Mikimotos — Restaurant in Wilmington

Particularly given that I was very much a regular here pre-covid - the decine in service levels here are pathetic and unacceptable. This isn't the first time, but it is definitely the worst, and the last. I called in an order for takeout at 7:13 pm last night (Thursday evening) - was told it would be ready in 45 minutes. I arrived at the restaurant a few minutes after 8 and gave my name to the hostess, who went presumably to check on my order, but was never seen again. Other take-out customers were waiting with me, and we were all ignored. I was becoming impatient with 10 minutes left in 3q of the game - which suggests I had been waiting over 20 minutes and I approached someone and said I had been waiting.. He was very disinteresed and simply said - 'I always tell people 1 hour' as we are busy... there is nothing I can do.." I gave it a few more minutes, then approached the same guy again saying - it has been well over an hour, no one is telling me anything - if they knew it would still be a long time when I arrived they could have said so, given me the opportunity to cancel, or maybe sit and have a drink instead of standing inside the door for 30 minutes.. Only then did he ask my name and went to check on my order.. After only a minute or two he came back and said - 'I am really sorry but she gave your order to someone else'... - I still don't know that that means.... I was very annoyed and said 'so what do I do for dinner'.. He shrugged and said - 'I could give you a gift certificate'... at which point I just walked out. It was 8:40 and I was left with very few options and apparently the restaurant actually working to fix the problem was not one of them. The screw up was bad enough but the total disregard for the customers was an insult on top of injury.. Darius is spinning...

I wish I had taken some photos. The inside was beautiful! There was a drinks bar where you could sit and drink, and a dining bar where you could sit and eat- along with standard table seating.

Ordered the Bangkok Calamari for an appetizer. Cooked absolutely perfectly. The breading was crispy, not very greasy at all. The calamari was tender, not rubbery or slimy. And the spicy sauce it came with was also sweet and delicious.

For Entrees,

Hairy Mexican Sushi Roll; Shrimp, Avocado, Spicy Mayo. topped with crab stick and eel sauce.

Sweet and savory. Rice was cook perfectly. Wasn’t too spicy. Eel sauce was the cherry on top; it was somewhat sweet and paired very well with the avocado and spicy Mayo.

Pork Dumplings - Steamed;

Dumpling was cooked all the way through, soft, easy to grab with chopsticks, didn’t pop when picked up. Tasted good.

Yellowfin Assorted plate (can’t remember name)

one roll of Yellowfin sushi; had really good spice to it, not much sweetness, fish was fresh, melted in your mouth. probably my favorite of the entire dinner.

Three Yellowfin Sashimi; fish was fresh- same fish as in the sushi.

Three slices of yellowfin; same fish as above.

For desert; Tempura Chocolate Brownie w/ vanilla ice cream. It’s essentially a fried brownie. The crunchy tempura went well with the soft brownie. Came with a Caramel sauce drizzled overtop. It’s about what you’d expect from this type of food combo- you can’t go wrong with it.

Drinks; Blue Moon, Sprite, Water

Total was 83.00 before the tip- it can be a bit expensive to be honest, but the quantity and quality of food you get for this price is amazing. Portions aren’t small, but not huge either. I wish I had taken pictures of the food, the plating was extremely well done.

Overall I’d recommend coming here if you have gone...

Mikimotos has been my favorite restaurant for the past two decades, so when we walked in this evening for my birthday and the place was empty, I was pretty surprised. It was so empty, the hostess was surfing her phone when we walked in. It used to be questionable if you could even get a table. But I soon found out why. While it went through some disappointing decor renovations a few years ago, the food was still as good. No more. It was recently bought out by Big Fish and as our waiter (very nice) told us, it has become corporate.

It pains me to say this about my favorite restaurant, but everything has changed, right down to the glasses the sake was served in. It’s evident that the new owners are prioritizing profit over quality. The menu is approximately half of what it used to be. Green beans were flavorless. The sushi rolls were much smaller and the fish quality not as good, resembling supermarket quality. The shrimp in the tempura roll were ice cold. My wife couldn’t even eat her Chesapeake roll as it was so fishy tasting. The standard house salad with carrot ginger dressing was replaced by an overly fancy, salt bomb concoction that was fairly inedible. Even the edamame was overly salted. How can you get that wrong? The only redeeming dish on the table was the cucumber salad, refreshing and delicious. Get that if you decide to go.

I used to argue that Mikimotos rivaled, if not was out right superior to Philly sushi, but those days have passed. After 20 years, countless birthdays, celebrations, team events and happy hours, I will...