Kei Sushi Reno — Restaurant in Reno

I've been to the sister location in North Carson on a few occasions, a couple years back. Before I lived closer. I would even drive a substantial amount of way to eat there, because there is nothing comparable from Gadnerville all the way up. Although I thought I had, apparently I never wrote a review, but I'm pretty sure I uploaded pictures. And that sushi joint was one of my all-time favorites!

Fast forward to this location in Reno. I think I've been here at least once or twice before. Maybe not, but I have been to probably at least 75% of all the sushi joints in the immediate locale, and this one still holds the quality and tradition of the one down in Carson.

I decided to pass on ohana, which is one of my top three favorite sushi joints last night and came down to Kei. Reminiscing on visits past.

They have a pretty diverse menu, and every single thing I had was outstanding. Super fresh. I love the little twist they put on the quail egg shooters. Those have to be the best ones I've ever had, literally.

I also like the diversity of the nigiri sushi. Seems that there's a lot more variations than at other places I've been to.

I love the fact that they have "cocktails" with sake as the base. I had the Cucumber Saketini, and she had the lemon drop. Brilliant marketing, to upsell, and they were actually really good!

I typically have a roll or two that I'll never order again from whatever sushi place I'm at. After I tried it the first time, but I enjoyed every single roll that I ordered from here, and would order everything a second time.

I think my favorites were the pink lady, and the Tres Diablos. It's really hard to have a favorite because everything was so good.

The place was really clean for the most part, paint falling off the wall towards the restrooms, but who really goes to the back of the house? Really nice typical Japanese decorum.

Here are my only gripes. The menus are absolutely destroyed, to the point where they're almost illegible. I was told that they were only 6 months old, but other than the small print, a lot of the descriptions of the rolls, and the names of the rolls themselves were rubbed off. I personally think that having a pristine menu, speaks for the quality of the establishment, and makes a difference as far as experience goes. Other places I visited before, if the menu was in that condition, I would think twice about eating there. The waiter, was some super nice young kid, going to college. There were only two other parties in the entire restaurant, it was basically empty while we were there. I wish they would have paid more attention to pulling our empty plates and checking in on us. At one point I had to start stacking plates at the empty seat to my right at the sushi bar. Our chef was awesome, I do think that some of the presentation could have been a little bit better, and the crab that was placed on top of some of the rolls was pinched way too tight. To the point it would fall off in huge clumps, sometimes of the entire roll, anytime I tried to get a single piece of sushi. Other than that, it didn't really affect the quality and taste of the food. And I think the next time I go to sushi, I'll come back here again instead of going to my normal go to.

All the staff were really nice, and gave us a...

I'm NOT one for bashing places. So, let's just start with the facts. I went to Kei Sushi on recommendations that they had solid Vegan sushi options. I was mislead. Out of the 7 or 8 Vegetarian Rolls on their menu, only 2 can be made Vegan. This is due to the fact that their tempura veggies & Inari both contain egg. (Being Japanese I've never heard of Inari containing egg, but I didn't want to chance it). Aside from that lets dive in further, this is after all about the sushi experience. We waited over an hour for our first round. Many people walked out during this time, but I wanted to give them a fair swing. Sushi rolls were falling apart, pieces were chopped inconsistently thick, hand rolls had torn nori & were about the size my 5 year old daughter would have for an afternoon snack. It honestly looked like it was the chefs first day on the job & I've had a lot of sushi. (pre & post vegan) Their tempura veggies they use for the sushi rolls & apps are store bought frozen according to our waitress. You could hear kitchen staff arguing loudly at eachother. It didn't seem that they were obiding by the COVID 25% guidelines as there were families sat both tables on either side of us. I understand that this is a rough time for many & we need to support small businesses. However, that experience was just ridiculous. I've been out to dine (specifically for sushi) during this pandemic more times than I care to count, so it's not like I don't have anything to compare them to. Trust me, pretty much every time I go out I expect to wait longer than usual due to circumstances. But that was just over the top. Before anyone comments "Did you let the manager know so they can rectify it?". There's no rectifying something they are completely aware of but do not care to change. The arguing from the kitchen was blatantly loud, you'd have to be deaf not to hear it. The only saving grace was our waitess who provided excellent service & had a really great attitude even with everything going on. Shoutout to her. 💯 Try it if you'd like, however it was a complete fail...

Highly disappointed in our experience here. We went here to celebrate my significant other's 40th birthday after she's been unable to leave the house for weeks and super self-conscious about her medical conditions. To start with, I made a reservation multiple days in advance and asked for a specific table because of my significant other's medical conditions and was told they would definitely be able to do that for us. When we got there, they didn't even have our reservation on file. We got a table, but it was not anywhere near where we asked. My significant other got the miso soup, and it was bland and only had two slimy peices of mushroom and one super tiny piece of tofu that was barely enough to even find. She also got the seaweed salad, which was sub-par. I got the baked mussels, which were okay-ish. I also got the gyozas, which were overcooked. The Saba(mackerel) nigiri smelled super fishy and was a bit slimy. The rest of the nigiri pieces I had were alright and so was the Tres Diablos roll I had. My significant other had to leave early because the very little food she ate made her sick. When I went to pay, I noticed that they were charging both me and my significant other full price for all-you-can-eat. I asked if they could charge my significant other the a la carte price for the few items that she ate(and puked back up because it made her sick) and they said they couldn't do that at all and still charged full price. Overall highly disappointing experience and left feeling highly disrespected. Not worth the $70 we spent to go here. Only reason I gave 1 star was because Google doesn't let me rate...