Kenko

Good concept, bad execution. Bland rice, small portions for the price. Doesn’t feel authentic. However, the bubble tea is great.

Made-​to-​order custom sushi rolls with bubble tea is good. If you want more, get teriyaki rice. The bubble tea girl there is cute too.

Fantastic! The build-​your-​own sushi bar is great with a wide variety of proteins, veggies, and toppings to choose from. The staff was great, my sushi maker was even bilingual! It was a nice treat to be served in my foreign native language :). I would definitely come back.

My dad and I stumbled upon Kenko before seeing the Cleveland Orchestra to get a bite to eat before the concert. OHMYGOD was it amazing!
First off, when you came into the restaurant, they had iPads that you could order your food and pay without talking to a cashier, which is nice if you don’t necessarily like talking to someone to order your food, like me. The food was also ready very fast so there was very little wait time.
I ordered the chicken teriyaki with fried rice and sautéed mushrooms and it was heavenly. The portions they gave you were huge so you could save the rest for leftovers. I got their miso soup as well and that was also very good.
I am so glad that my dad and I found this place and I am positive that I will come again next time I visit Cleveland!

How have I never had bubble tea before!!! This stuff is amazing. I will totally be going back to try all the flavors. I got the oolong milk tea this time. The beef and chicken teriyaki bowl was good too but I’m wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with the mayo-​ish yum yum sauce since it didn’t seem to fit the meal. The tea is what I will definitely be going back for.

I’ve never tried the sushi here, but the teriyaki bowls are bomb dot com! I always get the chicken teriyaki. It comes in a huge portion! The chicken is very tender and savory. The sauce is what tops it off! It’s like a thousand island dressing but much better! Treat yourself by getting the teriyaki bowl and a delicious cup of bubble tea! The bubble tea here is so so so good! I recommend the green or black milk tea with tapioca, half ice and 75% sugar! You cannot go wrong with this order :)

Love the sushi deal (8 piece roll for about $ 8) and it tastes fresh. I love making my own rolls and having the ability to mix and match and (hopefully) end up with a delish lunch or dinner. They also have standard rolls and specialty options which are a little more expensive
Tried some of the chicken rice bowl and I wasn’t a fan. Chicken was tender but the sauce was very thin so the flavor wasn’t impressive. Also too much veggies for my liking but I’m a carnivore so I won’t hold it against them
Loved the bubble tea. So far I’ve only tried passion fruit and mango (I’m not very adventurous once I’ve found something I like) and the tapioca pearls have a perfect texture. Overall so happy this place opened up!

I love the build-​your-​own-​roll concept, and have had a good build-​your own-​roll experience. Unfortunately Kenko fell short from the first experience (at a place called Fusian in Columbus — which has been reviewed!).
Overwhelming flavor was rice in all rolls ordered ever (I have been twice). Mushy rice… Which is incredibly unpleasant to me as a rice and vinegar fiend. Brown rice was ordered and it was hard, which tells me under cooked, BLECH. I have «tasted» all the raw options (excepted smoked salmon because I don’t consider that raw) and they all have been lackluster. I have also done the cooked items minus chicken, beef, tofu (since those feels like cop-​outs to me!). All are just really lacking. And yes, I’ve tried the many toppings and sauces and veggies. They couldn’t salvage the taste.
I’m just so torn really. I want to love them so badly, but just cannot at this point. CSU, Case, and JCU student steer clear for now… I will give them this: presentation of food items is clean.
**see me eat #LINvFOOD or #lineatingcleveland on IG**

In town for a meeting, a couple of us wandered around looking for dinner. I had read the reviews for the Bubble tea so I recognized the name when I saw it. We were vacillating between this place and the one across the street and Kenko just looked more inviting. We went in, placed our order on the iPads and took a seat
Our dinners were similar– I opted not to get sushi because I am a huge fan of eel and didn’t see it on the options. Instead I ordered beef teryaki, double veggies, mushrooms and rice. I also ordered the jasmine green tea with double bubbles. When your order is ready, they call your name and you return to the counter to pick it up. Both items came very quickly– much to our surprise because they were getting busy. The beef was sliced paper thin, the veggies slightly al dente and the rice was fresh. The sauce to food ratio was light– just the way I like it. Both my companion and I were truly delighted with our meals. The bubble tea– excellent. I love that you can customize everything from the sweetener to the ice level to the amount of bubbles.
Overall– we couldn’t have asked for better. I have every intention of running over for more bubble tea during our breaks!

