Kugo Steakhouse & Sushi Bar

Kugo’s is our favorite place to eat! We’ve eaten here over dozen times and every meal was incredible. The filet mignon & scallops are favorite of my daughters and myself while my boy likes the salmon; we always leave with to go boxes. They put on a good show at hibachi grill, very interactive and fun. The sushi is fresh and very tasty, we’ve grown to love their maki lovers and spicy combo plates. My kids like their red bean fried ice cream the best for dessert. Would highly recommend Kugo’s for a nice dinner or lunch.

I’ve been to Kugo many times. It is my favorite sushi place in the area and the hibachi is always a hearty meal. A favorite for our family. Reservations are not needed, they always have room for you.

So happy with their service and understanding with food order adaptations. Prices are excellent for portion size. Staff is friendly. Awesome restaurant

Absolutely delicious! I get the filet mignon and chicken every time with fried rice, vegetables, noodles, & soup & salad. The service was excellent. I love coming here for lunch especially, their lunch prices are extremely reasonable.

Took our whole group here and had the hibachi dinners and tempura. Wonderful food and everyone enjoyed the show. Well worth going for a fun night out and the waiter was excellent.

I was a little wary about trying a sushi place where the closest ocean is hundreds of miles away, but I’m glad I gave Kugo’s a shot. Everything we tried, from the vegetable tempura, beef negamaki, soups, salads, rolls, sashimi, and fried red bean ice cream was absolutely exquisite. In retrospect it also makes it sound like my wife and I eat like pigs. The employees were also really friendly, but I’ve realized most people outside of New York are generally friendly anyway. The only gripes I have, which knocked down a star from my review, are they keep the place ice box cold inside and the portion sizes are suitable for someone only mildly hungry. I know it makes me sound elderly, but the place was like a freezer. I had to keep my jacket and scarf on. Just FYI, really; dress appropriately. Ice cream didn’t help the matters, either. The real drawback was the size of the rolls themselves; they were roughly half the size of sushi rolls I’ve eaten everywhere else, which makes a six piece more like a three piece appetizer. They also have the audacity to charge more for them than I pay on Long Island, though they’re using less material. And less overhead since they don’t kick on the heat. The food was outstanding, though, so I’ll definitely be going back again, I’ve just got to remember to order a little more or risk still being hungry at the end. And wear thermals.

This review is based solely on take out service not eating in. Called in an order last nite for Shrimp fried rice and Shrimp lo mein and we were told they only had one size. We arrived 10 minutes after calling and seemed like that’s when they started the order because it was another 15 minutes. Before going in to pick up the order my wife said will it be more the $ 20 and I said it couldn’t be. We ordered nothing else (drinks or spring rolls) and $ 27.45! That was a surprise plus the lady at the counter was not pleasant at all. Neither dish was as good as other places that are half the price. Last time we go there!

It is not mind-​blowing, but that’s the Philadelpian in me speaking. I think the Hibachi deal is a bit gimmicky, but the food was better than that, in my opinion. The spicy salmon and tuna roll? Surprisingly good.
My filet mignon hibachi? Tender and perfectly cooked, really. The sauce is too sweet, however. With an upgrade in service and atmosphere, and a slight decrease in price and I think Kugo is on its way to becoming stellar.

I was surprised a place in a strip mall would be this good. We did Habachi and the chicken and steak was on par with any other chain (Shogun, Kabuto) and the waiter was as entertaining, or better than those places. We had the California Roll and Philly Roll as well and they were excellent. Cost was slightly higher than expected (about 65 bucks for a family of 4), but it was a good meal with good service.

Food isn’t bad but service needs some work. Our waitress forgot our appetizer so we just stuck with our main course. I guess this isn’t bad considering we are in the middle of nowhere.

When it comes to Japanese cuisine — I mostly stick to Sushi, Sashimi or the roll. So, obviously that’s exactly what I ordered here too. We got here pretty late for dinner (around 8 or so) on a weekday — so the place was pretty empty when we got here. We were in a group of 12 and pretty much everyone but me ordered some kind of hibachi. I ordered the Spicy Combination sushi which was good. Although not a big fan of hibachi — I did try some shrimp and chicken from my mom’s plate and they were actually really good.
The place was clean — staff … attentive and polite and the chef pretty friendly and apparently quite the trickster with his hibachi cooking skills.
Would I go back again? Of Course and perhaps I might give their hibachi menu a try.

The sushi and sashimi are as good as you can get in this county. It never takes long to get your food, be it sushi, the kitchen or the hibachi. Coming from Hawaii, being part Japanese AND being a former employee, I can attest to the authenticity of their food. I once shared with the owner that my favorite Japanese meal is chicken katsu, and was delighted to see it listed as a special. They really strive for customer satisfaction.

