Kihachi Japanese Restaurant

Fucking restaurant, when we come there, it said for the reservation that night and can not accommodate us. The woman owner of that restaurant even did not apologize and even didn’t listen to our saying. We drove 2 hours to there and try to call them that morning. But their business hour is 6PM to 10PM everyday. No one will pick up the call in the morning. That restaurant upsets me and I think maybe they can make delicious food but they would never let some people like me happy.

it literally took us three hours to get our main dishes there. Do go there if you are not looking spend at least 100 dollar per person or you are not looking for somewhere you have to spend 3 – 4 hours for your dinner. Overall, the food is not bad

My friends told that is really good. When came here from other town. But there was no service, they ignore what you said, and the meal will take a hour to bring to you. We really pissed off. And they are so mean to people except Japanese. They only smile to Japanese. And it’s really expensive, it’s not worth.

Kihachi is by far the best restaurant in Columbus. Having eaten practically everywhere globally I feel Kihachi ranks with most of the best. If only it were in the Short North or Grandview it would be Columbus’ first Michelin starred restaurant. If only it weren’t in a small strip mall in NW Cbus, next to a cigar shop, of which the smoke infiltrates the restaurant and your clothing. That aside, the authentic Japanese cuisine prepared amazingly by Chef Ryuji (Mike) Kimura is spot on and comparable with any Japanese restaurant elsewhere in the US. We have dined at Kihachi many times, but love to sit at the counter watching Chef perform his artistry. On this evening we took advantage of the specials.
Our first course was the salmon roe marinated in soy sauce and sake with grated Daikon. It was perfect. The salmon roe pops in your mouth releasing a salty deliciousness. The Daikon is a white radish with a bit of sweetness that complemented the roe well.
Next we had blowfish sashimi (Fugu) with Ponzu sauce. As Chef Kimura handed us the bowl of sashimi, we talked about the necessity to slice the blowfish correctly (Fugu contains lethal amounts of the poison tetrodotoxin in its organs). He joked he would only try it an hour after we had eaten it! The texture of the sashimi was smooth, it is grayish white in color and has very little flavor. The Ponzu sauce (think citrus) provides the flavor. With Fugu, it is all about the experience, and risking your life, haha!
Next we had Seabream and Mackerel box press sushi. I like box press sushi much better than rolls. It is more labor intensive, but it is fun to watch chef prepare it! The Seabream was mellow while the Mackerel was salty and although «fishy» was a nice contrast to the Seabream.
Finally, we thoroughly enjoyed the Blue Fin Tuna Toro (fatty) sushi rolls. This was amazing! Best sushi roll I have had. The texture was so soft and it practically melted in your mouth.
If you are in Cbus and looking for sushi rolls, (not authentic Japanese preparations) fancy surroundings and a bustling crowded restaurant this is not your place (maybe try Haiku).
However if you are a foodie who loves true Japenese cuisine go to Kihachi, just wear washable clothes!

I dined at this institution for one purpose: to eat very traditional Japanese dishes. It was a success. If you’re going to complain about spending over $ 100 a person, don’t come here. I came expecting to spend at least that. If you want sushi, don’t come here. If you want Nigiri sushi, again, seriously don’t come here. Remind yourself to not always think that Japanese cuisine consists of only sushi related fanfare. Make sure to make a reservation. True Japanese dining should always be an event to plan for, this restaurant is definitely no exception.
If you’re looking to get instant gratification, Go elsewhere. You’re probably looking at 15 – 25 minutes between the dishes you’ve ordered. If you cone starving, you will be teased. So don’t come starved, go get yourself something else. You come here with patience and a lot of money. You will most likely leave hungry if you come starved. This is not a place to get full for $ 100. I didn’t expect to be full.
Don’t complain about the price. You don’t come here for a value, you cone here for an experience. I wanted the tatami room experience. I knew that they automatically put 20% gratuity plus an additional $ 2 a person charge on my bill. I was expecting it. I knew the service was going to be sub par, it was just this one older lady who served us and she never checked to see how we were doing. You have to flag her down. I get that. Definitely not like the service I’m used to in Japan. They didn’t care about you here and the attitude was very different. No bowing, no waving, no welcome
Bloody expensive. Very good. The chawanmushi was how I liked it: mushy. The ankimo was steamed with care, delicious. Hot house sake, smooth. Surprised. Clean environment.
I will come back. because… Columbus really doesn’t have anything more traditional than this. Hard enough as it is to find good asian foods. This restaurant, I must say, met my expectations.

