Kotori Japanese Food

Poor quality of food. I don’t recommend it. They raised the prices and cut the Internet. Strong signs that it’s going down the drain.

This place, and all the other Kotori’s, are garbage! If you are a true sushi lover like I am, do not go here! It will scar you for life. Then ur going to charge me for soy sauce??? Gtfoh… AND ur horrible service.
I will never give Kotori my money again. This is not Sushi.

Food is ok, but they charge you extra for items that should be included with your meal like vegetables or the chipotle sauce. Even though their items are advertised with «vegetables» they charge you two dollars extra a plate to actually put broccoli and carrots on their plate. They don’t charge for the chipotle if you eat inside the restaurant, but if you order out you have to pay additional for the sauce… It makes no sense. My coworkers and I will not order from this establishment or any Kotoris due to the horrible customer service.

Very disappointed! Went despite the reviews and figured give them the benefit of the doubt … Rolls were mostly just rice … Where’s the fish !!! Seriously !!! Will never return again… doesn’t even deserve 1 star …

I sent my employee to get me lunch and this is where he went… based on what he brought me (teriyaki chicken with vegetables and white rice) I wasn’t overly impressed. However, I’ll have to review again at a later time when/​if I go there myself and try something I ordered on my own…

Very low rating not because of the food but the service our waitress was horrible I was embarressed I had told my friends in from out of town that it was a good place to dine, but the service was awful everything took so long and no one ever checked on us and it was not that busy.

Wow. I’m shocked at the fact people are actually defending bad food and service. Sushi lovers this is NOT a sushi spot, it’s a California roll «fusion» spot. They don’t have real sushi JUST ROLLS. Just about everything is deep fried and has cream cheese. I completely understand this is the only option, but it is not better then driving down to SD. I’m kinda a «sushi snob». my wife and I walked in an I asked for the sushi menu, she gave me a menu with over 20 rolls I had NEVER heard of. So I kinda laughed and smiled and asked for the sushi menu. She says it’s in your hand, we have 4 kind of sushi. Tuna, spicy tuna, spicy tuna hand wrap, and salmon. End of story. I’m giving this place a 1 star because Unilocal does not let you post with zero stars.

I’ve been to both the Calexico and El Centro Kotori’s, the only real complaint I have is with the decision to put tile everywhere, since they are both small inside the noise bounces around and you find your self raising your voice so the person in front of you can hear you, I’ll admit the sushi isn’t the best, but it sure beats driving to San Diego. I believe with time service will get better but as for the food and atmosphere it’s a good place to enjoy some sushi.

Ok NO!!! We ate at the one that just opened up in El Centro… WHOA! Talk about scary… The items on the menu however looked promising… I had a Calexico Roll I think, as it was the one that sounded the best… It was ok… edible. I also saw that they had some dishes that had noodles, I F’ing LOVE noodles like from Fortune House or Luckies Chow Mein… So I asked the waitress if I could have a bowl of noodles, she looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears, typical customer service though for the Valley… even the other people in my party gave me a little crap about it, which I hate, I mean, is it that strange to order some frickin’ noodles? Anyways, we also ordered the Fried rice Beef ball with cream cheese… WTF!!! It was what it was, a big ball of rice, filled with Steak and Cream Cheese deep fried… Kind of blah, but ok I guess… Mid-​meal, she brings me a bowl of noodles, I kid you not, they smelled like CONDOMS!!! Maybe they were?! SCARY!!! Never eating there again… Go to Kyoto Restaurant on Ocotillo next to Del Taco! Authentic Japanese cuisine there… Very good!

The Kotori in El Centro is newer than the Calexico one, so it has no bar or even beer and is very small– maybe 10 tables. It’s cute inside, with trendy looking décor and a big mounted flat screen. I ordered a rainbow roll for $ 11 and received a 7 – 11 looking roll with all imitation meat. It even had the fake grass paper that comes with the gas station bought sushi. I wasn’t given wasabi or chopsticks either. This «sushi» was not good. But my boyfriend ordered a chicken, veggie, rice, and noodle bowl that had amazing flavor and a generous portion size. The other bowls and combo plates looked very good, but unfortunately they serve the worst sushi I’ve ever had. The service was a bit slow for how dead it was, but the servers were super friendly and sweet. Overall it was just ok…

Can’t beat $ 5 sushi rolls on Tuesdays AND Thursdays! Wish they had a better parking situation, and served sake or beer but I have not tried anything there that I have not enjoyed.

