Koto Japanese Steak House

The ownership here has changed (Sakura now), and the place just isn’t the same.
Food is not as good.

Boy do I have a lot to say about this place. So, my husband had purchased a Groupon for this place knowing I LOVE Japanese food and that our kids love the show that comes along with teppanyaki restaurants. Since my sister in-​law and nephew were in town and it was our niece’s bday, why not take advantage of the Groupon and try a new restaurant. I called about 5:30pm to make a 7pm reservation for 9 people and a baby. They were accommodating and pleasant on the phone. He also advised me that they aren’t busy on the weekdays so we should have no problem getting a table. Ok, COOL. That’s a plus.
We all arrive at the restaurant a little before 7 & walk in. They greeted us with a smile but you can sense a little «excitement» (maybe anxiety) because there is a bunch of us. We state we have a reservation at 7 and gave my name. As we are all gathered in the front waiting for our table, which I feel should’ve been ready knowing that we had a reservation, about 4 different waiters/​waitress come and ask how many people in our party. I feel that they all should’ve known already. Mind you, the restaurant was far from being full (I guess that should’ve been a sign).
Anyway, we were seated after all that back and forth, with menus in hand. We all browse through the menu, we order our drinks and we all decide what we want to fill our tummies with. This is when the fun stuff begins. LOL!
The waiter started on the opposite side of me, but they weren’t ready so I asked if we can get the kids order started. Both wanted udon, one tempura and the other plain. I asked if they have just plain udon. He said, «uh, fry or with you know uh brot (broth)?» I say with soup. Then he asks, «shrimp or chicken?» Let me say that there was obviously a language barrier because he was hard to understand and he had a hard time explaining. Maybe he could sense I was getting frustrated by my tone and my facial expressions — bad habit that I have NOT learned to control. Anyway, we went back and forth with the soup for a bit he finally gave up and said, «udon not good here. Teriyaki good though. Sorry, but this is old menu. We change and it come tomorrow.» Uhhhh, really!!! Did you just say that?! Lol. He sure did. Then my husband asked what we can order when using the Groupon. The waiter says we can order anything from the teppanyaki except for tuna, sword fish and lobster. Ok. Already annoyed and deducting «points».
After we got all the food orders down, I was looking over at other tables. Looks like they did have tuna because people were eating, ordering Philadelphia rolls and spicy tuna rolls… hmmmm. ODD. I thought there was no tuna.Whatever.
Decided to chill out and was pretty excited to see the show; however, I felt it might be a copy cat but wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Kevin was our cook. He tried to do tricks and made a couple mistakes, which is OK. Food was good. Once all food was served, service was a bit better. Had to ask a couple times for rice and sauces but whatever. Cook was kind of boring too.
I definitely would NOT come back to this place and prefer Benihana.

Looks like thaws guys are done. Covering the «we’re remodeling» sign was a 3 day eviction notice from their landlord.

This was my second tappanyaki house ever. First was Benihana’s in San Diego.
In comparison: this place had better, more friendly, more skilled chef’s than Benihana’s (after two visits to different Beinhana’s I can give this opinion).
The prices are comparable, but still less than Benihana’s.
They have private rooms, and can fit our noisy 20-​person family.
They are not as jam packed as Benihana’s and the food is exactly the same quality.
I prefer Koto over Benihana’s. Bottom line.

Now I know why we are constantly getting coupons. Well it finally worked (wished it didn’t)…
I found the experience incredibly cheesy and a sorry attempt at being funny — forget funny, let’s call it what it is, offensive. Hmm, let’s see how I can explain this. They have this thing where they use a plastic toy of a little boy and they «pull it’s pants down» and it «urinates»…like a water gun. This is they way they oil up the grill. I didn’t not find it humorous and trust me, I know all about fun and having a good time but this was hands down lame. Then in a squeezable bottle they will give you sake from across the table and count until you choke. God forbid you choke and spit it all over yourself or worse on the common area. I passed, so did my husband. If we want sake, we’ll be happy to pay for it. We don’t need the freebie safe coming out of a squeezable ketchup bottle — thanks though.
So, if you enjoy a pissing boy toy being used to prepare your food, you’ll love it! Go ahead and take my seat… bring your coupon.

