Kumi Ko

We had dinner here last night and it was so good! Really wish we had tried it sooner.
We ordered the sashimi for 2 and it was amazing. So fresh and delicious. I forget the name of the roll we ordered as well but it was really also.
Service was great. Very attentive. The manager came and checked on us at one point as well.

My favorite sushi place in SLO! Always great food. Any roll I’ve had has always been delicious, the miso soup is the best! The only reason I’m giving them 4 stars instead of 5 is because when it is busy, the service suffers. But I highly recommend Kumi Ko!

I really don’t know how to rate this place. I will lay it out and you decide.
This is my go-​to sushi house because it is so close. The sushi is better than about half of the places in town. The price seems average. I like patronizing the place because it is quiet and clean. It is typically pretty empty during the dinner hours but lunch hours are busier. I bring traveling family and business associates there. Since it is so close to where I live, my family eats there often. My regularity as a customer goes back at least 3 years.
I get mixed customer service. It seems that some of the staff is more attentive than others. Some staff is friendly and other members border on rude. Their abilities range equally. Some of the staff seem so rookie that I’ve had to ask them to clear off empty plates and such while others seem more hospitable.
There have been some notable occurrences that individually aren’t too big of a deal but, over the years that I’ve been eating there, reveal a pattern that I don’t like. For example, my wife complained about a dish that she didn’t feel was prepared correctly. The chef came out and told her that that was the way it always was prepared. We didn’t try to make the chef defensive but we were not happy with a plate that my wife orders EVERY time. She (the chef) didn’t even offer to make it again or give a discount. We paid full price. And we did not eat it. The very next time we went back, my wife ordered the same dish and it came out prepared correctly. For reference, it is a Baked Salmon Roll. The bad plate was made with the gray part of the salmon meat/​skin. The very next time, it was served with actual salmon meat: pink and flakey.
The most recent offense has sealed my decision never to patronize that place again. It is the charge for water. Five club soda orders (never refilled) cost me $ 2.50 each. That is the same price as a regular ‘coke’ type soda. Now I understand that each owner can run his business any way that he pleases. However, your regular customer (me) just spent $ 192 on food and asked that those charges (for water) be removed. The staff didn’t even sense how truly unhappy I was, even when I told them! I am not the guy to make a scene but to get up and complain should tip one off…
You may think, ‘That’s just $ 12.50 out of $ 192 spent, you should be able to afford it.’ Well, That was nearly 8% of the total meal. The automatic tip was inflated because of that. Tax was also inflated because of those charges AND we still had poor service. So me and my family, and visiting guests, and business associates will not ever spend $ 2.50 on water at KumiKo Sushi again.

Food is good, it’s cheap sushi so I don’t expect too much. The service is getting worse and worse. Servers are inadequate. I started to just call in. Now that’s even bad. I won’t go back

Some of the best and my favorite sushi in Slo. It’s fast the staff is engaged and attentive. Would recommend for lunch or quiet dinner.

A friend and I came here on a whim, since we haven’t had a lot of Japanese food before. We were not disappointed with our decision. From the atmosphere and service to the food itself, everything was top-​notch. We ordered the special lunch bento and what we got was amazing. Perfectly cooked pork cutlets, firm rice, and flavorful tempura capped off a great experience. We will definitely be back soon.

Delish! Would get the soft shell crab salad, Kumiko roll, grand tasty roll, baby lobster roll, and summer roll again for sure. Miso soup and banzai spider roll were just okay. Portions were generous.
No wait at 8pm on Thursday night. Service definitely slow, even with only 3 customers in the entire restaurant, but they were nice.

After two visits, I have enjoyed the food and the ambience, but the service is inadequate. There was one server for dinner and as the restaurant began to fill, she was getting swamped. And mind you she was also bussing tables, taking orders, bringing food and drinks and running the cash register! So she is awesome!
But meanwhile the asst manager or off-​duty server, or possibly owner’s son, is just sitting there in the front of the house, the whole time, eating his dinner and gazing uselessly at the customers! And ordering the one server around! As a former restaurant worker, this is an absolute no-​no, shows no class and is completely counter to doing restaurant business! No customer wants to watch an employee eating his/​her dinner on the floor! Our server was great and the food was great too, but their service and management style needs work!