it’s really good… sometimes… the thing is… it’s not consistent… they need to train their chef on duty to be consistent… customer service goes from ok to mediocre… i think it’s best to eat on site… it’s a hit or miss… really depends on your luck… meh… we still go every once a while… it’s a-​ok

I have mixed emotions about this place. It is a cute little place, very clean inside and a nice bar in the back. Being that this place is in Calexico people should know better than to expect delicious sashimi or traditional rolls. This sushi place is more of a hybrid of Mexican and Japanese food.
The sushi rolls are decent. Definitely there are many curious concoctions, including the Monkey Roll and the Mango Roll. The Yakimeshi rice was pretty good and the udon noddles in the next booth looked tasty.
This last week I met with my cousin for dinner. When I walked in the hostess told me to take any table and brought the menus over to the table. From that point it took about 20 minutes for anyone to come over and even take a drink order. When my cousin and I finally ordered I was not too overwhelmed with the service either. One of the rolls came out about 10 minutes after we ordered, then we had to wait another 10 minutes for the other 2 rolls. At this time I asked for my miso soup (not great, I don’t know how you can mess up miso) and the waitress said it wasn’t ready yet. I finally got the soup when I was half way through my roll, and here I thought it was supposed to come out first. Silly me.
The rolls are big and there is a salad included, but there is too much rice and it is not typical sushi rice. The eel sauce and all the other nameless sauces brought to the table, including the marinated jalapenos, help to mask the fact that the sushi isn’t all that great.
The only reason I may go back is that my cousin loves that they have all rolls for $ 4.99 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Just remember that if you come here you will have to be patient!
PS I never even got the wasabi and ginger I had asked for!

The first time this restaurant opened up, I was there with my co-​worker and we ended up walking out the door because of poor service. At that time the restaurant wasn’t even busy yet, the waitress failed to seat us at the table. Despite that, I decided to give it a try one more time. Japanese Foods offered here are more like a fusion between Mexican-​Japanese. It is totally different from the other Japanese restaurant I’ve been to outside of Imperial Valley. In general, the rolls and the food was OK. The only funny thing i found out about this place is that when you order their yakisoba, it came out in a bowl with rice underneath it. WTH???
Overall, food was OK. The service would’ve been better.

I went recently and experienced the worst customer service EVER! I went on a Tuesday which is their 4.99 special on rolls but you definitely have to pay the price by waiting for more that 1 hour! Never again are we going to go inside to sit down and eat.

Sushi in the Imperial Valley? My companions and I should win a medal. At the insistence of the client, we ate raw fish in Calexico at Kotori.
I hunkered down and ordered some «you can’t mess this up» basics — spicy tuna roll, spider roll. The fish was fine, but the rolls (a) had too much rice and not enough fish; and (b) the spicy tuna was a regular tuna roll with siracha squirted on it. The client ordered (presumably as a gag) the «Monkey Roll» which contained cream cheese and banana (!!!). It was as expected and was left over.
Look, this wasn’t bad, and if it is all you have then go. And we did not try the non-​sushi offerings; indeed a bowl of yakisoba at the next table looked pretty good. But I am not going back. I have to give it one star, because even crappy places like Sushi Deli in San Diego are 2 stars.

So I had not been to Calexico since I was probably about 14 or so… and this weekend my parents and I decided to meet up there at my cousin’s house. It was a nice little reunion and we decided to go pick up some food… Of course, being Mexican there is a lot of meat-​eating going on. and I can’t eat meat anymore… so I had to be the annoying girl who had to get something from somewhere else. :(I would have been happy with a veggie sandwich from subway but my cousin insisted on taking me to get some sushi from a new place that opened up…
so after we had picked up some chicken for the fam…
We get to this new sushi spot and the outside is so cute, it reminds me of this random little restaurant that I used to eat at the end of Pier 39… well more Embarcadero (San Francisco)…and when you go inside, it is not super fancy but it is very clean and hip, the bar looks super great… the customer service was Fab! And well being in Calexico, of course everyone would be Mexican… and that’s good because we are great cooks…
Anywho…We ordered a couple of the chicken teppanyaki (for everyone), veggie teppanyaki for me… and the mango roll for me!
We got home with all the goodies and had the best feast ever… I nearly fell out of my chair when I took a bite of my mango roll. Oh my goodness it was so flippin fun! sooo delicious… and they aren’t stingy with the serving… a huge roll… that came with salad… :)
so yeah, give this new little spot a chance… you can show up there super casual and great little place for a drink as well.
MANGO ROLL!!!