Kenko Sushi & Tea — Restaurant in Columbia Township

I ordered a godzilla roll and a volcano roll for lunch two days ago.

PRO's: rice was properly cooked, raw fish was reasonably fresh and the tuna not taste too old. The salmon had a good color. The sushi-chefs station looked very clean and the staff was very polite. They use the better, higher quality white pickled ginger instead of the artificially dyed pink stuff.

Con's: very limited fish selection, only tuna, salmon, and snapper. rice was smashed too hard on the nori. The Califormia roll mix and TNT/dynamite mix (krab and "schrimp") are pre-made mixes, the same mixes used in gas-station sushi. The fish was pre-sliced in the display case, which exposes it to oxidation. The "seared" tuna on the godzilla roll was blow-torched and a lot of the rice was burnt black as a result (see picture, the black is burnt, not sesame seeds). Also, the torch wasn't burning cleanly and left a strong propane-kerosen-soot flavor. The volcano roll had too much spicy mayo (also store bought, see image), like, so much spicy mayo my arteries started crying. On second thought, maybe I was served a mayo roll instead? No nigiri. No salmon skin roll on the menu (which is my favorite). The paper boxes make the food feel cheap and disposable and are very wasteful of natural resources, and not recyclable. Almost every roll has cream cheese or mayo.

If you like the sort of sushi served at an all you can eat Chinese buffet resturaunt, or that's available frozen at wall mart , this place is right up your ally. It's not at all spoiled or dangerous... it's just not good. There are almost a dozen sushi restaurants in Columbia in addition to every large grocery store, where you can buy a roll from. Kenko just isn't good enough to stand out positively.

My 2cents, stick to the tea at kenko, and then go next door to Hyvee for sushi, or any of the real sushi...

How do you order a milk tea for the boba and then be told after getting the tea, that the boba is extra cost? Also the woman who took our order was extremely rude. If you are playing music in the lobby, you should probably keep it at a level to where customers can actually hear what the employees are saying when you try to order. And maybe actually have a conversation with the customers instead of not answering the questions. Definitely won’t be back which sucks because this is the best boba in town.

EDIT: I ordered two crispy chicken bento boxes where both of the salads tasted like the lettuce hadn’t been cleaned and the cucumbers tasted like they were a couple days past expiration. The sauce we got with the gyozas was only enough to dip one. The rice and chicken was missing the sauce. Very disappointed for spending $50 on a meal I can’t even eat after waiting for 30 minutes...

So I went here at 2:45 3/1/25.

Japanese food is supposed to be where food meets art. My wife and I went to get poke bowls. First off my thru messed up both our orders. My bowl was a mess. I had two proteins and they were buried in one corner but words was the handling of the fish. Poke is supposed to be bite sized cubes. I’m attach pics cause they weren’t bite sized or cubed and one peice was just disgusting.

Update 3/13…. Back in town and decided to take up the owner on their offer called in to say hey your owner asked me to come in and give you guys another try. I want rolls this time what can you do for me. She went and talked to the manager who said he couldn’t do anything. I’d steer clear of this restaurant. They cut their sushi in the back to which is probably to hide poor condition of the fish. Two times in there and it...