Koto Sushi Izakaya

In search for a quick lunch meal again, I came across this Japanese restaurant. They had an extensive menu, but I was looking for something warm and filling and chose their beef curry udon. I liked the presentation of the udon in an oversized bowl. The beef was a bit tough, but the curry was flavourful and the udon was cooked well.

I might come back to try their izakaya dishes. My coworker who had them thought they were well executed, though a bit on the smaller side in terms of portions. Good, comfortable ambiance.

2023july29. Very disappointed. asked the waitress about the kind of salmon that was on my plate. she had no idea. all the rolls had a sweet sauce on it. all tasted the same.

We came here with a party of 6. The atmosphere is really nice and welcoming with some nice decor!! They made us sit at the booth with the private doors which were awesome as we were a little too much fun!! :)

The waitress came and took our orders. Service is good, I've seen that for some other yelpers, service wasn't that great but to be honest, I loved it. She was so nice and got our orders.

We ordered a sushi boat with an amazing variety of sushis and sashimi's. I also had the Ika kaarage(squid)
Unreal, crispy and crunchy! Hands down to this restaurant. I'm gonna come back for sure as the food was great and service was good as well.

We had so many sake bombs and can't believe how messy it was so prepare yourselves when you're having sake bombs haha; the waitress gave us napkins and cloth to help ourselves:)


Overall, a great atmosphere and delicious food

My first stop in Victoria was Koto a few weekends ago. I hadn't eaten lunch yet and we were looking for something carb-filling since we were about to embark on a long night of bar hopping. We came in between the lunch and dinner rush, so our small group of 3 was able to grab a table right away.

They have a large menu of your typical bento boxes, rolls, nigiris, donburis and more. For myself, I got the dragon roll, miso soup, and veggie gyozas and scarfed all of it down. My two pals got bento boxes and were able to take some of their leftovers home. The portions were large for the price we were paying. For downtown Victoria (in a prime tourist location, no doubt), I expected the sushi to be more expensive, so was pleasantly surprised that for the dragon roll, miso soup, and gyozas I paid about $20. That's a steal in my opinion!

The lady serving us was really nice, but seemed a bit preoccupied for how slow the restaurant was.

If you're craving decent and filling sushi in this area, Koto is a good choice!

We really liked this place-and we were very surprised how empty it was when the streets were busy...that is usually a bad sign-but we actually had a pleasant and delicious meal with good service.

Our server was Sayaka and she was very nice and attentive. Our food came out quickly and was fresh and nicely sized. If in the area, I would go here again.

This place needs a lot of work. The menu is worn out and needs to be improved. There's so much food to choose from but the quality is below par.
The sushi bar also needs a good cleaning. The chef was overwhelmed and not friendly. She was the only sushi chef at the bar. The sushi was not fresh. It was dry and not the best quality. The cooked bento boxes and rolls were ok. I would not recommend this place.

My roll was MISSING EEL in two full rolls. I told our waitress and the chef claimed it was there. Well we ripped open a few pieces of the roll and there was none. So I guess it was invisible eel...
These two cases of eel being missing in our rolls happened on two occasions (one full roll each time).
My advice is don't order the eel because you won't get it...
The waitress offered to take the roll of the order, especially since this was the second time this has happened, then the chef and manager in the back told her not to. I cannot believe they still charge for items they don't give you.
That was bad management. I hope they see this.

Expecting quality and this expectation was met. Ordered vegetarian maki rolls for my daughter ($4.5/roll was a bit more than I'm used to paying for a cucumber and an avocado maki) and she enjoyed. My tempura was a little over battered but I enjoyed the tempura onion ring added (unique!). My cold soba w raw quail egg was also a menu item which I found unique to sushi restaurants - fresh tasting! The service was good also but we were charged $2.5 for miso soup at lunch when menu said $1.00 at lunch. In such a competitive market w so many options, I'm not sure that I would return for lunch bc prices more than typical. But food fresh, decor pleasant and clean. Unlike some restaurants this one had a fresh clean smell.

As a side note, we were seated in a booth near sushi bar and while eating lunch I could hear the sushi chef clipping his nails which I found unprofessional and, for lack of a better word, yucky.

This business does not own up when it makes a mistake or when they straight up try to manipulate the customers. I read other bad reviews and this is consistent with their experiences.

I ordered a nigiri of blue fin tuna. They used ahi tuna and tried to argue with me that it's blue fin. I stood my ground and said I know the difference between blue fin and ahi, the taste and the price. They charged blue fin price but it was pieces of thawed out, tasteless ahi. The waitress finally said ok, yes this is all we have here. I questioned her why do you have this item on the menu? And why didn't you inform me when I ordered? (Then deny and lied) She just laughed it off and tried to scurry away. She didn't take it off of my bill nor even apologize.

The other dishes I had were below average.

I won't be coming back. Your business practice is unethical.

More of a 4.5 star.

The bomb roll totally killed it. The Ramen broth was not as flavored (I'm a picky Raman eater) but the BBQ pork came with the Ramen were to die for.

The waiter was very friendly and we were chatting about the trip so excitedly that he forgot to put in my boyfriend's order lol. He then quickly got him a miso soup as makeup when he realized the miss. We all make mistakes so thumb up to our waiter.