Kami Sushi & Asian Kitchen — Restaurant in Manchester

New Asian restaurant in the area, was very excited to try it. I've been looking forward to the idea of a place with sushi near me for a long time, as I've been driving nearly an hour to get my sushi fix. I really hope everything here gets better, as my first experience has been... Disappointing. I placed an order with my fiancee, being 2 crab fried rice, a clear soup and ginger salad, and 3 sushi rolls. It took nearly an hour to receive our first sushi roll, 20 minutes more for our entree, and were then told that they didn't have the ingredients necessary for one of the other rolls. If they had told us at the beginning they didn't have the ingredients, it would have been understandable as it's a new restaurant.. but 90 minutes after placing our order?.. Our drinks were empty for over half our wait, with the waiter MIA. I'm typically a very understanding person, but my patience was gone. He came back rather quickly with the check though. I understand it's not necessarily the waiters or waitress' fault, but this was the fault of everybody in the restaurant and nothing was done to help redeem it. The one roll we did try, the surf turf, was OK. The crab fried rice was good, but not worth a 90 minute wait. The clear soup and the sodas were the best part, as they were the only things to come out in a reasonable amount of time if we aren't including refills.

EDIT from my original review over a year ago when they first opened. I am VERY happy to say that kami has gotten substantially better than when I first went there with my now wife. It's become a regular restaurant of choice for the both of us and we can't get enough of their crab fried rice even now. We regularly get 2-3 sushi rolls per order, all of which have been great. We order an appetizer or 2 each time as well, I love the takoyaki and their soup, my lady is absolutely addicted to their Korean fried chicken wings(?) not sure that's exactly what they're called, I was going from memory haha. Their service is also fantastic, which is a wonderful change from the first time we went. We're seen to almost immediately. And wait, at most, 15-20 minutes before all of our food is out for us. We don't order a small amount by any means, so we're always incredibly happy with it. Felt the need to leave my original post with the update to let everyone know my initial feelings as well as the new ones. Everybody should absolutely give this place a try, it's a wonderful...

Very underwhelmed! We wanted Asian food and decided to try a new place so made the drive out to Manchester to give them a try. We like to start out with the basics and go from there. Figure out is a good way to gauge the quality of the food. Started with a spicy California roll and a crunchy roll. While they looked okay, they lacked flavor... and I'm talking completely tasteless. Based on this, we skipped additional sushi and instead ordered some spring rolls. Found the spring rolls to be tasteless as well and the inner layers of the wrap seemed undercooked. The sauce served with them added some much needed flavor. We then ordered our entrees. We both got the filet mignon hibachi with noodles (Mine with no onions.) . I got the salad while he got the miso soup. He said the soup was okay. The salad was nice and crisp but the ginger dressing followed the theme so far, not much flavor. Our entrees we brought to the table, both LOADED with onions! The server overheard me say something to my husband and quickly snatched up my plate to correct. My food was brought back to me on a new plate, with no onions, but also noticeably less meat. I like my veggies on the softer side and these were still pretty tough, to the point that I did not eat them. The noodles were average, nothing really to say about them. The steak was the one thing that saved the day. It was perfectly cooked and so tender. This definitely was NOT a $70 meal.

Will we be back? No! Would we...

I visited Kami on Friday for lunch and Saturday night for dinner. Both times I was pleasantly happy with the experience. It's a new establishment, so of course they have some kinks to work out. However, nothing that I experienced left me upset or inconvenienced. There's simply room for improvement, and that doesn't mean that the restaurant is bad by any means. It's great.

It's quite warm in the establishment. I'm aware that we're in the beginning of Winter, but I was sweating inside. The food was amazing both times. For my first visit I got the Bonnaroo Roll and I enhaled it. I also got Hibachi Chicken and Steak, and it was quite tasty. I was asked how I would like my steak cooked and I said medium, but it appeared to be cooked a little longer. Of course this didn't ruin my meal, I still enjoyed it very much. For my second visit I got Hibachi Chicken and Shrimp and a California Roll, and it was delicious.

All in all, I think this restaurant is great and I plan to go back. I'm happy that Manchester has a new Asian cuisine restaurant other than Yamatos. In my eyes, Kami is already significantly better than Yamatos. All of the bad reviews people are leaving are just people who had expectations that were way too high, and they might not understand that a new establishment will always have some kinks in...