Koto Casual Asian Dining — Restaurant in Mishawaka

This was an interesting find. My husband and I were scrambling to find some good place to sit down and eat, on a Saturday 1:30pm amid COVID. While all other places had some or the other issues (overflowing lines, no dine in, a very long wait), we finally reached here and we were provided with a nice quiet spot immediately.

The hostess was very courteous and showed us to our table. The service is extremely good because she brought us our drinks without much wait.. from the photos, as you can see I got plum wine (Saturday lunch + no driving responsibility = wine time) and my hubby ordered a regular Pepsi... After that we looked at the long list of menu items, I quickly asked for some vegetarian recommendations. While this place has all sorts of sushi rolls, they also have pad thai and bento box ... I ordered a padthai with tofu and my hubby got a bento box with beef steak (the other option I believe is teriyaki chicken)... He was very pleased with his order... Even though he's not a big sushi person.

When I mixed my peanuts and lemon squeeze.. I saw one shrimp in my vegetarian-tofu pad thai... Hmm... Not good... I called another person who I could see was setting another table nearby. She quickly came in and realized the mistake and took my plate away. In less than two minutes, I received another new plate (I made sure that it wasn't the same noodles served again!) And the taste was overall good, not amazing as I'd thought.. it was more saucy than sweet and tangy... but I believe the overall experience will make me want to try this place once again.

Overall, the food, I'd have to give 3stars (because I kept imagining after seeing that one shrimp that all my cabbage in the noodles were opened up shrimps; psychological mind break), the ambience is quite and peaceful, I'd give 4 stars (maybe too many elephants and a little dark upon entry) And the service would be 5stars... Ofcourse all out of five. The server may have a little bit of asian accent, so we did have to ask a few things to be repeated... And they also serve hibachi. So if you're into that, must give this place a try. They have plenty of parking ... But didn't see any wifi... overall, must give a first try and if not... must give a second chance...

Our family was completely let down by the experience here. We were seated in a back room with one other family. Our waitress was very attentive with them. She told us to look over the menu and she would be right back. Close to 30 minutes later I had to ask someone if we could get someone to take our order. Our waitress appeared quickly and took our drink order. She brought our drinks quickly. After a few minutes she came back to take our order. We eventually all ran out of drinks. The kids were playing with the ice in their cups. My son had a large flat group stuck together in his that he was spinning. After a while our food was brought out. It was lukewarm. We had to ask for silverware. She left without filling our drinks. 5 minutes later she came back and said she forgot and took our cups with the straws in them to go fill them. She brought them back and left again. My daughter started playing with her drink and it became extremely obvious that she had gotten my sons cup with the large flat ice chunk. We then knew our cups may have all been switched. Thank God we are family because if I were with anyone else I would have been really grossed out. My husband and I had to ask for the soup and salad that didn't get brought out. She gave us 4 boxes, our check, and soup and salad in to go containers. While my husband paid I took the kids to the restroom. It was filthy. There was toilet paper all over the floor, the trash can was over flowing onto the floor and there was no hot water. I really hope dishes are washed with a different water heater so they are being cleaned with hot water. We go back to the table and my husband decides to use the restroom. While he is gone the waiter that seated us came to clean our table. He seemed really eager to get us to leave. We were having to move our to go boxes because he was wiping the table down. It was rude and unnecessary. And it was really gross when the other family that was sitting in the room left, their dirty dishes sat until 15 minutes before we left. The waiter came and pushed the dishes to one half of the table. A couple minutes later he brought another family in and seated them at the end of the table without dirty dishes. Gross. We will never, ever, go...

I have never been so disappointed in a restaurant before. My server Linda (I only know her name due to the receipt, she never introduced herself) made it very clear that I was unwanted and not worth her time, and was much more concerned about a different guest sitting up at the bar who wasn't even ready to order despite me telling her I was ready to order. She could barely make eye contact with me and probably said about 10 words through my whole visit and refused to reflect the politeness that I showed to her.

When she brought out my appetizer she almost gave it to the table next to me who were nearly done, and the same thing happened when she brought out my meal. I sat there for another 5 minutes waiting for a chance to get her attention while she was on her phone talking to the guest at the bar so I could ask for utensils and a container for soy sauce and she seemed so annoyed that I requested these things that happened to be at the table next to me,had I known they were clean I would have just saved her the effort and grabbed them myself. Then waited with my card out on the table for 10 minutes, which she then thanked me for when she finally showed up to take it and came back promptly with my bill making it even more clear that I was not welcome.

The bar was freezing cold, my feet went numb and I was shivering during my 40 minute visit despite wearing weather appropriate (50°) clothes.

I ordered the Incredible roll and it was very delicious, but not good enough to make up for the experience and prompt a return...