Kazoku — Restaurant in Folkestone and Hythe District

Had the bottomless sushi for our group of 5 after having read about this new addition to Folkestone's restaurant scene. Immensely pleased that we finally had a sushi restaurant in Folkestone! Unfortunately the delight quickly gave way to disappointment.

So, let me first say the food is pretty good. It's not authentic (the rice lacks vinegar in a big way) but it's tasty enough. There's too much mayonnaise on many of the options. It is very much like the sushi offerings given in restaurants that offer food from many different cuisines. It's not Japanese. But certainly some of the food is enjoyable.

The service is really poor though with so many things that annoyed us that we certainly won't be back. So where to begin? The service is really poor and slow. The tick-sheet they give out is strange and makes it look like you can only have 4 "rounds" of whatever you happen to choose. We only stayed for 3 anyway because we'd had enough by then. But it doesn't seem to be bottomless. And food choices were missing repeatedly - round after round - from the things we ordered. And things we hadn't ordered (like that well-known Japanese staple, Mango sushi!) did arrive on our platter. It arrived in random quantities - sometimes a 4 piece option had just 2 pieces and vice versa. There was no wasabi on the second round of our order. The waiter wasn't familiar with a shandy and our effort to come up with an alternative resulted in a half-filled pint glass of beer being offered up. We were only offered one drink whilst we were there for nearly 2 hours. Did I mention the service was intolerably slow? Dirty plates accumulated at our table such that there was no space at all. No effort was made to clear them away nor to replenish or offer us further drinks. The wait between the rounds of our sushi order was so long such that for the final order I just had to take our slip to the counter. It actually wasn't that busy so I don't know why the service was so chaotic. I wonder if making customers wait longer is a ploy to allow their appetite to subside and thus not have to provide as much food to patrons? It certainly felt that way. I overheard a nearby table complaining also about the waiting time and random nature in which food had been delivered so I know our situation wasn't isolated. I did voice our feelings with the waiter about some of the issues we were experiencing with the meal and he attempted to make amends. But his resolution consisted of bringing us some of the items that had been missed out from the earlier rounds at the close of the meal. Not really a solution in my eyes. Additionally, one of our group was a small child but was charged the full adult price (double that of a child). But by the time I'd come to settle up I'd lost the will to argue and just paid it anyway. One of the waiters did make an effort to apologise further and I'm grateful for that but it was just too little too late, I'm afraid.

I don't mind paying £150 for dinner even if we did only have one drink. But whilst the food was OK it certainly wasn't good enough to justify the price. And the service was such that we...

We've been visiting Kazoku for over a year; last night was our 6th visit. The quality of the food has got better, but as the evening progressed some of the rolled pieces, (I cannot recall their names!), disintegrated when taken from the board & some were not cut through. This is indicative of rushed, below-par preparation, which is perhaps unsurprising; allow me to explain. In order to get the best, quickest service we have learned to book a table at 18:00; the restaurant becomes busy from around 18:30 & service goes significantly downhill at that point. We always go for the boards, & generally go through about 3 in total. The first board, (pieces are often chilled, leading one to the conclusion it's prepared in advance), arrives within 10 minutes of order. We then fill out the form for board #2, leave it on the side of the table, where is is then ignored by the passing waiting staff until it is waved in the air like Neville Chamberlain declaring peace in our time. It then takes another 20 minutes for the second board to arrive. & the process repeats with the waiting staff again ignoring the form. This is why we always allow 2 to 3 hours to eat here; last night we arrived at 17:50 & left at 20:30. Nothing against the food itself, although the "kitchen" appears to be unable to cope with volume perhaps leading to the issues noted above, but the service is diabolical; our last board was brought over by a chef as no staff were available to service a by then half-full restaurant. Other people were walking up to the preparation area & the bar because the staff weren't taking orders. Despite this, we'll continue to eat there, & advise any newcomers to book early to avoid the...

The food is some of the best sushi iv ever had, and the pricing makes it unmissable. If you like sushi you MUST try it if you're nearby, the flavours and skills behind the selection is fantastic. The music is fun and put me in a good mood immediately. The decor is so cute and pretty, so atmosphere is 5* for me.

My only gripe would be the staff are a tad slow at times and don't check often enough if we need anything, iv been twice since it opened, dinner and lunch, and both times my experience has been the same; A group of staff stand and chat a lot when we haven't been checked on and want more drinks, to order extra food etc. At lunch we had to wait a very long time to have our order taken both for drinks and again for food. I had to flag someone down eventually as we felt forgotten, despite only being one of 4 tables in the restaurant at the time. Later I saw 3 staff members all clearing plates from one empty table, which we found slightly odd as we had asked for the bill at this point and noone was at the till, so yeah, that was annoying.

But I will be back, probably a lot in a short space of time, as folkestone doesn't have the best record for keeping quality restaurants in business, so I want to take advantage while it lasts, and I truly hope enough people pay patronage to keep it going as the chef really deserves it.

Despite any misgivings iv written, the staff were lovely and experience comes with time, I'm sure they will improve and the friendly welcome was definitely present at all times. Nothing was forgotten and any small issue was handled quickly and graciously. They keep the place looking great too.

Most certainly I'll be back a third time...