Koto Sushi Lounge

Walked in with a sushi craving. Left grossed out and unsatisfied. Should have turned around when they asked if I had a groupon. Red flag much if you need to sell groupons for business in the busy downtown core.
Sushi is not fresh. Do not recommend eating unless you like gambling with your raw fish. I left most of my sushi uneaten as I didn’t want to take the risk. Couldn’t even get miso soup right as it tasted very off.

If you lower down your expectations and are not expecting authentic Japanese fare, this is the place to go.
Their fusion large rolls are interesting (lobster, soft shell crab with mango) and is well worth it. Well, worth it if you have a groupon :)

I got a Groupon from my brother in Edmonton for this place — he had never been before. Service was super odd at first — they paid so much attention to the Groupon. when we walked in (took a while to get seated and the girl at the front had attitude) I feel that because we had a Groupon, it wasn’t quality service. I was not impressed when they sat us by the washroom. …there were lots of other seats available. .we even made a advanced reso. The ppl sat just before us got a nice window seat. seated in the same section as us. There was a booth available in the same section. behind theirs. Washroom seat wouldn’t have been so bad, if it didn’t smell like they were having some sewer issues. Disgusting. Nothing special about the food. Service did improve. I don’t feel they will survive the oil downturn if they don’t improve on things.

Very bad service, very bad attitude, offensive waitresses.

Visited for my birthday (AUGUST 15^th) and told them I had a reservation on OpenTable for 2 people at 7:00pm and the girl in front just looked at me and a piece of horribly scribbled piece of ripped line paper.
She then looked up at me again and was like: oh… I don’t see anything… i looked around the restaurant and it was less then half full. she then said: oh it’s fine! Just come with me.
We got sat near where the chefs were making sushi.
The only waitress that was working super slow motion finally got to us. There was only 3 people working.
Someone finally came to took our older, which is a older Japanese lady.
We figured the snotty girl that’s wearing a tank top is the owner or manager because she was the only one of the 3 dressed like she was ready to go clubbing.
As we waited we watched other people’s food sit longer then it should by the chefs. The waitresses walked by the food plenty of times while I watched the other customers looking around at others while waiting.
We were in need of some spicy mayo, so my fiancé approached one of the sushi chefs to ask for some as our table was right next to them. He was abruptly told to sit down by the clubwear girl and that she would bring us some. Apparently I approached a god and was not allowed to speak out of turn.
We finally got our food and it was ok. They’re quality is the same as Umi Sushi at crossiron Mills. And I think some on the sushi Umi was better sadly.
The Décor was ⁴⁄₅ but I do agree with the UnilocalERS about their attitude and customer service in this place sucks.
Thank you Groupon! I’m glad I didn’t pay $ 50 for little lower then food court quality sushi!
Happy Nomming UnilocalERS!

The last two times my boyfriend and I went there we felt bad in our stomach.
Too greasy and low quality.
Never going again even with a groupon

The food is nice., not a lot of choice, but it’s fair. I often go there for lunch, as it’s close to where I work, and it’s almost always packed.
Went there a few times in the evening hours with the Groupon. and no matter when you go… the service is SOOOOO bad. If only that would improve, the place would be one of the nice spots in Calgary.
I’ve seen a lot of reviews mentioning that, and will never understand how the owner doesn’t care.
I also agree that the service is much worse when you go with a groupon.

Quality sushi & great prices (lots of Groupons). Just had the sashimi plate full of large fresh quality pieces fish. The special rolls are our favorites! And, it’s never too busy.

Our group of six arrived for dinner on a Monday evening. The restaurant was not busy (probably only four to five other tables the entire time we were there) and though the service was friendly, they were not attentive or proactive. For example, we ordered numerous dishes and when the plates were empty, we had to ask the waitress a couple times to remove them. We even stacked the dishes in front of us before resorting to asking the waitress since we were running out of table space for the next entrées. When dessert was served, we reminded our waitress to provide utensils since none were available. Overall, the food was decent, but the service could use significant improvement especially since the restaurant was not busy. We do not plan on returning.