What a cool joint! Would have never stopped in here except I happened to be on this side of town for a work event and needed to grab a quick dinner. I stopped in around 6:30pm on a Monday night and was shocked to find a crazy long line for bubble tea.
Their «build your own sushi» line wasn’t as popular, but I decided to go for it since I was in a hurry. Basically you can pick what kind of fish, veggies and sauce you want and you get 8 normal sized pieces for about $ 8. It’s pretty much grocery store sushi, which is to say, it’s not the freshest, it’s not the best, but it’s cheap and fast. I guess if you’re in a hurry and craving sushi this would be a good option?
The star of the show was really the bubble tea though, or I should say, their tea options in general, because they have a TON to choose from, even more than the average bubble tea shop. I ended up choosing the coconut milk tea, and boy was it delicious! It didn’t have a saccharine sweet or artificial coconut taste, but rather something more akin to pure coconut milk. Their drinks aren’t the cheapest, but for the quality I think it’s a fair price.
The food is quick, but you might end up having to wait a while for bubble tea if they are busy, the preparation is almost like a barista line at Starbucks. Fortunately there is plenty of seating inside, including window seats and booths.
Overall, I don’t think I would go out of my way to come here again, but I really enjoyed the experience and would definitely come back for tea again if I was in the area.

Teriyaki bowls and build-​your-​own sushi and bubble tea — an excellent combination for the blossoming food scene of University Circle. It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten in University Circle. I’ll admit that if Kenko was open when I was working in the area, I’d be going quite often.
The «build your own sushi» aspect is pretty novel. First you choose a protein. Then you get a choice of two vegetables. Your chef will then roll your sushi for you and then allow you to choose two sauces and one topping. The sushi doesn’t have to be raw — there are cooked proteins, which include shrimp, crab, chicken, beef, and tofu. Enough vegetable options are available for you to build most of your favorite rolls. Toppings include tempura flakes, fried onions, sesame seed, and kimchi. Also, you’re not limited to the number of items I mentioned — add even more variety for a very marginal surcharge.
I created a salmon asparagus avocado roll with spicy mayo and masago (mini fish eggs)… just because I could. I would rate fish quality slightly above supermarket quality — you’re not going to get Jiro’s here, but for around $ 8, the food exceeds expectations. There’s a lot of people behind the counter and I also observed some confusion between orders — so I guess efficiency in food prep could be improved. I also sampled the chicken teriyaki. It reminded me of the chicken teriyaki you get in the mall food court, but it was still tasty.
The bonus is that you can also buy Kung Fu bubble tea here. I drank an oolong milk tea with my sushi and I thought it was pretty good. Plenty of space to dine in.

I have to give this place 5 stars for their bubble tea, but 3 stars for the food. I’ve been searching for good bubble tea since I did my clinical in DC 9 years ago. It’s taken me 9 years to find bubble tea this good! LOVE it. They make their bobas there on the spot, and the tea is real tea; no artificial flavored powders.
I also tried their sushi and a teriyaki bowl. The sushi was just ok, not great, not awful. The teriyaki bowl was very tasty, but I thought the portion was small for the price.
Will I buy sushi here again? Probably not, but I’ll definitely go back for the tea.

Really liked this place. As soon as you walk through the doors, I can just feel the happy, positive vibes lol (I know, sounds silly). With this place you can make your own sushi… just look on the menu board and you can go to town and be super creative. I wasn’t that bold yet so I opted to get the Ohio Roll. Everyone there was so helpful and friendly. They were giving me suggestions about different menu items which led me to try the Taro Milk Tea. I never had bubble tea so one of the staff members let me sample it… it has a very acquired taste… meh. So they suggested to get the Taro Milk Tea without bubbles. The drink itself was very good and glad it was recommended to me. The Ohio Roll was really good, I love wasabi and kind of wished I had a little more of it lol. I want to go back and build my own sushi and try the other milk tea flavors (the Oreo one… mmmmmm have to get that one).
This place is ah-​may-​zing!

I was really impressed with this place! There are endless sushi-​bilities since you can choose your own ingredients! My personal favorite is spicy tuna, cucumber, avocado, and cream cheese, with kiwi and spicy mayo on top! They fill it, roll it, and slice it right in front of you!
I also had never tried KungFu Tea before, but it is great! The bubbles tasted like gummy bears! I will definitely be coming back!
Also, there are really cool machines to help make the food and such! They have this machine which spreads the sushi rice on the seaweed! They also have these machines which shake the teas, and another which seals your drinks so they don’t spill. This is probably the most useful machine I’ve seen relating to drinks and I think all restaurants should have it!

