Red Koi — Restaurant in Palm Coast

The restaurant’s reviews, while seemingly good, did not match to the experience of our meal. While we were immediately sat, do not choose to sit outside unless you like the smell of constant cigar smoke. Ash and Ale Lounge sits adjacent to Red Koi meaning the smell of smoke sits in the air for the entirely of the meal and is not for those who can’t handle it. For that, the atmosphere diminishes even though the outdoor seating is nice. Our server came to our table promptly and brought out waters for everyone. I ordered the shrimp and chicken hibachi meal and others in my party ordered sushi. The salad and soup included in the hibachi meal were alright, and the meal itself was average at best. The shrimp, while having a nice flavor, was chewy and not the greatest, and the vegetables were a bit undercooked. The sushi itself was nothing to rave about: the California rolls didn’t match the appearance of what I expected a high rated sushi restaurant to make. For reference, the sushi I have made at home, as a first time beginner, looked about the same as the Red Koi’s California rolls. In other words, it did not look great. No hate to those who made the sushi, but visibly it did not look very appetizing and appeared that whoever made it didn’t take time in the presentation , and the flavor itself was “fishy in a bad way”. Some say that the only thing that matters is the taste, but the taste wasn’t any better than the looks. The sushi called Red Koi looked properly prepared however, and they said it tasted good. If you are looking for above average sushi, check out other places. Maybe the quality has decreased, but the current star rating does not meet the expectations we had for a 4.6...

This review is based off of our 3 times dinning at Red Koi. Our first 2 were five star experiences and our 3rd was 3 stars. We still decided to give 5 stars overall since the food was great on all 3 visits.

Our 1st experience was Excellent, we came in on a Monday evening and dinned on their patio which was very nice. The sake, dragon eggs, dumplings, and sushi were all phenomenal, our waitress was friendly and knowledgeable about the menu, definitely a five star.

Our 2nd time we came for lunch on a Saturday afternoon, we decided on hibachi, the salmon and filet mignon were both delicious, the portions were generous and our waiter was pleasant, another 5 stars.

Now for our 3rd time. We came this past Friday evening with hopes of dinning on the patio and hearing the live music, but there was a waiting list of over an hour, the girl took our number down and told us she would give us a call when a table was available, about 20 minutes later we received a call that a table was available, but when we arrived, it was inside not on the patio, since we were hungry, we decided we would just sit inside, but it was a big disappointment not being able to hear the band and have the ambiance of dinning outside. We ordered the dragon eggs and dumplings again along with a few special rolls, the appetizers came out pretty quickly but our sushi rolls didn't arrive until about 30minutes later. Food was still delicious, but due to the wait I would have to give this visit 3 stars. If I could make a suggestion it would be to add more outside seating on days there is live music, as we noticed other...

Came here for a last minute date with my wife and we enjoyed it.

The sign told us to go in to be seated. The person who greeted us has no personality but let us choose where we wanted to sit.

I originally thought she was our waitress. So after she sat us as I asked for water she walked away and never got the water.

Then this guy came over and introduced himself as our server where it all made sense.

The server was amazing! He noticed we ordered all veggie options so brought to our attention which items we ordered in our meals that had animal products.

We were impressed with his care and awareness of not eating meat. He went above and beyond to take care and provide information for us!

We ordered a few sushi rolls and veggie hibachi and the food was great! The best part was the food didn’t taste salty just flavorful!

The only thing I’d say was our dirty dishes didn’t get picked up quick but I saw a bucket holding dirty dishes so we placed them in their instead of sitting in front of us.

Food came out pretty quick and tasted fresh.

Overall experience was pretty good! We would go back again.

Though be aware if you sit outside and eat you will also enjoy the smell of smoke in the air and maybe even...