King of the Roll — Restaurant in Portland

I've had a couple of bad experiences here, and I probably will not go again. There are friendlier, faster, and cheaper sushi places in southern Maine that have higher quality fish.

My most recent visit I made the mistake of coming here already hungry. My friend and I arrived at the restaurant and was not greeted in any way. We waited awkwardly for like 15-20 minutes trying to decide if we should seat ourselves or introduce ourselves to a staff member or something when we were wordlessly flagged over to a table by a staff member across the restaurant.

After sitting down it took maybe an additional 10 minutes (maybe longer) for the wait staff to take our drink order. I ordered water, as one does, but the water was not good. If you like water, you might consider bringing your own or purchasing bottled. Tap water is fine at home but not here.

Our food order was not taken for maybe another 20 minutes. We had been sitting with our menus closed and the conversation had petered out long before anyone asked us if we were ready to order. Again, a mistake to come here hungry. After we finally ordered it took a really long time for the food to arrive. The orders were not extraordinary or complicated. I had maybe 10 nigiri and my friend ordered a bento box.

I think maybe an hour had passed between when we ordered and when the food arrived? Maybe 40 minutes? I don't know. I wasn't timing it, but it was a long wait. I'm guessing the restaurant is just severely understaffed, considering there was only one person waiting tables in the entire restaurant.

Once I got my nigiri it was a disappointment. The pieces of salmon and tuna were just fine, but each piece was on very little rice, making it feel more like sashimi than nigiri. I also should have done my homework and realized that Nigiri has wasabi between the rice and the fish - at every other restaurant I've been to in Maine it has come without, which is my preference. The wasabi dominated the experience and drowned out the flavors of the fish and rice, but I did notice a fishy aftertaste which stayed with me long after I left the restaurant - in the past this has been an indication of somewhat un-fresh fish. For five dollars per pair of nigiri this was not really worth it. Hana in Windham has it cheaper and the ingredients are better quality, and you get served much more quickly.

We have a sushi chef where I work and I eat sushi from him on weekdays, it's maybe not a fair comparison but the salmon he prepares nearly melts in your mouth and is nice and savory with no hint of 'fishy' flavor. He sells six nice large pieces of nigiri for $9, but I would happily pay $5.50 per 2 nigiri at King of the roll if it had the same quality and service. Unfortunately it does not.

Nearly took a date here, definitely would not risk it...

They deserve zero stars. The only reason I even gave them 1 is because their sushi is actually pretty good. I have been a customer here for years. I’ve brought family and friends here. Our experience last night was literally the WORST experience I’ve ever had at a restaurant.

First off, they took forever. Our appetizers and soups came out after half our table got their entrees. The miso dumpling soups we ordered were so salty we couldn’t eat it. I eat suuuper salty and I couldn’t even get past the broth. We sent it back. Second, we ordered yaki udon. Mind you, I order this every time I come here and also every time I go to a sushi restaurant in general so I know what it should look like. It came out and right off the bat I knew it wasn’t the same. She insisted they didn’t change the noodles. I know what udon noodles are. These were flat and thin noodles like fettuccine. It was so over cooked that it all stuck together in a clump. No one at the table could eat it 3 out of the 6 ppl ordered this and no one touched it. We told the waitress and she grabbed the lady who I assume is the owner. She didn’t even apologize, offer to fix it or ask us if we wanted to try something else. She argued with me on how these were in fact udon noodles when they clearly weren’t. She also told me the noodles were not over cooked and if I ate the seafood in it that I would know it wasn’t over cooked. I have no idea why that would even correlate.

My friend didn’t even get her entree and when they gave us our checks she asked if they charged her for it cus she never received it, they said no they just took it off the check. They also then, charged her for the miso soup that CAME with her entree that they themselves canceled without even telling her!

No discount, no apologies nothing. We ended up paying for food we didn’t touch and left hungry. Our entrees were all intact not even touched except for a couple noodle strands. NEVER AGAIN WILL I RECOMMEND THIS PLACE LET ALONE...

Oh no. This was terrible — like, REALLY terrible.

We ended up at King of the Roll because we had a show in downtown Portland and every other place nearby had a long wait. It was either King of the Roll or skipping dinner, and in retrospect, skipping dinner would’ve been better. The only good thing about this place was the service.

The food was awful. Where do I even begin? The Yaki Udon with chicken consisted of soggy noodles, tasteless vegetables, and 2-3 small pieces of chicken. For $15, we were expecting a much bigger portion and a dish that tasted better than whatever we ate. As soon as it came out, I knew it was not going to be a good experience…, and everything went downhill from there.

My partner’s Tonkatsu Don (breaded pork) was so bland. He had to drown his food in soy sauce to taste anything. Speaking of bland, the gyozas we ordered as an appetizer were extremely bland, too. Given that everything was just horrible, we ordered one sushi roll mid-dinner. Maybe the food was terrible because we didn’t order sushi at a place called King of the Roll? Well — the sushi didn’t save the night; it actually made it worse. The sushi was falling apart and consisted of cooked fish that did not taste fresh with a piping hot sauce on top. You could tell that the sauce had just been microwaved. It was disgusting.

All in all, of the worst dining experiences we’ve had in a...