Kamakura Japanese Restaurant

Japanese restaurants are known for serving aesthetically-pleasing food which is as good as it looks. Their major foible is the fact that their food never truly gets you stuffed. This place does neither. I clearly asked for no onions on any of my order... But they put onions on every aspect of my bento box.

Some of my colleagues were not even close to being full when they finished with their order. My below average bento box cost a total of $12 too. The price isn't worth it for the quality or quantity.

First of all, by the looks of the outside of Kamakura, I thought that the inside would look just as sketchy, but this was not the case at all. Once I opened the front doors, it was like stepping into a whole new world. It was very pretty, neat, and tidy inside. I particularly liked the booths with glass tables. They have decorative cloths covering the windows that gave the place a dim, kind of romantic lighting. It complimented the shades of blues on the booths. Another cute detail was the mini Japanese statues and figurines on the wall opposite of the windows. It helped to show a little bit of culture.

There were 3 different menus, one for drinks, sushi, and Teppanyaki (Hibachi) and Teriyaki dishes. Their menus were detailed which helped a lot especially on their drinks menu. I do not find too many menus that define what flavors to expect with their sakes and wines. Although I did eye the Japanese dish menus, I was set on sushi.

We ended up waiting over an hour for the sushi. They were short staffed. Only one waiter was going around taking orders and delivering the food. I saw two hostesses when I walked in which was strange to me because why would they need two hostesses when they needed more waiters. Then again it is a small restaurant and the sushi had a bit of a twist.

My friend got miso soup, eel roll, and tempura salmon roll. I got a spicy scallop roll, Philadelphia roll, and spicy salmon roll. The miso was a bit salty. The eel roll was tasty. The tempura salmon roll was really cute. It looked like little tofu squares. The spicy scallop roll was so spicy that it covered the taste of the Philly roll. I made a mistake by eating that first. I thought that the pieces of fish in the sushi were a good size. Also I have never seen a spicy salmon roll made the way they made it. It has a piece of salmon in the roll and then spices on the outside. To me, I like heat so this roll was not spicy enough for me. This is where the abundance of spicy sauce on the spicy scallop roll helped out. If I come back, I would try

Since the prices are a bit on the expensive side, I might come back here when I'm really craving sushi or Japanese food. I did enjoy the décor and small twists on the rolls though. I think this place is one of the better sushi places in Champaign-Urbana.

OK....so when I give this place 5 stars...it's because this is as good as sushi gets HERE!
Really, the sushi is simple, delicious, the appetizers are great, the service is always good...there are lots of great things about this place. If this restaurant were in the middle of downtown, it would be %100 packed, %100 of the time!
Thank goodness it isn't, because I have never had to wait for a table.
Order the German roll (weird, I know, but it's GREAT), the Terayaki Mushrooms, the Gyoza, and the Nigiri... Also for dessert try the Mochi with red bean.. YUMMY cold chewy deliciousness!

Yum!

It's been a family tradition to go here for the teppan tables for anyone's birthday. It just really cozy and you get to sit around and talk while the chef prepares your food in front of you. It's great because my dad could get his white rice and steak while I can get sushi and eel and whatever else I feel like trying at the time. It will be sure to make everyone happy!

The teppan meals are probably the best value since you get salad, soup, choice of meats (or two or three) and rice and veggies. You leave feeling SO full! Actually, I'd recommend sharing a portion because there's just way too much food!

Don't forget to get some green tea ice cream for dessert :)

Place is relatively nice. Went on a Tuesday night, no crowd at all. I mostly got sushi rolls, and those were quite excellent. Nice, quiet ambience. Little to no loud conversation, soothing atmosphere. Maybe best for couples or business dates. Would not recommend families.
Delicious sushi, though! I recommend the rainbow roll, fantastic.

Ugh. This place is always packed for reasons I can't quite grasp. The parking lot looks crowded every time I drive by. Sometimes I'm suspicious that they must hire confederate diners to make the place look popular and lure unsuspecting customers inside.

I only have one thing to say about the service here. This is the type of place where the wait staff will judge you by your potential to tip, and then ignore you if you obviously fall into the category of "poor college student." If you come here, regardless of your background, at least dress like you own money so that you'll get your drinks refilled.

On a particularly busy weekend night, I showed up with a friend and expected to wait for for a table. Good news: we were seated immediately. Bad news: we were seated at a teppenyaki table...when we had no intention of eating teppenyaki...and we had to share the table with a large family who we obviously did not know. Don't get me wrong, I am not offended by cafeteria-style dining (I'm a college student, after all), but this should not be the seating arrangement at a place that presents itself as some kind of fine restaurant. Throughout the meal, I had to whisper to my dinner companion to avoid disrupting a stranger's family dinner (awkward?). Be careful about bringing a date here, or at least make a reservation in advance.

