Kokoro

i like this place. i would call this fast casual food. its not expensive, service is good and food is good. i usually get one of soup bowls and have always enjoyed them. i also like the fried siu mai and the gyoza are good

Just like the other recent one star fans, we have been going to Kokoro since it opened about 15 years ago. It used to be one of our favorite restaurants. Our kids were small back then with heads that barely cleared the serving counter. Su and Angie were the servers who did everything possible to make our meals a great experience. Our son is now in college and wanted to go for a meal while he was in town. Our server was new, and very attentive and polite. The food has degraded in quality appreciably. My nest of tempura vegetables was heavily battered and doughy on the inside and overcooked to a crisp on the outside. The spider crab sushi disintegrated with the squeeze of the chopsticks and was mediocre at best. The gyoza soaked in a pool of cooking oil.
Then the coup de gras. A friend had given me a gift card for Kokoro. I presented it, and they would not accept it as they have a gift card policy that puts a two year limit on the card. My son took out his smart phone and found out information about gift card expiration laws. Even after we showed them the federal consumer protection law stating that gift cards can not have an expiration date less than 5 years they would not budge. Well, they lost a customer out of the deal. Yet, as bad as the food has gotten I think it was a real blessing in disguise.

Really want this place to be like it was when it first opened.
Food was great, service was quick and friendly but in recent years everything has gone down hill.
We gambled on our last few visits, tepid soup temps, incorrect food orders or not getting certain dishes at all. Slow service or getting ignored by the wait staff over larger parties.
Maybe the new year will bring a new page for this entry that had and the potential to be good again.

Respectable fast food and good service. I used a groupon too which made it even more affordable. Will come back for a good, fast, tasty, fairly healthy dining experience. Thank you!

To start, kokoro has been one of my favorite restaurants for a while and I tend to go over a every couple of weeks at least. Although it was not my first time getting food at kokoro, it was my first time getting anything besides a rice and meat bowl and I must say I was thoroughly disappointed with the food. In an effort to mix things up I ordered a chicken splash bowl with ramen instead of the noodles that normally come with it and everything was bad, there were poorly trimmed pieces of chicken In with pieces of chicken that bared a closer texture to tofu except it was very chewy and unlike the other pieces of chicken did not resemble in any way any piece of meat I have ever eaten. The ramen noodles were flavorless and not very stiff (as if they had been soaking in broth for far too long). I also had a major issue with the broth, not only did it taste watered down, but the flavor that it did have tasted an unsettling amount like fish which is very very VERY strange because the chicken bowl did not contain any fish. Unless there is something I am misunderstanding about this meal I am very disappointed by what I purchased, so much so that I am considering never going to kokoro again, which is saying something because I love the rice and meat bowls, but what I was served tonight has caused me to drastically rethink how I feel about the quality of food coming out of this restaurant. In all of my experiences the service has been friendly and fast and the food has been great every other time I’ve gone, in this instance I would have much preferred a plain 10¢ block of ramen from the grocery store.

Yesterday I got miso soup and seaweed salad to go. The miso soup was alright but seemed a little too salty. The seaweed salad came labeled with when it was prepped and the use by date… it was prepped on 10/​4, use by ¹⁰⁄₁₁ and was served to me on ¹⁰⁄₁₅. What else are they serving 9 days after prepping? Gross. Never going back, which is a shame because I live so close.

Kokoro is a great healthy fast food option. We eat there quite frequently. We gave it a 5 star rating because compared to other fast food options its a stand out. Sure, you can’t compare it to a true japanese sushi house or high end restarant, but for a good affordable quick stop its a great option. They serve Red Bird chicken which is a much healthier option than most fast food places for sure! We also love to get tea and hot sake.
Our favorites at Kokoro would be the Forest Child Soup, Shoyu Ramen, Curry Bowls and Salmon Dishes. The Splash is great too.
They have a rewards program for frequent dining as well. Also have Mochi for dessert which are awesome!

Not impressed at all. Came here for my first time and ordered a salmon bowl with spicy tuna roll. The food was pretty bland with very strong fish smell as well as the sauce was not to my liking either. I was also irritated by lack of refil on my water. Finally after i flagged someone down for a refil and got my water the water was warm with no ice. I sat right out front so don’t understand why i got missed. This place does seem pretty popular so i may need to give it another shot without ordering any seafood and something else and maybe my opinion will change. Other than that maybe people just like it after they had a few drinks and also this is in Arvada where there is not too much diversity and thats why people dont mind the food.
Tokeyo joes is definitely alot better than this place.

