Kabooki Sushi - Sand Lake — Restaurant in Dr. Phillips

An unforgettable dining experience at Kabooki. This is the perfect addition to the Sand lake sushi scene. This is not just a restaurant, Kabooki stands out for detail in many ways from the ambience and decor to the time and thought put into each and every dish and how it is plated.

My boyfriend and I are huge sushi people. We go to Seito sushi and Dragonfly weekly for a few main reasons being the quality of fish, ambience, and the presentation, not to mention the consistency. We like more outside of the box sushi that isn’t your typical “California roll” or classic rolls you see everywhere. The experience is what makes a meal for us.

At Kabooki, the menu offers a variety of assorted dishes and rolls. Everything stood out and was like no other sushi place we have ever been to before.

One of the main reasons we were excited to try Kabooki’s new location was that they offer freshly grated wasabi! Real wasabi is nothing like what everyone is use to. It’s not hot at all, it’s tastes very herbal with a mild heat to it without the aftertaste if horseradish. Our server Kevin was extremely knowledgeable about the menu and offered great suggestions.

Details are not forgotten here. Our meal started with house made soy sauce brought to our table to accompany our menu choices. We started with ginger salads and the “Maguro Truffle”... this melted in your mouth. A perfect marriage of flavor with the balsamic truffle soy and shiitake crema, as well as a nice crunch texture. And when I say melted, I mean it. As well as all the other raw fish we chose. Hands down the best quality raw fish I’ve ever had in my life. We also ordered the double tekka roll, spicy salmon roll, and the nigiri moriawase. I loved the portion of fish to rice. The chef knows exactly what he is doing. Other places skimp in this area and use a lot more rice. The “Double Tekka” roll was similar to a spicy tuna roll. It had a beet root in the roll which took it to a new level, gave it more flavor and accompanied the roll so well. Never would have thought one simple ingredient could add so much flavor when paired correctly.

Last but not least, we finished with carrot cake for dessert. Desserts are served with small Japanese wooden spoons. Our waiter told us this is a tradition to make you enjoy each and every bite. We loved this touch!

Overall a wonderful experience here at Kabooki. I would highly recommend Kabooki for a special occasion or date night. Excited to come back and try the chef omakase offered at the sushi bar and the ramen which is only served on Sunday’s. We had the pleasure of speaking with the manager John who was very excited about this new location and wanted some feedback. So personable and professional. He is an asset to...

Magical Menu Kabooki Sand Lake Review

We had high hopes for this place based on reviews and photos and since they were part of the Magical Dining in Orlando we thought to give it a go.

We started with the Tigre appetizer was a smaller portion compared to the karage but expected for this pre fixed menu. It was fresh and different .. not bad but not something I would necessarily order again.

The Karage Chicken was a generous portion but was so covered in sauce it lacked crispiness.. and came with a sauce to dip it in.. a bit heavy on the salty side but decent.

I wanted to try a cocktail so I ordered their Kabookie Old fashioned. This was a disappointment for the price. I was suspicious from them using Old Forester, not exactly high or even mid grade whisky but I was game so I got it. Holy Heavy Cinnamon Batman.. it should be called a cinnamon old fashioned. You got some cherry bitter notes but it was pretty bad despite the good presentation.

We then jumped into the main course, where we opted for the Double Tekka Roll and Chef’s choice 🍣 .. it was a little on the spicy side but that is fine and the nigiri is a bit mini lol but very nice at least. They gave us tuna, salmon and a few white fish.

We also had the St Louis ribs, which we bith felt was an odd way to showcase their restaurant. The bark or crust was a bit tough but the meat part was very tender and okay tasting. It was almost too tender and I was spitting out pieces of cartilage for most of my ribs. We were impressed with how tender it was but would not order it again.

Finally we go to dessert, and had the C4 lava cake which was a disaster.. we did not even finish it.. it was like a kid put this thing together and used every flavor they coukd find including green onions, lemon, raspberry.. if they would have just had chocolate cake and ice cream, it would be amazing.

The star of the show was their Ube Cheesecake which we had to upgrade for $8 extra which is a bit steep since we already were paying for dessert but none the less, it was the best thing we ate all night and I would definitely recommend.

Wait staff was good and did a good job with clearing and water service.

The waiter did try to push the idea every dish was delicious.. it was a bit much. Like every freaking dish “so this was delicious, I take it..” I mean.. what are we gonna say ?? “Nah bro.. this aint it!” Lol. The guy was a weird and it is too bad because all the other servers seemed normal.

This meal made us both feel ill to our stomach and we would NOT recommend and felt it was overhyped and while the decor was cool with fresh tuna and wagyu hanging up for you to see.. we cannot in good faith...

No longer going to be regulars

We've been coming to this restaurant for years now on a semi-regular basis (maybe about once every other month and also for any and all special occasions) and have never had any issues. However, tonight we made a reservation for my partner's birthday and had probably one of the worst restaurant experiences in recent memory. We were largely ignored by our server despite the restaurant not being busy, and felt like we were bothering him every time we wanted a drink refill. The worst part tho was our main course didn't arrive at the table for 45+ minutes. We asked our server about it around the 25 minute mark since that was the point it was starting to feel excessive, and it seemed to us both that he forgot to put the order in, but he didn't want to admit that to us. Our order then came out wrong when it finally arrived, and by that point we were tired and just done with being there. The server didn't really offer to take it off our tab despite us being unable to eat it (the error was a dietary restriction because I’m vegetarian), but luckily when we asked he said it wouldn't be a problem. We've come for birthdays in the past and always been offered a free desert at the end of the meal, but tonight the server didn't offer it. We asked about it and he said he would bring it, and even tho there were only 4 other tables sat in the restaurant it took 20 minutes to come to the table. We've loved coming here for the attention to detail, but it seems like that's no longer important at this business. Also to note: every time we've come the place was PACKED and the environment was great. Tonight there were hardly any tables sat, so I guess we're not the only ones falling out of love here- seems like other people are catching the drift that something has changed, and not for the better. Disappointed,...