Kura Revolving Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Tampa

I wish I could rate it better. Honestly. My expectations were higher, especially knowing that it was a sushi chain and it's not one establishment, therefore, any kinks that they may have, would be resolved.

They have been open here at Westshore Mall in Tampa for a number of months now. Upon entering at noon, the hostess (Tabitha...I got her name...which you will see why later in the review) immediately said "Make sure to sign in"

To my right at the entrance, is a kiosk thing, where you type in your name and phone number. I noticed it said "0-5 minute wait." As soon as I signed in, I got a buzz confirmation on my phone, and Tabitha greeted us with "irashaimase!" Followed immediately by the rest of her coworkers. Ok. Nice.

She sat us down and asked us if we had been to a Kura Sushi before, to which we replied no. She then said she would get a coworker to explain the concept.

The coworker explained how to grab a sushi plate from the revolving belt, how to place an order on the touch screen by our plate, order drinks, get a prize after 10 plates, etc.

Here's when things started heading south. My husband has eyesight issues. And, as much as he wants to look at the menu and scroll through the myriad assortment of selections, the print was too small. Even magnifying it with his phone was proving too cumbersome, as the way the screen is positioned up high, he couldn't do the magnification to any success.

In the meantime, we (meaning I) placed our drink orders: a Diet Coke for him, a Mr Pibb for me.

Less than a minute passes, and we get from one of the staff? A water and a Mr. Pibb.

So, we called for service/help. Tabitha shows up after a couple of minutes. We ask her if they have a physical menu.

She immediately goes "We only have 1, and we need it for the front for our take-out orders."

Needless to say, that comment left us flabbergasted. I would think that they would make some reasonable accommodation for limited sight customers who wish to enjoy their establishment, but well, clearly cannot, because a simple paper menu can't be procured for these instances.

We will likely just keep going back to Sushi Yama in Brandon. They have just an ample variety of quality food, at a fraction...

This review comes from a place of love as I truly love this place. I’m becoming a regular here and I enjoy the place tremendously. But, let’s be real and discuss why it’s not perfect.

The place is just way too small. It’s cramped. The location also is terrible at one of the entrances to the mall and between two huge restaurants. This is NOT a place for children or those requiring handicap accommodation. PLEASE BE AWARE OF THIS. I highly discourage people to bring babies or small children.

The waits. Expect to wait when you come here. Because of the small size of the place and how the sushi conveyors tend to cause people to wait for the right food to pass by, I’d expect on average to wait a half hour just to get seated. If you aren’t alone, expect the wait to be longer.

Speaking of waits, there is really is no place to wait. You better go into the mall or wait in your car because the only place to wait is outside in the elements. Pray it’s not raining, freezing, or 10,000 degrees because it’s Florida.

And when you are seated, hopefully you are close to the conveyor belt where the sushi comes from the kitchen. If you end up on the opposite end, most sushi will be picked over. You’ll end up ordering most of your food as few items will reach you. This is just a sad reality, but at least you know most of your food is fresh.

The fun atmosphere in being at a Japanese revolving sushi bar is quickly diminished by the noise and chaos of the place being far too small and cramped. Combined with the inevitable “fighting” over obtaining sushi dishes you want and sharing of soy sauce, this becomes a bummer real fast.

It’s expensive, but you already knew that. Sushi isn’t cheap.

Now with that being said, I still love the quality of the sushi, the options for other Japanese dishes, and the fun delivery robot who brings your drinks. I also love the ordering menu and how cute the animations are. It’s still a fun place to eat, just be careful when you go (as you may end up waiting for over an hour) or you may not find a parking spot. Give it a try and see if you feel the same! Oh and the Kura roll is absolutely amazing. It’s a...

Wild experience…

You check-in inside on the kiosk and it gives you an estimated time for when you’re next. I know this place is new and is in high demand of experiencing, but if the estimated time calculates 20-40 minutes it shouldn’t be 55min. Maybe I should’ve called ahead of time?? But our experience gets way wilder.

My friend and I were offered bar seating and I accepted it because we had enough of waiting. The people beside of us were about to argue with us and the host because they wanted the bar seating. But we were ahead of them.

The host sits us at the bar area and says that a server will come by shortly (because we’ve never been here and have been waiting all week to go and wanted to get to know how all of this all works) and asked us to order our drinks as we waited. 10 minutes goes by and we haven’t had a server yet; I know this a “self serve” type of place, you order on the tablet and food comes to you, but we still hadn’t gotten our drinks we ordered yet. - two cokes

The server comes after those 10 minutes had passed and my tablet malfunctioning in the process, and brings the drinks.

We start ordering, which was a breeze. The tablet has a picture of the food you can choose and it’s sent down a belt to your seat. You also have the option to grab food that’s rotating around the table. It is a cool process…here’s the wild part.

There was a potential HAIR in one roll, the salmon tasted AWEFUL, and the rice would not stay together.

As we were checking out, my friend’s tablet was malfunctioning absurdly. They didn’t give her a discounted price for the hair or the rolls she took one bite of. I’m pretty sure they added more than she took on her bill. Then as we walked out the robot started charging at us.

Not a joke, but it is funny, the robot that serves drinks and food rammed into my friend on our way out. (We were out of the way and it took a harsh left and went for us). The servers started laughing and said sorry.

The miso soup wasn’t even that pleasant.

I only recommend this place if you want...