I was really and wholly unimpressed with this place. My parents and I came last night for dinner. We did not care to have the tapenyaki (sp?) tables with the chefs, so we just sat at a normal table. The waitress took our drink orders and when I asked for a Pellegrino, she said she had never heard of that before (you’ve never heard of Pellegrino before?). When I showed her Pellegrino on the drink menu, she still seemed really confused and reluctantly accepted my order.
For food, I got the chicken teriyaki dinner. It came with Miso soup, which was pretty good. It also came with salad, which was gross. Really over-​dressed with bad dressing. The chicken itself was average, I’ve definitely had better.
After she took our order, she went to another table and took their order. Our food could have been started before she went to their table. Everything just took forever here. It was also extremely loud, which I can deal with because I have been to a Japanese restaurant many times to Sake bomb, so I know it can get rowdy, but for some reason this restaurant had this excruciatingly annoying «happy birthday» song that was actually the worst song I have every heard in my entire life. SO annoying. Never coming here again.

I hate to start a review this way, but this place was pretty disappointing. It didn’t help that I was already in a funky mood because of a stand off with some brute in the parking lot outside of the Old Port lobster shack, which is where I had originally planned to go. I’ll not bore you with the details on that, but suffice it to say. I didn’t want to run into him in the restaurant, so I drove on to Koto.
When you come in you’re in a small room that seats bout 15 – 20 with a tiny (4 seat?) sushi bar. There was a second, very large room set up for teppanyaki, which I gather is there dinner time money maker. With only two other tables of two each and me solo, there were 4 wait staff, plus the sushi maker behind the counter. The menu was very limited, and no one offered a sushi menu to me. I was cranky so I didn’t ask. I ordered the «teppanyaki» chicken with vegetables. A considerable time later, a plate arrived which was covered with shredded lettuce and had slices on one very tiny chicken breast on it. I asked where the stir fried veg was, and the waiter said, «Oh, I thought you said chicken teriyaki.» He offered a do over, and I accepted, because I wanted those veggies. About 10 minutes later my plate arrived. Portion was soooooo small on such a big plate with nothing else on it. Flavor was just okay, but why not give me a little more veg, it’s cheap, right?
Oh well fits in with the whole pattern of the day so far.
Food: ¹⁶⁄₄₀
service: ¹³⁄₂₀
Atm/​Intang: ¹²⁄₂₀
Value: ¹⁴⁄₂₀
Total:55/100, sorry to do this to a smallish, independently owned business, but 1star

Recently visited this place for dinner and I was pleasantly surprised! I know this place is compared to Benihanas, but I personally liked this place better. The food was awesome. We started with the Hawaii roll, which was delish and had the hibachi shrimp. Ugh, I swear I could eat that stuff all day. The hibachi came with soup and salad as well as an app… all that for $ 18.99. The service was fantastic, and our teppanyaki chef was really cool and entertaining. Can’t wait to visit again.
Goodbye Beni, hello Koto

We got another Groupon and tried this again but we ate in the sushi bar area off the regular menu, not teppanyaki.
We got there slightly earlier than before, about 5:15p, and the place was empty. By the time we left, almost 6p, it was still pretty empty for a Saturday night, nothing like it was on our last visit!
I chose the teriyaki chicken with no rice, and I was upset that there were no substitutions. All I asked for was steamed broccoli or something. It was a large portion of chicken and it was good, filling even without the rice! A little too much sauce but it was good.
My son got the Row Roll with yellow tail. He loved it! He also shared an order of dumplings (aka pot stickers) with my mom and they both liked them.
My mom got an order of the chicken teriyaki kabobs and that is what I should have gotten since that is basically what I got anyway but a smaller portion.
Not sure if I would go again… probably only if we were in the area at dinner time.

