Kumiko Tei — Restaurant in Bogota, Capital District

I am not sure why there are so many 1 star reviews and people claiming this is not japanese. Wok and other places are so far removed from anything actually japanese that it is funny. This place is the most authentic Japanese food i have found in Bogotá.

This place is 100% japanese and the decor is very typical of a small sushi or Ramen house in Kyoto or the Fukushima prefecture. As far as service, it is the same as all Colombian restaurants, raise your hand or call the waiter over. Both were super friendly and assisted us with everything.

The food... man oh man. It brought me right back to Japan and United States HIGH quality japanese food. First, the presentation of the food is astounding. We tried 5 of the sushi hand rolls. The Salmon Avocado and Ebi Tempura and Unagi were our favorite. The Hamachi Limon was missing something, good, but maybe just not my taste. The Furikake fries... delicious. Hand cut REAL fries and the Wasabi mayo was everything.

The beef sando... don't get me started. It was PERFECT. It is 100% traditional sando. They used real milk bread lightly toasted with Kewpie mayo. The sauce was PERFECT. Just wish their had been cabbage or some vegetable served with it, but honestly, didn't care. Gave me flash backs of lunches in Japan.

Lastly we had the Silver Sake and the matcha cheese cake. The strawberry sauce and cheesecake were the perfect ending 100% recommend you get them.

Do not pay attention to the 1 stars. They couldn't...

I just had dinner at this place. A couple sits beside me and they accidentally drop one of the chopsticks from their table on to the ground. So, the man picks it up and switches the dirty chopstick with a clean one from an empty table. Unfortunately the staff never saw, and my Spanish isn't good enough for confrontations, especially in a foreign country, so I didn't say anything. This wasn't the restaurant's fault but they shouldn't provide the opportunity for customers to tamper with utensils or condiments. They should be kept at the back of the restaurant until a customer need them.

For the food, I had the tuna hand roll, which was delicious. For the main I had the Ramen, the ingredients were good but the broth had no flavor, luckily there was some sesame chili sauce available to put in the broth.

When I paid, the server requested a tip. Please don't support this slavery business practice, go research it. In addition, tipping is an insult in Japan. Just raise the prices and pay...

Overall, the experience was good, but the food felt overpriced considering what you get. While there aren’t many Japanese restaurants in Bogotá, you can find more authentic Japanese cuisine elsewhere (in different regions and outside of the country) at half the price and better tasting options.

I tried the tonkotsu ramen, which was decent but not remarkable. The portion was on the smaller side, and I was disappointed to find that the traditional marinated egg (ajitama) was missing—replaced instead by what seemed like a poached egg. The chashu pork was also too sweet for my taste, which threw off the balance of the broth.

I ordered a few appetizers as well, which were not only quite small but also overpriced for what they offered.

In short: pleasant setting, acceptable food, but not great value for money—especially if you’re familiar with more traditional...