Koji Sunderland — Restaurant in Sunderland

We must have went on a bad day judging from the other reviews… but I can only write up what our experience was… and just about every table around us experienced similar this evening.

We walked in (booking not possible which is perhaps the root of their issue). We were lucky to get the last table.

10 mins passed before we could order a drink. A further 10 mins before we got them. We wanted to order food at the same time but were told we needed to wait as they were very busy.

We ordered two spicy chicken ramen and a duck bao buns dish to share. We’d finished our drinks before the ramen arrived. No bao buns… they’d forgotten them. We asked for another round of drinks.

We finished our ramen before the bao buns or the drinks arrived. To their credit they at least realised the issues and didn’t charge us for the drinks and bao buns.

The food itself - the menu suggested bean sprouts, mangetout, spring onion, shiitake mushrooms, alongside the chicken and noodles. There were three pieces of mushroom, four fine shreds of onion, no bean sprouts, and no mangetout. The chicken was just some lumps; not shredded as you might expect from a ramen. Impossible to eat with chopsticks… so had to resort to knife and fork. Broth was ok. Noodles… well you can’t go wrong with cooking them.

I’m so disappointed. Ramen is one of my favourites… but in all honesty the £2 noodle bowls from a discount supermarket with your own additions of onions, eggs and mangetout aren’t much different. My partner told me she prefers mine!

Worst eating out experience in our recent memory. Can only assume that this evening there was a specific issue like short staffed (and short ingredient!) as everyone around us also complained… one poor couple had their mains brought out separately… in fact the lady had to wait until after her partner had finished his to chase her own. It hadn’t arrived when we left.

Service was the underlying issue. Staff knew it was bad as they weren’t making eye contact quite deliberately. Can’t help but feel that if they had a booking system they could plan staffing levels (and ingredient stock levels!) better and avoid disappointing all those people who were turned away tonight… although you could argue that they...

Going to give my honest review of Koji, and anything "negative" I have to say is honestly more of a suggestion, because I think it's a great restaurant with lots of potential to get even better.

I've waited for a proper Japanese restaurant to come to Sunderland for roughly 15 years or more. I usually have to travel to neighbouring cities to get some authentic cuisine. That is the first thing that kind of disappointed me if I'm being honest, the food while delicious, tasted like a Western take on Japanese and Korean food. There's nothing wrong with that whatsoever, however I was hoping it would taste like I was actually IN Japan because I can't afford to travel there 😂 The food was very tasty. The broth for the ramen I think had been marinating for 8 hours, so it was very rich and flavourful. However, the rest of the ramen was a little basic, I'm not going to lie. Could've maybe had some more toppings. I did like the portion though, sometimes ramen is so big and filling you can't breathe, and this was a nice amount. Enough to satisfy and not bloat you. The Bao buns and gyoza were delicious, no notes really, order them! I will say if you're going to charge £6.50 for a medium bowl of Osaka fries, it needs more sauces or toppings. They were really tasty don't get me wrong, but the topping coated the first layer of fries and then underneath was just overpriced uncoated fries. Maybe a little pot of Japanese mayo on the side would've helped. The restaurant itself looks beautiful, the staff are attentive and friendly. The food comes as it's ready, the way most Japanese and also tapas style restaurants do it which is absolutely fine. I enjoyed my first time there and would definitely go back and recommend it to others. Just a few little things I wasn't blown away by but that's just me, and also they're brand new and still finding their feet. Definitely try it though, you won't be...

Really enjoyed the food and service at Koji tonight. I believe our server was called Emma and she was very enthusiastic and welcoming right from the moment we walked in. Having never been before me and the other half decided we were gonna get more than we normally would order just to try the different flavours. Ordered Black garlic pork ramen for me, stir fried spicy prawn udon noodles for the Mrs, some duck bao buns for us to share along with some seared beef tataki and some edamame beans. Things came out in parts which allowed us to try the flavours before our main meal came out but shortly after our first plates were given to us we were prompted by our lovely server if we wanted some charred chasu pork fries for free “as the kitchen cooked them by mistake” so we obviously accepted and they were delicious just as everything else was!

My favourite things were the seared beef and the duck bao buns! Dipping the beef in my ramen broth was unbelievably nice! But having never had bao buns before I was incredibly happy with the result!

Shared our opinions with the server who asked us before we left to wait for a moment as she “had something for us” and then came back with a voucher for a free set of bao buns for the nice time we visited!

All in all, fantastic night, fantastic food and service!...