Izakaya Kichinto — Restaurant in Portland

Impressed would be the word most applicable to my experience at Izakaya.

They have an entire story here. Great comfortable intimate dining spaces, lovely decor, thoughtful and kind service, a broad menu and explanations of traditional customs and history on the menu to explain where they are coming from as an establishment.

This is not a fast sushi kinda joint. This is a sit down, enjoy and actually READ the menu kinda place. They have great takes on traditional dishes and everything from noodles and rice to sushi, tapas and dessert.

The booths are cleverly designed and from what I can tell there may be an entire extra seating section upstairs but will have to confirm next visit. They get busy but if you're willing to go before rush hours of meal times you are in for a really nice experience without a huge wait.

We had anything and most everything :P No big Ramen dishes but they looked amazing! Seaweed salad of course, always a classic and done simple and perfect. I would be super interested in their hand rolls and sushi bowls. The Bo-Gyoza and steamed version both had unique yummy dipping sauces. Beef Don was yummy and a beautifully presented smaller main. And a smattering of sushi rolls which were all delectable. I wouldn't even be particular, they were all amazing. I had the mochi cake and green tea ice cream for dessert and let me tell you, what a rich and giant treat that was! Be ready to share. And if you're into mochi it's like a dream of giant mochi.

Come here ready to take your time and enjoy a good meal with...

Honestly can’t believe they have over 4 stars.. says they close at 10. Checked in a few minutes before 9 and we were seated in about ten minutes. After we were seated they came over and told us it was last call (at 9:15). One of our napkins had food on it and there was food on one of the dishes they gave us for soy sauce. Then our gyoza came out and it was so soggy it fell apart when I tried to pick it up with my chopsticks. It’s pretty hard to mess up gyoza and it was really bad.. our ramen came out and it was pretty flavorless. Halfway through we noticed the soft boiled eggs we added on were not on the dish so we let them know and just asked them to take the addition off the bill (because we were almost done with our food) and the waitress rolled her eyes and ran back to the kitchen and brought us watery poached looking eggs. We told her we didn’t want them since we were almost done with our food and she stormed off telling us how hard it was to take things off the bill. We didn’t see any staff for another few minutes and another employee came over to give us our check and said “we’re glad we could squeeze you in”. We were out before 10 which is when their sign says they close. Really, really poor service and subpar food for $50. I wouldn’t waste my money here again, there’s a lot better ramen/Asian food restaurants that are more genuine with better service and significantly...

It is very unfortunate that I am giving Izakaya Kichinto a 1-star, the food actually isn't half bad. Waiting for your food is unbelievable horrific. My friends and I sat down for lunch around 1145 and made our order around 1200. Looking around, the dinning room was starting to get full and there was only 2 waiters. We've waited and waited and 30 minutes later, their food came out. Their had ordered Ramen and some Izakaya dishes so I was picking off of their plate and what not. I asked to see where my dish was at. It was 1250 and I had a the staff just cancel my order as I had a commitment at 1:00. The check was then brought to the table and along with my dish and they asked I if I would like to eat it now. Obviously, I can't get it within 10 minutes so I just paid for what my friends had. The waiter apologized and we just left. So I ended up not eating much of a lunch that day.

There was such a lack of service recovery for this mishap. I waited an whole hour basically and didn't get to eat my lunch. No explanation on what happened, and no compensation for my wait. I left the restaurant extremely upset and disappointed. It is almost like customers are not valued at this place.

All in all, if you have the time to wait, try this place out. But if you are in a rush don't even bother. I am still somewhat furious about what...