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Koto Izakaya
Category: Restaurants Japanese Japanese [Edit]
8171 Alexandra RdSte 101
Richmond, BC V6X 1C3
Neighbourhood: Golden Village
(604) 278-4601
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Quiet
- Has TV:
- Yes
6 reviews for Koto Izakaya
6 reviews in English
-
Review from Eliza B.
Richmond, BC
9/21/2011
This place would've received full stars if their service was better. I must admit, when it comes to quality, I would definitely choose this place over Matsuyama (even though their late night prices might just be a tiny bit more expensive). Their rolls and their sushis are fresh, their hot foods are made to order, and everything there tastes real good. They definitely do NOT cheap out on their chopped scallops in their hand cones.
Now onto the reason why I'm only giving it two stars. The restaurant can get really busy sometimes, but even when it isn't that hectic, their service is absolute crap. They only have 4 people working in this entire restaraunt: 1 in the kitchen, 1 at the sushi bar, 2 serving. The older lady who works there (I believe the owner as well) is very kind and patient. The younger girl working there though, is rude as hell. If she wasn't a relative or a family friend of the owner, she would have been let go for sure. When we needed her service, she would look at us and just walk away never to come back. When we did grab her attention, she would put up her hand to us and walk off in the midst of us talking to her. We asked her for the menu a few times and it took her a good 20 minutes to give it to us. For that, I will easily choose Matsuyama for some late night eats next time around. -
Review from Danny L.
Richmond, BC
5/23/2012
I use to go here all the time and now...I don't even remember why I did in the first place!
The waitresses don't even acknowledge you, nor do they take your order. However, if they see you make eye contact with them they will look away and pretend they don't see you.
The service was HORRIBLE!
Our order was never right and the cones were just filled with rice.
I am NEVER coming back here again. Ever. -
Review from Adrian V.
Richmond, BC
6/3/2011
As I am a huge fan of Matsuyama (which is only a few minutes away), I was kind of a skeptic when my friend brought us here for the first time. But I was converted after the first visit. Following my second visit, I can say with confidence that this is one of my favourite Japanese restaurants in town.
I've only been to this place during late night hours. I love the intimate setting that this place exudes; although the booths and tables/seats are so close together, I don't mind it at all because it's such a different atmosphere than most Japanese restaurants I've been to. Mind you, this is also a family run business, which probably explains why it's such a tiny space. Regardless, the food is amazing and the staff is uber friendly.
Around the table, we ordered crab and tobiko salad, california cone, chopped scallop sushi, tuna and salmon sashimi, old fashioned dynamite, the salmon tempura and a california roll.
The crab in the crab and tobiko salad was so tasty. I love the little bits of it together. There was also a yellow sauce on it that was just so creamy. The roe really added a nice color to the dish. The cucumber was good bite sizes and it was delicious.
The california cone was quite huge, it was bigger than cones I've had in other restaurants before. Because of it's size, I had to pick at it to avoid overstuffing my mouth. It was good regardless.
The chopped scallop sushi was also good. The sauce was creamy and scallop tasted fresh. I'm not a big fan of the way it's presented though, could use a little more work.
The tuna and salmon sashimi was nice and fresh. It's not frozen like that one time I had in Matsuyama. Again, that only happened once so it was an isolated incident.
One of my favourite dishes is the old fashioned dynamite roll. Well anything with avocado is pretty much a thumbs up for me (usually). I forgot to ask what exactly was in it and what sauces were used because I got distracted by how good it was. The flavor, texture, crunch, everything about it was good. I do believe it was a dynamite roll, breaded so that it was crunchy. Must have been something like that. And there was avocado on top. So good.
The salmon tempura was probably the weakest out of all the things we tried. It was still pretty good. This is similar to the california roll; just a generic california roll as someone in our table decided to play it safe and ordered it.
The bathroom wasn't very clean but it wasn't super dirty or messy either. There was ample parking for us (considering it was late night) so it was good.
Would I come back? Of course! -
Review from Dayna P.
Vancouver, BC
10/15/2011
Me and my boyfriend came here last night; 8pc takoyaki, old fashioned dynamite roll, chopped scallop roll and two pieces salmon nigiri.
It was good food, it came quickly, and not really anything to complain about. A good solid place to have sushi. Maybe go with at least 4 people if you want to try more things on their menu.
Would definitely go back and recommend to others! -
Review from gabrielle k.
Richmond, BC
5/26/2011 1 Check-in Here
I am in love with Matsuyama in Richmond...but after a long wait at matsuyama my mother took us to Koto. Wow...am i impressed. The owner was patience, due diligent, and honest. We had a vegetarian at our table. A true vegetarian who can not eat ginger,garlic or onion...the owner explained all that was nessary for us..she even explained for the spices we add on our udon dont use that because there are garlic spices in it and the udon broth has fish msg. I was very impressed with her hoensty and she was able to accomodate our needs. Our expereince was great...good service from the owner and the food was fresh! my favourite roll was chopped scallop with tobiko only 3.95 and their bc cone was delicious. This place also has late night fm 9pm-2am and you can take out. Great place! worth checking it out!!
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Review from Chris L.
Vancouver, BC
1/9/2011
Ok, I really want to give this place a good rating as the hostess/owner was very helpful and gracious... BUT... the young inexperienced server in her employ could not have been worse. I was willing to overlook the unceremoniously abrupt dumping of dishes on the corner of our table next to my companion's arm, with just a slight perfunctory shove inwards - one of our special rolls on a long dish was actually jutting out precariously over the edge of the table still after she had set it down. What was really inexcusable was the fact that this server, while still on duty, started eating a chicken wing with her hands, at the server station right next to our table in plain view... while chatting with the owner. And she showed us what a finger-licking good wing it was indeed! FAIL FAIL FAIL!!! The hostess seemed to finally notice something was amiss from our incredulous stares and she cheerfully reprimanded the girl to do her thing in the kitchen (what she should have done was chew her out for chewing in front of their guests!!!). I then watched our server head into the kitchen, with the hope that she would wash her hands, but unfortunately I just saw her wiping quickly with a piece of paper and that was it.
As for the food, the Black Dragon Roll was highly recommended by the hostess, and it was good, but nothing original, consisting of two kinds of roe, unagi and shrimp tempura with avocado in a special sauce that I've had at other places as well. The Yaki Nasu (grilled eggplant) was juicy and had a nice smoky flavour to it. The rest was downhill from there... The Ebi Mayo had a nice sauce but the so-called tempura batter was far too thick, as was the batter for the Oyster Fry, and the oysters themselves were just tasteless sad little lumps. We had one more dish coming, the Ox-tongue Robata, which was taking a while so we asked our server to check on it. She came back a few minutes later, and then almost as an afterthought blurted out 'It's coming' as she shuffled by. When it did come we found it to be lukewarm and almost cold, and it was really hard to tell whether it was actually ox-tongue we were having or just some thin slices of rubbery beef. This place seemed to have its share of loyal regulars, so I guess standards or expectations of izakaya aren't really high in this neighbourhood, as I really couldn't call this place a true izakaya, the 'meh' quality of the food notwithstanding.