«Do you know how much food we can get at Taco Bell for the amount we spent at Kihachi? It could be wheelbarrows of Chilitos. Makes ya think.» –me, to my girlfriend, after I took her to dinner at Kihachi for her birthday. For the record, she LOVES Chilitos (or as they’re known these days, Chili Cheese Burritos. **pouring out a salsa packet for my homie, the long gone Columbus-​area Zantigo**). On the flip side of that record, I wasn’t comparing the elaborate and delicate delights of Kihachi with stuff you get from Taco Bell. I was merely stating that when you go to Kihachi, and order 9 (!) SMALL PLATES OF FOOD, and then, when the server doesn’t come back to bring you more food, you think «Dammit, no more plates coming? Well, then, we may as well order entrees now, for our REAL dinner…», it’s gonna cost you. Is it worth it? Oh, hell yeah… well, if you like Japanese food. And not «Check it out! Onion Volcano! AND HE THREW A SHRIMP AT ME!”-Japanese food. If you’re interested in getting steak… don’t come here. If you want a nice piece of salmon and some tempura vegetables, again, don’t come here. I’m not saying that stuff isn’t on the menu. It is. And I’m not saying that stuff won’t be good. It probably will be. If you do come here, don’t get anything off the main menu. Instead, pick out stuff from the «small plates» menu. Will there be stuff on there that will be completely foreign to you? You betcha. But that’s where the fun is. That’s where the chef works his magic. If you get the chance, take a seat at the counter, instead of a table; then you can view the chefs’ work on your dishes. This is when you’ll realize how much skill goes into what you’re about to eat in 1.25 bites. For instance, Razor-​sharp knives cut paper-​thin limes to be intricately placed between fresh, perfectly-​cut rectangular pieces of sea bream. There are no sour cream guns used here. Not that those are bad or anything.
I’ve noticed some reviewers have mentioned that the staff at Kihachi are rude, and service is poor. My experience was perfectly fine, but there was a slight hiccup. I made reservations at 8pm for counter seat. Upon arrival, the hostess said they were not ready yet, and kindly asked that my girlfriend and I take a seat at the bar. So we did, and we had some saké. After 5 – 10 minutes, we were seated. No big deal. Maybe I got special treatment because I was Asian? Does that happen? I honestly don’t know, but I’m sure it could. And I’m sure the opposite could occur, that someone gets poor service because they aren’t Asian. But that would be kinda racist, right? Which brings me to a fun incident that happened while I was there. Seated at the counter with us were two older white couples, clearly enjoying their steak and salmon with tempura vegetables. As the chef prepared one of our 9 (!) plates, a woman got the chef’s attention. «Excuse me,» she asked, «do you know [insert Asian name here]? He looks like you.»
Oh. No. You. Di. Int.
But yes, she did. It’s a good thing that the chef took it in stride, and replied with a grin and a wink, «Because we all look the same, huh?» «Oh no… that’s not… I mean… you look alike, maybe you’re related???» Again, not a good thing to say. I know Unilocal isn’t the best place for a lesson in race relations, but if you’ve made it this far in reading my long-​ass review, why not? Non-​Asian people: don’t ever ask some Asian person if they know another Asian person you know, just because they’re both Asian. I don’t go up to random white women and say, «Hey, are you friends with the cashier at Banana Republic? She kinda looks like you.» Why? Because that makes no sense at all. Anyway… perhaps the people who got bad service were just assholes. Or maybe they just got bad service. I don’t know. All I can say is that my experience was great. Also great? Taco Bell’s Chili Cheese Burrito aka Chilito.