I’m so excited there’s good bubble tea in University Circle! Heck, i’m glad theres any bubble tea in university circle. It’s about 4 $ for tea with boba. The staff was very informative and patient. I’m glad they have add ons besides the traditional tapioca. It’s really refreshing to enjoy a cold, milk bubble tea in the summer! They will serve it hot, and there plenty of options, drinks are customizable even in terms of sweetness! You can pick 50 or 70 or 100 perc sweetness. 70 percent was perfect for my bubble tea.

On a hot Saturday afternoon, I was craving to get my Asian food fix, and I really like nothing better than a hodge podge of customizable Asian creations. I was really excited to try Kenko because it has two things I value highly in a dining establishment: options and bubble tea.
We drove out to Cleveland Heights for food and boba, and when we entered Kenko, it had a steady flow of business, but was still spacious and quiet. The menu has a lot of choices, and it honestly took me longer than I expected to choose. I decided to get a beef teriyaki bowl, and my SO ordered an beef sushi roll (weird, but we rolled with it.) It took awhile to customize his sushi, and then we were off to the counter to finish up and order the boba I was anxiously awaiting.
I’m a bubble tea connoisseur; I’ve had it in nearly every state and major city on the east coast of the U.S. and Canada. My eyes popped wide open when I heard Kenko had Kung Fu Tea, my Chicago Chinatown favorite. When we had already finished ordering his sushi and I stepped up to the register about to burst with happiness, the staff informed us they were out of bubble tea. I was devastated. If we hadn’t already ordered, I would have shot across the street to Ninja City. I was hoping the food would make up for my sudden state of depression, but it really didn’t. I’d say the teriyaki bowl was a step above Sakkio Japan. The udon noodles were a nice touch, but if you blindfolded me, I would have thought I was eating at the mall. The sushi was actually quite good, but we didn’t feel it was worth a 35 minute drive for with so many sushi options near us.

Oh my oh my oh my. Three for the sushi, but seven for the bubble tea, one for every year that I’ve waited for this day to finally come.
Bubble tea is a tea and milk-​based drink originally from Taiwan, with added tapioca pearls (boba). This place has true, authentic, legit boba, from Kung Fu Tea, a bubble tea chain that is popular all along the east coast and has finally come to town. The boba is cooked perfectly, at the right consistency, not too soft and not too chewy or doughy, and the tea is made correctly. The KF milk tea is what you should get — it’s plain black milk tea. Milk tea does tend to be sweet — you can ask for decreased sugar.
The sushi is fine — it’s slightly better than the quality of sushi you would find in a college cafeteria. The best deal is to make your own sushi roll (8 pieces) for $ 7. You can pick one fish (they only really have salmon, tuna, tempura shrimp), two vegetables, and two sauces (the eel sauce is great). It’s fast and the fish is fresh enough, and the rice is not hard and stale. They also have teriyaki bowls.

The boba is really good. Go try it. Welcome to legit Asian boba guys. Get the green milk tea flavor. You won’t be disappointed I promise.
I haven’t true the sushi so I can’t say much about it.

Kung Fu Tea, welcome to Cleveland.
Cleveland, welcome to legit boba.
I’ll be back…

WAIT. Did you just tell me I can CUSTOMIZE my own rolls??? AHH! personal freedom, creativity, choices, how liberating. lol alas i chose a preset roll. because why, because i need to know what makes a Kenko roll. that’s right, i needed to find out how spectacular a roll is when it’s named after the company. this soy-​wrapped roll filled with shrimp tempura, cream cheese, avocado topped with miso sauce and tobiko was preeeeeetty good, 5 star worthy? nah, 4 stars at most. BUT, the novelty of this place, the delicious drink options, and the fabulous food choices makes this place 5 stars in my book.
KungFu milk tea with «little» sweetness (30%) — still too sweet for my tastebuds, but delicious nonetheless.
Caution: two poorly marked lines. one for making your own sushi (or ordering preset sushi rolls) and another line for teriyaki, starters, and drinks. hopefully this becomes more clear for customers.
Wait for the register is a bit long, but i’m sure this will work itself out over time. Can’t wait to come back and make my own roll!