KEN Sushi House Phillip Square — Restaurant in Waterloo

I would give this place 5 stars for quality of food, and 0 stars for quality of service.

It was my friends birthday last week and I recommended this restaurant to him and we went together, and I regret it so much.

To begin with, the reservation we made for 6:45pm was not even respected, we waited inside the door at the front of the line for a good 10-15 minutes before anyone even acknowledged us...

Next, we were seated and ordered our first round of sushi + appetizers.

I kid you not, we waited over 30 minutes to receive our appetizers, and over 1 hour to receive our main course!

There was a table on each side of us, both parties came after us and their food came BEFORE ours!

I was very frustrated with the level of service and I went out of my way to let them know at the restaurant. They did not care.

I kept on looking for the owner or manager to share with them my poor experience, and every staff member was swiftly shrugging me off, not helping me, not apologizing and no one respected my wishes of requesting to speak with some sort of manager...

The one lady who ended up actually speaking with me (Sonny?) was just laughing in my face, telling me how busy they were because of the Lunar New Year and all that...

I still don't understand why we waited over 1 hour for our FIRST order of sushi. Normally, I would have ordered at least 1 more round of sushi, but I was so frustrated when the food finally came that we just ate it, paid and left.

It's very clear to me that they did not care about our frustration, as no sort of apology or compensation was given.

Never going to be going to this sushi house again, and I would not recommend it to anyone in the area. You're better off going somewhere else for actual customer service and getting your food in a reasonable timeframe.

I'm really disappointed about this, I've been here so many times in the past and the food + service was always amazing...

My advice to you: go elsewhere if you're going to eat out, or order the sushi for pickup/delivery. Definitely not worth going in person for the off-chance that you'll wait over an hour for your meal and receive a very low...

TL;DR - Kalbi dinner not worth the price. Sushi is fresh and tasty. Yaki udon is great. Will try a 3rd time, but will avoid the bulgogi and Kalbi dinners. Try the angry tuna roll! 🌶️🐟

The good: If you order in advance, your order is ready to go when you arrive at the time given. Staff are friendly, helpful, and communicate well with pick-up customers. Sushi is fresh, tasty, and properly made. Shrimp and vegetable tempura was alright, but maybe a little too much breading. Crispy and fresh though. Gyoza is crispy and tasty. Angry tuna rolls are very tasty and have good bite to them. Spicy tuna rolls are alright. Yaki udon (beef or chicken) is tasty, not overcooked, and comes with lots of meat. Good adherence to COVID protocols, including clear communication and signage for directions/spacing.

Needs work: LA Kalbi dinner ($22) is not worth what you get for the cost. Small quantity of rice (undercooked/old/cold), and vegetables are lacking in flavour. The Kalbi is lacking in flavour, too chewy/fatty, and definitely not worth the price. If you don't ask for the miso soup that's included with some meals, they won't give it to you. Quantity of bulgogi meat for dinner ($17) is good, but you get more meat with the beef yaki udon dinner ($13.99). The difference is the bulgogi dinner comes with the same undercooked/old/cold rice as the LA Kalbi dinner ($22). Ikura sushi (a la carte) was not put together well and had fallen apart by the time we arrived home. Would love to see more sushi rolls without leveraging surimi (imitation crab) as much.

Misc. location specific issue: Busy nights means a long wait and a lot of people illegally parking on the street in front of the building. This also includes some vehicles blocking the driveway to the parking lot at the back. Restaurant needs to communicate that the bike lane in front of the restaurant is not a parking lot and that if people are waiting for their order, they need to park in the back and walk to the...

We visited Ken Sushi on a Thursday evening. They were quite busy, but as a party of two, we were seated promptly. Our server made sure to come by quickly with menus and then to get our drink order. I ordered the matsu sushi dinner (comes with miso soup and garden salad), my husband ordered the fried chicken udon and a rocky rocky roll, and we split an order of beef gyoza to start.

The gyoza was done well, and the sauce it came with was lovely. My soup and salad came shortly after. The soup was good (no tofu chunks, but a few pieces of seaweed, pleasantly warm but not scorching hot). The salad was crisp and not overly dressed.

The matsu sushi was displayed nicely on a bamboo board. I enjoyed the California roll and the sushi very much, but the spicy salmon roll contained ‘salmon salad’ - that is, finely chopped salmon mixed with some kind of creamy base, as opposed to containing a single piece of fish. I didn’t enjoy the texture of it, and was disappointed that nowhere on the menu did it indicate that was how the roll would come.

My husband’s udon dish was very lovely, with a nice sauce and plenty of veggies. The rocky rocky roll was listed as a California roll topped with spicy salmon, but again the fish did not come as a whole piece, but as ‘salmon salad’ milder overtop.

The restaurant itself is very nice, and they do advertise 2 hours of free parking on the upper level of the parking structure behind the building. The service was prompt, and I enjoyed the vast majority of my meal. However, I wish they they would state somewhere on their menu what to expect with their rolls that do not feature full cuts of fish. It was certainly unexpected, particularly considering the cost of the meal ($60 before tax,...