I used to be very fond of Koto. I love the pleasant vibe of the staff. But I’ve really lost my patience with them, and it’s making me stay away nowadays (I used to be the Foursquare Mayor).
The hibachi room is huge, and (free, lot) parking is ample. There is a big, modernist bar with lots of sake. The sushi kitchen is the problem. The sushi kitchen makes okay food, but since there is only ever one employee/​chef serving the entire restaurant, it can easily take an hour to receive two little rolls. When the rolls arrive, they will be on plates that are beautifully decorated with mayo trees with Sriracha blossoms, but I’d rather the lone chef spent his art time expediting the aforementioned rolls to our table. There are only four or five tables (plus the sushi counter itself) in the sushi area of the restaurant, which also makes it feel like Koto deprioritizes or underprioritizes the sushi portion of their restaurant.
How many times have I been sitting in Koto when the sushi chef just… disappears for half an hour? When he returns, he’s got a fresh pot of rice. Couldn’t — shouldn’t — another employee be doing that? It would be extraordinary if Koto had planned ahead to either budget for additional space behind the sushi bar for multiple chefs, or for additional salaries for said multiple chefs. Or perhaps, hiring a sushi chef who can work quickly. This is a restaurant only open during dinner hours, and dinner is not a meal for which most people really want to wait overlong.
Koto keeps using Val-​Pack, Groupon, and other 50% off schemes to get people into the restaurant, but it’s hopeless because once you’re in there, it doesn’t give a good experience. Don’t fall for it.
Sakura and Suisha House are downtown in Redwood City, and these two restaurants are each way better than Koto, but since there’s never any parking within a five-​block radius, I usually end up at the latter when staying in the ol’ RWC. Because there’s parking. But the time I spend waiting and waiting and waiting for my food at Koto is better spent hunting down an appropriate parking spot in downtown, where the food, ambiance, and overall experience is going to be so much better.

Hubby and I wanted to try something new and dropped by here. I ordered green tea and lychee sake. Tea was what we expected and really loved the sake, especially the glasses! It was so cute that we bought a set off amazon. lol Yes, I’m hopeless.
The show was good. I like that it is very interacting. If you ordered fried rice, the cook show would normally start with the fried rice. There would be some throw and catch game involved with the fried rice. So don’t be surprised when you are asked to catch the fried rice that got thrown at you. It was fun but obviously there was some waste involved.
The veggie was pretty good and the shrimps were nicely grilled. Hubby LOVES his steak! I tried a few pieces and man, it was beautiful! My fish was also good but I would have to agree that the steak was just the best! Juicy and well flavored.
We would come back again. It is a great place to spend some quality time with your loved ones.

It’s been a while since I’ve had teppanyakki (spelling?) because I’ve went to Benihana several times long time ago and I don’t remember enjoying it as much as I had hoped to. All I remember was:
–first time, Show was enjoyable
— expensive for what I got
— left wanting more food
Maybe I left hungry because I did eat a whole lot more back then, but I don’t remember the food being delicious enough for me to want to go back. This time at koto we got a groupon deal so for what we paid it was well worth it. The food was good and it was the perfect amount that I left nice and full. On that note it deserves the 4 stars. Had we went and paid full price, I would say not worth it!

You’re a fool or hate money if you pay full price here. Worth trying but ONLY if you have a groupon or some other deal (for their teppan dinner anyways). I recently tried this place for the first time with a $ 29 teppanyaki meal for 2 deal. Every party at our teppan table redeemed the same groupon. Overall, this was an enjoyable experience and we thought it was a good value.
I think the Unilocal reviews are all over the place since it is a hit or miss depending on your teppan chef. We had a guy named Chong who was ok. He has a canned routine of saying it’s his first day on the job which I guess is suppose to be funny? Most of the other diners at our table gave this pointless spiel a courtesy chuckle. Then, he has a peeing doll spray bottle that he sprays on the veggies which he later points to a lady at the table and tells her to open her mouth. Despite his poor comedy attempt, his teppan moves and knife skills were respectable. I personally thought that the amount of butter added to everything was unnecessary. The shrimp and veggies were overcooked and the fried rice was too salty. The filet and snapper were delicious and cooked well.
Another note is the entire meal took almost 3 hours or so because this place is severely understaffed resulting in a lot of waiting in between. After waiting to get seated, you wait some more for the entire teppan table to fill with other diners. Someone brings the menus… wait another 15 minutes for him to come back to take orders (if you happen to have a slow orderer in your teppan section everyone is screwed)…another 15 mins for ice water… another 15 mins for the watery miso soup… another 15 mins for salads… wait another 15 mins… you get the idea. Slow as molasses.
I just bought another groupon so I’ll be back! Here’s what I would do different: 1) make a reservation 2) request for the lady chef’s table just to try another chef 3) order a combo with the scallops since the person next to me ordered that and it looked really good.

