Kona Grill - Carmel — Restaurant in Carmel

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Mothers Day at Kona Grill

My family and I arrive to Kona Grill at 11:55 am, with a noon reservation. After waiting in a long line, we were told there will be an hour wait. Yes, an hour past our reservation time. Our hands were tied because if we went anywhere else, it would probably be the same or more of a wait, so we decided to wait. We were late to the activities that followed family lunch.

We are called back at 12:40 pm, 20 minutes early. Good. We entered and were quickly seated to our table. Our server Annie gave us honest recommendations about the food and got our orders in as soon as she could. She grabbed my mom two diet cokes because they were about to run out of it. They were also out of Dr. Pepper. She was resourceful, respectful, and made the best out of a bad situation. Annie was the only employee in the restaurant who made my family feel welcome and valued. The 5 stars of service were because of her.

First, our entree comes out. Avocado egg rolls. Flavors were spot on, but they came out just barely warm, not hot and fresh. They didn't look fresh either.

After our plate was collected, we were informed the kitchen was behind. I wasn't watching the clock, and it did feel a little long, but not ridiculously long. I was in good company.

Next, our food. I ordered the wagyu fried rice. Presentation was great, with a fried egg on top. The food came out hot. Unfortunately, this dish had less seasoning and flavor than the inexpensive Chine take-out place down the road. The steak they used could not possibly be wagyu. It wasn't even tender enough to be a filet. The rice was just a little too mushy.

My sister ordered the crunch spicy tuna roll. It looked good, but unfortunately was unbelievably spicy. She could not finish this small roll because of the heat. I tried a bite and it took my breath away.

My dad ordered the Las Vegas roll and pot stickers. The presentation of the roll was ugly and the roll was nothing special. It wasn't that good. This roll should have been $10 (generous), and it was double that. The potstickers were standard potstickers. At least there was one normal dish at the table. He finished most of his food.

My mom ordered the crunchy crab roll. This roll was good, normal, basic. But at least it was good. $20 good? No, this is the kind of roll you see on a sushi half price menu. Same quality too. But at least it was normal, standard, average.

I wasn't sure where to add in this part, but the reason we chose Kona Grill was for sushi. They did not have the full sushi menu for Mothers Day, just 4 or 5 available rolls that were each around $20.

The music blasting was a DJ remix station of some kind. I don't think that a party blend of music was appropriate for Mother's Day.

Our bill was just under $160. Only one person at my table ordered a drink besides water. My family feels scammed. We don't go out and spend that amount of money except for a couple special occasions in the year. We were never once offered a free drink, a refund, a free dessert, gift card. Nothing to make it right. Not a single effort. We never heard an apology. Management should feel embarrassed for how they performed today. It was impressively bad. The servers should be financially awarded for the tips I'm sure they lost out on by the incompetence of this restaurant.

My family will never return here, and will be reaching out to see if Kona will try to make this right for us (I will update here if they do). Happy Mothers Day.

Update: After we contacted them, Kona Grill has wowed us with their response to the Mothers Day situation, bringing this review from one star to three stars. Thank you Kona Grill for...

