Kon Asian Bistro — Restaurant in Portland

We ate at Kon Asian Bistro Feb. 21, 2024 (our second time here in a couple years) and had a great meal and drinks!

We got a drink at the bar while waiting for our hibachi table, both drink very good! We got to our seats, placed drink orders, then our app order, then our meal order. Our Drinks came quickly, the salad came out but we waited for the soup. Our apps (sushi) came out, both of which were so good! We had the special and it was one of the best sushi dishes I've ever had! Our hibachi cook came and started cooking and then we got our soup. Not a huge deal, just seemed like we had a slow waitress. The other side of our table sat after us and got all their food first. Still, not a big deal. We had a great hibachi chef cook for us. The food was all delicious! We ordered dessert and got our check. again, much later then the other side of the table (with a different waitress).

We noticed when our kids (9 & 10) got their meat for their meals they seemed to get rather large portions, so at the end we asked if they got kids size or adult. When we looked at the bill, the price for our kids seemed high so we asked our waitress and she told us unless we specify they want a kids size portion they automatically give them adult size. We questioned why they did that, and in the rudest tone she said "We do not assume the age of your child". So I said "You just called them a child, so you know they ARE in fact, a child, so again why do you assume they want an adult size?" She had another rude remark (more her tone and attitude now that we had an issue) so my husband handed her a credit card and paid the bill. We did ask to speak to the manager. The manager was more then friendly and apologized for her tone. She did explain that she was very new but the attitude was uncalled for. I double checked with the manager about if they automatically give children an adult meal and she said they do, unless we specifically ask for a child meal. We said we had no issue paying for the meal, we were given the meal we paid for but thought it was a little confusing that when a child orders they need to specifically order a child meal. The manager also said they ask the waiters to repeat back and specify we want adult for a child, which the waitress did not do. We were very happy with the managers response and time she took to talk to us. We did make sure the hibachi chef was getting his tip/pay regardless of what we tipped our waitress. He gets a cut from her bill (which is 10% of the bill, he gets. Not part of the tip). The manager also gave us a $25 gift card, which we did not need or expect. We just wanted to make it known how the waitress treated us.

The meal was delicious as usual and we will go back. Just make sure we specify "Kids Meal" for our children...

A very enjoyable dinner. We stopped by Sunday night about 8:10 PM (open till 10 PM on Sundays) and decided on the Hibachi table for dinner. An excellent decision. Qing (Ching) was our server, she was very pleasant, attentive and helpful with our selection. Our Chef was amazing, the show he put on was fun and his culinary skills were excellent (think Japan's restaurant in EPCOT:) I ordered the steak and chicken my wife had the chicken and shrimp both excellent and the portions were very large (enough to take half of my dinner to work for lunch the next day). Each meal came with a salad with house dressing (very good) a clear broth soup (also very good) plus two shrimp (a nice addition). The staff that greeted us were also helpful and let us peruse the menu to decide which room we wanted to sit in (regular seating or Hibachi seating). This, in my opinion, is one of the best Asian Restaurants here in Maine. Having spent time in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore I like Asian food and think I can tell the good, the bad and the adequate restuarants. This one is DEFINITELY on the very good list for staff, food and Hibachi Chefs. Our bill was 47 dollars (tax included) plus tip. Well worth it. Put this restaurant on your list if you haven't discovered it yet.

Update: We did dinner for four on Mother's Day and it was as amazing and fun as our last time. Had Qing as our server again (excellent and friendly) and the same chef as before (again excellent and funny too) our bill was $97.00 plus a $20.00 tip. Well worth the money. (None of us drink so that's dinner and water for our bill)

2nd Update: we've been back three more times and each time we went dinner was excellent. We'll be...

I was incredibly disappointed with our experience at Kon. We went for my daughter’s 21st birthday, expecting the great service and show we normally experience at hibachi restaurants. At the beginning of the reservation, they were having issues with the POS system however; the personality, promptness and service shouldn’t have suffered because of this issue. Our party was entirely there one minute prior to our reservation time, we were told no drinks from the bar unless you were sitting at the bar and there was no place to sit wait, it took 26 minutes to sit at our table. No one came to take drink orders for another twenty minutes. When they finally came to take a food order (which they write on paper anyway) the waitress was rude, one member of our party was talking to friends, she told us she’d have to leave and not take any orders if we weren’t all ready right then. The hibachi chefs showed up at 7:38, an hour and thirty eight minutes after our reservation and it was the least engaging show I’ve seen. Some of the older members of the crew really struggled to stay awake without food until so late, which was why we chose six anyway. One of the worst parts, the yum yum sauce wasn’t yummy! It smelled and tasted like it was primarily Dijon mustard. Hibachi generally is a quick meal, good food and good show. I love hibachi, have been to most of the hibachi restaurants in Maine and I would highly recommend for a good experience, don’t go...