Kogen’s

I keep wanting to love this place but after tonight… never again. I mentioned Kogens to my kids (ages 6 and 9) around dinner time. Immediately my kiddos freaked out, reminding me how long our service takes. After a little coaxing, bribing, whatever you may call it… they were in.
Earlier in the day as I was shopping deals on Groupon I found this deal. Even after reading anything I could find on the website, etc., we had no idea that we couldn’t use our Gropuon on anything other than normal priced items. In summary, if there is a «special» at Kogen’s they pretty much don’t want you using the Groupon. Tonight was buy one get one free sushi rolls, as it is every single Wednesday night for as long as I remember. Aside from the «not applicable towards alcohol» on the groupon voucher, there were no exclusions. Imagine our dismay when we ended up paying full price for our rolls. The service. I can’t even articulate. The service is horrible but we thought we would give it one more try with the groupon. Never again.

My wife and I have enjoyed the food here for several years but the service was terrible the last half dozen times we have been here so we won’t be going any longer. When your mouth is on fire from the Phở and your water glass has been empty for 20 minutes you start looking for your waiter. I found ours at the end of the bar playing a game on his cell phone. It sucks because we really wanted to like the place.

I had a really great experience here. It’s not located very close to us but we had a groupon so we decided to give it a shot.
The interior was nice and comfortable. The service was really great. Our waitress was super friendly and our food came out pretty fast.
I ordered the tofu salad which was enormous. I love tofu and avocado and it had both. I also got two avocado rolls. I was definitely full from my salad but I had to use up the groupon. The rolls tasted great as well. My son got the kids chicken nuggets. It’s nice that they offer some other options for kids. Mine is a picky eater and a lot of the other sushi places I’ve been to don’t have options he will eat.
Since the service and the food were both awesome we will definitely be back when we are in the area.

Would give zero star if it is applicable! Five star hotel price, kids meal size sushi.

Finally trying sushi while not under the influence was a huge surprise. I love it! And this little joint on the corner of Sawmill and Powell Roads was a perfect place for my initiation. They came in rolls, which I am told are not the authentic form, but it certainly turned me on to the delights of raw fish. Having the authentic serving is on my to do.
The service here is wonderfully helpful, although I leaned on a friend who came to guide me through this unfamiliar culinary jungle, the waitress was patient and accommodating. The place was clean, with comfy booths, and nice lighting. The menu was large, diverse, with oriental themes and other salads and soups.
We selected steamed soybeans for an app. The beans were fresh, lightly salted by seasalt and made a hard to resist treat while we waited for the main. They load you up with them, you get your five dollars worth.
The main course came timely enough. We selected a feast of asparagus, California, Spicy Yellowtail, sweet potato, and spider crab rolls. Not being one to shy from adventure I dove right in. I expected to like them, but I didn’t expect to absolutely go bonkers like I did. I think years of my palette being use to other oriental food prepared me for sushi more than I expected. The tastes didn’t venture far from the typical flavors of the far east yet were different enough to be something new to me.
I loved everything on our plate. The asparagus and Cali rolls were my favorite. The ingredients and spices rocked with their freshness and quality. The cucumbers, avocados and spicy mayo of the Cali melted in my mouth and gave the crab inside a sweet/​sour wrapping. Sweet potato was divine also. I dug the hamachi as well, it spicy mustard kicked up by me with a dab of wasabi. The crab was a bit of a different taste, but that didn’t stop me from having another.
Of course I am hardly an expert, being a newb, but I really loved the wasabi sauce, a horseradish on steroids. Eating that at once would clear out the sinuses, yet it muscled up the sauces with just a mirco-​dab.
I am giving five stars as the experience was great. I sample no bad fish and the rolls kept their integrity making a clean eat. It was fun. Yea, something new!

While the place is nice inside and the food actually did end up being very good, the service is horrible! Also, there is a large thickness of dust on top of every Oriental lamp on picture frames etc.
Server was a nice person but did not have any skills as far as being a good server. Neglected our table and food took forever to come out even though there was no one else in the restaurant. I would not recommend this to anyone!

This is the standard Asian menu at virtually every Asian restaurant you find around here. Virtually no veg selection, service was slow and severs were struggling to clear off the tables. We stared at a deserted booth covered in dirty dishes for almost the entire time we were here.
Over all, not a great experience, just average.