Based on the pretty pictures and generally decent reviews, I was expecting SO much more. Came in with a reservation on a Sunday night and the place is packed. Barely any standing room in the tiny lobby, we were literally pressed against other people. The frazzled hostess was overwhelmed and apologetic, and since it didnt look like we would be seated at a teppenyaki table any time soon, we opted for the sushi bar, which was completely deserted.
We should have waited for a real table. The sushi was both overpriced and barely edible. Our $ 12 koto roll had krab (imitation crab) yet was labeled as crab (you should at least say crab stick instead of crab meat).
The spicy salmon roll was disgusting and one piece even had a BONE in it. I was about to throw up. The sushi chef apologized but didn’t take any action.
For $ 7 we should have gotten more than 6 pieces of mutilated, bone filled chum. It ruined my meal. If we hadn’t come with a groupon I would have requested that item be taken off and asked to speak with a manager.
Last roll was a 6pc Philadelphia roll. Super basic with just salmon and cream cheese. For $ 5.50 it was whatever.
Also had Agedashi tofu ($ 5) to start (it came at the end of our meal). The sauce was really really weak and watery. Again, very meh.
The presentation was also really disappointing; based on all the beautiful pictures on Unilocal,I was hoping for so much more. Overall it was a very disappointing evening.
Koto needs to get their sh*t together if they’re going to survive. No more overbooking, frazzled staff, crappy ingredients, overpriced items, and huge no-​nos like bones in the food. I’ve had better grocery store sushi than this. Yes, it was THAT bad.

The only reason I came here was because I had a buy one get one $ 15 off coupon. My decision to choose teppanyaki over their sushi was a no brainer; there was literally no one sitting in their sushi section. Overall, the food was better than I had expected.
With their teppanyaki, you get the usual show of seeing a chef grill your food in front of you while performing tricks. Every single one of the chef’s tricks were literally the same as what you’d see at Benihana’s…except my chef added in a top 40’s serenade to every bit of his show. It was pretty tacky and I would give his performance a 5.0÷10 since he dropped half of the food on every other trick. But I will say he was funny!
I ordered the Chicken Hibachi ($ 15.95) and my mom had the Shrimp Hibachi ($ 18.95). Both tasted really good. It’s scary to see how much oil and butter they use though – definitely a lot more than Benihana’s. But the shrimp was perfectly cooked! It had an amazing crunch. My mom and I were surprised at how well it was cooked given the amateur show we had just seen. The chicken was pretty good as well. Not as good as the shrimp, but still enjoyable. Definitely choose the fried rice over white. The fried rice is too salty, but very flavorful. I definitely enjoyed my food here more than at Benihana’s. And, the portions were enormous! My plate was overflowing with rice and veggies.
A couple people were celebrating their birthdays here too. They do the usual shindig of banging a gong to get everyone’s attention, asking everyone to join in to sing the birthday song, and then giving you fried ice cream! And they passed out a few more of b1g1 coupons to them at the end. Neat-​o.
I’d come back if I wanted the whole teppanyaki experience. Yea, the show was lame, but the food was good. And whats to complain about if you can get the same thing (…minus the gorgeous bay view and expert playing-​with-​food skills) for a fraction of the price?

The service seemed to have gotten crappy lately.
Chong — Cheng says it’s his first day… every time I go there… and then the food — he gave me a steak rather than filet mignon — i was shorted on my fried rice — the sushi was good — filet mignon he made was Rare when I asked for medium well… it goes on … and not only that — his sword dance with the cooking tools — He almost hit one of the guys at our table and said sorry… the funny thing is I was joking about how if he hit me or someone, I have a great injury attorney ready — and BAM he hits the guy directly in front of him.
Stick to Sakura — it taste the same if not better, and they have been open longer so they wont mess up your order. This guy was a joke!

