Kokiyo — Restaurant in Flagstaff

On a cross-country road trip, we stopped in Flagstaff for a couple of days and wanted something more than the quick, typical food we were grabbing on the trip. This was a week and half ago and we cannot stop talking about Kokiyo. If I lived in Flagstaff, I'd eat here at least once a week.

I couldn't find a way to place an order online (we wanted takeout), so we drove to the restaurant to order in-person. Parking was easy for a Saturday night. Although it was busy downtown, we found a ton of metered street parking near the restaurant.

The restaurant itself is fairly small and it was completely packed. Although they were busy, we were greeted right away and asked if we wanted a table for two. When I said we hoped to place an order for takeout, we were given menus and helped right away. We ordered beef bulgogi, soft tofu soup w/pork, chicken katzu, and rice cakes. The entrees included a miso-type tofu soup and several side dishes.

Everything was WOW. The portions are extremely generous and the food was fresh & piping hot. This is even after a 12min drive back to our hotel. I have never had such tender, flavorful bulgogi. I'm still having dreams about it. The pork in my tofu soup was also super tender; never a chewy or tough piece in the entire container. The rice cake appetizer was more of an entree size; the heat level was perfect and the fish cakes that are included are some of the best I've ever had. I cannot say enough about how amazing the soondubu soup was. I think I could eat it every single day. It was spicy, packed with flavor and made all my texture dreams come true. The chicken katzu was perfectly crispy on the outside, juicy and tender inside and topped with just the right amount of delicious sauce. The banchan was also phenomenal as well. I'd give this place 6 out of 5 stars if I could. If you're reading this and wondering if you should give it a try - GO NOW! I;m over 2,000 miles away now and jealous of everyone that is close enough to go.

One of the most satisfying aspects of this experience is seeing how well the food held up as leftovers the next morning. Since we were leaving the area that day and had no way to save all the leftovers, we used the microwave in the hotel and finished everything for breakfast. I was sure that most of the dishes would completely lose their integrity being reheated. Nope. That leftover breakfast may have been the most satisfying breakfast we had the...

Update: It is always annoying that even though we order way too much food for their tiny two top tables they insist on crowding us at the small tables even though the restaurant is empty. They’ve done this three times but this is the first time they literally drug half of our table away. So, instead of our usual $120-$200 we spend, we protested our inconvenience and irrational, unnecessary treatment by not ordering bottles of sake or soju, not ordering 2 quarts of kimchi and dessert to go. By treating us this way and unnecessarily crowding us and embarrassing us, the restaurant easily lost $100 which means the server lost $25 and I just changed my review from five stars for everything to what you see now. And I probably won’t consider coming back to this place for six months to a year when normally I’m here every three months at least. They just lost two loyal, generous customers. They never filled the table they took away from us or any other tables and they foolishly made the two single people that came in sit elbow to elbow at their tiny four seat bar. The place was empty when we left except for the two individuals forced to dine together at the bar. This is terrible treatment of your customers. Don’t inconvenience the customers you have for the sake of the customers who might never walk through the door. This is just ignorant. —- Previous Review: This tiny place is phenomenal! Every time I visit I am impressed with the exceptional food. The preparation is flawless you must try their fried chicken, bulgogi, barbecue and their specialty drinks. I always buy extra kimchi to take home. I made an incredible Asian bloody Mary using the leftover Kimchi juice. It was amazing! Be sure to make reservations if possible, the place...

We had dinner here tonight. I really, really wanted to love this place. The food was surprisingly good. The bulgogi was a bit on the dry side but flavourful and the included veggies were a nice touch. The japchae was delicious. However, our server was incredibly, incredibly rude. We showed up early for our 7:15pm reservation and were seated promptly which was nice. The server asked us twice (impatiently) if we were ready to order. The food came, and around 7:35pm we were asked if we wanted anything else. We asked to take a look at the menu. The server huffed and puffed while grabbing the menu and snapped one word responses to our comments and questions. We were so uncomfortable, we ordered our last entree to go…and the server sighed, took the menu and more or less slammed it on the front counter on his way to let the kitchen know. We were out of the restaurant well before the 8pm closing time and were still treated rudely on the way out. My friend still tipped generously because that’s the kind of person he is…I personally wouldn’t have.

It was very, very hard to ignore the fact that we were the only people of colour (brown and black) there and the only ones being treated so blatantly disrespectfully. BIPOC folks - please think twice before...