Kohnami — Restaurant in South Padre Island

Terrible food, terrible service. We are Asian so we wanted to have some Asian food after several days in south padre, we saw Kohnami on our drive to our hotel so we decided to give it a try. The place was clean and we were amazed they had Chinese and Thai food on their Menu. On our first visit our Waitress was extremely helpful, friendly and very knowledgeable about the menu items. She guided us thru what would be good for my elderly parents. We ordered 3 orders of Shrimp Red Curry and an order Pad Thai, even though the taste was not good, the waitress attitude compensated for it. Then next day after a long day at the beach, we all decided to go back and have some comfort food, for Asians its means Rice and soup. First of all we were greeted by another young lady who almost from the beginning made us feel as if we were giving her trouble by coming to eat in the Restaurant, so after a long wait she came and handed us the Menu and didn’t even ask what would we want to drink. My husband had to wave her down and ask her for some water. After a long wait she finally came to take our order, we ordered couple of Sushi Rolls as appetizer and three Pad Thai and one Beef dish. We requested the Pad Thai to be combination of Pork and Shrimp, so another 15 min goes by and she comes back and tells us, oh sorry my owner said we cannot do Pork and Shrimp, for that we said ok then let’s just do chicken and shrimp, which is extra $$.We wait another 20 min and by this time my Dad is getting impatient since he has already taken his before meal Med, my husband goes and find the waitress and she finally comes with out appetizer, and another long wait and finally our food arrives, the minute we all tried our first bite we realized the Pad Thai was extra Sweet, it tasted like noodles rolled in Molasses, so my parents wanted to order something else to eat since it was too sweet. We ordered Tofu with Red Sauce Curry with Rice, Which of course took another long wait and when it finally did arrive, there was no sauce and the tofu tasted very very old, So I went and found the waitress and requested her to see what she can do about the curry and her answers were, "its that way I didn’t cook them", and she rolled her eyes at us. I was appalled by the behavior of the waitress and the Japanese Owner who was standing near by watching the whole thing, didn't step in to correct the situation. I am very upset but my husband said lets just pay and leave and find somewhere else to go and eat. So we paid our bill left all the unfinished food there and left and had pizza next door. They were so rude that they didn't even as us what can we do to make it better for you. They are very arrogant since they think they are the only good asian restaurant around there, but they forgot that they just lost a customer. So if you are really looking for crapy food then why waste over $120.00 in this restaurant, its better to get a burger at...

My worst experience at a restaurant so far. Im sure the food is ok. This place looks great and it has great reviews, but what happened to us was wrong and i wanted everyone to know. When we went inside the hostess asked us if we wanted to seat at the regular tables or at the tables that had the grills, (just like Benihana the restaurant); we chose the grill ones, but the hostess said there was no room to seat right in front of the Chef, (where they make the food show) and we would have to seat on the side and wait until the other party leaves their side of their table which they were about to leave anyways, so we agreed to seat there. The server showed up right away asking what we wanted to drink. Then she came by with the drinks and asked us if we knew what we wanted to order. I was like can u give us a minute to read the menu, we just sat there 30 seconds ago. She told us we had to hurry up deciding because the people on the other side of the table already ordered and the Chef was waiting on us to order so he could start cooking. We started getting a little uncomfortable but we ordered right away. As soon as we ordered the other party that was about to leave when we got there left, so i went and asked the hostess if it was ok to seat there right in front of the Chef like we agreed earlier. She was like of course let us clean the table first. They cleaned it and we changed seats, it was literally one chair over from where we were sitting. The server told us we need to move back were we were sitting because that side of the table was for new customers. I told her the hostess told us it was ok to seat there. A supervisor came and told us we needed to move and if we stay there our food was going to be cooked on the other table where the other chef was at, they were been so rude with attitude,  i told them i was going to leave because were were uncomfortable with the situation already. I asked the server how much i own you for the sprites we just had which we only took one sip, she said well your suchi is been made right now. I could not believe this people. I told her thats not my problem, im not paying for that. The manager came by and said its ok you dont own anything but please stay and we will bring thw Chef to your table as well. He insisted and i was feeling harassed already, i felt money was so important to these cheap people that they were still trying to make us stay there and eat so they wont lose money.  Complete misery. I wanted to curse this people so bad, specially the server and her supervisor. But i kept my cool cause i had my...

I will preface my review by informing the reader that I travel for work. I am gone from home for multiple months at a time and normally only see my house a few weeks out of the year. The reason that is important is because I love sushi. I get sushi usually twice a week at least. Normally, each time I get it is in a different place, a different restaurant. I have easily been to over 300 individual sushi joints in the past 5 years. I only leave a review when it is terrible, or fantastic.

That being said, Kohnami is FANTASTIC.

The food is fresh (no surprise there, the resturaunt is a few hundred yards from the ocean), nicely proportioned, and unique. They have lots of choices for sushi rolls. Far more than the usual ten or so you see at every sushi place in the country. It was incredibly tasty with just the right amount of each ingredient. The miso soup I had was some of the best I’ve experienced (although I confirmed it is NOT made in house).

Service was fantastic. I sat at the sushi bar, and the chef went so far as to ask what I prefer for the chefs choice nigiri I got. He was fast and friendly, we had a pleasant conversation and he didn’t miss a beat while multitasking in this way. He plated the food very beautifully and told me what each thing on my plate was when he handed it to me. The waitress was very kind and we also had some decent conversation. Made sure I was happy multiple times, very quick with her service, and had a genuine personality which made the experience enjoyable.

The atmosphere in the restaurant is quite nice. Nothing crazy or overly fancy. But clean, welcoming and cozy feeling. The only reason it has 4 stars is because that’s a rating reserved for overly bougie places that have gold plated tables and amethysts in the silverware. There is plenty of seating and options for more private areas tucked away in corners or in the middle of the room for those who like having their conversations heard by all.

Overall I genuinely loved this place and will come back to it the next time I’m in the area, be it a week from now or 10 years. Thank you for reading my review. I...