Imperial Koi Asian Bistro & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Greensboro

LARGE PARTIES BEWARE..!!!

I am quite the foodie and have frequented this establishment since its opening several years back. We are fans of the Sunday lunch and patronize the restaurant at least once a month. Although the quality of food and service has taken a dive after the change in ownership, we still enjoyed the atmosphere. So much so, that myself and my Fiancé seriously considered this for our upcoming wedding reception. We researched the lunch menu options as well as the seating arrangements before meeting with the "wait-staff". The menu items topped out around $9.50 for what was selected. First thing when we met with the wait-staff to plan the 1:30-2:00 reception, we were told that we would be ordering from the "Dinner Menu", which represents an immediate 25% increase in cost for the same food selections. When we questioned why we were selecting dinner items for a 1:30 event, we were told "that's what WE prefer". after what seemed to be a bad used car buying experience, between the wait-staff running to the back to "see what she could do with her manager", we finally had her agree that a 1:30-2:00 reception WOULD be considered lunch and that we were to select from the menu accordingly. Problem solved, right.? WRONG.!!! VERY WRONG.!!! We inquired about multiple lunch menu items for $9.50 that were going to work great for our 60 guests, UNFORTUNATELY we were told that these same $9.50 items would now cost us a minimum of $15.00.!!! Confused yet.? We sure were. When we questioned the immediate 58% price increase we once again got, "let me go to the back and talk to the manager again" After returning, we were told that the restaurant would have to have 2-3 additional wait-staff to serve us and that's the reason for the 58% price increase. Confused as we were, we questioned "doesn't the wait-staff work for gratuity" (18% on parties larger than 8). AT this point we were told, "sorry, we just can’t afford to do your lunch for that price" (THE LISTED PRICE ON THE MENU). Moral of the story: We were willing to bring 60 of our closest friend to Imperial Koi and share with them what we THOUGHT to be an enjoyable experience, instead what we got was what we feel to be an OVERPRICED, UNDER EDUCATED ballpark quote from a restaurant looking to EXPLOIT a couples desire to dine with them on their...

This was a horrible experience starting the moment we walked in the door. 5:30 reservation for 8 and the spaced out hostess told us the wait would be “a while” with no explanation or time estimate. After waiting for 15 minutes we asked the manager why we could not be seated while there was an empty table with 9 chairs. Told us there was a bigger party coming that table was held for. If we have also have a reservation and are already here why would we not be seated? After another 20 minutes with that EMPTY table still there my 79 year old grandma finally spoke up that she no longer wanted to stand and again asked why we would must wait for a table while holding a table for a party that wasn’t even there. After being seated we waited for over an hour for our cooked food while the sushi sat getting warm at the sushi bar. Appetizer that we were told would take “15 minutes” came out with the food. I ordered the Chilean sea bass and it had absolutely no flavor. I am not one to send back food but I refuse to pay $28 for a meal that tastes like nothing. Told the server, who was more than apologetic, that I didn’t want to order anything else as the rest of my party was eating and I wasn’t going to wait another hour just to eat alone. Middle of the meal a man comes in screaming that he’s going to ram into a specific car if the owner doesn’t move it, no one tried to calm him.

This entire time the manager never came to speak to us, never offered an explanation or apology. I understand that things happen and restaurants are unexpectedly short of staff. As a manager you should be explaining these issues to customers so they can know what to expect. If the hostess had explained to us how short of staff they were we would’ve went somewhere else to eat. Maybe this was a one off as other reviews are great but for a special occasion I would go elsewhere. We were celebrating Mother’s Day, a birthday and two engagements with most of our party coming from out of town. This was an embarrassment and after the disregard from management I will never come back. Only positive was from our waitress who was attentive and apologized for everything. She should not have to do...

This was the worst dining experience I have ever had and it started the moment we walked in the door. We had a reservation at 5:30 for 8. We waited for 15 minutes to even speak to the hostess, even though there was only one other party in front of us waiting to be helped. After we finally spoke to the hostess we were told we would have to wait for another table to get up, despite there being a large open table and us having a reservation. We asked about the open table and were told it was for a party of 10 that also have a reservation at 5:30, mind you by this time it was already 5:45-5:50 and no other large parties had shown up. Finally at 6:00 we asked again if we could please have the open large table as our reservation was for 30 minutes ago and the other party still had not shown up. 30 minutes after our reservation and the table being empty the entire time, we were finally sat. After being seated we waited for almost an hour and a half for our food. We were waiting on the food from the kitchen and unfortunately the two guests in our party that ordered sushi had their sushi siting getting warm as we waited for the rest. One person in our party didn’t even eat her food because it was so bland. The waitress was prompt in removing the plate from the bill and offered many resolutions to satisfy the guest, the waitress was the only bright spot. The portions of food is extremely small for the price, there are ingredients missing that are listed in the menu, such as no pineapple in the crispy flounder dish, and everything was really under seasoned.

The entire time the manager never came to speak to us, never offered an explanation or apology until I asked to speak with him. I understand that things happen but if we were told the kitchen was extremely backed up and food was taking close to 2 hours we would have understood and went to...