Ken of Japan — Restaurant in Simi Valley

The birthday celebration from Hell. Both the food and service are terrible. Don't waste your money. I've been here twice. Pre-Covid, I was at the sushi bar and the sushi rolls were good. Everyone had a good time. No complaints. Flash forward several months, on Oct. 26th, I returned. Post-Covid, the sushi bar is not operational. We were seated at a table within view of the hostess/waitress. We were literally the only customers seated on one side of the restaurant. We ordered quite a bit of sushi and the chicken teriyaki. The chicken teriyaki was inedible. Visually, the chicken didn't look right, which was off-putting. It was more gray than brown. Never seen anything like it. It's like it didn't brown properly. It was sliced so very thin lengthwise that it was overcooked and very, very tough to chew. The grill marks looked more like the ones that are made on a small indoor grill (I own one), rather than a professional grill. The sauce was off. No one at the table liked it, or wanted to eat it. The California Rolls also were not right. The seasoning was not bad, but the rolls appeared to be missing something (no idea what since I don't make California Rolls....I do buy them, however, frequently, and these were exceptionally high in what tasted like mayonnaise and underseasoned in whatever gives California Rolls that tang). My husband ordered a salmon skin hand roll. I didn't try it. I did see him take a bite of it and then quickly remove something from his mouth. He said the salmon skin was so tough he thought he was biting down on a piece of plastic. It wasn't plastic and he didn't finish the roll. Then.... if all of that wasn't enough.... we never saw our waitress. After waiting several minutes for her to appear (so we could get our beverages refilled), I finally took my cell phone out of my purse and called the restaurant in hope that she would return to the front of the restaurant and answer the phone. She didn't. I watched as another woman answered the phone. I informed the woman that answered the phone that we were customers seated to the left of the restaurant and we'd like to see our waitress. The woman that answered the phone came to our table and refilled our drinks. At the end, our original waitress said that she was bringing out a birthday ice cream for our son. It never came. We got tired of waiting for it. We got up and left. I spent 70-something dollars on dinner and went home and ate a sandwich. That's never happened to me before. You will never convince me that a professional sushi chef made that sushi, or that a properly trained chef prepared that chicken teriyaki. We...

OK I just parked right outside this place and gave them a call asking them where they got their salmon from… Simple question, yes? Let me tell you the girl told me that she would “go ask the chef “.

Before we carry-on is important to preface this with the fact that it’s well-known that fish especially these days can be VERY toxic – one of the most toxic foods out there. If the chef is not willing to tell you where their fish comes from and or doesn’t know, they are wholly irresponsible and literally playing with peoples physical lives... all for the sake of their sacred dollar....greed.

I am not a tree hugger nor an uptight dude. However, I am a conscious and breathing individual who cares about other people‘s well-being under God. I wish for everyone to practice the proper procedures when handling someone else’s food… Simply possibly because… it might mean you care?

I’ll keep this short by saying the chef came back with “we get it from the fishmarket” according to the waitress who answered the phone. I took no personal problem with this except for The chefs will to mislead the public, obviously scared of what might become of the information I was requested.

That’s all I have to say… Read into it what you will… Sorry no rosy picture here just a dark glass of who knows...

I'm a long time resident of Simi, but never ate here until recently. Looking for something different, we ordered delivery from Door Dash. I was very impressed with the quality and taste of the food (even delivered!). We ordered their teriyaki steak dinner and a couple sushi rolls. I'd never had sushi delivered, and was not disappointed. So we now HAD to eat in restaurant, because it could only be better, right? Right! The service was good, fast, and polite. We tried a couple other dishes. Everything was great. Their miso soup is amazing! I usually tend to play with it rather than drink it, but theirs is delicious! The only slightly negative thing is that there's a fishy smell in the restaurant (I realize this is a sushi restaurant). I don't eat seafood but my husband does and everything we've tried has been great. Definitely will visit again.

Edit: In the time since I posted this, KoJ has become one of my favorite restaurants. I've ordered many different items and none have disappointed. I'd give 6...