Koito Sushi

They are getting 1 star based on service. I ordered here once before and everything went well.
Last night after talking to them 10x and 3 hours. my food NEVER CAME. I ordered on seamless and live in the area. After over an hour of no food– I called in. Every time I called food is on its way. After 2 HOURS. they finally admit they must have given my food to someone else. They said they were sending another order our ASAP he’d be here within 10 minutes.
Did that food ever come… after another hour of waiting. NOPE. I can deal with a mistake. but if you can’t correct your mistake than you don’t deserve my business.

I made an order and asked to have to food deliver after 2, cause I can’t come down before that. the delivery guy just keep calling me from 1:30. omg, can they read what I wrote! they better hire someone who are more careful on taking order!

I don’t know if it doesn’t order well, or if their other food is better, all I know is this was the most flavorless ramen I’ve ever eaten.

Ruined my weekend in NY. It was a rainy night so we picked this place for Sushi because it was close to the hotel even though it had some spotty Unilocal reviews. We were the only people in there at 7PM. I hoped that it had more to do with the rain than the quality but that pipe dream was proved wrong quickly. If they served Sushi in prison this would be it. Ridiculously small pieces (which proved to be a good thing) of nasty fish. Several times I had to go to the napkin and discreetly eliminated what entered my mouth. No low sodium soy sauce and how freaking cheap are you to give out a pinhead of wasabi. Even with a simple menu with no creative rolls they were out of some stuff. Unconscionable that a place this bad could exist in Manhattan.

Excellent, authentic sushi right on the UES. The sushi special is not for those who don’t like fishy tasting fish — but if you do, have at! Also can’t forget to mention the cheap beer specials. This place is an all around win!

Nothing special, but this is real Japanese sushi, which is very rare in Manhattan. The price is extremely reasonable, which is also rare in Manhattan.

If you’re looking for an authentic sushi experience, I would say this is the place to go for!
This is a small cozy neighbourhood joint, located on the Upper East Side. I visit Koito Sushi once every 1 – 2 months, and ever since I discovered this spot, I have rarely had sushi anywhere else.
The restaurant space is small and only has a few tables set up, but it is super clean, quiet and pleasing to the eye. My personal preference is usually to sit at the bar, where you can see the chef and all his ingredients, and when the food is being prepared.
The service that you will receive here is minimum — I don’t mean this in a bad way! Service here has always been prompt; the hostess and the chef are always courteous and you will never have to ask twice before your needs are attended to. The hostess will not disrupt your meal unless it’s necessary, such as when they’re bring out another dish or refilling your cup; in other words, it’s not one of those restaurants where the hosting staff will visit you excessively during your meal and ask you how you are doing and expecting you to answer in the midst of chewing a mouthful of food. Because of this, I think this is an ideal spot for a low key date night, or if you want a place where you can have a good conversation over dinner without being interrupted.
The food here is always so great! I will usually go for the Omakase menu, which is a menu that will tell you how many courses and pieces of sushi you will get, but what exact sushi variety you get is dependent on what the Chef will create for you. What the chef makes is based on the ingredients he has on hand that day, as well as your preferences in terms of taste.
Of course, you always have the option of ordering individual items a la carte and it is just as delicious!
The food here is always fresh and premium in quality. The price is extremely fair for the amount of food and the quality you get. The omakase menu is usually $ 55/​person, and anywhere else in Manhattan, the same kind of menu will easily cost over $ 90/​person. This has definitely become a go to spot for me whenever I crave for some good sushi in the city!