Wow. The Fish was incredible. The service? Well… A lot to be desired. Their computers broke down so they were preoccupied, to say the least, but the service wasn’t bad just because of the computers. We ordered a boat of sushi and the waitress couldn’t tell us what fish was on the boat. When she brought the boat out, we told her didn’t have plates. She said she would be right back with them. Well, she wasn’t «right back». In fact, it took about five minutes and a reminder from us to get our plates. That wouldn’t have bothered me, but we had to sit around drooling over the amazing looking fish and we didn’t get to eat it because we didn’t have place settings! Ug. The boat was incredible though. So fresh and tasty! All three stars go to the food. The missing stars are for the staff. I think I’ll try other sushi in the area before I’m back.

SLOW service but otherwise decent sushi. They are best for take-​out, IMO, since the service is so slow it will ruin your lunch if you dine in (meaning it will take 90 minutes instead of 45 – 60). I have yet to have a bad experience food-​wise, though, and everything has been well presented and delicious. I do find it annoying that they sometimes don’t know what Negihama Maki is, though, considering it’s pretty commonplace in SF sushi places to ask for that and the cooks know exactly what you mean (so I have to call it «yellowtail with green onions roll» here). They will sometimes make it, sometimes not, so I guess it depends on who’s working. One of my favorite rolls, though, and they do it well. 5 stars for food, with one star lost for being constantly understaffed at lunch and dinner.

I have lived in San Luis Obispo for a while & took a love to Kumiko. The fish is delicious, the rolls to die for, and that taste in every dish hits the mark every time I go. Why the two stars you ask? The service.
I keep returning because of the sushi. I’m a slave to good food, but every time I come here I curse the the bad service. Did my ancestors do something to enrage the gods of good service?
During my most recent trip a server kept bringing over the check, as we were ordering. The store only has us and maybe 6 other people, it’s not like he needed the table. When we need him to come and help us he would let us sit there and ignore us only to make another round to drop off the check when we wanted to order more rolls.
After a struggle of constantly telling him that every time we wave him over we don’t need the check, he cheerily responded with «well I get paid minimum wage so I don’t really care what happens!»
Okay…what? Did that really just come from your mouth? Do you not even care about the tip? That’s server 101!
All in all the service makes the DMV look like a trip to Disneyland but I’ll keep returning because I have no self control when it comes to good sushi.

Mine and my bf’s go-​to spot in town for Sushi Sundays – yes that’s a thing! Love that it’s never usually packed, love that it’s right next to Von’s so we can go grocery shopping right after (which we always do), and love the food and service.
All of their rolls are delicious. The volcano roll is, by far, our favorite and incomparable to any of the other sushi restaurants’ offerings. It’s packed with crab, scallops, fish — super filling and savory. It’s a meal in and of itself. A cup of green tea, sushi roll, and I’m full!
Happy hour deals are great, but doesn’t include the special rolls that I usually want to get so it’s not something I go crazy over.

Very nice twist on japanese restaurant by serving tapas. Staff is courteous and place is clean. Their sesame tuna ball is great and so is their salmon salad wrap. Seared tuna salad is very good and a plenty. The price is on the high side for japanese restaurant in the area but it is worth it. Definitely coming back :)

I’ve been here a couple times in the past with good food and service. However, my latest experience was horrendous!
I arrived around lunchtime on a weekday and the restaurant was decently busy but not packed, no line out the door. After being seated for 10 minutes, the waiter finally approached us and took our order. About 15 minutes later, our waiter returned to our table to check up on us. We informed him that we were just waiting for our food. He apparently had forgotten about us and said he’d check on our order.
Same waiter returns to our table another 20 minutes later and says he doesn’t want to rush us but if we would like the bill now.
…
Worst service experience of my life — no exaggeration. They forgot our order multiple times and essentially asked us to pay for a meal we never received. No compensation was offer for our wasted time.
I will not be returning to this establishment. There are plenty of lower cost, average sushi restaurants in town.

