KOJO — Restaurant in Sarasota

I chose Kojo for a group dinner after reading about them on Yelp and looking at photos of the menu, interior, food. You know, Asian Fusion is my Thing! We had a reservation for 5 to dine outdoors.

Things that should have been Warning Signs:

It was so dark outside it was hard to tell which things were menus and which wine lists. I mean there wasn’t even a single candle on a table out there. It was nuts. Not even the 21 year old in our party could read the menus. That’s how dark it was.

We had a reservation for 5 and the table was set and ready. With 2 menus. Even after we all sat and put in drink orders no one brought more menus. We had to ask for more menus? And the waiter said, “Yes. I can bring more.”…???

Which was flat out weird. We’re not sharing menus. Particularly since this is Sarasota and your average citizen is GROWN GROWN.

I ordered a carafe of a not inexpensive sake. It was served in a big, plastic, fake bamboo pitcher thing with a little, plastic cup that was meant to look like a section of bamboo. PLASTIC. I drink a lot of sake. In a variety of restaurants. In any number of states. Never, once has anyone attempted to serve it to me in plastic.

Which is when I should have known. Things were not going to go well.

Our waiter, although “friendly” is not an adjective I would use to describe him, did a very good job. Apart from the menu thing (??) service was very good.

The food, on the other hand.

It took me a few items to figure out how to get decent photos of the food IN THE PITCH DARK. So my pics of the two BEST items (the Tuna Pizza and the Wasabi Caesar salad) are really not good. Trust me though, they were delicious!

The Tuna pizza is on a paper thin flat bread (they have a proper wood fired oven), with paper thin tuna, a wasabi truffle sauce with micro greens over top. GET THIS. Really good, perfect for sharing.

I had wok tossed Asian greens. They were also very good. Simple, fresh, tasty, cooked perfectly.

Let us revisit my LOVE for a Caesar salad. If there is a Caesar on the menu I’m going to order it! Kojo’s Wasabi Caesar is EXCELLENT. A little spicy with the wasabi in the dressing, nice and crunchy chopped Romaine, pieces of Nori tossed in and topped with one of those Parmesan Crisps, with sesame seeds. I usually can take or leave a parmesan crisp. This one was DELICIOUS. I ate mine AND my father’s! GET THIS SALAD.

I ordered Crispy Tofu Bites. Not good. At all. Cubes of fried tofu DROWNED in a bad sauce that may have included some kind of commercial BBQ sauce? Don’t order these.

I had Sushi Tacos. 2 per order, the size of a “regular” hard shell taco. Shells appear to be fried nori? I got torched salmon tacos and mushroom tacos. Meh. The shells were nice and crunchy, but the tacos were at least half full of sushi rice. Which is A LOT of rice. Flavors muddled, indistinguishable, way salty.

Which, I know, sounds ridiculous! I hate it when people tell me their food was “too salty.” ALL food needs salt! But I’m here to tell you the overwhelming flavor in ALL this food (except that pizza and Caesar) was salt. The more I ate the more all I could taste was salt.

I ordered the whole, roasted cauliflower for my niece and ate some. The cauliflower was perfectly cooked. But DROWNING in all the sauces so that no flavor stood out, not even the cauliflower. It just tasted salty. Like they took a beautiful head of cauliflower and ruined it.

We ordered Matcha Donuts for the table. These sounded GREAT: donuts made with some Ricotta in the batter, fried up, rolled in Matcha and served HOT.

They were terrible.

Really, bad. Even if you dipped them in the chocolate sauce they’re served with. You can’t drown the INCREDIBLY BITTER flavor which I’m assuming is way too much unadulterated Matcha?? Do not order.

If you must go to Kojo order Tuna Pancake and Wasabi Caesar salad. Sit inside where you can see your food. Order one of their cocktails, if that’s your thing. Temper your...

Updated review July 2024 Kojo has exceeded our expectations once again. We tried all new things including a new menu item, the salmon crispy rice bites, which were good with the avacado creaminess balancing out the fish and crunch. The tuna pizza was amazing- we loved the subtle truffle flavor and the texture of the chip it was on. We will 100% be ordering that again and almost ordered a second one on the spot. We enjoyed the pork belly bao. The highlight of our meal was the 6oz filet wagyu. The meat was so tender it nearly melted in your mouth. And the pie flavor of the steak was so great that I didn’t want to mask it in any way with the carmelized onions and sesame sauce we ordered. We also had the basic steak to enjoy the sauces with along with the chimichiry. That steak was good too but nothing can follow that 6oz filet. Thank you Robert and Adam for encouraging us to come back and for an amazing experience and Tucker for the great service. We will be back again!

April 2024: I remember our first dinner at Kojo in July 2022 like it was yesterday - it absolutely blew us away. Since then, we’ve made our way back for our fourth visit just last night. While we still enjoy Kojo, the experience has shifted from exceptional to just good.

Take the Wagyu Skirt Steak 10oz ($68), for example. On our first visit, it was unforgettable. This time, despite being prepared rare as we like, it didn’t quite hit that high mark. The texture felt overly oily, and the truffle butter sauce was too dominating. (Our first time having it was perfect, prompting us to order it again this time). This wasn’t an isolated issue; the entire meal seemed to echo this sentiment. Even the Tuna Crispy Rice ($18), a dish we’ve ordered every time, didn’t bring the same excitement. It felt like the recipe had shifted, missing that ‘wow’ factor that made it a must-have.

It’s not that Kojo has lost its touch entirely – far from it. It’s just that the meals used to feel like an experience, and now they’re more like… well, just dinner. The slight price increase would hardly be noticeable if the quality had remained as stellar as our first visit.

Our intent isn’t to criticize for the sake of it. Having recommended Kojo to numerous friends based on our initial experiences, we share this feedback in hopes of shedding light on areas that seem to have dimmed. Kojo has set a high bar for itself, and we’re hopeful for a return to the culinary excellence we know they’re capable of. Here’s to hoping to be wowed all over again on...

This was our first time at Kojo and being new to the area we hadn’t heard of it yet but upon googling “Top Sushi” in Sarasota, we were pointed here. Totally up my husband’s alley for delicious sushi and up my alley for funky but equally delicious Asian fusion items. Everything had such a jam packed flavor to discover & the food was hot & brought out immediately. We tried the bao buns - they’re very flavorful as a quaint app, the rock shrimp tempura- I could have eaten 5 servings of this, perfectly spiced and not overbearing, the shrimp tempura and Kojo rolls were both very flavorful and highly recommend the Kojo; lastly we tried the truffled chicken wontons - I really enjoyed the POW of truffle flavor on these & the sauce was soy saucy salty. Seriously, you probably can’t order something that isn’t meticulously flavored and thoughtfully crafted. The staff were attentive, informative, polite, positive, and swift! We didn’t have to wait to be seated even with a switch to outdoor seating, or to be given our food orders even though it was obvious the restaurant was busy on a Friday night. It was louder in the bar area for our preference but again obviously for a Friday a fun perk if you’re looking to meet up & enjoy the scene but we were grateful for a quiet night on the patio. There was no pushy table flipping from our server who asked multiple times “can I bring anything else? Do you want to just sit a while? Are you ready to leave?” and we felt very acknowledged in every moment for our flow to the evening. The surprise champagne and unique and funky coconut bomb dessert to celebrate my husbands birthday was the cherry on top to a sweet day. Thank you so much for a sweet and memorable birthday. We are already planning our next dinner out & double date at Kojo before we left....