4 stars for its DT location and décor but that’s about it, so it’s great for the business ppl.
As name suggests, it’s more upscale and would say this is where you would discuss business or have a good time to show out of town guests.
But can’t say it’s authentic. At least they don’t have like 300 items lol, this one is less than 100. Not sure if I would actually spend $ 22 for a AAA steak, 10 oz.
Prices are reasonable for DT.
Closed Sundays.

solid 3.5 stars. I don’t know why they need to put out so many groupon-​type deals when they are really pretty decent. Sushi is reasonably priced and pretty good. Food presentation is spectacular there too.

Very expensive and bad sushi in downtown Calgary. Service nothing special. Parking can be a bit of an adventure. I’m really not sure how anyone could give this place a rating higher than two stars. Do you normally eat old sushi from the gas station and think that it’s also pretty good?

Most other reviews are useful. So I’ll just add that the $ 27 sashimi was horrible. I got pieces of fish that I couldn’t even chew through.

Was here this past Thursday evening, and was using a Groupon I had purchased a couple of weeks beforehand.
Parking first off, is street parking and if you go before 6 p.m. On a week night be prepared to walk at least a block.
We’re greeted at the door, and asked if we had a reservation. I just told her we called from the car and someone on the phone aid to just come over. (it’s a big space and only one other table was occupied.)
I have to say, that the food itself was presented nicely but overall the taste didn’t exactly blow me away.
The prices are IMO, steep and the portions don’t reflect the price.
The service was just okay. No one really stood out, and they seem to be again IMO a little indifferent.
Also in concluding my review, I noticed that by the time we finished dinner about 4 other tables were seated ALL Groupon users.
I knew this because the tables had printed out Groupon. (Coupons).
This is the second time a restaurant has done this to us. (Seating Groupon users together.)
Overall the food I would have to say was average and I won’t be returning to Koto anytime soon.

Let me just start by saying that my favourite dish in this restaurant was the green salad. I think that gives you a pretty good idea of how this review is going to go.
We came here with a Groupon for $ 25 for $ 50 on a Friday evening. The restaurant wasn’t really that busy, although we didn’t let that factor in how we thought of the place.
We ordered the scallops as an appetizer, along with the green salad. The scallops were heavily battered and coated with a very generic sweet and sour sauce, which made the fried batter very soggy. I did not like it at all.
All the rolls we ordered were sub-​par at best, and all the fish smelled very fishy and not fresh. It wasn’t better than the rolls we could make ourselves.
Everything was very overpriced for its quality, and I am not surprised that they’re not very busy.
I would not be coming here again.

With the arrival of a business associate, and a request to do sushi, I was on the quest for a good sushi restaurant in Calgary. With hubby working in downtown Calgary and being a patron of several sushi joints, I conferred with him.
He’s told me how good Koto is before and he told me yet again. If you want good sushi, he said it’s the best in Calgary. Being that Koto was pretty close to where my business associate was staying, I took the advice.
We got there on Saturday at 5pm which was quiet. The servers were attentive, very sweet and the sushi was delish.
When my guest declares it is some of the best she’s had, I was pleased.
We were stuffed and I was the lucky gal to bring home leftovers. I was going to give it to my hubby as a thank you for doling out a good recommendation, but then I thought, screw that! He can go for sushi downtown any old time. Me, not so much.
So, I ate the hell out of the leftovers without remorse.
Next time I get to downtown Calgary and wanting sushi, another trip to Koto will be in the itinerary.

