Cho Cho San Encino — Restaurant in Los Angeles

The food is very decent, so it pains me to write this review. We placed an order this evening, a large one that came to $135. The girl took my phone number and said my name, so I know I’m in their system. She repeated the order back to me. (It was late, I made sure they were still open to take orders. She told me they stop taking orders in a half hour so I placed the order.) She said that will be ready in 30-40 minutes and asked if that was ok. I said that’s fine, she told me the amount, all was well and we hung up. Half hour later I go to pick it up and they tell me there is no order for me. The man at the front tells me I must have ordered from their other location. I show my recent calls to his location. He basically says he doesn’t know how that happened, that there is only one woman working there this evening and she denies taking our order as well. We have ordered there a zillion times as we live around the corner. I told him this and he acted like he didn’t believe me, kept saying we must have called the other location by mistake. To appease him, I called the other location and asked if they had an order for me, of course they did not. He shrugged it off and said well our kitchen is closed now. So here we are, looking for some open fast food because it’s too late to order from anywhere. My husband got on the phone and was basically being told we were lying and never placed an order and that there was nothing he could do now because the kitchen is closed. So yes, he was rather upset after working all day, looking forward to this dinner, waiting until this late only to be told we must have called the wrong place, so his tone when he got on the phone wasn’t very nice... the man then said he no longer wants our business.

So there’s that. Years and years of us patronizing and spending a ton here and now we move on. Sucks but what can you do. If placing a phone order, beware to always ask for who you are talking to going forward, (I was asked who I spoke with, I only knew it was a woman and she denied taking my call) and if late, you may wish to call before going to make sure the order was actually entered into the system. I assume the woman did not enter the order or the kitchen didn’t want to cook it and somehow we ended up being blamed for that. What a disappointment to...

The food was delicious but the service was absolutely terrible. I was a server and service trainer in fine dining for 5 years, as well as a busser, host, cook, bartender, and dishwasher, so I'm usually very forgiving when it comes to lapses in services, but this was the worst service I had ever seen.

Our server took our order and never spoke to us again. Another girl brought the check and made no offer to split the bill for us, saying she "forgot what we ordered" (seat numbers?) forcing us to do a lot of math and figuring out on the backside of the check how to split the bill 8 ways by items. We were all sitting in the exact same spots as when we arrived, so I don't understand why the service staff didn't bother to keep track of seat numbers.

After about 15 minutes of us figuring out what to each pay, we noticed that they had charged us 25.95 for 2 bottles of naga sake, which are listed as 4.95 each on the menu. I mentioned this to our new server, and she said she would grab a manager to check.

Our bills came back about 20 minutes later, and still no manager or explanation was offered. Apparently they stopped carrying the item we ordered, so they brought us a more expensive item (that was nowhere on the menu) at more than double the price. At this point I was tired of waiting and didn't think it was worth the time and trouble to try and get more clarification. Seriously: it's bad business to list one item on the menu, and bring a different one for a higher price without mentioning anything to the customer.

As a service trainer, I would usually suggest comping the price difference, and urging management to update the menu to only include items in stock. I wasn't looking for a handout; just SOME acknowledgement of their errors.

I usually tip 30%, and am very forgiving when it comes to service mistakes, but this was the worst service I had ever seen, and the only time I've ever had to leave without tipping.

It's a shame because the food was great , but I'll be sure to tell people not...

From the moment I stepped in, I could tell this place was something special. The atmosphere was calm, clean, and welcoming — perfect for both casual meals and special occasions. The staff greeted us with warm smiles and made sure we felt comfortable right away, which really set the tone for the evening.

The food was exceptional. Every dish we tried was fresh, flavorful, and beautifully presented. You can really tell that high-quality ingredients and attention to detail are a priority here. The portions were generous, and everything came out at just the right temperature. One of the dishes stood out as a favorite — full of flavor and cooked to perfection.

The service was equally impressive. The staff was attentive without hovering, offering great recommendations and checking in just enough to make sure everything was perfect. It’s rare to find a place that gets both the food and service so right. I’ll definitely be coming back and recommending it to...