Sera E.
Google
1 star due to a disturbing incident that occurred during a recent dinner. The food was wonderful (as always) and staff was kind, but the incident was not handled safely or effectively.
My party was 4 visibly queer guests, myself included, out for a rare night off work. The straight couple seated next to us started glancing judgmentally in our direction and whispering to each other shortly after they were seated.
I admit that we were dressed flamboyantly, although still very much appropriately for the venue and weather. We were minding our own business and talking quietly. The couple next to us gradually escalated over the course of dinner: whispering more obviously, giggling when we spoke, rolling their eyes and pointedly sipping their drinks whenever one of us got up to use the restroom, etc.
This culminated in them taking pictures and very obviously filming us. I do not make that accusation lightly. The woman's phone was quite literally pointed directly at us and moving incrementally to catch our faces. She had to place it at a very awkward angle to do so as well. When I stared at her to see if I truly was being filmed, she tried to cover it by talking loudly about showing her partner something on the screen. His expression once he looked at the screen told me all I needed to know. He glanced at it, glanced up at me, made direct eye contact, and smirked disdainfully. They were absolutely filming.
I quickly went to the host stand and spoke to the staff about this, and they were very kind, but took no action. It took them a while to get a manager, who said he would keep an eye on the situation and hurry the couple out ASAP. Meanwhile, the rest of my party was still being harassed.
Finally, the couple was delivered their bill without any chance to order anything more, but there were no repercussions and no words said to them about inappropriate behavior. It took upwards of 20 - 30 minutes of them obviously filming for this to happen, so easily half of our dinner service.
Again, staff was kind, so I don't want to place any blame there, but this should have been handled much differently. That couple should have been asked to leave immediately and/or banned from returning to any Kazunori locations.
I've been back as a solo diner a couple of times since, but the rest of my party feels too unsafe to return. We absolutely love the food here, and it was heartbreaking to realize that we were not worth protecting from targeted, likely bigoted harassment. I will remain a loyal lunch customer regardless, but I can no longer recommend Kazunori to other LGBTQ people in good faith.