Katana Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Mount Airy

We dine in and get take out from katana quite frequently. This will be our last time unfortunately. Each time we order they usually mess up at least one roll from our order. Today was no different. We usually get our rolls as hand rolls. Today as usual they made rolls instead of hand rolls. I then had to wait for them to remake the rolls into hand rolls. Hand rolls they use long strips of salmon which holds the hand rolls together properly and in the regular rolls the strips are cut into chunks once the rolls are sliced. Well they decided to take the cut chunks from the messed up rolls and put them into the rolls that they were remaking rather than making them how they are meant to be made. This caused the hand rolls to just fall apart.

When they came back with my "new rolls" I had asked them for some eel sauce. The guy came back with the little container and asked me if I had a dollar because he wanted to charge 80¢ for it. I said no since I had literally only walked back inside to have them fix my order that they messed up. Then said never mind and left. It was ridiculous to charge for such a tiny container after messing up my food, making me wait to "fix it" while all my soups got cold and then giving me additude about asking about the sauce. Under other circumstances maybe but in this case no.

If you are looking for a decent sushi place I would highly recommend going to Tokyo in Damascus. They are much better priced and rarely mess up the orders and they don't give you an additude. Lunch specials are $2 less for 3 rolls and you have more roll options. You also get soup AND salad with the lunch not just soup OR salad. Oh and if you ask for eel sauce they give it to you with out additude. Over all much better experience...

In summary. More expensive than average for quality food yet maybe it has off days?

Service was quick and we had a 8 top seated and served drinks fast.

The menu is expansive and there was plenty to help the little ones find something to try.

Miso and salad was served with several entrees and was acceptable. I had a bento box and shared with my girlfriend who had a sashimi nigiri plate. Another guest had a noodle bowl that blew everyone away with presentation and taste.

The impression I had on our visit was the B team in the kitchen. My tempura was not adhered or crispy. Some of the tempura vegis were prepared well while others were under cooked. The California roll included with my dish was average. The sashimi was decent and assorted.

So to sum up. Was the service good? Yes it was. Was the food good? Some things were great at the table, the tempura was just bland and had no crunch while the sushi was distinctly average.

I'm going back to this location soon to try the sushi again and will update the review. I'm hoping it was just a bad night and my expectations for this restaurant were not overvalued when I saw the menu prices. It did seem though that for 10-20% less you can go to other restaurants and get comparable or better food.

Edited to fix...

Man, I do not understand where the 4.5 star rating for this restaurant comes from. I've been to my fair share of Japanese restaurants all around the country, and Katana was the most bewildering experience I've ever had at one.

My wife and I ordered a variety of items: beef negimaki, katsudon, a spicy scallop hand roll and futomaki. All of it had an appearance, texture and taste unlike any other Japanese food I've tried, as if the chef here had once seen blurry photographs of the dishes and years later tried to recreate them from memory.

I won't go into exhaustive detail about everything, but here's one highlight: my wife's katsudon was served spread out on a big plate ("don" literally means "bowl," folks) and came with what tasted like honey mustard for the chicken. While hilariously out of place, this sauce came in handy; while the breaded chicken was actually quite good, the rest of the dish was nearly inedible.

On the positive side, my hot tea was very nice, and I have no complaints about the service or environs. I was excited to try this place but we won't be back. There are too many other good Japanese spots in the region to settle for...