I have ordered from here twice, and have been very pleased both times.
The first time my phone order for a salmon skin handroll got translated into some random spicy tuna sushi roll… despite this I came back, tried again and got my hand roll! Yay!
The rest of the rolls I have had from here have been really great.
The Kumi special was fantastic, and all of the fish is fresh and the rice is perfect.
Loads of ginger and wasabi and sauces and juices always included on the side (when ordering take out).
My only issue (and if you’ve seen my other sushi reviews, you’ll know this already) is not serving soy sauce in plastic ramekins, but instead providing packets. How do I mix my soy sauce and wasabi to dip my rolls in?! If I am at the resturant they provide the means to do that… why not for take out? Oh well. Ask for a plastic ramekin and they’ll give you an empty one and a handful of packets. Best alternative I suppose.
Order time is always fast and the staff are really polite. The interior is nice looking and I would love to come sit down and dine-​in one of these days. It seems inviting and pleasant.

The food/​service here Is typically great, but over the last few times I’ve been here the food is still great, but the service is freakin’ terrible at best. Julie, to be exact is not very aware of what’s going on. We sat for 10 mins before anyone said anything to us, we asked for straws and she reached in her apron for them then totally looked away from us, we had to point to them for her to realize she never gave them to us. She did offer to refill my water, but never came back with it. Lastly, we never got our check so we just went up to the register to pay. Probably won’t be back.

My favorite and only non-​Goshi alternative for sushi in SLO! Fresh fish and exotic Nigiri are often available. Thanks Masako for the great service!

Went here for my first time with my roommate.
We went during an off time so it was super empty and quiet. I didn’t mind though, there was no wait. We got there just before lunch ended and ordered off the lunch menu which was a great deal (they also have some pretty good happy hour deals)! My roommate got the Sashimi Combo which came with miso soup, rice, and a salad. I ordered the Bento-​Box with pork cutlet and 4 pieces of a crunch roll (mine also came with rice, tempura, and miso soup). The portion size was just right for a late lunch and the food was pretty good.
I found it a little weird that there was nothing to dip my tempura into and it took a while for the waitress to come back to pick up the bill and process it… but other than that, I had a good experience. The food was worth the price we paid (it was cheaper since it was a lunch special) and my roommate claims that it’s one of the few places she can actually order quality sushi from in SLO. (She also recommends getting Monkey Balls as an appetizer).

We got there right at opening and we got a really warm reception from the lady in the front. She was very happy and got our drinks/​order done really quickly. The floor was sticky to walk on strangely. As for the place itself, the décor is really simple but pretty (gave a really fresh feel). There was a bar seating where you can watch the chefs prepare the food and sushi, I really liked that but having a table was more practical for us. Aside from the large menu that they had, they also had an assortment of wines and sake, which was something that was a little different for me (which I’m only use to seeing a few wines and more sake). In the end after paying, it took a while for us to get our change (understandable since there was the lunch rush). It seemed like they didn’t have any 20 dollar bills because we got a bunch of 10s in return… I found that funny for some reason :]
Our orders were the sashimi lunch special, an order of tonkatsu and a Crazy Sushi roll to share. The roll was very different from what I would normally get, red snapper if I remembered correctly. The tonkatsu was a bit try and the breading the falling off, flavor was all there though. As for the sashimi, it was a hit or miss. The tuna sashimi was really dry and had a strange flavor to it. I didn’t care to much for the ono or albacore, it was fine though. I really enjoyed the salmon and white fish though, it actually tasted very fresh (no fishy smell to it at all).
This was a good place to try but a bit out of the way for us. I’ll probably be back if I want a nice drink with my dinner.

Hmm, I’m sort of on the fence with this one. 3.5 stars for me.
I was expecting traditional sushi, but this ended up being fusion — Korean-​American and Japanese.
+ Resto ambience
+ Presentation: gorgeous and very photogenic
+/​-​Taste: The combination of ingredients was inventive, but not always executed well.
— Reliability: The sushi fell apart before making it to my mouth…
? Free green tea ice cream dessert. Not sure why they gave this to us, but we’ll take it.
Best dish we noshed on: Cherry Blossom.
That whole fusion thing was the theme of the day. I tried ordering genmaicha, and I must have confused the waitress. She was ready to bring me steamed brown rice to place in my tea. I pointed to «green tea with brown rice» on the menu, and she was still confused. This resto has good potential, but it still has a growth curve. Definitely isn’t a 5 star restaurant, but not your average 3-​star either.
If I were to visit SLO again and want sushi, I would be inclined to first check out my historic favorite — Yanagi.