A friend and I decided to try this place out for lunch since it was half way between our work places. True to (new) form, I check up on some Unilocal reviews for this place and it didn’t sound promising — uh oh!
When I arrived, I went to the hostess to check in and she informed me that my friend had already been seated. .. and then pointed in the general direction where our table was (I thought it was customary in any restaurant to be brought to your table?)
I thought the décor had a nice Japanese feel to it (stone statues and Asian artwork), the set up for the restaurant wasn’t ideal if you’re looking to have a conversation with whoever you’re dining with. The back area (where we sat) isn’t sectioned out so it rows of booths alongside the walls and then a long row of tables sandwiched between the booths. This made it ridiculously loud with the busy lunch crowd there. It was quite frustrating to have to constantly ask my friend to repeat what she was saying — and she was sitting right across from me!
We ordered our food: coconut tempura shrimp, salmon sake (3 pieces), unagi (1 piece), spicy salmon roll, spicy tuna roll (my friend enjoys tuna so she ordered this one for herself) and another spicy roll (I can’t remember exactly what was in it but it had avocado and jalapeño on top)
The tempura shrimps were small but tasty. The sushi was good, but not amazing. My friend convinced me to give the spicy tuna roll a try. I for one don’t like tuna — I find it really fishy and the texture is slimy and gritty at the same time. My friend says that’s indicative of BAD tuna…
We both grabbed a piece, dipped it into our soy sauce and immediately after putting the tuna in my mouth I spat it out. There it was — an overly rancid fishy taste and the off putting texture!
I’m not sure if it was because it was busy or just how the service is at Koto but our waitress never came around until we were done eating (except for the tuna roll that sat there…) and our tea cups were bone dry. She asked if we wanted the tuna packed, which I informed her it didn’t taste right. She took the roll and said she would check with the chef. When she returned (with bill in hand) she said that the tuna was made fresh that morning and asked if we’d eaten there before? My friend responded that we hadn’t, but that shouldn’t make a difference since she frequently eats tuna and there was clearly something wrong with the one we got.
The waitress passed us our bill and said she took the roll off our bill (bonus!), but when we flipped over the receipt our excitement quickly faded. $ 50 for 4 pieces of sushi, 2 rolls and an appetizer?! W…T…F…
There are many restaurants downtown that have slightly bloated prices, but their fantastic food and service make up for it. Koto is definitely not one of them. ..

Food: ³⁄₅
Service: 2.5÷5
Ambiance: ³⁄₅
Overall experience: ³⁄₅
(1– Terrible; 3– decent; 5– Fantastic)
I normally don’t visit downtown sushi restaurants because it’s annoying to find parking and the prices are usually higher. However, I took advantage of a Dealfind coupon and came here with a friend.
Koto is surprisingly large with plenty of seating — you won’t be sitting elbow to elbow with the table next to you. It is a fairly ‘upscale’ Japanese restaurant with a beautiful contemporary Asian inspired décor. We had to take a «later» reservation, but when we arrived it wasn’t overwhelming busy and there was plenty of seating. I guess they staggered the reservation times which allowed our food to come out fairly quick. I thought there weren’t enough servers working. Once we received our food, our waitress didn’t come by to see if we were okay or needed anything else during the meal. We saw that she was busy serving new arrivals.
I really enjoy the restaurant’s menu which consists of items found at your typical Japanese restaurant with a few modern Koto twists like crab cakes served with wasabi tartar sauce and coconut tempura shrimp. The prices for their non-​sushi items are decent: hot appetizers (~$ 8-​$ 10), cold appetizers (~$ 12), tempura (~$ 8), teriyaki with soup (~$ 18), and sushi/​sashimi combos from $ 19-​$ 37. Their maki sushi rolls are around $ 7.50/ 6 pieces, and $ 9-​$ 12.50 for their signature rolls (~8−10 pieces).
My friend and I love sashimi but we didn’t bother ordering it since it was pretty expensive and we wanted to get our money’s worth (from $ 2.50-$ 4.00/pieces). We decided to get the ‘Spicy Salmon Roll’ ($ 7.50÷6 pieces); the ‘Spicy Salmon Volcano Calamari’ ($ 8.75÷6 pieces) with albacore tuna, calamari, cucumber and volcano sauce; and the ‘Koto Seared Hamachi Roll’ ($ 12.50÷8 pieces) with seared hamachi, Korean sweet and spicy sauce, imitation crab, mayo, cucumber, and avocado.
The portion was average (just slightly bigger than a toonie), but I found some of the pieces had more rice than filling. The rice was bland which made non-​sauced rolls taste «bleh». Koto’s ‘Spicy Salmon’ roll doesn’t come with the usual mayo/​siracha sauce on top. Instead, it had a tiny chunky spicy mixture. If you want something like the above, I suggest getting anything with ‘volcano sauce’ on it.
The ‘Seared Hamachi’ roll was good for the big piece of velvety Hamachi, but I DISLIKED the rest of it which was essentially a California roll soaked in an overly sweet teriyaki/​soy sauce. If you left the roll for too long, the sauce would completely soak the rice so it fell apart when you picked it up.
I also shared the ‘Beef Tataki’ ($ 12) appetizer which I thoroughly enjoyed. The meat was lightly seared, sliced to a perfect thickness, and bathed in a tasty Japanese citrus based sauce called shichimi ponzu. Crunchy sesame infused oil and garlic chips were sprinkled on top to add a unique texture to the dish. It’s definitely some of the better beef tatiki’s I’ve had, but some might find the sauce overwhelmingly vinegary.
Getting good takoyaki in Calgary is hard to come-​by, and after visiting Tokyo nothing in Calgary compares. Koto’s ‘Takoyaki’ ($ 8 for 6 pieces) were small, and the insides were overly mushy, slightly greasy, and only had a tiny piece of octopus inside.
Overall, Koto felt like any average Japanese restaurant. I neither hate nor give Koto a good recommendation to come here. There are equally better and cheaper Jap restaurants in Calgary.

