Kotobuki — Restaurant in Town of North Hempstead

Updated: on Sept 13,2025 visited restaurant again because the last time I enjoyed dining at restaurant. To my surprise it was the worse experience I had. I invited a number of friends and my son to eat because the last time really enjoyed with our server Hanna.

When we arrived and sat down, the waiter took our order and server named Hong L, demeanor was very rude during our eating, that my guests were very upset. We had order drinks and it took over 10 minutes because he was attending another customer at another table who came after us. We order appetizers prior to the other customers who came after us too, and they came late as well too.

I even asked for extra napkins and he never brought over, the petite young lady from the register brought for us the napkins as we were eating right away. Server, Hong L was not friendly or tentative at all and never bothered to come over to see if we needed anything.

Another issue was the food we order were not the greatest or tasteful. The drinks order were ok , which my guests enjoyed. The beef negimaki appetizer was a little dried and not tasty. The worse part of this server was that he put two separate orders on same plate, 2 Red Dragon. My guest had the plate and was eating thinking it was his order. I waited like 5 minutes and questioned server who said it was served, I said I didn’t received and he said it was on my guest plate. I said in whose right mind would do this and what was more disturbing, he took my guess plate and separated and put the other portion on another plate for me to eat. This type of behavior is uncalled for and this sever should not be working there. In the end he just dropped the bill which I paid over $238 on the table like throwing us out and never asking if we needed anything else or say thank you. When I gave him cash tip he not even say thank you. As a business owner and someone who is a foodie, I would not have him working. This type of behavior is uncalled for in any business. I been to this restaurant many times as well and enjoyed their hospitality and caring by their servers. That is why I changed the rating. (see pictures below I added for the above date)

Updated: On Feb 2, 2025 visited restaurant and to my surprise the food and service was outstanding. The server Hanna was very attentive and professional and friendly. She made sure that all was great and if we needed anything not to hesitate to ask. We had a number dishes like Sushi deluxe sp salmon roll, yellowtail jalapeño, nabeyaki udon and other dishes. The food was fresh as well. My son and I went for dinner. Ask for Hanna , she is very attentive, friendly and caring for her customers to be satisfied while eating. Thank you Hanna! You made our dinner a pleasure to visit this restaurant. As someone who travels a lot and enjoys trying different ethnic foods and reviewing the food and services to let other customers know how the food and its service is.

Approx 2 years ago ,I was not impressed at all about the food. I gave 4 stars because of the service and friendliness. It was very crowed too maybe because of...

After reading some of the reviews calling this the best Japanese restaurant on Long Island, I figured I would give this restaurant a shot. I'm not your typical American consumer of Japanese food - having lived in Japan for a year, I tend to have higher expectations of Japanese restaurant, and sushi is generally an afterthought for me as opposed to a primary focus.

I went in looking for good sukiyaki, and my mom was looking for teriyaki chicken. We also ordered a side of miso soup and the shrimp shumai as an appetizer and a soda and green tea as beverages. Besides the green tea being of only marginal quality, we were never offered a refill on either drink, but I'll get to that when I talk about the service.

Shortly after ordering, salads with a sesame ginger dressing came out. These were slightly above average in quality (freshness and taste), but were a little overboard with the dressing, and despite being only slightly above average, were the best part of the meal. Next out was the shumai, which was bland and didn't leave any impression on me whatsoever. The entrees and the miso soup came out quite some time later, and were easily the worst part of the meal.

Let's start with the sukiyaki. While there was a decent amount of food in the sukiyaki, the beef used was tough and of low quality, making it really hard to chew. While the veggies were fresh, the sickly sweet dashi made the dish hard to stomach; not wanting to wait an eternity for a new order, I just squeezed the dashi out of the noodles, veggies, and meat as best I could. Dashi in sukiyaki should be a mellow flavor, only lightly flavored, that complements and enhances the flavor of the meat, not overpowers it. Yuck. The chicken on the teriyaki plate seemed to be boiled or steamed rather than lightly grilled, and the sauce tasted like it came out of a can. Once again, yuck. The miso soup was salty to the point of being inedible, so we only had a couple sips.

After waiting for an eternity for our waiter, he finally came to clear our plates. Not once were we asked if the food tasted alright. One would think that with a nearly full serving of miso sitting in front of someone, the wait staff would ask if we were finished with the soup or if everything had tasted alright before removing it. We got neither - he simply removed the bowl without saying a word. I noticed the waiter giving the couple next to us a refill of green tea as we were leaving, but I had been sitting with an empty drink for well over 30 minutes. Similarly, another patron had placed a to-go order while we were waiting for our table and waited over 45 minutes to get his food.

Overall the food was marginal at best, the service was slow, and it was definitely not worth the 45 minute wait for a table. If this is the best that Long Iasland has to offer, you are seriously missing out on good Japanese food. If yaou're ever in Colorado, try Domo or Sushi Den in Denver. You'll get far better food with far better service. I think I'll skip out on Japanese in New York in the future if this is the...

Sushi is one of the best on long island. However, service is horrendous!!!

After almost two full years of revamping its operation to accommodate a pick-up service, the restaurant has still not been able to figure it out. There is no process. It is a free for all when you arrive to pick up your order. The online options allow you to select a pick up time within a 15 minute range. The order is NEVER ready during that scheduled timeframe. The restaurant over commits on its service and unfortunately once you've placed and paid for your online order you are somewhat stuck. Not waiting is not an option. Yesterday evening I placed my online order at 5:12 p.m. Scheduled the pickup for 6:45 - 6:55. I received an email confirmation of my order and was provided a link to "track my order." First, the "track" function does not provide any status updates on the order. It simply redirects you to a map view of the restaurant's location. Second, I arrived at 7:00 p.m. and was told the orders were about 15 minutes behind. At 7:20 I was brought someone else's order and of course turned it back. At 7:30 I was told the kitchen is packing up my order. At 7:45 I was again told the kitchen is processing my order. I finally received my take out at 8:05. Unfortunately, this is a regular occurrence at Kotobuki and as you can imagine, is simply not acceptable. Many other restauranteurs have modified their operations to streamline the "takeout" business. Kotobuki has not quite...