A visit to Downtown's newly opened Kiku, 202 W. Wisconsin Ave., for Japanese-style food will delight diners with its delicious, authentic sushi and teriyaki dishes, but the service may leave customers with a sour palate.
The restaurant opened just across from The Shops at Grand Avenue on Jan. 2. The location used to house Aladdin, a Middle-Eastern restaurant, before that establishment moved to its current home in the Milwaukee Public Market, 400 N. Water St.
A Saturday night visit to Kiku (Japanese for the flower "chrysanthemum,") found the restaurant nearly empty except for a table of young women and one couple seated in a booth. A table for a party of five took a few minutes to be assembled, because most of the restaurant's seating caters to pairs or groups of four at the most.
Once seated, the waiter quickly distributed menus and took orders for drinks. Shortly after, the orders were placed for various sushi dishes and teriyaki-style beef and chicken. The refills were abundant through the soup and salad courses, even for one Coca Cola-addicted diner, and the server seemed dutiful and eager.
Teriyaki and tempura meals at Kiku are previewed by cups of miso soup and salad. The miso soup was flavorful and warm, and according to one of the party with a familiarity with Asian cuisine, it tasted authentic. The salad seemed as though it could have come from a bag, and was nothing more than pale iceberg lettuce, a sad-looking tomato and a slice of cucumber topped with dressing.
When the main entrees arrived, however, the service seemed to fall apart. Despite the fact that the small restaurant was nearly empty by this point, the server's attentiveness seemed to disappear. The rice, which was due to accompany the teriyaki dishes, was absent from one diner's plate, and it took several minutes and a reminder to the server for the rice to be delivered. Someone's fork fell to the floor, and it took another few minutes for a replacement to be found.
The food, though, was good and made the evening worthwhile. The teriyaki sauce was flavorful and the meat was nicely cooked. Sushi dishes were presented on different-sized plates and tasted fresh. The restaurant offers a selection of vegetarian options, too, including the surprisingly tasty vegetable rolls (avocado and cucumbers).
The restaurant's interior is fresh and different. The bright red chairs and stainless steel fixtures make for a bright, streamlined interior, and the high-backed booths would offer a sense of privacy.
Overall, the quality of the food helped to make the dining experience a positive one, but the service standards at Kiku could stand to be improved. We were not offered the option of dessert until one of the party got up to find the server and ask, and it took two staff members several minutes to figure out how to split a check two ways. Perhaps such standards are still being developed because of the establishment's recent opening date, but it made it difficult to take pleasure in an otherwise enjoyable meal.