I visited this establishment for a 2^nd time on Saturday, 14 July because I had a Groupon.
My previous visit was several months earlier during lunch where I did try the Organic Miso Soup among other dishes. That was interesting as it was kind of salty but still good.
The service was not bad. It was reasonably attentive but not overly friendly. The waitress did make sure that we had drinks and food ordered in a timely manner.
The atmosphere is very swanky and there was only 20 and 30 somethings in the place as was pointed out on another website. The music is played at reasonable volume and the lighting is appropriate.
The restaurant is easy to find and parking is not a problem, at least on the weekend.
We ordered the following:
Large Sapporo with 2 glasses
Assorted Sashimi
Koto Seafood Sunomono (in a nice glass and very very tasty with fresh tasting noodles).
Seared Tuna Roll
Spicy Tuna Roll
Volcano Roll
Alaska Roll (or something similar with salmon over a california type roll with imitation crab)
We also had a roll with tempura in it which was really good.
The food was fresh. Like someone else mentioned, the spicy is different in every sushi establishment. I, too, prefer the siracha (spelling?) type spice. Additionally, as previously mentioned, imitation crab is used instead of real crab. For the price, one would expect the real deal.
While this was not as good as Taiko on Denman in Vancouver (which due to rents, has closed) or Tojo’s on Broadway (super upscale, also in Vancouver), I would definitely say it is 4 stars.
The only other restaurant that I have been to that is on the same level is Towa Sushi in Calgary though I would say Towa is a level or two higher for about the same price. Still, Koto is worth checking out on an ongoing basis.

I have been here four times now, and am somewhat surprised at the existing reviews. I will admit that we were not really watching our wallet, as we have always come with discounted on-​line deal certificates.
Koto is a contemporary Western-​style sushi restaurant. You go there for the same reason you go to see a rock opera: you don’t need to be an expert to appreciate it, because it’s not subtle. The real stand outs here are the creative (but pricier) rolls that successfully incorporate bold flavours (e.g. mango, jalapeño) into good quality traditional (eel, tuna, etc.) and Western (e.g. lobster) fare. These rolls do not need soy or wasabi to feel complete.
The rice has been consistently excellent in our rolls. I will agree with a previous reviewer that the roll ends can be a bit messy, but not egregiously so. The service has always been acceptable for us, and (at least currently) they actually have Japanese people on staff… a rarity in Calgary.