Okami Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in District of Woden Valley

4 stars is a bit generous. The staff have taken note of the reviews about the sewage smell, and fixed it with a strong green tea and jasmine perfume. The toilets were also very clean.

Went here on Tuesday and it was packed. Reservation was for 7.45pm. We were a bit slow to be seated as the restaurant was packed. A waiter comes and takes down all the numbers of the dishes you would like to try. By the time we got our first dish it was already 8.20, and the second dish came out at 8.35pm. The rest of the dishes came out in somewhat quick succession. Occasionally, the waiters would put down a dish meant for another table, but quickly fixed their mistake.

Serving sizes are very large. It might be better to have smaller portion sizes so ppl can taste a little bit of everything. I felt a massive pressure to eat quickly, as the first hour was already wasted, so could not enjoy the food in a leisurely fashion.

Recommend: Takoyaki Sushi and sashimi platter Mushroom salad. Prawns ( if you are brave enough to break it and eat using hands) Teriyaki chicken skewers

Just ok: Seafood tempura - the veges were ok but the prawn is coated in a thick batter and tastes like a fish and chip shop.

Would not recommend: Seaweed salad - very large portion, can you finish it? ( We returned it so as not to waste it) Squid salad: tastes just ok, very large portion, only order if you can finish it. Squid steak: rubbery and not much flavour. Beef carpaccio - something tasted off.

I was looking forward to the teriyaki steak but it was the last item to arrive. As we couldn't finish the squid salad, I had to sadly cancel the order.

All in all, a wonderful experience and staff tried their best. It must be pretty hectic working there. However, the food didn't give me any level of satisfaction that I would normally get from dining out.

My tips are to go when it's less busy. Order fewer items that you think you will enjoy, instead of trying to taste everything on the menu. You will definitely be full and get your money's worth of food at the end...

Food was mixed, some very good dishes, some quite average. But you've got to be realistic when you go to an eat-all-you-can restaurant, and the food was perfectly acceptable for that context. Unfortunately the service and atmosphere was poor, verging on rude. We booked for the 8-10pm sitting, but at 9pm a waiter came around to take "last orders", and the staff began cleaning the restaurant. By 9:15 they were loudly vacuuming around us and making a show of moving chairs and looking busy. They came right up to our table, and the smell of bleach and detergent was unpleasant and overpowering. In the outdoor seating section a man pulled out a hand drill and started repairing wonky chairs! It was all quite aggressive and overbearing, with no regard for whether we were still eating or whether we might have wanted to stay until 10pm, the advertised end of our sitting. When I was paying the bill and informed the waitress of my concerns, she first denied that the cleaning had taken place, and then argued with me for some time as to whether my complaints were legitimate. At no stage was any humility shown or any attempt to actually listen to what I was saying. It was a real shame, because aspects of the evening and meal were very pleasant. But the overall feeling was one of disappointment, and that's almost entirely down to the staff and their disregard for their customers. When you pay $40 for eat-all-you-can, you might want to have the chance to sit for more than an hour, without being hurried out the door by overbearing staff who just want to go home as soon...

Not sure if the recipes have changed or if there was other changes eg chef, owner, etc but i feel the food is definitely different. This comes in 2 parts - the bad then the good

The bad for me

Some of the foods we had were too sweet. The fried udon noodles was sweet, the spicy ika was overly sweet without a hint of spice, the fried vegetable pancake would have been ok if it wasnt covered with more sweet sauce.

We arrived while it was busy so the initial servings of food were a bit overcooked but as people left the food got better. The yakiniku beef initially was overcooked and came out quite dry and almost crispy. Later serves were loads better.

The miso beef, i found it sweet but maybe it was meant to be that way. I usually dont have it so will leave it at that.

The good for me

Beef carpaccio was good as always. We had almost a dozen serves.

The seasoned squid was good, the chillies taking away some of the sweetness from the other foods away. The cooked prawns were easy to peel. Fortunately for me cos the kid had 2 large serves by himself.

The teriyaki steak was intially a little tough but later serves were nice and tender. And not too sweet.

Honourable mentions are the sushi and sashimi. The fried rice which was surprisingly better than expected. The garlic sauce vegetables. And the takoyaki.

I wanted to get the agedashi tofu but forgot about it amid the chaos that was the kids. However going off how sweet some of the other foods were it may have been a good...