Went here based on the good reviews and proximity to our apartment but was very disappointed. I’m guessing/​hoping we just went on an off night?
Pros — the pork + vegetable dumplings were very good.
The cost seemed very reasonable (draft beer for $ 3.75, most rolls around $ 6)
Cons — VERY awkward dining experience start to finish:
We were the only people in the restaurant at 7pm on a Thursday. Another lady came in, looked at the menu, asked why everything was different, and then left without ordering anything. Maybe that should have been a sign…
I ordered edamame (which was on the menu) and was told they didn’t have any today. What sushi place doesn’t have edamame?!
Opted for the dumplings instead and a shrimp tempura roll.
5 minutes later the waitress came back and informed me I had to order 2 rolls. My husband (who had ordered some kind of combo special so as a table we still had a sizable order coming) and I kept asking why, and the waitress (who in her defense didn’t speak english very well) kept pointing to a note on the menu that stated a seaweed salad came with an order of 2 rolls. We kept trying to explain that I didn’t want the salad, just the 1 roll, and she finally let it go but seemed annoyed by us.
Then the food came… My husband’s was actually fine, but the shrimp tempura roll was inedible. I ate one piece and it had absolutely no crunch at all. Just a soggy piece of dough around a shrimp in rice. I was fine just cutting our losses and getting out of there, but at the end the waitress asked why I didn’t finish my sushi! I had no idea how to answer that without being rude so we just smiled and left.
It was just a very strange dining experience, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Edible but not fresh. Average neighborhood prices. An unclean atmosphere. The couple that owns the place is friendly but I would not return.

~~~~~~~~koito ~~~~~~~~~~
Used to have Japanese pop music… No more
I took sushi for home… Very, very fishy,
I couldn’t eat and smells
Now the restaurant has very different atmosphere than before… Don’t know why,
Please don’t order tapas, it’s not Japanese taste at all, can’t eat that!
Can’t come back again unless they change all — smell, atmosphere, etc
Chef doesn’t talk English at all, it’s very hard to communicate,

I love this place! my friend and I eat total 30pic sushi and one sashimi, they have matcha chocolates too!

This place is a gem. Independently owned by a Japanese man who makes really delicious, authentic sushi and other home-​style Japanese dishes. Definitely worth a try!

Having a deep appreciation for sushi across the price spectrum in both Japan and the U.S. alike, not to mention also having worked in Japanese owned sushi restaurants in NYC, it is simply astonishing that people patron this disgraceful embarrassment of a sushi restaurant.
I will never forget the disgusting rancid plate of sashimi I was served here amidst fruit flies and grime. REAL REAL BAD.

Was one of my reliable go-​to spots. Great sushi, quiet place, cheap prices.
Something has changed in the last few months. Prices are now just as high as the rest of the neighborhood joints, and the place seems to be falling apart. Saw roaches crawling along the wall last time I was there. Service is incredibly slow.
Will be looking for a new default sushi place in the neighborhood.

They don’ t take reservations after 7pm… (???)
The service and courtesy doesn’t go together…

I’m a little torn — this place was really great, but it’s so small and really is a gem on the UES. But I’ve a duty to Unilocal!So here goes.
Came here on a Saturday night, it was not too crowded. 4 seats at the bar, 3 tables, about 16 seats in the little place total. So yeah, it’s a bit small.
Based on other reviews, we had the Chef’s Pair special (about $ 60 total). Here’s what we had:
–Miso soup. Pretty good soup, better than most, but nothing truly amazing.
–Assorted appetizers. Mostly pretty good, good gyoza, tofu, and eggplant. It also came with some baby asparagus and lotus root.
–10 pieces of sashimi. Now we’re talking. Great fresh fish, two of each — the salmon and tuna were especially delicious, high-​quality, melt-​in-​your-​mouth pieces.
−26−30 pieces of sushi and some assorted rolls. Really great. Excellent rice (the real point of sushi, mind you), coupled with the great, fresh fish. The mackerel was really good with the sushi rice, as was the eel. The spicy tuna hand roll was probably the best I’ve had in a long time. The salmon roe roll was also very good — again, highlighting how delicious the rice was. And the mushroom roll was also very good, with nice, sweet mushrooms.
(The special also comes with your choice of drink, but because we passed on that, they gave us some more sushi!)
Some complimentary tea to close out a terrific meal.
Overall top-​notch. I’ll be coming back here. It was a steal for the quantity and, especially, the quality of the sushi. Their normal rolls also looked very good.
Excellent.

I dined with my cousin at an authentic Japanese restaurant on the Upper East Side. The restaurant is a little hole in the wall that seats only about 10 people or so. Everything on the menu looked great and we decided to share the dinner special ($ 49).
The course began with two large bottles of Sapporo beer (you can also choose sake) and veggie appetizers. I could honestly eat this platter all day, every day! The plate had all of my favorite vegetables, including kobocha squash, eggplant, and lotus root.
