Japango — Restaurant in Fort Collins

Starting this review I have to give context. My girlfriend and I came on a Tuesday afternoon when you guys had been open for only 2 weeks and we had an awesome experience. We were so excited to have a restaurant of this quality in town. Our whole experience was great from the service to the atmosphere to the food.

We were so excited we planned a night out for mothers day. But because we work in the service industry (craft cocktail bar manager) I unfortunately had to work on Mother’s Day. So we made reservations for Tuesday night, last night, for my girlfriends parents, my brother and my mom. We were greeted at the door and could not wait to share this experience with our family. They took us to our table in the dining room in the glass box. We sat down and it was so extremely loud we couldn’t hear each other much less think. You packed a small room full when the regular dining room was 80% empty.

It took 10 minutes before anyone came by our table. When our server did, we ordered 2 Sapporo’s, edamame, and water for the table, while we looked at the sake menu. We waited 20 min to get our 2 beers and water for the table. When someone finally brought water we ordered 5 bottles of sake and another beer. Instead of using a tray, the servers hand carried the beverages out, staggering our drinks and served the men first reaching over us instead of serving correctly. When the sake finally came out our server poured our Nigori sake without shaking it. So I asked if I could get the cap so I could shake it up. I poured it all back in the bottle and shook it up and served it to the table my self. Then our server went to serve our carbonated sake and shook it and then opened it, exploding all over my brother, me and the floor. And continued to put it on the table. (The sake covered floor was never wiped up) we were never offered a towel or anything for my dress shirt. We tried the carbonated sake and it was flat and a 1/4 of it gone, we sent it back. We also asked for ice for our cold sake. We ordered 5 miso soups 1 came out, then 10 minutes after we ordered food another miso came out, and then a third and never received the rest. Both my girlfriend and I were so embarrassed after hyping up this restaurant to our family all week. We asked if we could have the check split in 2, my family on one tab and my girlfriends family on another, prior to ordering anything. Our server said “we don’t do that” which is fine, I think you should accommodate but least of our worries, we can figure it out. So we asked that our food be brought out on separate plates because my mom wanted specific things and my girlfriends dad wanted his specific items. When the food started to finally arrive they put both orders mixed up onto several different plates. And when we asked what was what, the server said “um I think” and listed off random fish. We ended up just doing family style because we had no idea where anything was, or if we were getting everything we ordered. My brother and I ordered a bunch of sashimi, never received it. My girlfriend’s dads sashimi plate had salmon instead of tuna and our server just apologized. My brother and I never received our seared scallop rolls, we got one, after ordering 3.

The fish was dry, greying and not cut well at all. My brother used to work in a high-end sushi restaurant and was shocked. I had to apologize to my mom and brother because it wasn’t like this at all last time. We were in shock we just decided that we were going to have a good time anyway so we drank and tried to ignore the complete lack of professionalism and service.

We spent $1,000 on dinner that night and didn’t receive everything we ordered. After getting the bill we weren’t going to try and figure out what we didn’t get, it was too stressful. We just wanted to pay and not think about it.

I can’t blame the server, this was lack of training and management. The manager did nothing to help, just seemingly walked around while the server was struggling. Overall a stressful and...

Key attributes: beautiful atmosphere, great location, friendly servers, incredible tea, and fast service (even at peak hours on Sunday). Overall experience rating: 8/10

We started our evening at Japango with the Sakura Cherry Blossom Tea, edamame, and a miso soup. The tea was really the star of the show here. Incredible flavor, and piping hot when it came. The edamame and miso were standard and exactly as expected.

We got 4 rolls and 1 order of Hamachi Nigiri including the Cactus, Himalayan Roll, Kitsune Roll, and the New Orleans roll.

Cactus roll 9/10: Very small portion for the price; however the texture, taste, and presentation was incredible and unique. Flavor profile was sweet, spicy, and savory. The spice truly enhanced the roll and had a “meaningful” part in the flavor of the dish. Definitely the star of the night. Himalayan roll 8.5/10: Nice presentation, a little light on the tuna that comes on top of the roll. The fish was very cold and the overall flavor was decent. Kitsune 6.5/10 Presentation was lovely, the garnishes were very pretty. There was a major disconnect here with the description on the menu and the actual flavor profile of the roll. Fairly bland, the lemon and garlic definitely did not come through. The asparagus inside added a nice crunch. New Orleans 8/10: Bland presentation, uneven bites and masago was unevenly spread over the top of the roll. The avocado was really fresh and the tuna inside was as well. Overall, exactly what you’d expect from a spicy tuna roll. My partner said this is the best spicy tuna roll in town.

Hamachi Nigiri 5/10: The Hamachi was not as cold as I feel it should’ve been. One of the piece sort of fell apart as I picked it up. I probably would not get this here again.

Overall: The location is perfect and the atmosphere is really enjoyable. The interior design is stunning (I am a huge fan of the jellyfish tank) and there is patio seating. I could see this being a great place for a casual dinner or a fancy one depending on what you want to make it. The chefs appeared to be clean in their process. The server was very kind and friendly, the food service was prompt. The sushi was fresh and the tea was incredible. I will say my that my partner and I both agree that for the steep price of the rolls, we did expect larger portion sizes. My partner and I will definitely...

Don’t Japan-Go!

Wanted to love this freshly remodeled restaurant, so enticing with its adorable lights and swanky new decor. They did a great job with the remodel!

The menu is fun and lots of great cocktails to choose from.

Our server was so sweet and a really likable person so it pains me to say that the service was terrible! He put in the wrong drink and we waited for 25 minutes w a painfully slow bar only to be given the wrong drink. He very kindly tried talking me into just settling for what he brought but for $18, I want the drink I ordered. And I had to wait another 20 minutes to get the correct drink on top of the first 25 minutes I waited.

Our friends arrived a bit after us and waited 30 minutes for their cocktails which were served after our food arrived. We felt we had to stalk our waiter and grab him by the arm to order more drinks and food. We wanted more food more drinks and sat there frustrated.

Our sushi order was incorrect and then when we grabbed ahold of him to order more, he forgot to put the order in so we sat there another 30 minutes with empty drinks and no food on the table.

They never cleared out empty drinks so we had a lot of glasses on the table and eventually had to ask to please remove things from the table.

The food portions are TINY, almost like cute little miniature food. Hardly any fish in the rolls. The jalepeno on the hibachi was so tiny like nano jalepeno, almost like it had been grown by a third grade class in a paper cup under a lightbulb. I kept thinking of Ben Stiller in Zoolander when he says “what’s this; a center for ants?!”

Overall this was a flop. Half the order was wrong, Everything took forever, and I left hungry after those tiny portions and not getting all of our order.

Lastly I want to say that $18 for a small cocktail that isn’t being brought to me on a beach in Hawaii or at a swanky New York restaurant is ridiculous. I’m not paying Hawaii prices in Fort Collins, I don’t care how pretty your restaurant is. $13 is what a nice cocktail in Fort Collins costs at a restaurant that gets your order right and doesn’t take 3 hours to carry out your meal.

That all being said, the restaurant is new so maybe after some time they can get...