Okami Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

Came in with a group of 13 after an event nearby and had one of the most frustrating services ever from Okami.

(TLDR: Waiters never coming to table for ordering, unless I walked over to counter and told them to. Asked to speak to manager and was told they will come over to table, never came. Food orders came 1 hour after we ordered them.)

Our guests came in two groups, but once all our guests had arrived we sat on our table ignored for 25 minutes. We got to watch the table next to us order more food with plenty of dishes already on their table, yet did not bother to approach us with no drinks or food. Only one bottle of water that lasted about 2 minutes for the whole group of 13. We tried making uninterrupted eye contact with waiters (we did not want to be rude) but all 5-7 waiters did not glance over once. Some were just stacking plates up even, so didn't feel like they were too busy. Eventually after 25 minutes I lost patience and had to approach the payment counter to ask them to serve us and when the drinks we ordered 20 minutes ago were going to arrive.

When we did order food, some plates took over an hour to arrive. Some dishes never arrived or required us to walk over (again) to payment counter to ask why they weren't coming. By the time most of our first round of ordered food arrived, the kitchen was about to close so we didn't even get a chance to order much else. I was so unsatisfied with how my group was served that I requested to have a chat with the manager, which the staff at the front end seemed uncertain and told me the manager would come over to our table to have a chat. If they did come over, they most certainly didn't introduce themselves and offered more drinks on the house which was pointless at that stage since all the food was eaten. The food, however, was solid but was fragmented in being served. (We got steamed vegetables last and rice early with nothing at the time to eat with rice).

Incredibly disappointed by the service from staff being ignored for a good portion of our stay there. We have tournaments for Japanese games around the corner, so your restaurant works perfectly for our group. If our next service is similar to our experience this weekend, we will be searching for a more grateful business around the corner. I wish I didn't choose to go there that night, hardly had a chance to order and get our money's worth from the...

It was great to try Japanese cuisine other than just sushi, my boyfriend and i had a good time here. The 3 star rating is due to the quality of some foods and quite a long waiting period between food being delivered to the table. The Shumai we order was delivered quickly after we ordered it, but was super mushy and fell apart when picking it up (one was already broken in half when delivered). Growing up in an asian household, I’m used to authentic dumpling and shumai recipes which have never been mushy and have been taught this means it’s over cooked or old/reheated! Our Prawn dumplings were also super mushy and soggy feeling on the inside which neither of us were used to or liked. The takoyaki were pretty bland and there was some mushy filling with one or so pieces of octopus inside, the dried fish flakes made it all taste super fishy and overpowered the other flavours. We also ordered the Arabiki sausages which we received quickly, but the skin of the sausage was super hard and made it difficult to eat. It ended up tasting like a cheap version of cheesy kranski from supermarkets. Last little thing, we had finished the bottle of water and couldn’t wave down any staff to refill it, even tho many walked past and around us collecting other dishes. We ended up putting the empty bottle with our empty dishes at the edge of our table but neither were collected.

We really enjoyed the teriyaki steak, however only wish it was a larger portion for two people. The miso soup was refreshing but was only given in one bowl one spoon for the two of us. The curry katsu udon noodles was also tasty, just make sure to mix everything before eating!! We also enjoyed the chicken karaage, the sauce was really nice. Unsurprisingly, the sushi was awesome and we wish the portions were larger for a two person serving!! One of our favourite parts of the night was the delicious ice cream, we highly recommend the green tea (tasted like matcha) and black...

Its changed from a year ago when i first went to Brunswick/Coburg Okami (on Moreland Rd). Don’t waste your time here. The table was set with dirty old gum in a used serviette, there was no condiments on the table. Staff ignored us. We arrived to find out or booking ahead had not been recorded and It took 10 min waiting to be seated, another 20 min to be looked at to have our order taken. It was 30min into service by the time our orders were taken. We ordered sashimi platters to have half a platter arrive (not as advertised, as previous reviewer has photographed), and when asked staff was told ‘thats only menu example and not same”. Staff continually walked past out table without checking if we were ordering more in this (place of continual reorders of all u can eat) and took us ages to get more sashimi after 3 different wait staff ignored us and we FINALLY got their attention. Then as getting attention difficult, we asked for condiments (soy sauce) and after politely asking staff, they turned their back ( thought we couldn’t see) and pulled rude mocking faces despite my patient and polite demeanour (I was told his ‘Australian name’ was Ian. Normally I would not name and shame, however considering the overall disappointment my table felt, and how rude staff were and petty staff were to me over asking for soy sauce, I thought sharing my experience (consistent with other reviews) to be somewhat valuable. Don’t waste your time at this restaurant. It might be better to go to a shopfront with handrolls….

As an update and reply to Okami’s response… I would only consider that genuine if you responded appropriately when I said something at the time in shop and not just respond when you get a bad review. You actually have no necessity for my details, only necessities is to repair the service staff. Every staff who walked past our table without checking and other staff who were...