My first omakase to celebrate a special event and it was a pleasant experience. That night there were only 9 customers there so it was pretty intimate and quiet.
The servers were all really nice and explained the dishes to us. We had about 10 courses, the sashimi was the best (fatty tuna yum) and the whole fried fish was the most interesting because you eat the whole thing including the insides which had an acquired taste.
Overall, enjoyable and left very very very full.

I really, really, really (repeat that about 50 more times) wanted to love this place. Honestly, I could have loved this place. It could’ve become my favorite restaurant in the entire Midwest. I even almost thought it was comparable to some of the good sushi places I frequent in San Francisco (*gasp* I know, right??).
Oh, Kihachi. You briefly made me so, so happy, and then you made be incredibly, incredibly sad (and very annoyed). Why???
Let’s actually talk about what happened.
I had a friend visiting from SF, and he was curious as to whether Columbus offered omakase. That’s when we stumbled upon Kihachi, so we made a reservation. Previous reviews of this place (on Unilocal and other websites) priced the omakase at around $ 95. Fairly reasonable.
The servers were friendly, but the pacing was incredibly awkward. At one point, we waited almost 20 minutes between courses so that the chef could prepare a la carte items for non-​omakase tables. Other times, I would be barely halfway through my course before the waitress brought out the next course (and no, I wasn’t being slow eating. There was probably about a 1-​minute lag time between those courses). Rather than simply waiting until I was done with my present course to bring out the next dish, she planted herself right next to me and watched me uncomfortably hurry to finish my present course so that she could put down the next one. Absolutely ridiculous and awful. I felt like I was being an inconvenience to her, and that is not something you should be feeling ever when dining out.
In terms of the actual food, we had some big hits (most of which came out earlier on) and some incredibly large misses. To begin, here’s what they did right (or mostly right):
Chawanmushi (steamed egg garnished with shrimp, ginkgo root, spinach, chicken, and fish) — very creamy and smooth; served at a perfectly pipping hot temperature, and the different ingredients just blended together in a wondrous mouthgasm. Unfortunately, I only got to experience the mouthgasm for half of it, because this was the dish during which our waitress decided to stand next to me and stare me down as she waited for me to hurry and finish up. Thanks a lot, lady.
Sashimi (tuna, uni, sea brean, fluke, yellowtail) — very large slices served over ice, incredibly fresh and fatty, and really highlights the chef’s talent with raw fish. If I ever come back, I would probably just order sashimi a la carte.
Bozushi (box sushi with kelp, a garnish leaf, fish, rice, capers, and lime on the side) — it had so many different dimensions of flavor, and you get three pieces! Another dish I’d recommend a la carte.
Dessert (matcha green tea mochi stuffed with red bean paste) — this combination is pretty stand, but the mochi had a very strong green tea flavor matched by a red bean paste that doesn’t either fade behind or overwhelm the matcha.
Now, onto what went wrong… which is pretty much everything else. The rest of the dishes were, at best, palatable and unmemorable and, at worst, absolutely disgusting or a complete letdown. My main complaints are geared toward their fried ayu fish that was so overly salted that I actually ion-​burned your mouth (try enjoying your meal when you can actually feel the skin on the roof of your mouth peeling away as the cells shrivel up from the overload of salt) and the tempura, which was served half lukewarm and half cold. The chef had fried one of the tempura items (lotus roots stuffed with shrimp paste and dipping sauce), then left for about 5 – 10 minutes to do something else, before returning to make the other component of the tempura (angelica sprout). In that time, the lotus roots cooled down, and it also took them so long to bring out this tempura dish that even the angelica sprout was at best mildly warm when we bit into it. Tempura isn’t supposed to be served cooled! That makes the breading soggy and gross, which was exactly the case here. I’d tell you more about what I didn’t like with the remaining other dishes, but they were just that forgettable.
When the check came, we saw that the price per person was $ 135. Okay, at a *good* omakase place, you can justify charging that much, but with a place that serves you multiple courses of unimpressive food (or food that has cooled down from sitting out too long) and paces the food so awkwardly that you can’t take the time to properly enjoy your food… never again! You can almost rationalize $ 95, but $ 135? No way!
To add insult to injury, they also tacked on a 20% service charge… for incredibly sub-​par service. In summary, we paid about $ 350 for one of the most disappointing omakase I’ve ever had in my life. You might have the best sashimi in Columbus and one of the best chawanmushi I’ve ever had (so there’s where your two-​star rating comes from), but you didn’t even let me enjoy those dishes properly. Omakase isn’t just about the food, it’s about the overall experience, and you definitely ruined that for me.