So this place is a hit or miss kinda place. Some days its great some days is not, it all depends on who the chef is that day and who the waitresses are. Today was a disaster! Everything we ordered was wrong. Waitress was not knowledgeable at all about the menu. When we sent back the wrong orders she would kudu blame it on the chef or say, no that’s really how it’s made, you’re wrong. If the sushi roll is called Fantastic Four and the description says there’s 4 different fish in the roll, but you bring out a sushi roll that is just filled with salmon and avacado how are you going to tell me I’m wrong? So then, she says let me take it back to the chef and says chef was wrong. I didn’t care for this place and will probably never come here again. Service was terrible, food was not as described in the menu.

We visited Kogen for the first time. Staff were friendly and accommodating, the food was timely and well prepared and the atmosphere was engaging without being overbearing. We appreciated the variety of cultures represented and were very thankful for the inclusion of California on the children’s menu. My wife will be excited to take advantage of «children eat free» on Tuesdays!

I do not know why this place has low stars! It was an amazing restaurant. I had two different sushi rolls and both were amazing and top quality. Very helpful staff and kind as well. Food came to us very fast. Knowledgable about the different types of sushi and beers to go along with it. I will be eating here again for the sushi, atmosphere, and the great staff. Very nice time here

Walked in with my brother and mother. We were geeked for life to try his place for the sushi. Unfortunately, they ran out of item for sushi and it wouldn’t be available for a few hours. We were in a rush but I had to leave a nice review to say the the restaurant was absolutely beautiful, clean and no fishy or smoky smell like some have. You could literally eat off the floor in there. The host was very friendly and offered a coupon alongside he one that I already had for 10% off anything when I come back in next. That was so nice! I’ll definitely come back and try their sushi next time and leave a review on the quality. From what I hear and seeing the previous reviews, looks like a great place to eat.

I’m not sure why this place has gotten such a bad rep. My girlfriend and I came here for dinner and told our server that we were in a bit of a rush. We ordered some sushi to split and I had the hot stone bowl bibimbop and she had some type of Thai chicken and noodles. The sushi came out in about 10 minutes, and the rest of our food was up within 5 minutes after that.
The bibimbop was absolutely delicious. Some of the best that I’ve had. I love getting it in a hot stone bowl and hearing the rice sizzle as it keeps cooking right there. Let’s not forget the rice that turns crispy in the bottom. That’s the best!
Girlfriend’s chicken and noodles were really good too. Nothing over the top mind blowing, but they were good enough (and plentiful enough) that I ate her leftovers for lunch the next day, and was very happy about it.
The sushi was ok. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. Just a little bland; not overly flavorful. I’d definitely go back, this place certainly does not deserve the low reviews that it’s gotten, based on the experience that we had here.

Phở was awesome, as were the spicy rolls. Can’t believe it too me so long to finally try this place!

Had my first visit at Kogens. Was not empress with them at all. Try to place a to go order over the phone hostess has no idea if they even have that dish. Has no business cards, no to go menu, everything was online only. Will not be coming back. To bad, place look good.

Second to last time there, our table was as sticky as fly paper. When we asked to be moved to a different booth, the server assumed a rather sharp attitude and insisted he had just wiped it down. Becoming defensive and barking that you wiped it down doesn’t change the fact that there’s dried soda and food smeared end to end. A simple smile and a «sure, no problem» would have worked just fine.
I ordered a roll that I often get with a salmon substitution, and I’d never been told no. On this night, however, I was told that all of their rolls are pre-​made and that the substitution would not be possible.
Translation: «OUR SUSHI ISN’T FRESH.»
I don’t know if that was the truth or just retaliation for us offending his table-​wiping abilities, but either way, we decided we’d take a break from Kogen’s.
Fast forward to this afternoon, when against my better judgement, my wife and I agreed to have lunch there. She ordered soup and an entrée, and I ordered salmon rolls and an entrée.
Keep in mind that all of their entrees have lunch and dinner pricing. When we received our bill, we noticed it was 30% higher than we expected. My wife checked a menu and noticed that we had been charged for the dinner portions. The server confirmed, and stated «the lunch portions are smaller, so I assumed you guys would want the dinner portions.»
1. Never assume anything about your customers when it comes to portion size.
2. Never assume anything about your customers when it comes to price.
3. Never mention to a woman that you thought she would want dinner at lunch. If you just got caught overcharging (read: STEALING), just pretend you’re having a stroke.
4. It was lunch time AND we ordered appetizers (soup, sushi). Why on Earth would you assume we wanted dinner portions/​prices? (That’s a rhetorical question.)
5. Reread items 1 — 3. Memorize them. Live them.
At least he settled the issue for us once and for all: No more Kogen’s. Shame, because the sushi isn’t bad when you’re lucky enough to get it at below room temperature (which is 90 degrees in the summer, because it’s cheaper to leave the door open than it is to run the A/​C).
Normally I wouldn’t harp on a business for server issues like this, but our experiences coupled with the other experiences on here obviously indicate a trend, and what happened to us today indicates a rather unethical mandate from management/​ownership.

