Kibo Sushi House — Restaurant in Toronto

I placed a takeout order from the 36 Charlotte St. location on weekend. I had the worst take out experience I've ever had at a restaurant and wanted to share what happened.

A friend and I ordered about a $50 amount of food. After we went to pick up our order, we realized that one of the items was wrong (we ordered tempura udon and not a tempura appetizer). We went back to the restaurant and spoke with the woman who was working there. Instead of apologizing for mixing up the order she says that what we got was what we ordered. We then explained that we ordered tempura udon. The music was quite loud and especially through masks it's likely she misheard our order. She explained there's a price difference between the two items so we'd have to pay the difference to get the correct item, which we agreed to. We placed our original order with cash so I asked if we could get the same 10% discount on the order difference. She said no because the price difference was less than $20, which is the minimum required to get the 10% discount when paying with cash. However, our original order total was over $50. Only after asking several times did she give us the 10% discount on the price difference. She then proceeded to not speak to us at all.

While waiting for the correction for our order inside the restaurant several other customers were allowed inside despite the clear signs limiting the number of customers to 2 at a time. We felt unsafe due to the very small space and several other customers allowed in at the same time. At no time did anyone ask us to wait outside and instead the employees invited other customers into the restaurant. In addition, the woman who we had placed our order with complained to her coworker (in Korean) that we were being very difficult and annoying. As I speak Korean she didn't know that I understood what she was saying.

I hope that this is not the kind of service you come to expect from your restaurants and I have no intention of ever returning to them unless something changes with your...

Kibo Sushi does one thing VERY well. They serve grab-and-go sushi at a consistently good quality for a low price. While I can't comment too deeply on their dine-in experience due to getting grab and go 6/7 times that I visited, I really want to point out how well they perform in the grab-and-go department.

If you're in a rush and need something affordable around lunch/dinner, you can head in and grab a roll of sushi or chicken/tofu appetizers at $5 (cash) per container. The portions are very fair considering the price and the sushi rolls have a good amount of meat that is standard for all other grab-and-go places downtown. They definitely win by virtue of affordability because they do not sacrifice taste and quality at the price point that they offer.

Dine-in: It's a bit cramped inside, but they have a respectable variety of options if you want to sit down. I highly recommend the bento box as you get a lot of variety for just under $10. It's already very typical for bento boxes to feature a lot of variety, but the icing on the cake is that you still get a complementary miso soup and salad ON TOP of the box. It's a very filling meal in and of itself. I've had their udon bowls and a chirashi bowl before, but I definitely prefer the bento box as it's just a superior deal.

After 8 PM, the grab-and-go options become extraordinarily cheap!! You can get 3 sushi rolls/appetizers (whatever is left on their front counter) for $10 ($1 extra for card I believe)!

Overall, it's a charming grab-and-go sushi spot in a low-key location around the entertainment district. Dining in feels cramped, but you can still get a good meal at an awesome price through their bento boxes. I highly recommend visiting at all hours (even more so after 8 if you're looking for cheap...

I come here every now and then because it's close to home and if you need a quick fix for sushi and sashimi, this is the place for you. I would give the food here 4-stars because they always serve fresh sashimi/convenient location. However, I don't recommend the sashimi platters (Chef's choice) as it lacks variety. Yesterday, when I ordered it, I had 6 pieces of salmon and all the rest were red tuna and snappers (about 14 pieces), throw in some shrimps or white tuna in there please! The best dish there would be the aburi beef, they make the best ones and is the go-to dish if you're craving for a savory dish. As for the service, I give it 1-star because even though the place is small, I find that it's always understaffed - there's not enough people in the kitchen. They have more take-out orders than walk-in customers so they tend to satisfy the take-out orders first and slow down the service for the walk-ins/sit down customers. The waitresses there are often clueless and will not check-in on you unless you ask for something. Also, it took a reallllllyyy long time for the waitress to take my order, she came over the first time and then had to go back to her counter for a pen/paper, it was like pulling teeth trying to get an order in. Will I go back again? Yes. Just hoping I won't get the...