Very unique experience in Columbus, delicious and worth the price! I would go again anytime.

This restaurant has truly lowered our awareness of disgust. Terrible service. Servers with bad attitude. Food just so so but the price is ridiculously high! We asked for tea for more than 4 times but the service was always slow. One of the elder servers was extremely rude. Never been in a more disappointing restaurant before. We’ll never come again and hopefully patronage will stop visiting here!

I was really looking forward to trying this restaurant. The service was so terrible which totally ruined my appetite. My boyfriend and I went for the first time and request to sit at one of those Japanese style table. The old lady was so rude and didn’t give us the table we want. There were plenty of empty tables and it was pretty late at night. We left with a bad mood.

This is the best restaurant in Columbus, hands down. Also the best Japanese restaurant I’ve experienced outside Japan. We enjoy it for the biggest «splurge» events of the year.
Recommend: Call a few days ahead to request a private room and the seasonal specialties:
季節の料理
Kisetsu no ryōri
Chef Mike will ask: How many people? 10 dishes each, right? We then request only 7 dishes per person, but usually end up with more. The charge is $ 10 per person per dish (ordered). He then special-​orders the ingredients from Japan.
This is an entire evening’s entertainment — the dishes come forth, one at a time, each served on marvelous examples of Japanese ceramics, stoneware, porcelain, bamboo, presented by a kimono clad server giving a description of the dish and ingredients. Excellent beer, wine and saki.
Don’t look for Buckeye sushi rolls!
Guests who are fussy eaters shouldn’t worry, since the dishes are accessible, even for the squeamish, and all are TASTY.
This isn’t just a great restaurant — it’s one of the highlights of living in Columbus Ohio, near Honda America headquarters!

My girlfriend had just moved down the street and we stopped to get dog food next door. We walked in and there were zero (zippo, goose egg) amount of people at 6pm. The hostess comes out and says there’s no way we can get in unless we have a reservation or come after 8:30pm. Keep in mind it’s just my girlfriend and I and we even ask about sitting at the bar.
The hostess refused service and when we pressed her about writing a review on Unilocal she started to change her tune. At that point, we were so disgusted that we left and went to the Indian place next door. Some restaurants just have too much business or arrogance.

I came in here with my mom close to the end of the opening time, and the staff accommodated us. We had udon noodles — I had the Nabeyaki Udon, and my mom had the duck udon.
I’ve had Nabeyaki udon here and there and it’s been «okay». But here, what stood out to me was the flavor of the mushroom. it was phenomenal! So savory! It’s worth it. The broth was very rich too. This was fantastic.
The duck udon was very delicious as well. The soup was very savory and plentiful.
The staff was fine. A little slow, but I did come at the end of the day.
Try the nabeyaki udon. The mushrooms are amazing. :o

