Katana Peterborough — Restaurant in Great Britain

We recently visited Katana for a birthday lunch.

I'll start off with the positives. Firstly it's a nicely decorated restaurant - very picturesque for anyone that likes dining out for the gram. Secondly, we were sat down at a high-table with barstools even though the staff were informed upon booking that we had a guest that makes use of a wheelchair. This was, however rectified immediately much to the credit of whom we assume was the manager. Unfortunately this really is where the positives end.

The table we were moved to was quite frankly filthy. It was covered in a mixture of seasoning, crumbs and even grease from what we assumed was the previous meal. We'd like to say that this would have been cleaned ordinarily but we were moved to the table on short notice, however the table had already been fully set with dishes, cutlery and napkins.

I'm not someone that expects a waiter to be all sunshine and rainbows absolutely all the time - table waiting is a tough job and they need to be cut some slack in most cases. That being said, to say that our waiter was unfamiliar with the menu would be an understatement. I asked about what teas they had available and one that was recited was "Japanese tea". I politely asked if they knew what Japanese tea it was in particular (as in the type of tea, not the brand or anything) and they said "it's just Japanese green tea" to which I asked if they could check for me and they did (it was genmaicha if you're wondering). My brother, who's vegan asked what vegetables were included in the "seasonal vegetable Tempura" and the waiter quite honestly said he didn't know but then proceeded to list all of the vegetables they thought could be instead of simply checking with the kitchen.

As for the food itself. Two parties ordered chicken karaage. What arrived was not chicken karaage. It was more akin to a Chinese chicken ball tossed in Thai sweet chilli sauce. Simply not what was on the menu. This would have been overlooked but the dish was ordered for a child that was with us and was far too spicy for them to eat. When this was raised and a replacement was requested the waiter insisted that the menu was all correctly marked with chilli symbols where appropriate - upon revisiting it there is no chilli symbol next to the karaage.

Another dish ordered was the Vegam Maki roll which lists "Avocado, cucumber, and mango". The maki that arrived had strawberries and daikon instead of mango. This was raised with the waiter who took it away. They returned shortly after and said it was made by mistake and asked if we'd like to order something else. We were confused by this because if it was indeed made mistakenly then we'd still like to have what was ordered. I asked if they were actually out of mango and simply substituted it without asking if this was OK and they admitted this was the case - it's fortunate that the person that ordered doesn't have a strawberry-allergy. We were told this would be removed from the bill.

The meats cooked on the teppan grill was OK. Really just OK. Not much else to really say about it. In general the meat was extremely under-seasoned but this is because you then have your choice of sauce for it. The meats were accompanied by fried vegetables and rice, both of which were very heavily seasoned with black pepper which greatly unbalanced them.

When the bill arrived there were more than a few things wrong. The entire table had ordered set menus plus some extras; this was eight set menus in total. Upon inspection five of the set menu orders were charged as three-course set menus instead of two-course set menus and there was simply a surcharge of steak that wasn't ordered whatsoever. And of course, the vegan maki rolls were still on the menu. To their credit as soon as this was brought to their attention it was amended quickly but if we hadn't checked the bill then we'd have been overcharged the better part of £100.

I honestly can't recommend a meal at Katana. Please support small, independent, family-run restaurants and enjoy their cooking...

I was debating between a 1 star and a 2 star review for this restaurant but I decided to be generous since they only recently opened in Peterborough. I am aware they are a chain but I’ve decided some of the problems could be due to local management. The way I will summarise this restaurant is that it’s Asian food made for English people, I’ve eaten in a number of Japanese and Asian restaurants across the UK and I’ll be honest that this is the worst I’ve had. For my starter I had the Chicken Yakitori priced at £9, the chicken was fine but it tasted the exact same as aldis chicken yakitori except they added some sesame seeds and oil on top. Worth £9 for two relatively small pieces? No. My mum, who was treating me to this meal, had the vegetable tempura. It was fine but on the whole pretty bland and quite over priced for fried vegetables. For the main we decided to share the deluxe sushi platter, at I believe £30-40 (I cant quite remember). It was fine, we enjoyed it but again I wasn’t amazed by anything on the dish. If I had never had any other sushi I might’ve really liked it but I knew it wasn’t up to par. The one specific complaint I had was that the chicken is extremely dry at the restaurant. I had also tried the chicken katsu curry which was genuinely the worst katsu I’ve ever had, even Wagamamas is better. The chicken breast was quite dry, alongside the chicken in the sushi which was also dry. The sauce felt like it was made with a curry cube which is a shame when paying a lot in a nice restaurant. The sauce was also extremely thin, I personally love a thicker sauce and this one was like water. Although the flavours were good the textures were not.