I’ve been back to Koto twice more since my initial review, and my family have become pretty big fans. Our girls usually get one steak and one shrimp kids teppanyaki, my wife has settled on the scallops, and I’ve rotated between accompaniments to the filet among scallops, shrimp, and lobster.
The food is solid, and the service is very good.
We’ll continue to go back.

We came here for a mid week dinner around 5 and it was relatively empty last week. Perhaps it was still early. Upon entering, we were greeted and given the option of having dinner in either the sushi or teppanyaki side. We went with the latter.
We were brought water and given menus at our own teppanyaki station. Within a few minutes, our orders were in. Steak and scallop combo with fried rice for myself and all scallops for M. The chef came out and we were greeted with standard pleasantries and small talk. Shared some of his background and a few jokes along with our salads and miso. On to the food.
The chef had a few neat tricks that made the preparation of our food more entertaining and thus more bearable for my hungry self. The steak was a bit too done for my liking, not medium rare. However, the scallops were amazing and perfectly seared/​seasoned. Very generous portions. About an 8oz steak and 2 – 3 medium sized scallops for the combo and 6 scallops for the scallop only entrée. Fried rice was standard. However, the sauce made the meal. We were given two sauces and threw it on everything. The ginger sauce for the seafood was phenomenal and even made the veggies memorable.
Would definitely return if we happen to be in the area or craving teppanyaki. Probably go with all scallops next time or possibly venture on to the sushi side of the menu.
~B

We always drive by this spot bunch of times when we stop by Carls Jr. I thought it was a sushi spot and I love sushi. So we were coming back from Santa Cruz and decided to stop by this spot and have dinner.
The restaurant is located in a corner with tall trees surround it. It gives it a deserted feel to it, like its meant to feel that way.
The place is split into two side/​rooms, one just for ordering off the menu and have it served to you, or the other side/​room where you have your food cooked in front of you. The host asked us where we would like to sit. (I looked at the Boyfriend and he looked at me. We were hoping the other would make the decision for the other.) The host picked for us and took us to the side/​room where they cooked the food in front of us.
Although I’ve always wanted to experience that time of restaurant, I have to say I wish I was more prepared… I think I would’ve enjoyed it a bit more.
Tired from a whole day in Santa Cruz activities (lazer dogding, lazer tag, time crisis, ticket games, lots of oily foods under the sun), I wasn’t as amazed as I would’ve been.
There was a family who sat across from our table who was served first by a chef that –I am assuming– have been working there for awhile. From the moment he was pushing the cart of food and sauces out of the kitchen, to the moment he finished… he made his appearance noticeable and slick on his food delivery.
So, we got the new guy. LOL He arrived, and not as loud (which was great) and he did his best to be funny during the whole time he was cooking. Always cooking and trying to make small talk. I think we were a horrible customer –we were as awed by his performance as the other side of the table was –and it was their 3^rd time there.
Some of the things were sort of cute, like he was turning the egg on the stove top and then flipped it into his chef hat, he tried to do a onion vocano… but it came out a little messy. But the fact that he was multi-​tasking the whole time and our food ended up being delicious… I was a fan =)
I think we ordered too much food. I guess we both didn’t know how large were the portion would’ve been… now we know, I probably wouldn’t order as much.
Would I come back here… sure. On special occasions, simply because it’s a bit pricey here.

I’ve been here twice already and I’m excited to go back again. Went here once on a Sat night and it was pretty busy but the wait was only 30 mins (they wait for a full table to fill up before getting started). I went again on a Monday night and it was dead! I highly recommend you go when more is going on for a more lively experience.
If you’re a couple going to this, you should go for the steak and shrimp plate for 2. It’s $ 44 and comes with 2 full plates with more than enough food (I had to take half of mine to go) and soup and salad. The steak was super soft and melted in my mouth. That garlic butter makes all the difference! I’ve also had the scallops which where also exceptional. I love it all!
They always put on such a professional show! If you’re a large group, the Teppanyaki dude gives you samples of what others ordered.
Free parking in the back is a nice bonus!
Question: Are you supposed to tip the Teppanyaki dude?