Kazoku Sushi — Restaurant in Lakewood

This used to be our go-to place. My husband and I went every weekend. However, we took a break for a while and when we went back yesterday, apparently the place has new owners -- who have changed so many things, it's pretty horrible.

There was no one around to seat us; after standing there for nearly five minutes, finally the sushi guy behind the counter told us to "sit anywhere you like." We chose a table and finally a waitress came to hand us menus, which were clearly upgraded from the old ones, but it meant we needed a minute to check that our favorites were still available. A couple and their son came in a couple minutes later, and the waitress went to wait on them, despite we were there first.

When we were finally waited on, I was dismayed to find they no longer offer the hot & sour soup; only miso or mushroom, both of which I dislike. My husband loves the miso so I ordered it with my Tonkatsu pork & rice so he'd have an extra serving with his sushi.

Despite there were few customers -- only the three people that came in right after us, other than a couple people who were nearly finished with eating before we got there -- we had a very long wait for our food. We watched the couple and their son receive their food; still more waiting. Finally my husband got up and went to ask if it would be much longer.

It was a total of 40 minutes before our food came. At no time did the waitress come and say there was any sort of delay. When we asked, her excuse was that "the kitchen is backed up." Backed up HOW? Making three plates of food for two adults and a child ahead of us?

During that seemingly endless 40 minutes, we had to listen to too-loud music that was mostly rap, which further grated on our nerves in addition to be hungry.

The Tonkatsu I finally received was not the same as before: the sauce not in a ramekin on the side as previously, but instead was drizzled on top, making the breaded pork soggy. The pork cutlet slices were piled on top of vegetables that I dislike (I'm autistic and foods I dislike CANNOT be touching the food I eat), and the "white rice" was slightly yellow-brownish and smelled and tasted of FISH or seawater. It was disgusting.

When the waitress came to ask how the food was, I told her it was inedible. I'd had exactly one bite of the Tonkatsu pork and one bite of the disgusting fishy rice, which she said "the cook adds seaweed to it now." SEAWEED RICE?! Gag! I told her I couldn't eat it, and as she took it away she said, "I'll give you a small discount." Um, excuse me -- you're going to give us a "SMALL discount" for food I couldn't eat and had only had two tiny bites of? We should not have to pay for inedible food we didn't eat. My husband had to specifically ask for her to take it off our bill.

Needless to say, that was our last trip to...

Consistently our favorite sushi. We love the crispy tuna appetizer and all of their raw fish is very fresh. Best yellowtail sashimi and nigiri anywhere. Love the Tokyo Roll too. Super traditional sushi as well as more elaborate rolls are all done very well. The hot food menu is also very solid, with a lot of choices for soups, noodles, stir frys, etc.

The owners are doing a really great job with the consistency and quality of food because we have been there around 100 times over the last few years and always have a fantastic meal. Whenever we go to other sushi restaurants in Colorado and even California and elsewhere, we always miss Kozoku for both the quality and value.

Just recently (during the Coronavirus pandemic), we got takeout and it was very good. We called while parked outside and the waitress brought our food to us since we preferred not to go inside. The only compromise for takeout vs. dine-in was that the crispy rice in our crispy tuna was not quite as hot and crispy as we're used to when dining in, but that is to be expected.

Prices are slightly better than other sushi places. My wife and I usually get the spicy crispy tuna appetizer, an order of yellowtail nigiri, a Tokyo roll, a fried or regular California roll, salmon sahimi, and another roll and are way too stuffed. Price wise, we usually end up somewhere between $65 and $85...

I had a pretty infuriating experience at this place. It was listed on Groupon, and never having been there I decided to give it a chance. Once I arrived, I was asked where I wanted to sit, and I mentioned that I found them on Groupon, and never having been in I was happy to sit wherever was easiest for them. After looking at the menu, I was pretty disappointed by the lack of real sushi options. Almost everything was fried or had fake crab/cheap spicy __ (which is just a bunch of cheap poor quality minced fished with a bunch of mayonnaise and spice). Having already bought the Groupon, I decided to order anyway. After eating what is probably the worst sushi I've had in years, I tried to tab out, at which point I was told that my Groupon wasn't valid because at the top it said "Dinner for 2." Well, maybe I eat 2 people's worth of sushi, but either way the requirement for 2 was not in the "fine print" of the Groupon anywhere, nor was I informed of this when I specifically mentioned I found them on Groupon when I walked in. They have some pretty slimy sushi, and some even slimier marketing tactics, I will not be returning and will certainly spread the word to all my local friends that this place doesn't deserve...