This place is OK. I like the layout/​flow of the place. The service was decent. However, the overall food experience was lacking. I think that everything (food) related was really just mediocre. I had the curry beef bowl. It was strong on the curry and light on the beef. Maybe, I just caught them on an «off’ night. I will try them out again.

Friendly staff, fresh well prepared food. Good variety of items on the menu. Clean establishment — open and sunny. Reasonably priced. Been eating here with friends for a decade — still a great place for a cheap Japanese style bowl. If you’re visiting from out of town — this is a great place to get filled up with good food on the cheap.

Probably the worst food I’ve had since moving to Colorado a year ago. The inside is a dump and the food makes Panda Express look like a five star restaurant. My roommate and myself were sick for a couple days. Never again people. Never again. Oh and this is my first review on Unilocal.It’s that bad.

I miss the Kokoro of days past. It was always a sure thing. Clean, friendly, fast, and delicious. Now what you get is messy, lackadaisical, ho-​hum, and semi-​delicious.

I hardly ever complain about a place to eat. I felt taken advantage of…
My chicken curry bowl turned into some type of glue paste. Not Bueno!

Awful and pathetic. I’m shocked people come here to eat. I ordered the beef bowl with veg and the tiny bowl was filled to the rim with rice with measly amount of shaved beef and 3 vegetables. Seriously a joke. I did not want to pay for this pathetic meal worth 75 cents. First and last time I come here. Chairs are ripped and dirty. I’m so upset I came here to eat.

Simple yummy Japanese food. Great dining in and drive thru too.
Bowls are good.
I really enjoy the vegetarian options.
Everything is well seasoned.

Good food, reasonable prices, great service. The vegetable tempura bundles are to die for: shoestring-​shredded onions dominate these sweet and crunchy treats served with plum dipping sauce. Spicy tuna roll also delicious as was the «Keystone» roll.

I wish that every city had an affordable/​on-​the-​go Japanese style place that specialized in beef bowls. Most Japanese places spend too much time focusing on Sushi, and totally space on the rice/​beef bowl style things.
They have a few really good options and they taste great. Service is fine. Serves its purpose well.

I find this place to be full of exactly what the word Kokoro means: heart.
The first thing you see: the traditional japanese «aisles» of seating as you walk in. It offers you a ton of interaction with the waiters and folks working here, and Mas, the manager, is one of the warmest dudes around. He loves his customers and his employees and takes care of his regulars.
For under $ 10, you can get a delicious bowl of food here. I had the «Spicy Chicken Splash» bowl, a noodle (udon) bowl with a good balance of warmth in heat and warmth in spice. However, if one was so bold, one could spice it up more with the japanese spices and sriracha sauce they offer. I loved their udon noodles’ texture. They do offer a choice of dark meat or white, and I found it was delicious with white meat for $ 1 extra.
More than that though, this restaurant is more than the sum of its parts. This was an excellent experience especially for the price.

There are plenty of reviews on here complaining about the menu and how this restaurant is not authentic. Read the menu before you go… Its not that difficult.
I have loved Kokoro for as long as I can remember. I frequented the location on Colorado blvd as a child, begging my parents to go cross town for a chicken bowl. My parents didn’t seem to mind because prices are reasonable and Kokoro is a very family friendly environment. I now travel from downtown to Arvada often and always stop by. There use to be a location on 6^th and Broadway, which was perfect. Please come back to the downtown area, Kokoro!
Their happy hour is awesome. I don’t mind Black Box wine and their sushi is 2 bucks or so! Let me say, this isn’t fancy sushi. But with soy sauce and a budget, you can’t beat it!
You can also order any bowl with extra veggies instead of rice, which is perfect for the low-​carb market. Also their bowl club is awesome.
I do not recommend this place for foodies. I recommend it for those who want a delicious meal with friendly staff, great wine prices, cheap sushi, for under 10 dollars.

I visited this Kokoro location, which I call Kokoro #2 (even though I don’t think it was the second location).
The food is consistent with the other location, but the décor is newer and more modern. Try the sobagetti!