Koji's Shabu Shabu & Sushi Bar - Orange, CA

Location: 8.5 Jocey Faces

Located deep inside of the famous Block Of Orange, Koji's is easily found while walking the many paths within the outdoor shopping area. With the guidance of a directory, any traveler will be able to find their way to the prominent corner location within the area.

Parking: 6 Jocey Faces

Anyone who has gone to the Block knows that if you want to get parking, you have to go on a weekday, or come extremely early on a weekend. When I went, I was fortunate to arrive on a Wednesday, so finding parking nearby Koji's was rather easy. But if you wanted to go to Koji's on a weekend evening, it would be a lot more difficult.

Cleanliness: 5 Jocey Faces

From the looks of the restaurant when I first entered, it was very clean and organized ... that was until I was about to be seated. There were several tables that had not been bussed yet. Because of this, I was forced to share a hot pot with my brother. If those tables had been cleaned sooner, my brother and I would have been able to have our own pots. It also didn't help that several of the hot pots were out of order.

Ambiance: 7.5 Jocey Faces

The building seems a lot smaller than what you'd think from the outside. It's somewhat dim, and the radio plays mainstream music from a radio station. Shabu shabu and sushi are divided right down the middle, so you are able to "pick your poison." It was rather comfortable, but the main problem I had was the hostess. We weren't greeted or anything like that, so I felt somewhat uncomfortable just standing there waiting for someone. Finally the manager recognized us, and had us seated.

Service: 9 Jocey Faces

EXCELLENT! Our server (Xander) was like a phantom, bringing and refilling our beverages at a moment's notice, many times not even asking us if we needed anything ... he'd just bring our drinks. PLus since it was my brother's first time to Koji's, he was very helpful in explaining exactly how shabu shabu is dont at Koji's. The 1 point deduction was in the speed of getting our order out to us. If you don't know, shabu shabu is basically boiling thinly sliced pieces of meat and vegetables into a boiling pot of water. It took them a long time to bring out RAW pieces of uncooked meat to us. Yeah ... I shook my head at that as well. Other than that little problem, everything else about the service was spot on.

Quality Of Food: 9.5 Jocey Faces

DELICIOUSNESS TO THE MAXIMUS! I had been to Koji's once before (in Hollywood), but I wasn't able to review it ... now that I have the chance, I have to say that it was QUITE EXCELLENT! I ordered the "Around The World" platter, which included beef, chicken, salmon, and shrimp. It was my version of "surf n turf." All the meats placed into the water cooked quickly, and by placing them in the 2 different dipping sauces (a citrus ponzu as well as a sesame sauce) and eating them with rice, it was just heaven. I added a little green onion & daikon radish to my ponzu to give a little extra flavor and texture, and it helped out dramatically. The textures of all the food after it had been placed in the hot pot were almost like butter: melting in my mouth and just begging to be devoured. The salmon actually surprised me. I was planning on eating the salmon as is, because it was "sushi grade," but my curiousity got the better of me, and I tried it in the hot pot. It was GREAT! It was tataki style, with the nice cooked seared meat on the outside, and the very very rare and tender inside. It was a hot and cold combination that worked really well with each other. My 0.5 deduction? The chicken was still a bit frozen. In order to cut the chicken breast as thin as they do, they need to freeze the chicken breast and then slice it. My pieces of chicken were a bit firmer than I would have liked, but they still tasted great.

Final Score: 7.6 Jocey Faces

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Lei Garden - Washington D.C.

Location: 6.5 Jocey Faces

Located in the middle of Chinatown in Washington D.C., just past the traditional gate to the area that most Chinatowns have, it has a rather interesting position on the street. On one hand, it's very close to the MCI Center (which is where the Washington Wizards play ... Washington D.C.'s answer to the Staple Center in LA), so many of those patrons and business draw traffic to the area. But on the other hand, something that I will be mentioning in the next segment makes it difficult to get to.

Parking: 3 Jocey Faces

Parking in the East coast is significantly different than parking on the West coast. Working with a lot less space, businesses had no room to place parking lots, so they basically made consumers park on the curb ... which is what my family and I had to do. It was quite a walk to get from our parking spot to the restaurant. I could handle it, but if you have problems with your feet, or are just fatigued easily, then choose somewhere else to park.

Cleanliness: 5 Jocey Faces

The carts that were pushed around for the dim sum were well maintained, but what made me score their cleanliness so low was the fact their floor was not swept well, their vacuum was in plain sight from my table, and there was a clothing rack out that had several uniforms hanging from hangers ... next to the stairs that led to the exit. Yeah ... it wasn't a pretty picture.

Ambiance: 7 Jocey Faces

The restaurant itself was 2 stories: the regular restaurant on the bottom floor, with the dim sum service on the top floor. The top floor was quite spacious. If dim sum wasn't being served, it looked as if it could have been used as a banquet space for a wedding or something like that. Pleasant music playing in the background helped make the experience somewhat peaceful, seeing as my family hadn't really slept the night before.

Service: 8 Jocey Faces

Outside of having some food items unavailable right away, the service was rather good. Whenever I go to a dim sum place, my drink of choice is water, and I through many glasses. At Lei garden, the bus "MAN" (yes he was a 70 year old man that knew Fukien like my dad) would always make sure that everyone's water glass was filled. No glass went unlooked. Very attentive. Also, even though some of the food was unavailable, the food that WAS available was rather plentiful, and they traveled around the room several times, making rounds to all the tables.

Quality Of Food: 7.5 Jocey Faces

All of the shrimp items from the menu that I had were delicious ... plus compared to other dim sum restaurants, I had a larger selection of shrimp items. Unfortunately a lot of the other items were rather bland. You needed a lot of the provided soy sauce to enhance the flavor in some way, making it actually salty (which in turn made me thirstier). But if all you want to get is shrimp dim sum items, this is the place to be.

Final Score: 6.2 Jocey Faces