I'll start with the positive. The place was nice to look at. My husband ordered a Kona Rita and he said it was really good. That's unfortunately where the positive ends. This was an incredibly disappointing experience. This was out first time visiting this restaurant and this was to be a birthday dinner for our 23 yr old son. There were 5 adults in our group. We expected this would be an expensive meal. When we first got there, we were not helped for about 15 minutes. We had reservations for 7pm and were on time. We finally were seated and then another 15 minutes went by where we were completely ignored. We wondered who our waiter was and figured it couldn't be the one that walked past us and only smiled. Nope, that was him. He did have a big table but a simple stop by the table to greet us would have been great. When he finally came, we ordered drinks and 3 sushi rolls for our appetizer. We sat there for about 20 minutes without anything to drink, not even water. We had to ask for drink refills multiple times. Not once did anyone bring us a drink without asking. Seeing as we were sitting there so long, we should have had our glasses kept full. Also had to ask more than once for lemons for our water. It was 45 minutes before any food hit our table. By then, we were all starving and becoming impatient but trying to keep things positive and make the most of it. So, 45 minutes in and we have our sushi. No plates and no chopsticks. We had to wait again, on our waiter, to be able to eat the food sitting in front of us. The sushi was very average. Our entrees came out probably 20 minutes later. The quality ranged from "just OK" to down right gross. I ordered a filet mignon that was near $50. It came without a steak knife so I had to wait to eat it until the waiter came back again. Notice the repeat issue? The steak was supposed to be medium and it was almost raw inside. In fact, it was barely even warm. It also tasted off. I took a couple of bites and passed it down the table. Two other people at the table tried to eat it but everyone agreed, it was just bad. The mashed potatoes had good flavor but had a film on the outside of the them that made me think they had been sitting on the plate for quite a while. The green beans were also good but barely warm. My husband ordered a burger that was supposed to be medium rare but it was well done. He had to add lots of sauces to it to choke it down because it was super dry and also had no flavor. I wish I had a picture of the tomato they put on the sandwich. It was literally mostly green. My son, whose birthday it was, ordered the fish and chips. It was one fried filet and a little basket of fries for around $30. I'm telling you, we are not a family that is difficult to please. In fact, quite the opposite. I do not exaggerate when I say, this is one of the most horrendous experiences, in dining, that we've ever had. We dropped over $300 at this establishment. The food was not good, we received small portions, VERY overpriced, terrible service, left hungry, frustrated, and I was upset that I had tried to give our son a nice birthday dinner and it failed. I would never return to this restaurant in a million years. This is Carmel, where you have plenty of options. I have no idea how they are still in business but do yourself a huge favor and take your...

This was our first time visiting Kona Grill. We actually stopped in because it was the only thing open past midnight in the area. We called to make sure they’d still be serving food the person who answered said last call was 12:45 which we really appreciated. We weren’t trying to sit down and eat for 2 hours anywhere, so this was perfect for us. We were greeted by a very nice young lady and a super friendly bartender. The bar was the only section still open which was completely fine and we did get great service, especially considering they were closing in 35 minutes. We did notice a strange smell. We aren’t sure what it was, but it was my first time there, so maybe it was normal.

At the suggestion of the waiter, we got the calamari and at the suggestion of one of our party, we got two orders of the sliders on the happy hour menu. The calamari was sparse for the price and it was chewy. I know we are in Indiana and I shouldn’t expect much when I order calamari, but I figured, since it was recommended by our server, it must be something special. The sliders were also a disappointment. The meat itself was overcooked, and the buns were hard on top. I couldn’t tell if they were stale or maybe warmed up and sat for a while, but I only ate half of a slider. The rest of my party each at one. I could’ve sworn the menu said they had onions on them, but I didn’t see any, which was not a big deal for me. For the rest of our food, we ordered a happy hour portion of the macadamia nut chicken, which was a very small portion of chicken, the French dip, two of the Bama sushi rolls, and a piece of cheesecake (to go). I was told the French dip was good. I had a couple pieces of the Bama roll. It was probably the best part of the meal. Strangely, when our food came out, a group of gnats followed the food to our table. We spent the rest of our meal swatting at them and I stopped eating after I saw more than one.

When we got our bill, I was floored to see the price of the cheesecake was $15. I did not recall seeing a price on the menu, so I asked the server about it. Apparently, I missed the price and when I looked at pictures of the menu from other reviews, it is in very light print at the top of the box. It was late and I didn’t want to fuss about it, so we paid and left. Our bill was $109 plus tip. When we got home and looked at the cheesecake, I was even more disappointed. It was an average size slice with a small cup of raspberry sauce. If I had seen what I paid $15 for, I would’ve declined it, but I didn’t want to hold up the servers anymore. I had really high hopes for KG, especially since two people in our party raved about it and eat there often, but even they were underwhelmed. It must’ve been the time of service or something, but if that is the case, maybe the kitchen should be shut...