Wow what a find in Columbus. This is a real-​deal authentic Japanese restaurant with excellent fresh fish, good variety, and outstanding cooking and knife skills to boot.
The maître’d is a little overly formal, but the isn’t a trained smiles type of restaurant. Once you plop down at the counter and act like you know what you’re doing the personnel are friendly even engaging.
I started with a maitake mushroom soup, which was very sophisticated and full of shrimp, fish, mushrooms (of course), and gingko not. Loved it.
Next up was chef’s assortment of sashimi. This is the highlight here, as the pieces are expertly cut, the fish selection is top notch (think toro uni and amaebi), and the garnishment are quality (real wasabi seaweed and shiso leaf).
Kumamoto oysters were fresh and bright.
Hamachi Kama was the most savory. Served with real ginger, grated radish, and ponzu sauce. The real kicker here was the large portion and the perfect broiling. Crispy skin and succulent meat. Exactly how it should be done fresh.
Second sashimi course was tako, ika, and toro from another part of the tuna belly. As good and interesting mix of textures. The ika was seared for a little more caramelization.
The one misstep was the tempura lotus root which was a little low brow for me. I threw in the towel in mock protest! :)
Anyway an outstanding restaurant I cannot recommend enough for the discerning foodie.

Very good sushi, and the quality is surprisingly great. The other dishes were good as well. The ankimo was really good. The rest of what we had was standard izakaya fare, and was okay. Ordered black cod collar (off the menu), and was okay too, nothing to rave about aside from the fatty deliciousness you should expect.

We sat next to the kitchen. The chef is kinda scary. Very serious, and good at what he does, obviously. Amazing knife set.

My boyfriend and I were looking for some good Japanese restaurants around Columbus, and had seen very good reviews for Kihachi, so we decided to give it a try as a fancy dinner one night. We were not disappointed and are happy to write a review about our excellent experience here. If you’d like to go, either make a reservation on a weeknight, or call more than a few days in advance for weekend seating. The seating area itself is small, and it seemed to be pretty popular for groups.
If you enjoy seafood, you’ll find some very fresh and amazing options. We opted to order a bunch of tiny side dishes, and then split one order of the Nabeyeki udon. The dishes are prepared when ordered, and they come out as they are ready (so mostly cold dishes first, then the hot dishes later). We enjoyed the grilled pike, grilled mackerel, salmon roe, fried lotus root with shrimp paste, fugu, and udon. We didn’t particularly enjoy the shrimp sashimi (but that was more of a personal thing because it was very fresh but not really our thing). We opted not to go for alcohol since it seemed too pricey. Everything in general is on the pricey side but it’s not unreasonable for the quality of food. The environment was very relaxing, quiet, the waiters are pretty helpful in making recommendations. We’ll be back!

Quick summary: food was good/​as expected. Visit
Customer service and waiters attentiveness was poor and lacking. Alcohol fairly pricy. Food also pricey. Expect minimum $ 20/​person.

I heard about this place from some one that loves food and my expectations were high.
After my sashimi dish I was already speechless and everything that I thought I new about food and fresh sashimi went out the window with a bang.
I am very jealous we don’t have chef Kimura
In Chicago ! We have chef Takashi:)
But this is a totally different experience to be able to watch chef cutting sashimi !!!
AmaiZing !!!
Thank you for this !

Very authentic Japanese restaurant. Wonderful food, terrible service.
Ambiance:
We called ahead and made reservations based on Unilocal reviews, and that proved to be very useful. The restaurant is very small with a short kitchen bar, a couple of private Japanese tables, and a few four top tables. The inside is clean and very nice, especially when seeing the location is at a strip mall. We sat at the bar and could see how every dish was meticulously prepared.
Food:
Chef’s choice sashimi $ 30 — very fresh and delicious assortment, very small portions (note they serve sashimi but no sushi rolls)
Nabeyaki $ 13.99 — udon noodles with seaweed, egg, mushrooms, chicken, shrimp tempura all simmered in clay pot. Yum! Watch out though, it’s super hot
Duck soba $ 16.99 — very flavorful broth, somewhat oily and fatty for my taste (but expected for duck)
They had many small appetizers sent out that looked delicious. We are planning to go back and try those next time.
The food is definitely overpriced for the portions you’re getting, but it’s backed up with authenticity and freshness.
Service:
Super rude waitress, abrupt, bothered by any questions asked. Maybe it’s a cultural difference? Maybe she hates her job? Even when asking the seasoned chef for suggestions, he seemed exasperated. The quality of the food makes up for this though.
Considering everything, the food was so delicious that we’d go back again.