speaking server during our visit. Service was fast enough. Lots of mistakes and confusion as they don’t remember what sets did we order, then we had to remind them and explain it. We went in a group of 5. My friend is a Muslim, she barely couldn’t eat anything in the menu since they all have meat so we told them not to let her pay. They firstly said that all of us have to pay the same amount but then they were nice enough to agree with it. Everything went pretty smoothly until we paid. The servers were pretty rude when most of us decided not to give them tips. They told us that there were some people waiting in the line but they gave the table to us, but we only called 4 sets instead of 5, so we should give them tips for being kind enough with us. Then they kept arguing with us about the tips. They read out loud the amount of tips I gave on the bill and asked why there’s only that much. At the end, when he couldn’t ask for it, he said “ok bye” and left right away. TIPS IS OPTIONAL! You can’t read the bill out loud and complain about how much customers tips you. If it’s compulsory, then don’t put the tipping options for us to choose on the machine. I’ve read some negative comments but I didn’t believe it at all. Now I know.

As I’ve said above, I’m not sure if there was any Japanese cook or server so the soup base was not 100% authentic, my Japanese friend said it tasted different but it tasted so so. Tempura was tasty, the sauce on top was pretty salty but it balanced the taste well. Meat was really thin like paper.

Good to try place but don’t expect much in the service. They would get mad at you if they are not happy with your tips.

The price seems decent but after all the soup base charge, it’s expensive compared to other AYCE places.

First time and last time dining here. Not...

Kumo Richmond used to be one of our favorite spots. We dined here several times in 2024 and had great experiences, but after our visit in 2025, we’re convinced something has changed - maybe new ownership? Whatever it is, this place has gone completely downhill, and we’ll never be back!

The food quality is now terrible. Some of the menu’s best items were sold out, and what we did manage to order was disappointing, bland, and not worth the price. It’s clear they’re cutting corners.

But the real disaster was the customer service, which was hands-down the worst we’ve ever experienced. The servers were unprofessional, and seemed like they didn’t want to be there. And the female manager? Absolutely unprofessional and hostile. We had a reservation for seven people, but they didn’t even bother to prepare for it, leaving us to feel like we were an inconvenience to them.

To top it all off, after dealing with their bad attitudes, we still decided to leave a 15$ tip to be polite. But unbelievably, the manager came back to inform us that they don’t accept tips under 10% and forced us to leave a minimum 10% tip. The audacity! It’s absolutely disgraceful to pressure customers into tipping after providing such an awful experience…… Not worth. I aksed if we can separate the bills and the hostile manager tell me NO with a big attitude. I was shocked at that momment. To run a restaurant and serve guests with such attitude, manager has to learn more about their job and how to handle everything more appropriately.

We were there to celebrate a friend’s birthday, so we kept quiet to avoid ruining the evening, but this place singlehandedly turned what should have been a fun occasion into an infuriating one.

It feels like this restaurant has changed ownership, and the new management clearly doesn’t care about food quality, customer service, or basic respect. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. Stay far away - it’s not worth your...