Koi New York — Restaurant in New York

If I was rating a 2-star restaurant, I would give it 2-star rating. But since it’s a 5-star fine-dining Japanese cuisine, then definitely 1 star is already too much to give.

The food looks nice, gourmet, elegant. However, this have nothing to do with the quality of the food or service. One star is only for presentation and interior design.

Miso soup was cold and too salty, we asked for another one because it tasted like salt not miso. They added water to it which completely took it’s miso taste. We told them they just add water, if they can’t manage to make it with less salt then no need for it. Was canceled.

Salmon carpaccio was really bad, the cut, the salmon type (not fresh and has no taste), the preparation was shocking, the truffle (although I’m huge fan of all type of truffles) completely take the taste of the salmon.

Hamachi fusion, elegant look. Bad fish and cut. The worst sashimi I ever tried, and the first sashimi ever that I didn’t ate, and left it with disappointment. American sashimi, and have nothing to do with Japanese cuisine.

Spicy tuna crispy rice, tuna is bad, I canceled another tuna plate after I tried it. There isn’t good seafood supply here. The rice was hard in all part, almost burned and too oily.

Miso bronzed black code, the fish smells tooo fishy, it’s either bad preparation and cooking, or bad fish. First time ever that I skip miso black code in Japanese restaurant. Just sad. Vegetables are soggy, extremely oily, and have nothing to do with the code as a dish 😀, bad choice to serve them together.

Green tea has no taste and cold, they don’t follow the Japanese high star restaurant’s tradition in serving the tea as complementary (5$ charge) + it’s not a Japanese green tea too :’)! (Matcha)

I asked for fresh chili, they don’t have it. I asked for any kind of chili, they bring me a sweet chili ready made from super market, which again have nothing to do with Japanese cuisine.

Prices are crazy and very high for such food quality. Complete rip-off.

We canceled the rest of the order after that, no more sashimi, hand role, sushi or desert. Not recommend for who wants a real Japanese food not American fusion restaurant.

Really disappointed with the rating system in NYC, and how the consumer’s taste lower the standers everywhere, specially if you were a tourist and one of your vacation...

I am an absolute lover of sushi, possibly the single best dish out there. Koi has great sushi but it’s very expensive for what most of it is. Our party had to wait and we got some complimentary edamame which was super nice. Only the top had salt and was very salty and by the bottom it was bland. We started off with the crispy rice which ran $22 for 4 pieces. I kind of expected more for the price but i guess that’s fine dining for you. It’s quite literally what it sounds like, crispy rice on the bottom (kind of a rice cake) with your choice of fish on top but the fish has the consistency of canned tuna. Don’t get me wrong it was very good and I loved it, I would just avoid solely on a price-food ratio. 3 people (me included) split a lights out roll, philadelphia roll, and a eel and avocado roll. Each roll comes with 8 pieces no matter the price point. The philadelphia roll is a cream cheesy roll if you like that. Quite literally a philly roll you can get at any grocery store for $6 instead of like 13. The eel and avocado roll surprised me in a great way. It ate like butter with how soft it was and had amazing flavor. You could actually taste the eel which I thought was amazing because i’m never able to. Definitely recommend it if looking for a cheaper good roll. Now to the lights out roll, which carried a 32 dollar price tag. I think it was a very good roll I just wish it was more for the price. You get amazing ingredients like actual crab (not krab), truffle, salmon tartare, but it’s still like $4 a bite which hurts my wallet. It had an extremely unique taste and flavor combo and was definitely a top roll i’ve tried ever. I’d go light with the soy sauce especially on this one and let the roll talk for itself. Would I go again? Probably not unless i’m a millionaire as I feel new york has to have a better sushi restaurant for the price. I personally would recommend a cheaper place and just enjoy the only thing better than sushi, more sushi!!! If you’re looking for a fancy date or impressive business outing though, this is the...

The food here was bad, but the real insult was the price, which (for every item we ordered and factoring in everything, including the restaurant's midtown location) was at least twice what it should have been.

The Koi Crispy Rice sushi appetizer ($25 for just 4 pieces) was gummy and chewy. The Rainbow Roll ($29) was filled with pre-made imitation crab salad and looked like it had been rolled up in saran wrap for a few hours. The nigiri were similarly stale-- not just the fish, which was on par with what you'd find at Costco or a highway rest stop, but the entire 'assembly,' which seemed to have sat overnight in a refrigerator.

Come to think of it, I'm quite certain that's what they did. There was no sushi bar visible from the dining room, in which case why bother making it fresh to order? Easier (and cheaper) to make them earlier in the day, then plate them up as-needed.

Unfortunately, those savings were not reinvested into the kitchen entrees, which were equally poor.

The Miso Bronzed Black Cod ($46) would be more accurately described as "miso glued." The skin (which should and could easily have been crisp) was wet and rubbery, sporting an unappetizing, sickly brown coat of undercooked glaze. The fish, while not exactly dry, was flavorless and not well cooked. (This dish originated at Nobu and spread rapidly because, in part, it is so easy and forgiving. I do not know how it could have been executed so poorly by professional chefs.) It came with seasonal vegetables (asparagus and carrots) which were nothing remotely special.

The Grilled Tofu & Vegetables (a relatively sensible $32) was truly awful. The tofu was floppy and barely warm, but covered in intensely artificial grill marks. Everything was covered in a sickly sweet brown sauce.

The staff was extremely friendly, and while a few dishes took --quite unmistakably-- longer than they should have to arrive, nothing really went wrong there. Still, Koi ranks with the worst dinners I've had in over a decade of dining out...