KENAKI Sushi Counter — Restaurant in Gaithersburg

I normally don’t leave reviews but this experience left a pretty bad impression so I feel that I must. My partner and I were celebrating a late Valentine’s dinner. We ordered quite a bit of food, and they forgot to make one of our sushi rolls. The waitress was extremely apologetic because, when we alerted her, the kitchen had closed. No problem. We are generally understanding and still generous tippers. When we received our check, we had received a small discount which I believe the waitress gave us because the kitchen forgot to make an order which we did not receive. That was nice! We didn’t even ask for it but we certainly appreciated it and it left an even more favorable impression of the restaurant that we love and chose for our belated Valentine’s dinner. When (what I assume was) the manager came over to take our check, I thanked her for the discount when handing her the card to pay. She looked perplexed and took the check and card away, only to come back and tell us that the discount had been applied to the wrong check and then showed us the new total without the discount. There were no more paying customers in the restaurant at that time. We do not go to restaurants looking for discounts, we didn’t ask for this one but graciously accepted it realizing it was because an error was made that was not fixable. In my opinion, this was incredibly bad form to remove the discount after it had already been applied (for good reason) and generally soured the whole dinner experience. I hope the employee was not scolded for doing the right thing. This definitely left a bad taste in my mouth, and it will be awhile before I want to go back to Kenaki...

Of the half dozen times I have come here, they have never disappointed me at all. It is hard to imagine that the casual atmosphere would present such a solid representation to the food served. In other words: the food is GOOD for what it is. Granted that the spectrum to rate food is so wide and of course with a LOT of credentials/reputation that goes along with tue reviewer. I appreciate the service as well. I really do like the on-going changes to the specials (daily so far that I have seen) and I'm so glad that the menu isn't so static. Fresh ingredients and the combinations of the fish, prepared with the toppings is what makes this place stand out than any other place within a 10 mile radius. If it wasn't for being in Kentlands, you can easily image this place downtown DC or any other major city and can make a (book)mark on anyone's Google maps to come back again again.

Selection of the sake is always within its range of what they serve. It is good to see they don't mind getting their imported fish; serve what the chefs desire to show their love for the food (and customers).

If you are a sushi buffet eater: please take your dollar per piece thought process and leave that at home. Enjoy Kenaki as grades above that, treat yourself and do yourself a favor by experiencing a finer selection of the Japanese cuisine, but without the pressure of the business affair and mindset of "was it worth it?" You will miss out the...

Kenaki is not close, it's at least 45 minutes away. It's worth the drive, including the ICC toll. We got carryout and went to eat over a friend's place. I appreciated the text that was sent out to let us know the order would be ready soon. That food was given to us in a sturdy round plastic container and was arranged neatly and carefully so that nothing was smashed.

The rolls here are unique and have carefully crafted flavor profiles. The rice is prepared very well, it's sticky and soft, plus seasoned well. The rolls don't just fall apart like a lot of other places.

The use of different kinds of pesto and microgreens is very welcome. I wish other sushi places would adopt similar! While they do have some, Kenaki doesn't rely on frying their rolls, stuffing them with cream cheese or dousing them in mayo based sauces because the rolls themselves have great flavor.

I feel my money was very well spent here and I will definitely be back. It's taken the "best sushi in Maryland" crown 👑 for sure.

For out of towners worried about parking: it was pretty simple. There's a few lots nearby and there's street parking. We went on a Saturday night and had no issues finding a place, popping in to pick up our food and...