Koto Japanese Bistro — Restaurant in Richmond

I've been going to Koto for years. I've always had good service, but the quality of the food has fluctuated --though never to an extreme. Today was the only time I've ever truly been upset with their food. Honestly, this is the only time I've been upset enough to even comment negatively on the food anywhere, ever. I ordered tempura shrimp, fried rice, and two orders of mushroom soup to go. When I open the to go bag, the smell that hits me makes me gag. I know immediately that either the shrimp has gone bad or the fry oil hasn't been replaced in a VERY long time. I just decided to bag it back up and not eat it. It wasn't what I was looking forward to eating most, so I just let it go. Then I move on to the rice. I see black flakes mixed in and thought it might be pepper. Upon tasting it realized it's actually little pieces of burnt rice. That was disappointing, but it's still edible, so I let it go and ate some it because I paid for it. Then I check on the dish I love the most (and often the main reason I go to Koto), the mushroom soup. When I pulled it out the bag, the color of the broth was so pale I knew this wasn't right either. It tastes like someone just put ginger in hot water and served it with the toppings. They didn't even add salt to the ginger water. It's probably the easiest thing they make besides salad, and it's still wrong. I hate wasting food, but if three of the four thing I order are inedible or unpalatable, I have no choice. I'm not sure if it was just a really off day or if they were trying to cut corners for some reason, but I'm extremely let down. I'm giving three stars, because I've never really been disappointed to this extent by them before this incident. However, the series of unfortunate events that led to this would be enough to make most people swear off a restaurant forever. Sorry for the novel of a review, but I hope they fix whatever issues...

The hibachi table next to us was seated about ten minutes AFTER us, but their chef arrived and started cooking about 15 minutes before ours. We waited about 30 minutes from the time we were seated until our chef arrived.

After ordering and receiving drinks, we only saw the waitress once, when she brought our salad and soup. I had to ask the front manager for wasabi, as the waitress disappeared.

We ordered the “money bags” appetizer, and they were great. That was the only good part of the meal.

My wife had a margarita, and she said it was good.

The hibachi was worse than mall food court Chinese food. The yum yum sauce was runny, white, and very sweet for some reason. The salad wasn’t more than five bites, but had almost a full cup of salad dressing on it. The rice was way over cooked when it was boiled and had no texture. The noodles were overcooked to the point they were stuck together, and the chicken had almost no seasoning on it.

I ate about four bites of the meal before I gave up. I asked for a to-go box, and put the full meal in it. Not the server, the cook, or the front manager, who ALL saw I hadn’t touched the meal, asked if there was an issue. My wife did the same thing. Neither of us ate more than a couple bites.

I literally wrote that it was the worst hibachi I’ve ever had on the receipt, and STILL. no the server or front manager approached me about it.

Honestly, hibachi is a cheap meal to make. It’s rice (cheap), vegetables, (cheap), and the protein is the most expensive part of the meal the food for a hibachi meal probably costs about $5 for the restaurant. I know part of what you pay for is the show, but if you’re going to charge $20+ for food that costs you $5, it’s needs to be better prepared than what we...

I don't care for hibachi but this is where my brother wanted to go for his birthday. They did hibachi and I did sushi so sushi is all I am going to review. First, let me preface my review by saying I am a sushi fanatic. I've eaten sushi all over the US and in other countries. When it comes to sushi I am a traditionalist, Nigiri and simple maki/hand rolls. These items are all about skill and freshness of ingredients so it's the best base line to determine quality of a sushi place.

In regards to Koto, prices seems to be kind of high for the small amount of sushi you get. Regular rolls start at 5.00 and are only 6 small pieces. Nigiri starts at 5.50 and is only 2 pieces. I ordered two tuna rolls and a spicy crunchy salmon roll. The salmon had 8 pieces and was 6.00. The tuna rolls were 5.00 each. I also got two pieces of tuna Nigiri for 5.50. Frankly, it was a very small amount of sushi for the price, plus the pieces weren't very large. Flavor was decent, but nothing jaw dropping. Rice was a touch overcooked without much flavor. The fish was fresh without any fishy smell and had good texture. The tuna on the Nigiri was tender, without fishy smell, but wasn't very flavorful either. It was more mouth feel and texture versus flavor.

Overall, I feel hibachi is an overpriced show for standard food. In this case, the thought extends to the sushi, it's good, but pretty standard, but with a lack of overall flavor. However it is really overpriced. It is unlikely I...