Okami Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

Us and our friends regularly frequent Okami, and usually go to the Craigieburn restaurant, but tonight we went to Whittlesea instead.

Usually when ordering off the all-you-can-eat menu, the food comes out in to-share portions, which are adjusted depending on the size of the group you’re dining with. Our first order of fried rice came out and was a smaller portion size than the table of 2 people seated next to us received - the entire serving size was around half a cup to split between the 4 of us.

We then struggled to get more than one plate of food on the table at a time for the following 30-60 minutes. We continued to receive extremely small serving sizes that appeared to only be for one person, rather than a share plate for the table as is usual practice. Food that we had ordered never came, and we had to order things numerous times just to get one small serving.

At one stage we received a ridiculously tiny piece of chicken katsu that wouldn’t have even been enough for one person, and at that time we had to ask the waiter what was happening with the serving sizes. He was unable to help us with an answer and got another staff member to come over and help us. She was lovely, and took our feedback on board and followed up with the kitchen. Food then started coming more quickly and they did provide larger serving sizes, however still not all of our orders were brought to the table before our dinner sitting-time was up. We had advised that we wanted ice cream but no waiters came back to get our order, and we ended up leaving without.

Overall, a super disappointing and frustrating dining experience. Many of the other diners at tables around us were experiencing the same frustrations and were openly expressing this.

The food was good, but service was extremely slow and portions were way off the whole night. If this was our first experience at Okami, we...

Okami used to be my favourite restaurant. I used to go there with my partner twice a month on average, however my partner and I have split and due to the 'no lonely people' rule I can't access the all you can eat menu at Okami anymore. I have many friends but not many of them are interested in all you can eat Japanese. I wouldn't mind eating ala carte however it becomes prohibitively expensive quickly and the portions of the things that I like are altered and I can't order just the things like off the all you can eat menu for fare prices. I would be fine with the situation if I could order what I like take away. But the yakiniku Beef don bowl is 95 percent rice and no matter what I say I can't get anybody at Okami to give me a good portion of yakiniku beef for a far price. I would pay $30 dollars for a good sized bowl full of yakiniku beef, but Okami systems swear that this is impossible. You don't know what is going on in peoples lives, She took my daughter without just cause. Losing my favourite restaurant because of your strict rules has been a bigger blow to me than it would seem to most people.. Okami should be more flexible at least with its ala cart and takeaway menu. And lighten up on individuals who love your restaurant they are sometimes the people who need your services most. I am...

Arrived at the restaurant tonight for a relatives birthday. As soon as we sat down, the speakers started blasting “happy birthday” for another table. Now, I don’t have an issue with playing happy birthday for someone, but it was so deafeningly loud I couldn’t hear myself think and the speakers were so cooked that it was insanely distorted.

After this we ordered drinks and a first round of food. I got a coke I needed to follow up on another 15 mins later as it still hadn’t arrived while others at the table had nearly finished theirs, and a tea was stone cold.

Food was ok-ish. Some dishes were quite nice while others were a crime against food. I found a bone in the sashimi by nearly choking on it and the best the staff could do was say sorry, while still charging us full price.

It was otherwise ok but the lows were SO low that I can’t give it higher than 1 star.

I’ll be back when I’m ready to choke on dinner again.

Following day update: 2 of us are...