I LOVE sushi. As such, I had high hopes for Koi. Silly me. While the ambiance and location are great, (walking distance to El and Metra), the food is only mediacore and the service is a joke. Twice in the past we have attempted delivery and then carry-out. Both times the soups and sauces were spilled in the bag. While we were compensated with gift certificates ($25 the first time and $50 the next), I should have known that this was a great fore-shadowing of what would happen if I decided to have my birthday dinner there. I called Wednesday to reserve an 8:00 table for 11 people on Saturday night. Saturday morning Koi called to confirm. We arrived at 7:55 and waited AN HOUR AND FIFTEEN mintues for a table. Thats right. 95 grueling minutes for a reservation that was made 4 days in advance. So we sat at the bar, where NONE of our drinks were compted. Yes, the manager gave us 2 bottles of their second-to-cheapest wine, but that was it. We got a slew of excuses until they finally decided to squeeze some tables in for us. And I really mean squeeze. It was VERY tight. Once we were seated, the service did not get much better. The waitress failed to ask if anyone wanted a drink other than the cheap red wine. Which, many of us did. A few of us had to ask repeatedly for water. Some people ordered appetizers as a main dish, and they were brought out long before the rest of us recieved our meals. They were also out of my favorite sushi. :-( There are a few other great suchi spots in Evanston. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go to them instead! Koi is WAAAY too expensive for the quality of both food and service that they have to offer. We should have just walked over to Potbellys . . .
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