KOA Restaurant
“It was a perfect night for Ramen/Sorba…our waiter Jorge was very attentive efficient & friendly.”
“For appetizers we had dynamite Edamame, premium kakuni pork bun, pork gyoza and the yuzu crispy shrimp.”
“The fried rice had a good balance of rice, egg and flavor with the chunks of ginger adding just the right amount of pizzazz to every bite.”
KOA Restaurant
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Honestly I'd give this place 2 stars but I'm giving them three because the food that we did eat was pretty good. Maybe it's because we arrived an hour before closing time or maybe it was our waiter's first week on the job but they messed up multiple items and we were just a party of 3. First they got our drink orders wrong and have me an old-fashioned when I didn't order one. Then we specifically asked for the Dan Dan Noodles without beef as 2 of us don't eat beef. Our waiter said they could substitute it with chicken instead. the dish showed up with beef in it and we had to ask twice before he went and asked the kitchen to verify it had beef. And no apology. But he removed the dish. To their credit they took both items off our check without having to ask. I ordered a Mint tea from their menu but then found out they don't have any. Despite messing up the order multiple times we didn't really get an Apology. Overall the food we did eat was pretty good especially the spicy edamame and the (overpriced) pork dumplings. The space is beautiful and the interiors are warm and rustic and welcoming. But not sure if I'd go back.
My teacher friends and I celebrated the end of Teacher Appreciation Week by making the trek from Harlem to Koa.
Food: 3.5-4 stars
I had the Chashu ramen and thought it was decent. I should have ordered the soy milk Dan Dan sorba!! I had a bite of my friend's and was shocked at the rich flavor. Definitely getting that next time. Prices are a bit steep for most things on the menu. ALSO, make sure you ask about the full list of ingredients because people in our group could not eat pork for religious reasons and almost all the ramen selections had pork mixed in without being explicitly stated on the menu.
Service: 3 stars
Our waiter was nice but kind of awkward? For example, he gave us an old drink menu with lots of drinks that aren't available. And when we did order from the right menu, drinks were still not available?
Ambiance: 4.5 stars
We got there at about 7:30 or so on a Friday night. when you walk in, you have no choice but to acknowledge the ambiance and spacious venue. It felt really nice to not have to eat dinner in a claustrophobic setting for once!!!! I really loved the dark but warm lighting. The wood+light fixtures gave the place a nice romantic feel. Wasn't crowded at all.
Went this week for happy hour. Very nice friendly atmosphere. If you arrive after 6 o'clock there's free on street parking until 10pm. I would've given them five stars but they over charged one of the credit cards for a party and they're supposed to refund their money. We shared spring rolls, rolls, Ramen noodles, chicken wings, and pork shumai.
God, this place is good. A very reliable Asian Fusion place that rivals China Grill. It also has great dark "mood lighting" right out of Hong Kong assassin cinema.
We had pork gyoza (dumplings), shumai, two different kinds of ramen, vegetable spring rolls, and something else I forgot. We had tempura brownies for dinner — BAM! — which may have been the best thing. Everything was just delicious.
Why am I taking off a point? My patented P2P ratio (price to portions). The appetizers just weren't very filling. Ramen was good on P2P, though, so really it's like 4.5 stars.
The decor & ambiance was cool. Went on a Thursday night & they had a live DJ bumping great variety of tunes to accommodate all ages. Music wasn't too loud either. Comfortable booth seating. Dim romantic lighting. Very attentive & friendly staff. Our waiter offered us great suggestions & his personal favorites (we liked all of them). Food came out quick. Place was clean. Plate presentations were nice. Food was delicious & flavorful. Recommendations:
– Lycheetini
– Vegetable Spring Rolls
– Dynamite Edamame
– Yuzu Crispy Shrimp
– Pork Gyoza
– Snow Crab Avocado Roll
– Dynamite Tuna Roll
– Brownie Tempura
– Cheesecake Dumplings
Happy hour ranges from 5-7 dollars, but this is only offered at the bar. Unfortunately, the manager wouldn't accommodate for us to bring it our table. (**)
I had the classic ramen and the price range is roughly about the same as most Japanese ramen noodle, but the portion is way to small. The meat was thinly sliced which made it a bite dry and the soup base was on the salty side. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything special or different about it. (***)
The decor was amazing and super fancy. It felt like a night Club when I used their bathroom. (****)
The service felt more like a rush. We had our ordered place fast, but upon check out it was slow. The waiter told us that each individual need to check in on yelp to receive the free scoop ice cream offer so we did it, but then the waiter never even need it. That sucks because one of my friend was having trouble checking in and when she finally checked in the ice cream was brought out to us. Then there was a problem with the bill. We wrote it down on a paper about how much he should run per card and he still made a mistake and accidently ran one card twice. We had another waiter corrected it. (**)
It's a great and awesome ambiance and the general manager is a prince (not literally, just a guy who was really nice to me when I met him). I came here for a networking event and had fun, also got my tap water in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, some men I spoke to (one of whom is a bartender) did not find the bar service as attentive to them as it was to me. I did console him by pointing out my boobs aren't THAT big. I have to see about the menu sometime but as I have my Yelp Check-In deal to redeem I should see about having a date take me for a meal so I can use it.
This is mostly Asian than Italian-Asian.
The place is huge because of its ceiling height! The restaurant is spacious because you are not all crammed up.
The bar area is in the center.
Food is definitely Asian. More of a fusion of Asian food than Italian. Asian modern!
The shrimp appetizer is served in a nice dish with separate wells. They served battered fried shrimp dipped in light sweet-sour style sauce on a creamy sauce for our appetizer.
The kale fried rice is outstanding and flavorful.
The pork fried rice is equally delicious served in an interesting pot that sits in a wooden holder.
The fried chicken in a bed of large Sichuan peppers and other dried peppers had more fried other things like mushrooms and broccoli than it did chicken. Maybe I won't order this next time.
The vegetable Nabe would have been better had it been half less oily. It is a little spicy but pleasantly so. They should call this dried Sichuan peppers with choice of chicken or lobster. About half the plate is inedible dried peppers.
The vegetable sorda was quite good with lots of vegetables. It's like noodles with sauce. I will order again.
For dessert, the brownie tempura was outstanding! This place has a lot of energy because the music is very loud.
On the wall they show fashion modeling on runways from Europe on top of energetic music. Around 7:30 PM, we had a belly dancer dancing around tables.
At the entrance hall they have paintings of the 3 Presidential candidates!
It's more 3-1/2 stars but I cannot click a half on one of the stars.
It's a nice place and most of our dishes were very good.