I hate leaving such a low rating, but this place has gone downhill after years of consistent quality.
I stopped by for lunch yesterday, and for a moment thought they had closed down based on the peeling sign on the window. Once we confirmed that they were indeed open, we walked inside and almost lost our appetites – it smelled like sewage.
We stuck around, and drank watered-​down Coke. My sushi was fine, but my dining companion said hers was bland. Service was decent, but there was one person for the entire restaurant. This experience saddened me because I used to love coming here. Maybe management has changed hands too many times? Everything just seems old and falling apart. I hope they turn things around.

Decent sushi, and the chicken stir fry was yummy. My favorite was the seaweed salad, and the crab rangoons were fresh and warm. I would recommend this restaurant, the price was about $ 60 for two people.

Kogen’s is a nice sushi restaurant in Powell. I personally love that Saturday’s are ½ off sake nights! I believe there are specials every night of the week… A little pricy for rolls and nigiri unless you have a groupon or nightly special.

I don’t update a lot of reviews with a new review but my most recent experience at Kogen’s warranted doing so. As I said in my original review, we don’t normally eat here. It had been awhile so we thought why not.
We showed up around 6p on a Sunday and were promptly seated, we were also one of the only tables in the place. Over the next 45 minutes tables were seated all around us… and then they started getting their food. We ordered before most of the other tables arrived so I don’t understand how this could have happened. The server complained to us that two people called off and the place definitely got hectic for awhile. It even got so bad that a lady who was eating dinner who was a former employee had to get up and play hostess slash cashier. You could tell the people she was eating with were annoyed that she had to intervene but without her things would have been hopelessly worse. I don’t understand how this happens, if you own or manage a restaurant, you always over schedule servers during the rush hours and cut them as needed… then things like this can’t occur.
Anyway, our food came out… our appetizers came out just minutes before main dishes… which of course were cold. My sis-​in-​laws Mongolian beef onions were actually frigid. She sent it back and it came back burnt. I had Vietnamese spring rolls as an appetizer and they were honestly the worst I’ve ever had anywhere, pretty much inedible. If I wasn’t starving and thought my food wasn’t going to take an hour to get out, I wouldn’t have eaten them, mostly. All of the food was pretty bad, worse than we’ve ever had here. It was as if a chef called off and they made a server with no cooking experience go run the kitchen… which might have been the case that night.
They know they messed up so they brought out a couple free appetizers while some of my party was having their meals reheated. That was nice but not acceptable for what happened. We should have had a huge discount for the wait alone, and when the food came out cold and horrible tasting… I’ve had entire meals comped for lesser offenses at other restaurants.
I love eating local and supporting local businesses, and even giving them a bit of leeway when they make mistakes, have call offs, or just have a bad night. But Kogen’s is consistently bad, consistently understaffed, and we just can’t do it anymore. We won’t be back, that was our last time. I don’t even think they could redeem themselves if they offered my family two free meals. We would go back and they would just screw it all up again and again. Stick a fork in this place as it is not long for the restaurant world.

I am confused by the low reviews. We had been referred to this place by four different groups of people. The negativeness has to be based on the prior owners because this place is currently under new ownership and really good.
This place was awesome! The service was good and the sushi was yummy. Thursday is half priced martini night. I don’t normally drink martini’s but when they are 3.50 each, I’m game.
We got a variety of rolls, almost all of the offerings are are more compex styled rolls. Not as traditional of a sushi place but a melting pot of different asian foods. I have been all over the world and had sushi everywhere. I would be happy to come back here. Please see the pictures, tasted as good as they look. My fiancé was obessessed wth the calamari. They were huge and the sauce was super. Its hard to find a place that has calamari sauce like this. Calamari was only $ 7!