Kumo Japan of White Hall — Restaurant in Whitehall

A tale of aggravation, with a happy ending. My fiance and I eat here somewhat regularly, due to the convenience of location. Kumo consistently has very good food. The sushi is fantastic. However, the take out experience is always a disaster. It doesn't seem to matter what kind of food you order, any estimated take out time is far under estimated.

This evening, we placed an order at 5:50, and were quoted a pickup time of 30 minutes. Upon entering the restaurant, I'm greeted with a line to the second door of the establishment, filled with aggravated patrons. With a quoted time of 6:20, I was not able to leave with our food until over an hour later, at 7:30.

I spent several years in the restaurant business, and I completely understand that things are difficult right now. Low staffing, mask mandates, unreasonable customers, the list goes on. This type of experience stems from a leadership and management issue. The employees are not to blame with this. The staff was working as fast as they could, both FOH and BOH, to get everyone's orders completed and delivered, there simply were not enough of them. Please, Kumo, if you have lots of take out orders, extend your quote times. You can always quote longer and have the food ready sooner, no one will complain about that. But never quote under.

As I said, the food is wonderful, the dine in experience is great, but the take out...

This restaurant is shaping up to be the highest quality restaurant for the value in the whole town. Compared to all the “fusion” restaurants in the North Central region as well as the others in town, it is easily the best in terms of food proportion, quality, and service.

Happy Garden/Ken’s were the most viable choices for Asian food in Fairmont for many years, but when the matriarch of HG retired from the kitchen a few years back, it wasn’t the same. Ken’s is still a value point today but never came to the level of a hibachi.

Enter the Kumo Japan. The owner really cares about what he is doing, so a bad meal has never been turned out. I have brought countless friends and family members in there to experience what a great restaurant it is. We look forward to coming to this business for many years to come. In two dozen plates/visits I can only think of one time a problem where noodles were cold, and they snapped them up immediately and got me some hot fresh. I wish I could go on and on about the service, just to say that every server I have interacted with has been far above average in terms of hospitality.

I have noticed that their overall business seems to have doubled in the span of the last six...

The worst dining experience I've had in years. There was an employee argument in the kitchen. Not sure what was going on but I heard our waiter say to a kitchen staff worker "what's your problem?!" Not a good dining vibe for customers. Our waiter, although kind to us in our interactions, was inattentive. We sat waiting a long time for him to take our order and finally had to get up to ask him to take our order. Our drinks ran and stayed dry. We had to ask for refills twice when he finally came over. We had to yet again get up and ask for boxs when we were ready to leave after waiting for him to come check on us so we could ask. He was on this phone or watching TV most of the time, which isn't an issue if your customers are taken care of. I should also mention that we came during off hours and there were only 2 or 3 other tables.

Appetizers were average. Sushi very good. My Pad Thai was awful. It tasted perfumish and the noodles were way overcooked bordering on mush. I took two bites and decided I was done which I never do. It was inedible.

We've been here several other times in the past and loved it. Off day for kitchen staff and waiter? Maybe but not worth...