Kodo Sushi Sake — Restaurant in Scottsdale

Kodo Sushi Bar is phenomenal! We were on our way back from Sedona and were hungry and looking for a place that might be still open at 8pm on a Wednesday night. We were in the mood for sushi and since we were on vacation and in an area we weren't familiar with, we ran to Yelp! Kodo came up with great reviews, so away we went. And thank G-d we did. As I mentioned above, phenomenal!

The place was empty (remember, it was after 8pm on a Wednesday night). There were a few servers tending to us which we figured was a joint effort or maybe they were bored. However, they were all very helpful in giving us suggestions for what we might like.

You order off a sheet showing how many rolls you want, you can strikethrough ingredients, etc. My wife is not super adventurous, she ordered a couple spicy tuna rolls. It's nothing against her as I only get shrimp. I'm not a fan of fish, so shrimp I could do. However, they have all these fancy shrimp rolls with crab meat. (yuck!) or avocado (blech!); I'm looking for basic. I stumble upon the Super Crunch Shrimp Roll and remove the avocado and crab salad. It was awesome! I also got the Shrimp Tempura roll, again removing the stuff I don't like and it too was great. I then ordered other things. I got the spicy edamame which was just meh and not worth ordering, just get the regular edamame. My son, however, is the adventurous one. I don't know when that started, but he went to town. All my vacation money was spent at Kodo. He got the spicy tuna roll, the Blue Ocean roll, the H3 roll, the Havana roll, and the Chewbacca roll. He then ate what was left of my wife's spicy tuna, and polished off the spicy edamame.

Everything was so good. And each server gave us their opinion on what to order. We had...

Would have had 4-5 stars, but for my arriving at this restaurant which had informed me they do not take reservations, and sitting down in the waiting area. Seats at the bar and tables were wide open. Nevertheless my wife and I waited 30 minutes while other people walked in and were seated ahead of us. After ultimately becoming, quite reasonably impatient (due to seats being vacant for a half hour to time while we were waiting), I inquired with the hostess as to what was going on. I was told that diners can check in to the waiting list on Yelp and this establishment allows tables to remain vacant for 30 minutes waiting for people to show up. My wife and I had an excellent dinner that night at Flo's.... It is unfortunate that our new routine for visiting Kodo is to check in on Yelp and leave our house 18 minutes away when our table is ready.... Just like the rest of their customers. Service is fine and food is good. Prices are quite reasonable. But I don't like the fact that you have to game the system to avoid an interminable wait. This place would be well advised to institute a more formal reservation program or level the playing field by either eliminating Yelp check-in or at least universally...

I never leave reviews, but I finally tried this place after shopping nearby and driving past it a couple hundred times. Wow, I can now understand all the great ratings. Was I missing out! I dropped in ten minutes to close and was treated like the place had just opened. Ordered the H3 and the deep fried shrimp roll (forgot the name). The H3 came out first and was excellent in both quality and presentation. It actually spoiled things for me as the next roll was good, though not exactly what I wanted (I neglected to read that it had cream cheese in it--blech). Not their fault, though! The staff is marvelous. Efficient and attentive service and never, ever felt rushed. They even topped off my drink without request. Plus, menu prices which I found to be very reasonable, especialy given the quality. Yasu Sushi is my go-to given the proximity and quality, but this spot has now become my "1B" for great sushi minus all the usual Scottsdale nonsense. I'll be back again and not on a school night so I can enjoy a sake or two with my meal lol. Great job and keep...