Koi Sushi — Restaurant in Chicago

Koi sushi doesn’t look impressive on the outside and the doorstep did smell not great but the restaurant itself was pretty good! I would give it a 4 out of 5. I got in right as they opened for lunch, the floors were still wet from mopping when I came in so if you are someone who has issues with balance I would recommend coming in an hour or so later. They have an iPad ordering system here which was pretty intuitive. The only things that seemed changed by the lunch menu was the e special rolls which was severely reduced and the appetizers.

I started off with the Miso soup was super hot upon delivery I had to wait at least 5 minutes for it to cool down enough that I didn’t burn myself. The soup was pretty empty, I wish there had been more tofu and seaweed as there was only 3 pieces of tofu and maybe 7 pieces of seaweed. The seaweed was completely rehydrated which is a plus and the broth was delicious. I followed that up with the Chicken gyoza which was delicious, I was excited to see a steamed option and it did not disappoint! It was flavorful and moist. I also had the Shrimp shumai was also great, my only complaint was it was room temp. It would have been nice if it was a little warmer.

Next I got the actual sushi, I started with the Rainbow roll which was pretty good, there was two layers of very thin fish on top which meant they could layer two different kinds of fish. It was pretty good, not the best rainbow roll I’ve ever had but definitely still good. The fish obviously wasn’t the best quality but you can only expect so much. The Dragon roll was delicious, there wasn’t too much cucumber and the tempura was not soggy. If I had room I would have ordered another. On the other hand the Eel avocado hand roll was just okay, it had too much rice and the eel was hard on edge which was odd. The Salmon and the Tuna nigiri were very tender, the fish was pretty long compared to other places but there was more rice than I would have preferred.

I started my next round with Takoyaki which had several pieces of octopus inside which is great but the outside was hard and it had very little flavor. I couldn’t finish it. It was not very good at all, probably the worst I’ve had in a while. I also had the Spicy salmon hand roll which was VERY FULL. It honestly wasn’t my favorite, it was very oily but I can appreciate the portion size. Lastly I had the Shrimp tempura roll which was honestly really great, I would order this again in a heartbeat. As I was leaving the waitress encourages me to take some self serve ice cream for the road, they had small plastic cups and snow cone holders, I chose the paper snow cone sleeve which was a mistake considering the heat and humidity but it was still good.

I would come back here, I would be interested in trying the dinner menu I would be so interested to try some of the other special rolls. I would recommend the Dragon roll, Shrimp tempura roll, the steamed chicken gyoza, and the steamed...

Used to be a 5 star review. Now, it's 1 star. Why? Well, prepare to pay 3$ for soda water from the gun at their bar. Yep, 3$. Unbelievable. When is the greed going to end? I mean, seriously. 3$ for a soda water is ridiculous. I'm already paying 31.99 for all you can eat, plus tip, it's nearly $50. It's absolutely outrageous. I told the waitress that I was deeply disappointed they were charging me for the soda water, the owner came over and clarified they needed to pay for the carbon. Haha! What a joke. So you charge people 3$ , what's that mean they make thousands of dollars a month on soda water, and the carbon cannisters cost what? I mean, just ridiculous. I won't be going back. I am never charged for soda water at bars or most other restaurants i frequent. The waitress was kind, but the owner didn't even offer to remove the charge. You lost a steady customer, and I won't be going back. Over soda water. I can understand if i am drinking a soft drink product but the principle is, it's still water. Please dont pretend you are spending a lot of money on carbinating the water, it's pathethic.

Updated Edit

As you all can see from the restaurant owners' response, they not only double down on their greed, they decided to try to invalidate me with a lie. The restaurant owner never offered to remove the charge, nor did the manager, this is a lie. The waitress was the one who offered to see if she could ask it be removed but I was already exhausted from the conversation and HUMILIATION of being debated over such a complaint. You had staff glaring at me as I spoke respectfully and shared my perspective. Tells me everything about the kind of environment your restaurant is. You have lost a customer, period. Very lame decision to double down on a greedy perspective and trying to use a Yelp review comment as defense of why you should continue a business practice tells me everything about your character as a human being. You're despicable. And now I am done with this conversation and going to move on with my life elsewhere for sushi. May your business continue to suffer until you change your pricing to respect...

First time here, heard a lot of good things about this place. Was very excited to try this new all you can eat restaurant, we came in right about 4:30 was seated and straight off the bat, the table we were sat at was wobbly, we asked to be moved. Everything was good so far. We started off with the Shirley temples and then got told they didn’t have sprite I believe, that the machine was down? They only had Pepsi or lemonade. We got one of each. We had filled out our papers and gave them to the waitress. And this is where it gets bad, we waited 30 mins almost 40 mins, and we had only received our appetizer, we were very hungry and waiting but it’s been so long and other people who came in after us, who came in bigger groups were receiving all of their food. I had to try to get ahold of someone to ask is there was a problem with our food, we had waited 30 minutes almost 40. The waitress said she will find out and I went to sit back down. A little bit after, our original waitress came and asked if we had given her one or two papers for the menu, we told her two, in which she said that they had lost the papers, they couldn’t find it anymore, in which she had asked us if we can fill out another paper to get our food ready. At this point we were hungry and upset, we just asked for the bill for the appetizers. She said okay and left, we still waited and she came back saying that the food was ready. Which at this point we were confused because just a minute ago, she had said they lost our papers and they didn’t have the food for what we had ordered and now it was ready .????? We just asked for the bill, and we started looking for another place to eat. I would assumed after all this, they’d removed at least the drinks from the bill. But no, we paid for all 3 appetizers and 2 drinks. Very upsetting. Customer service needs to be worked on. In no time did the waitress came back to check on us to ask us about the food or appetizers. I would check out Sushi Taku, very reliable and better sushi. Horrible experience here, definitely would...