Sushi Ko — Review by Uncle Roger
Los Angeles, United States — Japanese/Sushi
This Kitchen Nightmares episode features Sushi Ko, a struggling Japanese restaurant run by married couple Akira and Lisa. The restaurant served abominations like sushi pizza and dishes with hair in them, frozen fish, and improperly stored ingredients. After Chef Ramsay's intervention with new equipment and getting Akira back in the kitchen, the restaurant showed promise during a relaunch, though it closed permanently just months later.
What was great: After the renovation and menu changes, customers were satisfied with the food when Chef Akira returned to cooking
What could improve: Sushi pizza was disgusting and an insult to both Japanese culture and pizza, frozen fish that tasted chewy, cold miso soup made the day before, hair found in dishes, overcooked tempura, mayonnaise left unrefrigerated for four years, broken refrigeration units, low quality ingredients, lack of fresh preparation
The Dishes
The menu at Sushi Ko was a disaster of confused fusion concepts. The infamous sushi pizza consisted of baked rice, salmon, crab, mayonnaise, and cheese that tasted rancid and was an insult to both Japanese and Italian cuisine. The miso soup was cold and tasted stale because it had been made the previous day and left to reduce overnight, a food safety nightmare. The green tower appeared to be deep fried wonton skin with spring onion and avocado, but looked more like a brown semicircle and infamously contained a human hair. The sashimi tasted frozen and chewy due to improper freezing and thawing techniques. Tempura was overcooked and mushy because the oil was not hot enough and the batter was too thick. The spicy mayonnaise had been sitting outside the refrigerator for four years without proper storage.
The Experience
The atmosphere was one of desperation and dysfunction. Owner Akira and his wife Lisa were so desperate for customers that Lisa danced in the window trying to lure people in. The kitchen was poorly managed, reusing burned skewers and operating with a broken refrigerator for months. After Chef Ramsay's intervention, he provided seven top-of-the-line Traulsen refrigeration units, two Vulcan deep fat fryers, an eight-ring gas burner, and a walk-in freezer. A complete restaurant redesign transformed the space from tired to modern and fresh. During the relaunch service with Akira back in the kitchen, customers were happy and satisfied with their meals.
Value and Pricing
Price range was not explicitly discussed in the episode, but the restaurant was failing financially, suggesting they were not attracting enough paying customers to sustain operations.
Notable Moments
Chef Ramsay upon tasting the sushi pizza: That is rancid.
Regarding the mayonnaise storage: That's what I heard. Where you hear that from? Is it from the same voices that told you to make sushi pizza?
Chef Ramsay to Akira after the relaunch: Tonight, you are a different man. The change is night and day.
A particularly poignant moment came when Akira finally opened up emotionally to his family about the weight on his shoulders, breaking down the emotional distance that had grown between him and his wife and children over four years.
The Verdict
While the restaurant showed genuine improvement during the relaunch episode with Chef Ramsay's help and Akira's return to active cooking, Sushi Ko ultimately closed permanently in August 2009, just months after filming and before the episode even aired. This suggests the fundamental issues went deeper than equipment and menu changes could fix. The restaurant serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of proper food safety, ingredient quality, and family communication in running a successful business.