Kintaro All You Can Eat Sushi & Hot Pot — Restaurant in Copley Township

My first experience here with just my husband and I was great all around. My second experience with a group of 15 was terrible. It was bad enough to make me NEVER want to come back under any circumstance. Despite their large party rooms, I would never recommend for a large group, and not even for a small group. Service was terrible from start to finish, even when calling to reserve the room, rules and questions kept changing each time I called. It was difficult to understand each other, which may have lead to some confusion.

I was so excited to bring family and friends there yesterday, but left feeling embarrassed. Without going into too much detail because it would take too long, here were our general complaints: Confusion on booking the room, inconsistencies in the menu (first time I was there, the side order hibachi came with rice and veggies. This time it did not), NO refills, wrong orders (at least 5-7 people), missing food (almost everyone), wrong checks (at least 5-7 people), not seeing our waitresses for long periods of time, COLD food - including cold soup. THe "All you can eat" hibachi would have been a great idea, except when 4 of us turned in our paper for our 2nd plate, only 1 person got it. The other 3 waited AN HOUR for their second plate, after having to ask MULTIPLE TIMES and having to fill out another paper. We had been there 2.5 hours at that point and wanted to leave, so asked for it to be in a box to go. At first, the manager said no. Then he said yes to someone else. The food came out unboxed, so when we asked again, we were given boxes to box it ourselves. Our waitresses even set all checks on the table and left, leaving us to pass them out.

I understand that a big reason for this is a language barrier, which is totally fine and expected. But, I think there should be a better system in place to help ensure quality as it is an American restaurant. Maybe have an English speaking server assigned to help? Maybe have our servers actually write down orders and number our seats instead of trying to remember? There were plenty of ways to avoid this. The worst part was there was no ownership on the restaurant's part on what happened. We received no apology, and in fact, made it feel like it was our fault. We still had to pay full price and full tip after being served cold food, not getting all of our food, having no refills in 3 hours, getting 1 plate after paying a price for all you can eat, and overall horrible service.

Do not have party rooms unless you are able to accommodate. Do not serve cold food. Please, ask for refills, and double...

So this was our first, and probably our last time going here. Red flags from the start. First we were sat at a dirty table, the next table wasnt much better. Host said nothing and walked away without any instruction or info,( instructions were needed for how to order at this place!) all that was there was a small cup with flowers sticking out and a drink menu. We sat there and waited for around 15 min for someone to come. ( waitress was the only good experience at this place) waitress came and was pleasant. Got our drink orders and gave us 2 sheets of paper with menu items on them. More time passes and the papers had some instructions, but not how the ordering process for all you can eat works. Waitress returns and gives us our drinks, and we explains how it works. You check the boxes of what you want, then someone comes and takes your sheet and prepares the food. ( The cup of flowers on the table were pens). They then also explained that if you dont finish your food you ordered that there will be a extra charge! Up too $11. So be careful ordering anything new because if you dont like it and dont finish it, you are charged again for it. Also there is a 2 hour limit. Didnt seem like a big deal at all, until we realized we were doing alot of waiting! First plate of food arrived at our table 40 min after being sat. Hubby can eat! So once we got our food he ordered his second plate asap. Food was subpar at best. Crab rangoon were void of any filling. Sushi was no better then grocery store premade. 1.5 hours from the time we sat and he was full. He had a few left over pieces of sushi (were not that great tasting!) he tried to finish but just couldn't. So yep we were charged for them even tho we had already paid for our meals, and drinks. $18 a person for all you can eat, drinks not included, tip, and extra charge for left over sushi we already paid for= $80+ Theres an all you can eat place in north Canton that for $40. We get the same stuff, faster, and no extra charge! It was an experience, but not one we will likely do again. Plus Hubby is now vomiting this morning. So definitely not on our list of places...

The hot pot is pretty good and service was also good. I feel like the server was above average for the Kintaro experiences I have had in the past, since neglect is the norm. Expect standard tacky Chinese decor but a little more upscale with sticky tables and comfy chairs. The dividers between sections in the dining room are tall so you do feel above average privacy. Sometimes a place like this is hit or miss, and today the sauce bar was missing garlic and the sesame paste was dried out. The server was kind enough to eventually respond to my request for garlic by having a cook fill a ramekin with the needed canned garlic. In my opinion, the sauce you might make from the sauce bar really needs garlic, so I was despondent until they finally brought me this. Another miss was the "fish tofu" which was terribly fishy and had an ammonia vibe that must be the product of the cheapest canned seafood imaginable. This was disappointing because I usually love their fish tofu. Everything else that came with the hot pot was good. Tong ho was especially good and fresh today and I had no complaints about anything else. The server was really cool and totally American, so she was comfortable with how we expect to be treated at a restaurant. She made sure the drinks were refilled and had a pleasant personality.

If you're a sushi lover, you will enjoy the sushi here. It's not perfect, but given the low price point it's quite good and much better than what you get at a buffet. If you come with 3 or more people, the best option is to have at least one person get sushi and the others get hot pot. This way you can get a central hot pot bowl with 2 flavors of broth and also sushi and hibachi to share with the table. I do really enjoy the food here and it's one of my all-time favorite local chains. I do prefer the Brooklyn Heights location, but is spot is...