For dessert I had the cheesecake, personally I didn’t like it. I will take accountability that that might just be a personal opinion. The cheesecakes was jelly like instead of the creaminess I usually like. I’ve never had an Asian cheesecake so this could be a cultural thing but it was not for me. The ice cream alongside it was good. My final complaint about the restaurant before I get to the good stuff is how overstuffed it was. We got there at 6:30 and the restaurant was about half full, yet from my seat I could see just under 20 staff stood around or busying themselves with little tasks. It was like this the entire evening and when it got quite busy it felt really stuffy with people walking past the table every other second. The employees also would not really leave us alone, continually checking on us as it was clear they had nothing else to do. At one point I saw 4 of them re-setting just one two seater table and it took them around 10 minutes it was quite funny. To finish the review I’ll say some positive stuff because I don’t like leaving bad reviews! (You wouldn’t be able to guess that from everything above haha) The restaurant itself was very beautiful and I really enjoyed my drink. I had the strawberry mock tail (can’t remember the exact name) and it was tasty! The lighting was really nice and when it wasn’t super busy with people running around it was a nice environment. I would recommend this place to go for a drink with your friends maybe take some pictures and then leave to go and eat...

Was here tonight with my boss for a birthday meal. Although this was prebooked, we were seated in the bar area rather than the restaurant. Despite asking the waitress who was front of house to move to a more suitable table, nothing emerged. The table we got was set for two despite booking for three of us. Eventually, we received a drink and food menu (which is printed on plain paper so unfortunately had food residue on them). Anyway the waitress took our drinks order and returned a small while later with drinks and water for the table, she did spill this on one of use (no big deal accidents happen and the lighting makes it difficult to see). After a 30-minute wait, my boss complained to the bar about not being served and that we were going to pay for the drinks and go elsewhere. The bar staff flagged a waitress to take our order (she didn't have paper to write on, so returned minutes later to take our order).

The plates on the table were dirty, the waiter brought 9 plates in the end, and all had stains on them, so they were replaced for main plates. Which were then taken by another waiter. Two of us received starters after another 30-minute wait. Unfortunately, the last one didn't receive hers for another 15 minutes after flagging down the main waitress to ask. She explained that food is prepared from different areas and comes out as it's ready, hence the delay. However, this wasn't mentioned at the time of taking the order. Plus, the one that took ages to arrive was raw salmon (so I don't understand how it took so much longer to prepare)?

The food is nice however quite expensive for what it is. I've been to the Spalding Katana, and honestly, the food is amazing there, with set menus to choose from and better value for money. Plus, the waiter, Sam, is very attentive.

Anyway, back to Peterborough Katana... we had to clear our own plates away after waiting 30ish minutes to see if anyone was going to clear the plates. My boss then had a good word with the female manager who apologised and went to chase our food order. 15 minutes later, he flagged the male manager who apologised, gave us a drink, and got the food sent over shortly after.

We had the wague meal, which, if I'm honest, wasn't worth £65 that they charged. It wasn't marvelled and was tough even though cooked medium? There was no set menu option either, making it quite expensive with starters. We didn't look at the desert menu as no one bothered to offer it to us, and we had to go the bar for the bill. (Nothing was taken off the bill before anyone thinks I'm just complaining for the sake of it).

The lighting makes it seem like a nightclub. The various rooms off to the side make you wonder what's going on (smoke room, nightclub, etc).

This bar/restaurant is very busy and seems to have an identity crisis. I personally won't be back, which is a shame as this place is close to me. I will stick to my regular XO for good quality food and reasonable price.

I would 100% recommend the spalding katana if you get the chance. This is run so...