The food? Blegh. Let me be clear on this--I've tasted sushi on both the east coast and west coast, and I am in no way prejudiced against eating sushi in the Midwest. I even think there's some decent sushi in Champaign (at other restaurants), so my standards are not impossible to meet.

Again, I've always eaten at Kamakura on busy nights, because I naively assumed that most sushi restaurants will bring out the best fish when serving crowds of customers. Instead, I received garbage that smelled and tasted like rotting fish. Maybe by the time they got to my order, they had to use the smelly leftovers at the bottom of the barrel? When I got home, I tried to purge my mouth with Listerine. Even with it's advertised "deep-cleaning action," I couldn't get the taste of putrid fish out of my mouth. I drank some coffee, chewed gum, etc., but there was no redemption from the haunting taste of old fish. My suggestion? Stick to the cooked dishes at Kamakura: tempura, teriyaki, udon, etc.

With so many better sushi restaurants in the area, I don't see how Kamakura hangs onto customers. I can forgive bad service, but food that ruins your breath for an entire day is not acceptable. This is the kind of place that gives sushi a bad reputation.

Came here for my friend's birthday. I heard great things about this place so I had high expectations. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed.

The pros: the hibachi chef was very entertaining and friendly. the food was delicious, especially the scallops - perfectly seared with a golden brown exterior and tender interior

The cons: small portions for what you pay for, the server didn't seem to know the menu at all - seemed really frazzled, asked him several questions that he didn't know the answer to, had to ask for refills on my drink countless times, overcharged my friend's credit card by like $40...wtf.

Overall, the food was decent, service was not great...not impressed

We arrived at 8:45 pm on a Wednesday evening (they close at 9:00 pm). The 'OPEN' sign was on and clearly blinking 'OPEN'. They appeared to be slow but had several tables with guests in the dining room and two tables of guests at the grill.

We asked to be seated at the grill. We were refused service and told they were getting ready to close. I cannot image turning away business in a poor economy. We generally spend at lest $50.00 a person there..which I think is significant for the Champaign-Urbana market.

The hostess repeatedly said, we cannot serve you because the staff would have to wait on you to finish your meal. I will never go back. If they had been completely empty I would have had a better understanding of their position. And if they stop serving at a specific time before they close, perhaps they should turn off the 'OPEN' sign.

Adam at the Teppan table was fantastic. Request him; you will not be dissapointed! Everything was really good. I had the fillet mignon, fried rice,, salad with house dressing, and miso soup. very good choices. I would defiantly get thier house dressing. The show Adam puts on in front of you with fire and knives and spinning and throwing things is really cool.

on a down note, our waitress was kind of slow. I think she might have been busy and been given too many tables. Certainly not her fault and she tried and was pleasent, I just wish she would have came more. Upsettingly, they were out of both kinds of draft beer and out of the first two bottles of beer that I ordered.

I can't wait to go back. I will defiantly get the house salad dressing again, the miso soup, fried rice but I might try aa seafood next time. If you are looking for a fun date night dinner with more than just a meal brought to your table, don't pass this place up; make reservations now.

-reservations are suggested.

The one star caption says, "Eek! Methinks not."

The two star caption says "Meh. I've experienced better."

If there was a way I could pick 1.5 stars, I would. But for this specific case, I'll round up.

I absolutely love Japanese food and don't get me wrong, the food is edible, it's just not good for the price.

I remembered that every time I came here to eat, I was dissatisfied and for some reason today, I had a huge craving for Japanese food (and not just sushi) and sought out to find some. My mind immediately shot to Kamakura and I thought, "Ohhh, it wasn't THAT bad!"

I sat down and ordered my food. I got the lunch special of a Tonkatsu Bento Box and Green Tea.

Boy was I surprised.

The first thing that happened was that I got my tea...

The green tea tasted old... I drink green tea daily and I expected that the green tea at a Japanese restaurant would at least taste equally as good as the tea I make in the mornings with a teabag and hot water... but it wasn't. It was old and it tasted a little funny.

I decided, I could forgive it if the food tasted mediocre.

5 minutes later my Bento Box came and my face lit up with a smile. I absolutely could not wait to take a bite out of the rice and go to town on my Katsu!

I broke my disposable wooden chopsticks, picked up a chunk of the rice, and happily put it in my mouth. My smile disappeared after I bit down on the rice. Something was different... I looked down at the rice and ah ha! They did not use traditional Japanese rice.

I was instantly sad and looked to the only thing in my Bento Box that wasn't a garnish... the Tonkatsu. I picked it up and with a sigh, took a bite. Ah... tough and overcooked. At least when I dipped it into the sauce they provided, it tasted better.

I ate the food... and it was edible at most. You can enjoy the atmosphere there with a friend as I have, but in terms of food I was quite disappointed. In fact, I was so motivated to remember about why I don't want to go here again that I started this yelp account and this is my first review.

So for me personally? If I'm looking for Japanese food, I will never go here again... I'll just stick to the sushi at ko fusion and look for Japanese food in another town.