KENKA — Restaurant in New York

Very disappointed with the service provided here. My friends and i were long committed customers and we love the atmosphere and the food. But this recent experience had us never to return here ever again. 1) sanitation in this restaurant is terrible, gnats were everywhere and one fell into my friends sake 2) I Ordered the tonkatsu with fried rice and the restaurant said they will make it as a special order, which I really appreciate the effort of going that far for me. However when the food came, i smelt this nasty foul fish scent from the fried rice and that was a red flag. I took one bite and I knew the seafood was rancid when they cooked it; called the waiter to see if they could take it out from our bill but he said he can’t since it was a special order and he can’t do anything about it. That’s fine if he can’t do anything but we want a clearer explanation because the food literally made me nauseous and I ate the fried rice dish before and it’s just not up to my expectations this time. We are willing to pay for the whole bill it’s just we want to see if it’s an option to take off one order that was bad (8 dollars off our bill) we spoke to the manager about it and he straight up called us rude for not paying for the food that they made an effort to make. First of all, we never said we are not paying, we just wanted Clarification and if they could do anything else for us since the food was bad. There’s a difference between making an effort and actually making something good. The manager blamed me for not knowing the food has so much sodium and therefore I was nauseous but how the hell were we supposed to know that? He later stood up and said this conversation is over and he has work to do. There were only 4 tables left at the restaurant and there are less than 8 customers left. Kenka has a reputation of losing customers because of their terrible customer service but this time they be going to lose a lot more because we are never coming back and don’t ever expect anyone of our friends to come either. All because of they can’t take 8 dollars off a 150...

Went here for dinner with a +1. I’ve been here before and know how crowded the wait can get and have always enjoyed my experience here. Usually, customers are asked to write their name and party number on the waitlist but for some reason it wasn’t being used it to call people in.

A little after I arrived, the short silver-haired hostess with glasses asked all of outside how many would be seated in our party and we all answered. I told them I had been waiting for my +1 to arrive and didn’t mind waiting for a table, which was about a 40 minute wait. Eventually my +1 arrived. I let the hostess know that we were ready but the hostess ignored us for another 20 minutes and letting other parties of 2 being seated, including parties that just arrived. It was to the point where everyone waiting was noticing that me and my +1 were being deliberately ignored and started talking about it, and folks who were being seated were noticing as well. Eventually when another party of two got seated before me (I had been waiting for an hour at this point) I went inside (and everyone outside also came inside too) and my +1 confronted the hostess about how disrespectful they were being. I’ve worked in service facing jobs before so I understand the stress of dealing with multiple customers, but the hostess was very obviously ignoring me and my +1. Didn’t acknowledge us at all, but would acknowledge the people behind us.

From there, we were seated. Food was what we expected and our waiter (not the hostess) was very polite, but there were maybe 3 waiters servicing everyone in the restaurant, so it was difficult to get service, spent half of the experience trying to ask for someone to assist us. Over all bad experience, won’t be coming back because there are better options in the area that don’t serve food on paper plates with plastic utensils. If you look at the not so good reviews I guess this place is know for providing bad service. Sucks because the food is...

I really wanted to like this place, but if quality of food is important to you, then skip this place. The menu itself was authentically Japanese, with a fair few of the items looking exactly like they'd been picked off an izakaya menu in Japan. The decor and furnishings were also thoughtfully Japanese: quirky decorations, a small basket to place your belongings, etc. Definitely a very authentic look and feel that is reminiscent of a Japanese izakaya. Most of the meals tasted like they'd been frozen and reheated (edamame had no salt and some pieces were still frozen; miso grilled salmon got cold very quickly just as a microwaved dish would; salmon onigiri didn't taste like salmon; yakisoba gave me a stomach ache). The tea tasted like diluted hot water - think similar to the tea they pour you from those communal kettles at Vietnamese pho 'hole in the wall's (the tea you'd normally use to wash your chopsticks and cups). The food itself is very cheap for NYC, but you get what you pay for. My thought is that Kenka is probably run by Japanese people, who aren't very good at cooking. If you don't mind eating lower quality food in a quirky restaurant, then this would be the place! Great location in St Mark's for students and tourists looking for a cheap meal, although I'm told the wait is normally horrendous. We came at 9pm on a Sunday and it was only 10 minutes. All in all a very mediocre experience. Service for a NYC restaurant was quite low and not worth the tip. Staff acted as if they didn't want to be there and were quite rude to my friend; cart stacked with dirty dishes was pushed through dangerously close to your seat. If you have minimal experience with Japanese food, then you could go and might enjoy it. I came thinking I would definitely be back; I left thinking definitely not. Unfortunately not...