Kota Kai Kitchen Bar — Restaurant in England

EDIT: THIS VISIT GAVE ME BAD FOOD POISONIN WHICH I AM STILL RECOVERING FROM!

Where to begin. Me and my partner has eaten here before and the first time was absolutly amazing. Everything came quick and fresh and couldn't stop talking about this place.

Yesturdays evening was the complete opposite. Service was quite slow, after you order your first drink it takes a while to try flag anyone down to order again, when we did the person said they would bring us a drinks menu then completely forgot about us.

We ordered a bunch of starters and that alone took about 30+ mins to come to the table. When it finally arrived, the squid was very tough and stringy. The oysters were good so I will give them that, but it's hard to mess up something you don't have to cook! Our third starter was the ham croquettes. These were absolutely stone cold to the point I thought it was meant as a cold dish till my partner told me it wasn't. I can only assume things were sat at the pass for ages.

Another worrying thing that happened was with their newly installed fireplace at the back. There was only one family of 3 sat at the back with us next to this fireplace and at one point it was bellowing out smoke into the back area causing all of us to cough. The smell of smoke was so strong and stayed for a long time, I felt very sorry for the family closest to the fire. The staff did not seem to know how the fire place worked and we're just hoping it fixed itself.

Ok back to the review...We put the starters behind us and decided to look forward to the mains, they all sounded absolutely mouth watering! I went for the pork chop and my partner the Malaysian chicken thighs. Once again, from finishing the starters to getting our mains this took around 40mins or more to come out. Now I do not mind waiting if the kitchen is busy and wants to make everything perfect and fresh, however, there were not that many people in the restaurant at the time and what finally came to us was unacceptable at this price point. BOTH dishes again were very cold! My pork chop was quite underwhelming, I could taste the flavours and it went well with the side salad and apple sauce but I was expecting something a bit more special. The same goes for my partner, she liked the flavours in the chicken thigh dish, but it again was entirely cold. At this point we were so hungry we gave up and kept eating.

Before we were asked how things were, the table of 3 next to the fire had called over the staff and were having a long discussion pointing to various plates on their table. In the end we managed to catch some of the conversation which turned out to be the same complaints as ours (food was nice but everything was cold and wished it was hot) when they took their plates away I could see quite a lot was left. When we finally managed to speak to somebody and gave them the exact same feedback we was told that "the dish came with side salad so you know, hot and cold together sometimes things get cold" I was a bit shocked by this as my chop was nowhere near my salad and neither was my partners chicken. It felt like she was giving excuses for the kitchen staff instead of acknowledging there was an issue or helping to find a solution (something again you wouldn't expect at the prices they are asking £30-40 a mains) We decided to leave it at that and both of us agreed we would never be returning.

It wasn't until the end of our meal a lovely waitress came to clear things and asked again how we was doing and how our meal was. We explained our issues and she just stood and listened and apologised, she then thanked us for bringing it to her attention. After she came back with the bill she explained that she was not happy we had a bad experience and many items were cold so put on a 25% discount telling us that she remembered us from our first visit and didn't want this to be our last and hoped we would come back and give them another go. This was the only saving grace of the entire night for us and because of her we are willing to try Kota Kai again, hopefully when staff & food are up...

An underwhelming experience unfortunately. We were very excited for our visit after seeing Jude on the GBM, however we were left disappointed with our visit. The food was hit and miss overall with aspects of it being good but many shortcomings. The bao buns had a nice filling but the consistency of the buns themselves had a strange chewy texture rather than being pillowy and fluffy. The noodles in the laksa and ramen were over cooked and were overly soft with no bite. The taste of the broth and laksa was good however. The scallops made a pleasant starter. We sampled the wasabi tartare with chips and found that overall the wasabi taste was very slight and not that flavourful.

The real let down was the decor. For a meal that with 2 drinks came to £40 a head, they really need to redecorate their “lounge” side room. With badly laid lumpy carpeting and cheap lamp shades, the ambience was akin to a budget hotel breakfast hall. It was really strange that they have decided to have a different decor in this side room to their main restaurant which looks very pleasant. It leaves a very bad first impression upon being seated in this side room as it’s very dark and dingy, especially after having walked through the main restaurant.

Small touches in service were also amiss. Cheap paper menus printed on white paper are excusable in these times for “Covid reasons” when they are thrown away/ put in recycling after single use, but when they arrive looking creased and crumpled like they are simply used again that is not becoming of the price that the restaurant charges. Similarly when the bill is given, just a small tray or holder would have been far better than just putting the folded piece of paper straight on the table.

Perhaps his main Kota restaurant would make a better experience but I would not bother...

We’ve visited Kota Kai numerous times over the years, and it has consistently delivered on food, flavour, and service. On our recent return to the area, we enjoyed another very good meal — everything we’d come to expect.

However, our second visit just six days later was unfortunately a letdown. A starter we had previously praised — the smoked mackerel — was now served with a sloppy, soup-like consistency, lacking both texture and finesse. The fish and chips, once a highlight with light, crisp batter and beautiful hake fillets, arrived greasy and heavy, with very little fish at the centre of the dish we had specifically returned for.

While some other dishes were fine, the overall experience was disappointing. To their credit, the staff were receptive to our feedback and did offer compensation. That said, there was an air of insincerity in some of the explanations — “we’ve just changed the mackerel recipe,” for example — which didn’t sit well.

In between those two visits, we also dined at their sister venue, Kota, which was equally disappointing. Although it was our first time there, it may well be our last. The new format of the restaurant just didn’t work for us. The menu felt misleading, with dishes presented in ways that weren’t clearly described. In one case — the pork with clams — the dish was notably gritty, which the team did acknowledge on the night.

What many establishments overlook is that comping a dish doesn’t undo the impact it has on the overall experience. A disappointing meal affects everyone at the table, and the atmosphere suffers as a result. We’d much rather pay full price and enjoy a consistently great experience than leave feeling let down, even if the...