Kawa Japanese Restaurant
| Address: | 100 S Atkinson Rd, Grayslake, IL 60030, USA |
| Phone: | +1 847-548-3838 |
| Rating: | 4.1 |
| Working: | 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 12–9:30PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 8
A
A Private User
All the best sushi restaurants are small because it keeps the customer close the excitement and entertainment of the chefs. In contrast to the proper design, this place was HUGE. First, you walk past a large circular bar. Then, comes the mile of small dining tables. Next comes a Mongolian BBQ styled grill (which was mysteriously unavailable on a Friday night) and lastly tucked in the back corner was the sushi bar itself. Ok, enough about the restaurant, let’s talk about the important part; the food. My wife ordered the spicy sushi combo and it came out quite good. On the waitresses suggestion, I ordered the Kawa Yakitori which was basically a shish kabob of a variety of seafood. Instead, I received 6 sticks of rubber chicken and 2 sticks of chewy beef. I brought this to the attention of my waitress, and she left to fix the problem… but never came back. So, I asked another waiter to take a look at my order and he informed me I was mistaken. The seafood was on the OTHER yakitori, I had ordered the chicken and beef. I made the mistake of doubting myself and fought my way through the meat grumbling. When the bill arrived, it was at the seafood price, and a quick review of the menu confirmed I had ordered correctly, the staff were the ones who had things backwards. When I explained my complaints to the manager, he resolved the issue by refunding me the $1 difference in menu items. For a restaurant trying to establish a reputation, this was the wrong way to handle a complaint. Kawa has untrained staff, inexperienced manager, and you have to be careful about your food choices. In the mean time, I will stick with Hayashi in Gurnee, but I hope to see Kawa improve over time.
MA
Max Mccormick
Having been to Kawa many times in the past, it appeared to be an excellent choice for a night out. On this last occasion however it seemed as though the service and food quality had dropped dramatically. Not only was our waitress incredibly inattentive, often chatting with the other waitresses for minutes at a time while we we quite obviously waiting for service. When the food finally came the order was missing items that she claimed we hadnt ordered. The experience became exponentially worse when we actually began to (attempt to) eat our salad, sushi, and sashimi. The salad was brown and something was very wrong with the dressing, it seemed to separate into its component parts and had an odd odor. The fish all had an incredibly slimy and almost rotten texture and aroma, not to mention very sloppily plated. Even the such a simple thing as an asparagus roll was very off, the vegetable was far from fresh, being quite woody and flavorless. Unable to finish more than a few bites of this horribly butchered dining experience we asked to see a manager. To put it bluntly he was a pompous figurehead. He insisted everything was so very fresh and well prepared, when it was obviously not. A piece of sashimi should not have a layer of snot dripping off of it. He became very defensive about it all and was bordering on offensive to us. He offered to take a small percentage off of the bill after much deliberation. Not wanting to spend any more time in the place we paid and left, suffice to say that after many years of frequent patronage and recommending Kawa to friends and family, we will not be returning nor suggesting anyone else patronize this place.
KY
Kyle Smith
As a consistent customer of kawa I am sincerely disappointed in the lack of service I received 5 June 2016. As I returned to my table from the Mongolian bbq section I pulled 2 peices of chicken off my plate that were severely undercooked. I am not a food expert but i was worried the chicken may have tainted the food is was sitting on top of. I placed them on a napkin next to my plate and waited for my waiter. The waiter kindly asked if I needed a water refill but did not address the two pieces of bleeding chicken next to my plate. As I wait for my check nobody has said anything about me not touching my food. Lets see what happens when I ask to see the manager... Oh. No manager or person in charge I can talk to about mentoring his employees on situational awareness. Paid the full check and tip. Wont be coming here again.
EK
Ekaterina Bing
I agree with Max. My fiance and I were regulars to Kawa, going at least once, if not more a month.We would recommend this place to all of our friends and family. ( I would have recommended Kawa to my friend today as well until I remembered my last experience.) However, our last experience wasnt the greatest. I felt like the waitstaff took an incredible amount of time to get over to our table only to take 10 minutes to get our drinks handed to us even though there were about 8 other people in the whole restaurant. The sushi was not up to its game that night. It was slimy and had a rotten taste and texture, and I agree with Max again; it was sloppily plated. . Im honestly too scared to go back in fear I might get the same treatment.
FI
Fionna Schweit
Came here for unlimited sushi, did not leave empty. Kawa is someplace you want to love, they serve a full menu of sushi, have a mongolian BBQ buffet, and also offer entrees. Sadly for a place that does a little bit of everything, nothing is great. I was here for unlimited sushi, and found that the selection was not lacking at all, in fact it was one of the best selections of sushi I have ever seen on an all you can eat list. Each roll was prepared fresh and there were plenty of options. The sushi was somewhere between what you would get at your average low cost sushi place, and a more refined experience at a sit down place. I would go back but probably not regularly.
A
A Private User
We have been to lots of sushi restaurants, and the sushi here is amazing! i dont know the secret, but it melts in your mouth and the flavor is exquisite. They have some great rolls, including the "fallen angel." the decor is welcoming and cozy and its a family-run restaurant which makes is all the more friendly. The servers really appreciate your business. They also have the Mongolian BBQ, and the cuts of meat they have for that are fantastic; very little fat, and the beef is not gristly! We hope more people try it and become regulars, we want it to stick around!
MA
madchemguy
I just had the same experience as the more recent posts - Rude service. We went in at 7:00 on a Thursday night, and they could not seat us for 15 minutes, despite half the tables being empty. I mentioned that I routinely had business luncheons at their restaurant and it did not matter, we were treated rudely. I used to recommend Kawa highly and eat there often, but I will not go back again. Every cloud has a silver lining, we found a much more friendly restaurant right near them, with excellent Asian food.
A
A Private User
We went here for the first time on our 14th anniversary -- took the kids (6 and 7) and they loved it as much as we did. The grill was fresh and fun to watch, and they could choose exactly what they wanted, like Big Bowl without the Big Price. I had the Fallen Angel sushi roll and my husband loved it (and he NEVER eats sushi!) He had the steak and it was wonderful. The dumplings were also great. We loved the staff and atmosphere. A+ from us!
