Domo Japanese Country Food Restaurant — Restaurant in Denver

Sadly, Covid broke a lot of great places to eat and that appears to be the case with DOMO in Denver. Pre-COVID I had taken family and clients to DOMO and it had been a fun an unique experience in Denver.

The DOMO that exists now is nothing like the DOMO from back in the day. Came on a Sunday before a Broncos game to have lunch with family and friends and the experience might be the worst restaurant experience I've had in my life.

We arrived, DOMO was about half full, 3 large tables available. Our party was a party of 8. The first experience was telling the hostess and him giving a big sigh, absolutely did not want to serve us.

After about 15 minutes we were sat and after another 15 or so our waitress came over to take our order. This is where things went from meh service to bad.

DOMO is running a hotpot seasonal entree, a few different types of broth and a few different proteins. Most of the table, including my wife who is Korean, ordered some form of the Hotpot and a couple appetizers.

Entrees came out first, one at a time, and the waitresses were putting plates to the wrong people (mix ups happen), its fine, so we correct or pass plates around. We receive 7 of 8 entrees, my wife not receiving hers. At this point the we're trying to explain to the waitress that we're missing an entree. There is some mix up between two of the hot pots and another person in out party apparently had my wife's and had taken a few bites before realizing that the order was wrong.

Not a big deal, but we're trying to get the 8th entree. The waitress takes one of the entrees from a party member and is going to have the kitchen correct. Then after a few minutes she brings back the entree she took, unfixed, and says that because one or more bites was taken she can't take it back and to get the right entree we'd be double charged.

Weird, and not very customer service oriented. But we are trying to explain we're still missing an entree. There are 8 people, 7 entrees.

At this point, I think the owner, Gaku Homma, comes out and starts yelling at our table, saying its our fault that the entrees ended up with the wrong people and that he wasn't going to remove any charges.

No one at our table had asked to be comped, we never asked to speak to the chef, we're only trying to get our final entree.

The owner continues to aggressively talk down to the table and the begins to berate my wife that its "our mistake".

Finally, I tell the owner this conversation is over and ask him to leave the table. My wife, feeling discriminated against and verbally abused, leaves the restaurant, won't come back in. We never get the 7th entree.

It was the the most shocking restaurant experience I've ever had. I don't know if the owner was having a bad day, really doesn't like Koreans, or something else but to verbally attack a table of patrons in a fairly crowded restaurant is just mind blowing.

This new DOMO since Gaku Homma reopened is a shell of its former self. Not only did this situation occur but the food was lackluster, nothing like the old DOMO food. Hotpot and soup broths were bland and watery, meat was over cooked.

Food: 2/10

Service: 0/10 A note about this service. My wife is Korean, my children are half Korean. I don't know if the owner/chef was having a bad day or what, but I would never expose my family to the gross behavior that...

I can't say I'll be going back again. I went to this place for a girls dinner with a friend, because it was supposed to have beautiful ambience and great food. I was excited to try it. I didn’t mind putting our name down for an hour long wait, because the numerous reviews on the wall from old local magazines showed how they’re voted best Japanese in town. But we were disappointed as soon as we were sat. When we asked the server about some of the menu items, they weren’t even serving most of the items that were listed. When you ask to order something on their menu the server would say “no we don’t have that” or “no we ran out of that”. When you ask for modifications they say no we can’t change pork for chicken. I felt defeated with the menu and unsure of what to get at that point because I was so limited with my options and ability to modify. Then we’d ask for hot sake (which was listed on the menu), but they only had cold sake. Ok. We asked about the sashimi/seafood items on their menu that we saw online before coming, but they also no longer serve that. The server looked at me like I didn’t know anything, but I was only going off of what I saw on the menu. He explained the shortage of chefs and staff and how the website didn’t have up to date information. We tried to be understanding. We settled on udon and ramen, because I’m normally a fan of those dishes anyway. Well, our two plates didn’t even come out at the same time. This was irritating because when my friends udon came out first (bland and basic), she ate slowly to be polite- waiting for me to get my plate too. After a long wait I finally got my ramen… but it wasn’t even hot. The broth was room temperature at best.

We also ordered plain edamame lightly salted, and the dumpling appetizers. Which were okay.

We asked about sitting on the other side of the outdoor area where the ambience was a little nicer and private. The server said we were sat in the chosen area so that servers don’t have to walk around too much. Really? The area we were asking about was on the other side of a tree in the garden. Not but 10 additional footsteps away. Towards the end of the night there were mice crawling around the bottom of the tree in the garden and scurrying under our table. I saw one run into the restaurant and instantly picked my feet up off the ground.

If you bring someone here on a date, you might be disappointed and so will your date. If you’re wondering about my credibility, I’m born of southeast Asian immigrant parents and know my way around delicious noodles. I packed my leftovers home just so that I can put it in the pot to fix the dish because it was bland.

The broths lacked richness and flavor, they tasted like they were cooked fast/instant noodles versus long stewed. When you walk into any good restaurant you can taste how inspired and passionate a chef is based on how they present their dishes and this was very telling. Perhaps this place was once great, but I don’t recommend it and I would not return. I hope this review helps in some sort of way, whether it’s to help the restaurant improve or to help you save some money.

One star because the cold sake was okay and the dumplings were...

My wife was referred to this place by one of their customers who said it was amazing. The atmosphere, the food, everything. Sadly, I cannot refer anyone else cuz it was about the most disappointed I've been in years at any restaurant. Yes, the atmosphere is phenomenal. We walked around in the outside area after we had sat down and loved it. It's very beautiful and Serene. Of course we had plenty of time to walk around because it took them 15 to 20 minutes to come ask us what we wanted to drink another 20 minutes to bring us drinks. When he brought the drinks he said it was going to be 20 to 30 minutes for our meal. I was a little surprised but okay. 30 minutes later or more, the kid brought us my wife's order. We still hadn't received our appetizer of cucumbers and he said mine would be another 5 or 10 minutes. 5 or 10 minutes later he brought the cucumbers that should have been brought before either meal. Didn't bring my meal yet. My wife and I just shared hers and waited a good 30 to 40 minutes longer and we never received my meal at all. The waiter paid no attention to us whatsoever. We might as well not have even been there because he walked right past us more times than I can count and never even glanced in our direction. After waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting a full hour and a half at this point and still not having received my meal. I finally gave up and walked over to him and told him just bring me the check. Don't worry about it. I don't want it now. And he looked at me with surprise and said oh you didn't get your food yet? No one brought it to you?. Who's going to bring it to us? You're our waiter. You didn't bring it to us. Who else would have?? I honestly don't think he ever even turned the order in for my meal which is kind of odd. I don't know how he could have turned the order in for just my wife's food, but he clearly wasn't paying any attention to anything at our table and didn't care about our service whatsoever. I mean it was an hour total from the time we sat down just to get her food. Another 20 minutes to get the appetizer and never to get mine at all. I will say the food that we tasted was okay. But you know that was just one thing so who knows about the rest of it. He honestly should have just comped the entire meal. But no, he didn't do that. He thought he was doing us a favor by giving us some cucumbers for free but still charged us for the half a meal that he brought us and the drinks. Again I got to say I was really really disappointed because the atmosphere of the place really was phenomenal. Too bad the service is a negative two stars It was supposed to be a special romantic dinner with my wife and it turned out to be a nightmare. We were so upset by the time we left and they couldn't get us out of there quick enough because they knew how bad they screwed up once they realized it...