Went for the hibachi. Salad was ok although the dressing was funky. The soup was disgusting, tasted like dirty dish water. I don’t believe the filet we order was actually a filet. The scallops were a little gritty. I thought they did a good job with the rice, noodles and veggies. not likely to return and would not recommend unless you have no other option.

LOVE this place. Great hibachi, delicious sushi, great byob — sometimes you have to wait a little, they are usually understaffed, but so worth the wait.

Usually go for the lunch special which is very price worthy at around ten dollars for three rolls. The hibachi lunch menu is considerably cheaper than dinner. I never tired the hibachi but from looks and smell it seems pretty good. Dinner can be somewhat expensive. Glad to see Lebanon finally has a sushi place. Bathroom was clean. Not the greatest sushi in the world but for the price and the fact its the only sushi place in town its def worth a try. Really cute hostess too.

We love this place! Hubby and I always have a great time here. The hibachi food is great and the staff are always nice. Make a reservation on a Saturday or holiday though! We even take our 2 year old here and the show keeps him entertained even if the fire freaks him out a little. Most of the chefs will ask if he’s scared first though. Wish we could go more often but spending 50 plus on a meal out makes it a special occasion kind of place for us — UNLESS there’s a groupon we snatch those up right away for here because they sell out fast!

Kugo is truly a hidden gem in Lebanon! I drove by many times and saw that stupid sign they have outside and said to myself I would never eat there. After all, sushi in Lebanon PA is scary in itself. After reading reviews I decided to give it a chance and I have been a loyal customer ever since. The sushi is actually FRESH and delicious! The meals are huge & always tasty. I always have left overs so you pretty much can get two meals for the price of one. They do not serve alcohol but you can bring in your own bottle of wine etc that they will ope for you. I highly recommend giving this place a chance, don’t judge it by the outside like I did at first.
*UPDATE — I went back and the portions seem to have got a lot smaller and the sushi rolls were tiny and consisting of mostly rice.

My husband loves to eat sushi and this restaurant serves very good sushi comparable to the high end sushi bar/​restaurant in Tokyo, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
We had the shrimp teriyaki and shrimp/​vegetable tempura and they were also very good. We do not have to drive to Allentown anymore to eat Japanese food. I’ll bring my friends next time when we have our «girls’ night».

I’d never had sushi before so I was a little skeptical about having my first experience here in central PA, rather than NYC or even Philly, but with a knowledgeable friend to guide me, off we went to Kugo for lunch.
My friend started me off easy with a few rolls to share. We had salmon, spicy tuna and a California roll as a 3-​roll lunch special and he also ordered a spider roll.
I was not a fan of the texture of the raw fish in the salmon roll but I loved everything else.
I’ve been back numerous times now, usually ordering a California roll and then something new each time. I tend to prefer the cooked fish and shellfish. (It’s a texture thing.) I have dreams about their special Godzilla roll, which includes lobster, crab, tempura crunch and is wrapped in a weird pink wrapping.

I live in Philadelphia and eat sushi frequently, so I’m a bit of a snob. When I found out that a sushi place opened in Lebanon (where my mom lives) I was obviously skeptical. However, I’ve been here about 4 times over the past number of years and haven’t been let down once by the food.
There are some things that bother me, like the fact that they don’t really differentiate between sushi, sashimi, and maki on the menu very well (my mom ordered vegetable sushi and what came out was both sushi and maki). It also bothered me that on my most recent visit a waitress spilled some water on my leg and there was also no little dish for me to put my soy sauce and wasabi in — so I had to go to a different table and take theirs.
That being said, the food is great. Yesterday I got a spicy tuna roll, and it came out with breadcrumbs in it. I’ve never seen that before and I was kind of like, «WTF?» but it worked really well. The crunch in the roll was good. I really wanted a Philly roll, but on their menu the Philly roll is salmon, cream cheese, and cucumber — and I’m used to the cucumber being avocado here, so I didn’t really want that. Instead I ordered a TNT roll, which was salmon, cream cheese, and avocado (like I wanted) but it was lightly fried and served atop spicy mayo and what I think may have been hoison sauce, I’m not sure. It was sweet and spicy, though. And it was super super super good. Seriously. I’ll be going back just to get that roll again.
I also don’t understand why this place has a three $ rating. They’re CHEAP!!! A regular roll is like 5.50 and the special rolls are under 10 bucks! That’s a serious bargain.
Anyway, this is a gem in an awful town.