Unfortunately, the vegetables looked better than they tasted. The slices of squash were not very sweet, the lotus roots were quite salty, and the eggplants were bland. The radish had very mushy texture, while the bamboos were flavorless.
Next on the table were sashimi appetizer. There were pieces of tuna, salmon, yellowtail, and mackerel. My stomach can’t tolerate too much raw fish, so the sashimi sampler was the perfect amount. Sashimi were fresh, though I wished the tuna pieces were bigger. Mackerel is one fish I cannot eat raw no matter how hard I try because the fishy smell is too strong for my liking.
The meal also included 26 pieces of sushi. The fist plate had 16 pieces of nigiri. There were four of tuna, yellowtail, salmon, and mackerel. Nothing too special… I was sort of disappointed by the lack of variety because I just ate the same type of fish as sashimi. The fish on top of the nigiri were plump, fresh, and juicy enough. The yellowtail seemed like it already had soy sauce on top. There was a dab of wasabi on top of the rice. Salmon is probably my favorite. It tastes so much better raw than cooked!
The final plate had more variety in sushi with shrimp, clam, eel, egg, sea urchin, and fish roe. I used to not be able to eat salmon roe because of its size and the way it pops in my mouth. I felt like such a murderer «killing» so many unmatched baby salmon! But now… I really like them but not this much! Tomago and sea urchin. I never know whether to eat these in one bite or not… Koito was overall a pretty authentic restaurant, but I do wish I got to eat more than the traditional nigiri or sashimi.

It’s a local gem hiding in the Upper East Side. Very small (four tables, two seats for each, and four seats oh the bar) but warm and nice service.
Fish is fresh and the price is very reasonable. For $ 23 you can have 15 pieces sushi and a miso soup. Their miso soup is excellent by the way. They have sushi special for two, which costs $ 55, as well. You will get your drinks, 10 pieces of sashimi and 26 pieces is sushi. For $ 58, you can get the omakase for one, including 14 pieces of nigiri. Every single piece is well prepared by the chef. I’d say that its worth to try.
It opens from 6 pm to 11 pm from Tue to Sat, and 6 pm to 10.30 pm on Sun.

Had to try this place because I’m always on the prowl for decent sushi/​sashimi in the UES. So stopped in and immediately began cursing all the Unilocal reviewers who commented on how empty it always is. Because the entire place was either taken or being held for a reservation. Coulda made my own reservation, but really didn’t think I needed to.
So I was forced to spend 45 minutes hanging out at one of the crappy Second Avenue bars listening to a bunch of drunken/​sleezy middle-​aged moms having a night out, screaming out Beatles tunes in a saloon where everybody else was staring into their Bushmill’s and wondering how their life went so sadly wrong. The whole scene was just irritating.
I tell you all that so that you understand the frame of mind I was in when we finally got seated at Koito. For my first time there, I wanted to try the special for two that everybody raves about. When I saw the hand-​lettered sign on the wall that described it as, «$ 54 Japanese tapas, sashimi appetizer, 26 pieces of sushi, large beer/​medium bottle of sake/​3 hot sake», my heart sank even further. Because, «Japanese tapas»? WTF is that in a restaurant that everybody is describing as «authentically Japanese»? And 26 pieces of sushi plus some amount of sashimi, for $ 54? That’s dangerously close to an all-​you-​can-​eat situation. We’ve all seen the type of fish you get at AYCE joints, right? And then when we ordered, the waitress hemmed and hawed a bit, then quietly said that the sushi would be slow because they were very busy. Yippee.
So the sake comes out and I should have paid more attention than I did to what it was. The bottle was 300ml (I think, again, should have paid more attention) and it drank fine. Since the GF doesn’t drink, I got to have it all and I started to think, «Okay, $ 54. Not bad».
Then the «Japanese tapas» came out and they were… wait for it… NOT some weird fusion product with no place in an authentic sushi house. They were an assortment of oshinko/​tsukemono that paired quite nicely with the sake I was drinking. I had to laugh that somebody managed to translate Japanese pickles as «tapas».
Then the sashimi, followed by the 26 pieces of sushi. Won’t spend time on exactly what the fish was because I’m sure it changes. I’ll just say that it was a fairly routine assortment and that the quality was not bad. Not as good as the places that I really like, but a lot better than the 90% of UES sushi restaurants that specialize in serving mayonnaise-​slathered chicken-​of-​the-​sea to fraternity brothers and their dates.
And, to top it off, the service was not slow at all. Yes, there were a few minutes between courses, but it never lagged. The entire experience left me in a much better mental state leaving than I had been in when we arrived.
I don’t know how they do all this for such a reasonable price, but I will be going back. Now I’m interested in seeing what you get when you say, «omakase».

I really don’t want to write too much here… but suffice it to say that this is one of the best kept secrets in NYC.
If you’re in the know, keep it to yourself. ;)