Kona Grill - Kansas City

01/16/09

McDonalds has better fish!

by marc2003 at Citysearch

Been eating sushi for the last 15 years. Waited forever to get a seat at the Sushi bar, placed my order and it took excessively long. There were two rolls I ordered that I didn?t receive had to ask the waitress to removed them from my bill. Quality was as good as the California rolls at cheap Chinese Restaurants on the buffet . I did not leave a tip and didn?t fell guilty about one bit.

• Pros: Drink a lot! It make the food better
• Cons: food

04/20/09

If you go to Kona pay with cash

by CSMobileUser at Citysearch

I have had better sushi from the grocery store. It was tasteless and the calamari was so greasy I could have wrung in out with a napkin. The place was loud and the music blaring didn't help. I ordered a mint julip and the "drink" I was served was a "mint julip" as so far as it had mint leaves in it. I asked the waitress to take it back and off my bill. She did take it back but not off my bill. So when I was paying I asked her to take it off again and gave her my card. When she returned, there was no credit for the drink so I asked her to correct the bill and again she left with my card. The drink was $9.00 and when the waitress can back she said that she void the first charges and recharged the corrected bill. The waitress only took $4.00 off the bill. I was not happy, but I wanted to leave more than argue over the difference. So when I checked my account the next day I had a surprise!!!! The waitress only credited back $1.00 to my account, so I got charged the original bill of $22.98 and the corrected bill of $17.98. So if you want to be overcharged for lousy sushi, bad drinks and leave with a headache, at least pay cash.

03/31/09

Unbelievably Bad

by regulargirl2 at Citysearch

I used to come to this restraunt often when I lived on the Plaza. Now, I come in less frequently...and for a good reason. I have been there twice in the last 2 weeks and the service was horrible. Both times, we sat in the bar. The last time, our server was non-existant and our food took more than 45 minutes to get to our table( reguardless of the fact that we watched it sit in the pickup window for a half an hour as the staff just walked by). Then, we were suprised to find out that our server had gone home. She never told us anything, nor did the new server come up and introduce herself. We almost missed a flight trying to get out of there. A casual lunch turned into a 3 hour ordeal.

Most recently, we were in the bar area again and once again....service was horrendous! Our server was obviously in a bad mood, as she walked around with a scowl on her face all night. We constantly had to ask the bartender for drinks because we couldn't ever find our cheerful little girl. We spent a LOT of money in there and this girl couldn't be more upset about it.

Kona is good, just order it to go. Staff is a pain and not happy that you are there.

• Pros: ambiance
• Cons: service, service, service.

05/03/08

Manager

by benny1960 at Citysearch

I have head the general manager, betsy, is quite a bitc#!! Maybe she needs an attitude adjustment, no?

03/11/08

SoSo Sushi

by FrankBeach at Citysearch

Coming from LA in to KC I was not expecting much from a Sushi restaurant. I got exactly what I expected. You could taste the water in the Sushi which had been frozen and thawed improperly. The rice was large grain, cold and hard. I have no idea how they can stay in business serving this stuff and calling it Sushi. The service was average and the girls up front tolerated the crowd of people that wanted to be seated. Overall this was not a very good experience on any level. I will not be back.

05/17/07

Poor customer service

by stipule at Citysearch

I was a regular at Kona and had a problem with my meal and asked to speak to a manager. Betsy Hamlin was the manager and I explained the problem with the food and she was very rude and short in the response of the problem which should have been a simple fix. I frequent Kona and the food is good and there was something in this dish. Because of her rudeness I have chosen to go to other places on the Plaza and have told friends the same.

• Pros: Food/Scene
• Cons: management

04/20/07

Highlight: Sushi

by dnebel at Citysearch

Writing a review for Kona Grill can be tricky.

Due to its nature, the restaurant can attract different types of people. Individuals might like it for its bar area and the yuppie crowd that frequents it; others might enjoy the sit-down dining aspect of the establishment. I find myself eating Kona Grill's sushi -- more precisely, enjoying their Crab Crunch Roll and Eel Roll.

Although the Midwest is not necessarily known for seafood or sushi, this does not mean tasty food of its kind is nonexistent. Kona Grill's sushi bar -- sufficiently shielded from the "meat market" clamor of the other bar -- offers a few excellent options, primarily the Crab Crunch Roll, Soft-Shell Crab Roll, and Eel Roll. Other options have proven to be standard quality -- satisfying but nothing memorable.

Service-wise, it's a mixed batch. Different people, different experiences.

If you're in Kansas City and are looking for decent sushi, contemplate visiting Kona Grill. Otherwise, hop over to Jun's (and try their Jun Roll) -- possibly your only other option for higher quality sushi in the Kansas City area.

• Pros: Certain sushi rolls
• Cons: Yuppie hot spot

Editorial Review by Christy Buena

by Contributor at Citysearch

Popular eatery offers late night happy hours, fresh seafood, steaks, prime filet and rib eye with an Pan-Asian twist.

12/27/06

WORST service!!!

by trayesse at Citysearch

The food was indeed tasty, however it did not make up for the extremely poor service and attitude that we recieved from a certain waitress...Diane was her name. She has waited on us a few times and is always less than pleasant as if we ruined her day by stopping in for dinner. Waiting tables IS her job...at least we so assumed when she came to take our order. We always try to stay upbeat and not let her completely ruin the atmosphere. This in itself is a chore after a long day of work. Diane continues to walk around with an unpleasant scoul across her face-and don't try to cheer her by any means-she likes to be mad. Maybe we will hear of her on the news soon, after she takes the pills and pretends that it was an accident! We could all only be so lucky. If Kona was smart and truly cared about making their environment an enjoyable one-they would let this suicide case go on with her waitressing act somewhere else.

• Pros: sushi is good
• Cons: Service and Management extremely poor

11/18/06

Good if your in need of a Sushi fix

by luvs2travel at Citysearch

We had to try it. I wouldn't say it was the "best" Sushi we ever had (it is in the heart of the midwest). It wasn't the worst either. We enjoyed our meal & probably would go back.

We could tell that perhaps Sushi isn't universally loved by KC when the server said to us "that's alot of sushi... are you sure???". The puzzled look on his face was priceless. He was however a great server and very attentive despite his shock that folks might like Sashimi over the safer choice of a California roll.

The bar area gets quite busy, & it seems a mostly young 20something crowd. Not our type of crowd, but if you are looking for a hopping spot on the plaza, here it is.

• Pros: It's Sushi in the heart of the midwest - Pretty decent
• Cons: It's Sushi in the heart of the midwest - Pretty decent