Omer T.
Yelp
Subpar, Subpar, Subpar!
Came here for what I thought would be a quick lunch which ended up being a 2+ hour experience.
Firstly, I was told by the server that the menu was identical to Brentwood, Encino ETC..
Cool.
I began with ordering the staple dishes
Spicy Tuna Crispy Rice, Albacore Sashimi Crispy Onion, Yellow tail jalapeño. Everything came out within the first 25-30 mins (Still a bit longer than I expected being that the restaurant was quite empty for a Sunday at 5:30 PM)
But regardless, the sashimi was very tasty (1 Star is strictly for the Sashimi) the spicy tuna crispy rice that we all know and love, not so much. It had a weird consistency and the rice was hard.
We then proceeded to order the most basic cut rolls,
Spicy Salmon + Spicy Tuna cut rolls.
This is the moment things took a turn for the worse.
It took about 50 minutes for us to get our two cut rolls. When they arrived they were not only sub-par to the Katsuya standards that we all are familiar with, but they also weren't even SPICY, even after we asked for them to be EXTRA spicy. My wife & I were still hungry, so we proceeded to ask our server how long it would take for four hand rolls. He mentioned 15 minutes, so we were on board. This then took about 15-20 minutes, no problem. The hand rolls to our surprise were actually enjoyable and tasted quite similar to the other Katsuya locations, but again not SPICY. We then asked for the bill and finally once it arrived we were in a total shock. $237?!?
Upon taking a closer look we were charged for a cut roll that we did not order, okay no big deal the server quickly took it off our bill and handed us a new one. Now after thoroughly inspecting the bill for a second time, I noticed that they charge DOUBLE ($16) the price for generic cut rolls that are normally ($8) at every other Katsuya including Brentwood, I also noticed that they charge the same price for both handrolls & cut rolls. This did not make any sense to me as handrolls are much smaller than cut rolls.
As I was about to pay my bill I noticed they also charge you a 5% wellness fee which was not mentioned by the server when he brought the bill (Kind of sneaky in my opinion).
Furthermore, on their website they offer a $50 off your bill if you spend $150+ with InKind, when I attempted to redeem this at the restaurant they denied the promotion stating that it would only be in effect next week. Why offer a promotion if you can't even use it? Meanwhile, while all of this was happening, the table that was sitting next to us was expressing the outrageous pricing of the restaurant between themselves and eventually they got up and left without ordering anything (Honestly what my partner and I should have done as well)
I brought all of this to the attention of my server and he seemed a little bit lost for words, so I suggested for the manager to be called over. I essentially expressed everything to her and she did seem quite understanding. She ended up taking our bill and saying "she will make things fair" Upon returning our bill she provided us with a 10% discount.
Moral of the story, this place will not last a very long time with these outrageous prices, and long wait times for food.
The people who are shopping inside of the Century City mall and are looking for a quick Sushi lunch expecting to pay normal Katsuya prices are in for a surprise.
DEFINITELY NOT COMING BACK!