I waited until I had dined twice at Kumo Sushi before writing this review. Both visits were weekday happy hour meals, with some different menu items each time. We were greeted promptly and seated immediately in the nearly empty restaurant, and our server was outgoing and friendly. On my first visit, we ordered a variety of items from both the happy hour and the regular menu. I will note that the happy hour menu is very affordable. But when you order from the regular menu you will pay more for items normally priced less at other Japanese restaurants. For example we received tiny portions of squid salad $7.50 and cucumber salad $6.50, and had the garlic edamame $8. These same items are often discounted at happy hour, but not here.
We ordered the Alaskan roll, a California roll and a shrimp roll. I like their California roll filling, and the shrimp roll was small and tight but tasty. The Alaskan roll had a disgusting white sauce all over it under the salmon, so I will remember to order it with no sauce next time. The squid salad seemed like a tiny portion piled on a lot of spring mix lettuce, and the vegetables were not bright green indicating the squid salad was not at its freshest. The cucumber salad was likewise tasty but small, cucumbers are well under a dollar each but this salad was not value priced. We also ordered the garlic edamame, very tasty and although the portion was better it was not on happy hour either.
On my first visit I noticed that the rolls were cut in very large pieces, and this made them difficult to eat. On my second visit we had happy hour tuna roll, shrimp roll and California roll all served together on a large round plate. We had the rolls cut smaller to make them easier to eat this time.
Draft Kirin beer was $3 and small hot sake were $2.50, a great value. However, my first hot sake was cold, and I pointed this out to the server who turned up the heat, and my second hot sake was at least lukewarm. I really don't believe that I should have been charged for the first cold hot sake. It left a bad feeling when unaddressed at the end even though I mentioned it to the replacement server.
At some point during the my meal, we saw our server had left the building and was walking towards Costco. There was no hand off to a new server, a gentleman who did not care about a problem we had discussed with the prior server which was left unresolved. He asked if I had mentioned it to my prior server which I had. Nothing had been done about it. He presented the bill without comment, and never came back expecting us to pay by QR code even though our concerns were unaddressed. I even sat there for a while without paying, hoping he would at least make eye contact and I could ask. That did not occur, although he served a nearby table, he seemed not to care about us at all.
Although many reviews mention meeting the owner or the business manager, no one came to check on us at any point during my two visits besides our server. I did see a woman tending the plants in the lobby, they are lovely. What I do see is a small business struggling with basic customer service skills, while delivering reasonable quality, strip mall sushi. I think you can do better, and I wish you success. read more