Sushi Kyoto — Restaurant in University Park

If I could give ZERO stars i would. HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE customer service. The sushi chefs are amazing and oh so very talented but the horrible customer service has RUINED this place forever. My family and I WERE regulars. We would come here for every special occasion and spend hundreds. We had been coming here for close to half a decade. The other night I ordered differently then I normally do. I ordered the teriyaki chicken along with some sushi. I was feeling sick and wanted comfort food. I had never ordered anything but sushi before from this restaurant and wanted to give it a go. The chicken was extremely smokey and not enjoyable. I tried to like it but with each bite I was more and more displeased. It was not up to Kyoto's standards. It was gross... and it was fifteen dollars. I calmly told my waitress that the chicken was too smokey for my taste and that I was not pleased with the dish. I asked for it to be taken off of my bill. She went to talk to her manager. Then our waitress came back and told me that I had already eaten half of the dish.. which I had not. I then offered to pay for half of it. Then the manager walks over and starts barking at us in front of the whole restaurant.

manager: "You don't like the chicken?!" me: "No, it is too smokey for my taste and I am not enjoying it" manager: "That is not my fault!" "You already ate half of it!" Me: "I will pay for half of it but I did not like the dish and I do not want to pay for the whole thing." Manager: "NO! You will pay full price!" "What do you want me to do? Throw it in the trash?" Me: "As a customer, I am saying that i did not enjoy the dish. My family and I come here often and we have never had problems before." Manager:"I know who you are!" "Our product is always the same." "It is teriyaki chicken and if you don't like it, it is your fault!"

So that was the end of Sushi Kyoto. Forever. After spending thousands over the past 5 years, my family will not be returning. We ended up having to pay a 70 dollar bill after being treated so horribly. This business is NOT being run professionally. I am so sad that this happened. I recommended this sushi spot to countless people over the years but not I will be SURE to warn people against going here. I get better service at a FAST FOOD drive through then...

Service: 1/5 — Called at 9:10pm and asked if they were open. Google says they close at 10 but I just wanted to be sure, because the place we went to right before actually wasn’t open but online it said it was. So anyways, we get there at 9:15 and right upon arrival, without even greeting us, the lady at the front (not sure if it was the same one who picked up the phone or not) she said “we close 9:50 so kitchen close 9:45” and we were just like “okay… it’ll be 3 of us.” She grabbed the menus and started walking us to a table. We tried to stop her to request a diff table. We wanted the bigger one away from the cooking area and the people. She said “that’s for bigger parties this one’s better for you guys” & proceeds to make us sit there. Someone comes in 1 min to take our drink orders and then leaves. We start looking over the menus & Our drinks come immediately. Couple mins later we get her attention as we were ready and she tells us to use the paper. So I was like oh & grabbed the paper to start. Then another lady comes & grabs the paper back and says she got it & asks us if it’s gonna be 1 check or separate, to which my brother responded “1” then looked at us and said “it’s on me guys just to say thanks — “ & then the lady cut him off and said “ok ok what’s the order now” which was just kind of rude. She sped through our order and was screaming the order as we went through each item we ordered. Not sure if that’s what always happens or what but overall trend here is that the whole thing was rushed. I understand they close at 10, if I knew it was ‘on the dot’ and they want us in and out we would have just ordered take out lol because the point of dining in was more so the experience… & we definitely didn’t get that.

Food: 3/5 — all the food came out a few at a time but all within 5 mins of us ordering. And the taste definitely matched the time it took. Caterpillar roll was avg, nothing special. Canoe roll was gross. Temptation roll was great. Noodles were great as well. Fried rice was requested to be made spicy, but very bland. Still good just not great.

Overall i would never come back. I wish I picked another sushi spot for the 1 time we actually choose to grab a bite instead...

I should have read the reviews before ordering:

“ The sushi was no different than gas station sushi.”

“Not worth the price or drive”

After I made the mistake of ordering, I agree that this is the worst sushi I have had from both a creativity and quality. I did not even eat because I feared it was not edible.

Let’s start with the Texas Family boat, which costs $219. It was “chef’s choice” 30 pieces of sushi, 4 rolls, and sashimi , but instead California roll, tuna roll l, tempura avocado, and spicy something(salmon?). The Sashimi and sushi was simply tuna, salmon, cooked shrimp, and two types of white fish.

The karage ($8) is normally chunks of chicken, but this was a few thin strips of chicken.

The shrimp tempura($12) was previously frozen and only had shrimp five pieces .

Horrible quality, potentially unsafe temperature(felt warm to the touch), and uninspired for being chef’s choice/omkase.

See the pictures to see...