Korals Sushi & Cocktail Lobby Bar — Restaurant in Marco Island

Korals is located inside the JW Marriott hotel right near the check-in area. At a glance, its open floor design is open, inviting you to come hang out to have a drink and a bite. As a JW establishment, my expectations around food and service were higher. While the service was very good, sadly the sushi was disappointing.

I came with my family for a later supper. A conference being held there let out shortly after we were seated. The place filled up quickly. Luckily, we got our order in just before the rush. The staff did a great job taking our order and keeping our drinks refreshed.

We started with potstickers, which were crispy and yummy. And, we ordered a range of rolls including california, shrimp tempura and island; plus, some nigiri including hamachi (yellow tail), ebi (shrimp), and torched salmon belly.

There were two major problems with the sushi. First, the rice was over-saturated, meaning it was mushy... not far away from making congee. Second, there was way too much rice vinegar mixed into the rice. We tried to eat what we could, but the texture and vinegary flavor were so overpowering that we finally called it quits.

I had a chance to talk to the restaurant manager the next day to share my experience. He was very receptive to the discussion and apologized for the food. Not sure I'll give the sushi another shot anytime soon. But, maybe a cocktail and some apps...

Very great sushi!!! Also very good Korean fried chicken & potstickers!!

We ordered the Philly Roll, The Salmon roll and added avocado, spicy tuna roll and the sunset roll... all delicious except for the spicy tuna which is one of our regular go to roll but at this location the spicy tuna roll tasted and smelled very fishy and we didn’t like that at all.

In the beginning while waiting for our appetizers the server who ran our food unfortunately took it to the wrong side of the table to other people and they started eating our appetizers so we had to wait an extra 20 or so minutes and we were starving. The sushi came out before, granted the sushi kitchen is right in the dining room and the other kitchen is a bit farther away.

Other than that, our waitress was really nice!! This place is self seat, so just sit yourself at any clean table or stand next to a dirty table until a busboy sees you and cleans the table you claimed. I do wish they had more smaller tables so people don’t have to share the big long tables of all the other tables are occupied. That’s the reason our food was sent to other people...

Korals Sushi and Cocktail Bar – JW Marriott Marco Island

We were really looking forward to dining at Korals given its upscale location inside the JW Marriott, as we were guests staying at the hotel, but unfortunately, the experience didn’t meet our expectations. The sushi rolls were served cold—not in the fresh and crisp way you’d hope for, but in a way that made them taste old and unappetizing. We left concerned and are honestly hoping we don’t end up sick.

Thankfully, they comped the old rolls because we didn’t end up eating them for fear that we would be asking for food poisoning. However, we eat sushi very regularly, and these were worse than grocery store rolls.

While the ambiance was nice and they did a great job bringing our son’s meal out quickly (a huge plus when dining with kids), the service overall was disappointing. Drink refills were forgotten, and the pace of service was painfully slow, especially for a place that was busy, but slowing down.

For the price point and location, we expected much better food quality and attention to detail. Sadly, we likely won’t...