Kanpai Sushi — Restaurant in Fort Wayne

I really wanted to like this place especially after driving 45 minutes, but it severely underwhelmed my partner and I. First impression the decor and the vibe of the place is cute and trendy. Our waiter explained the menu and we got to ordering our wine, my bf ordered pinot noir and was brought grigo. We didn't make a fuss as my boyfriend enjoyed the wine. The pour though was lacking, served in tiny glasses and seemed under the usual 6 oz pour. We started with some appetizers, crab Rangoon and yellowtail. Both were decent. We then moved on to sushi, ordered the Indiana and Fort Wayne roll and this is where it started to fall apart. The rolls were both one note and as would be with the next two rolls we tried were both served a minute after ordering with no Wasabi or ginger. The fast delivery of the rolls (even the deep fried cream cheese one where the cream cheese wasn't even warm) left us to assume all these rolls were pre-made. The small amount of fish, lack of sauces and mushy rice was a complete let down. The rolls were mushy and bland and honestly from a texture person I felt off trying to eat them but as their sign says numerous times you can't waste food. We then tried a chicken katsu which tasted of oil and was served with ketchup on the side, beef ribs and then the ahi tower. It was not ahi like we had ever had before, as the server put it down the smell alone made me not try it. My boyfriend tried picking out the mango and eating the imitation crab but the weird pate of what they said was ahi tuna smelled and tasted sour. I ordered the steak Teriyaki and was served brown mushy rice as my "fried rice". My boyfriend called the server over and offered to pay for the tuna tower and just said it wasn't for him. We finished up with the fried ice cream which again was very oily tasting and didn't sit well. All in all I would say this place could really capitalize on smaller portion sizes to ensure FRESH sushi rolls. The rolls were lacking sauces, texture, proper temperature, firm rice and Wasabi & ginger. Unfortunately we won't be back. My boyfriend did enjoy the appetizers of ribs, tuna and yellowtail but that's not enough to warrant a return...

I'll be giving this place another shot and will change my review based on my next experience.

First the good......

This restaurant is all you can eat Japanese/Sushi cuisine. Dinner price for all you can eat is a very reasonable $26.99+drink. This is not a traditional buffet. The all you can eat gives you access to the full menu and they prepare everything to order until you are done. The food was very good and a much higher quality of sushi when compared to the local buffets.

The all you can eat price gives you the options of any sushi on the menu, soups, salsa, appetizers, habachi, and freshly prepared main dishes. When ordering habachi you have the option of protein including salmon, tuna, octopus, squid, shrimp, chicken or steak.

Now the not so good.......

This place is new so everyone working is new and it definitely shows as they haven't had the opportunity to dial in dinner service yet.

Our wait in the lobby was long. We were told 30 minutes and it was closer to an hour. The lobby was full with waiting customers which blocked access to the cash register for payment. It definitely wasn't for the claustrophobic.

In total our dinner took around 3 hours which doesn't include our wait of nearly an hour. Our server was not very attentive. I had to ask for silverware 3 different times and wasabi 3 different times before it was brought to us.

There were several occasions where I tried to waive our server down only to be ignored. We had extended wait times for our food as well as long waits in between waiter visits. When it finally came time to pay, I got tired of waiting and just walked up to the register.

In all it was a good meal at a fair price. I am happy to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they need to dial in service. If service is this slow down the road, I probably would not choose to eat here again but I am hoping...

Very great price wise. Food was okay, nothing special. The server was trying their best but they didn’t explain anything or ask if we had questions. Seemed inexperienced. We weren’t told what drinks they had and there was no drinks on the menu. The server just kept asking if we were ready without asking for drinks or introducing themselves. Once we were ready, they walked past us 3 times before taking our order. We asked to start with fries (for kids) and crab rangoons. They then brought 2 of each without asking. We said it was fine but we didn’t want a lot of food and wanted to save room for sushi. We ended up having leftover sushi. We weren’t aware that there is a charge for not finishing your food. I didn’t even want to do the “All you can eat sushi.” The server just assumed we were. I asked for a box and was told no by the server. I know maybe that’s a dumb question because it’s usually a rule for “All you can eat” but I really just wanted one for the extra fries we got for the kids and the server never explained any rules to us before we ordered. They didn’t explain anything at all. I then asked if we could at least get one box for the two sides of fries we got. Then multiple staff made us feel very uncomfortable about it. They all talked loudly about telling us no and stared out at our table. They ended up giving us a box anyway. It felt like we were being watched by the staff the entire time. Our leftover sushi was taken off the table. It was a very uncomfortable vibe. One worker walked by and stared us down before we left. Another worker sat in the corner and stared. If it was a manager i’d understand but maybe ask how our experience was or how the food was? As a server I just felt like it wasn’t a...