Okami Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

I genuinely hate leaving this review, because we dined here opening weekend & walked out absolutely stuffed & having had the most positive dining experience wed ever had in a local restaurant- to the point we have been recommending Okami to everyone we know.

On this, our second visit, our experience couldn't have been more different.

We arrived at 5:45pm & were seated at a "booth" off to the side near the toilets.

At 5:50pm we were ready to order. We ordered soft drinks (after trying to order wine & being advised they STILL didn't have their liquor licence) & 4 dishes to start with (spring rolls, teriyaki chicken, fried rice & ika spicy miso yaki). The spring rolls came out within 3 minutes & were perfect, so we assumed we were off to a great start.

Our teriyaki chicken came out a few minutes later, we each had a piece, & spit it back out in our napkins - after closer inspection the entire dish was gristle & fat & inedible

At 6:20 we were still waiting for our drinks, fried rice & squid. We asked one of the waitresses to follow up & the drinks came out about 5 minutes later. A few minutes later the squid arrived- unsliced & overcooked. After trying to get staff attention for a few minutes, we gave up & used a butter knife from a neighbouring table & used that and a chopstick to cut it up.

At 6:30 we managed to wave down another waitress and ordered more dishes (chicken katsu, prawn & vegetable gyoza, chicken karaage, potato croquettes).

At 6:40 the table next to us (who were up to their desserts) were given a fried rice. Thinking nothing of it, we kept waiting. A few minutes later they asked us if we had ordered rice, & handed it over to us.

At 6:45 the table two over from us got given our potato croquettes. At 6:50 the table next to use (still eating half of their desserts as they were still waiting on ice cream) were given our karaage. Both dishes were passed down to us as by now the tables surrounding us had noticed what was happening to the point one had commented we were a "ghost table" that was apparently invisible.

At multiple points we had tried to wave down wait staff to be made eye contact with, then ignored.

At 7:10 we gave up trying to get staff to serve us, & my husband went up to who we assume was the floor manager, & asked if we could at least get some desserts. She explained that there were 3 new staff working the floor, & put our dessert through with the comment "URGENT" attached.

At 7:20 a waitress came around telling everyone it was final orders & trying to take dessert requests. We repeatedly tried to explain we already had ordered, & were just waiting for them to come out.

At 7:25 half our dessert order came out (we asked about the rest and it came out 5 minutes later). The dai-fuku arrived still frozen, & the green tea ice cream had obviously been put out & then refrozen as there was a frozen pool of ice cream around the base, & what looked like a spoon mark in it.

At 7:30 (as we were getting up to pay) our chicken katsu came out. We sent it back.

In a near 2 hour seating, we spent maybe 15 minutes eating and the rest of the time waiting and trying to chase up our food. In the time we were waiting, we saw multiple tables around us having the same issue (only the tables of two- group tables seemed to constantly have food arriving) & noticed that not only did the floor staff have NO idea what orders belonged to which table, but instead of the staff bring out plate by plate of food for tables as they were ordered, massive trays of the same dish were being ferried around. As an ex hospitality worker, this leads me to believe that food wasnt being made as it was ordered (thus being received by customers in a timely & ordered fashion) but instead in bulk lots & if you happened to have ordered that item around that time, you were lucky enough to receive it.

When going to pay, we ended up waiting over 5 minutes before she was able to take it, and no apology was issued.

I can't understand how such a great business has gone so bad, but it left us very...

This is our first time to dine here. We arrived at 6:35 and they advised that we can only order until 7pm and finish by 7:30. Even we think it’s too rush, we still agreed. We wash kids hands, sit down, sanitize the high chairs and the dining table, time became 7.43. ordered our first round food, food comes quickly. However only a few minutes later, they asked us for last order. We became nervous as we only started eating. We ordered a few dishes for children and for ourselves, including a fried udon noodle. Since then, we started to push food into our mouth and keep reminding our children to eat faster. My little on is just two year old and she need some help. The staff came to remind us time is running low for a couple of times, so we always look the clock and very nurvous, and the whole dining experience is soooo bad.

No talking, no drinking, just eating, quickly eating.

All of the other food were almost finished, but the fried udon was untouched as we really running no time. I even yield at our children to push them eating faster as the staff really gave us lots of pressure. And we both know time is running low. 7.22pm, staff came to us and said you have no time left and you wasted the noodle and a bit of other food, so we have to charge you penalty. I asked the staff that children are still eating, can we take away the food? She refused. Therefore, she issued a new bill with penalty for us. we paid for the bill and still not feeling full. After arrived at home, children ask me to make a noodle soup for them as they are still hungry. But both my husband and my stomach feeling not well because we eat too quickly and the whole dining is full of pressure.

So if you take children to dine in this restaurant, please aware of the time limit. 45 min is really not enough to finish eating and not a great dining experience at all. This is even worse than a fast food restaurant. The pressure we feel is so...

I went there last night with my partner for the all you can eat session at 7:45. The whole restaurant was packed with people and the restaurant had a very friendly and warm vibe.

The food was very yummy and visually appealing. My favourite dishes were the Miso Steak and the homemade Green Tea Ice-cream (If you don't like Green Tea/Matcha don't get it)

The waiting staff are all very friendly and nice/ easy to talk to.

I really wanna come back with a big group of friends because this place is really good with both quality of food and value for money.

For diners wanting to go here I suggest (like another reviewer) to order a bunch of dishes at once, since it can be bothersome to the waiting staff to keep coming back and you might have to wait a while for some dishes. Also, orders are proportioned for how many people are at the table. Since there were only two of us we got less sushi on a dish compared to what a bigger table got.

The only thing that i'd suggest to change about the restaurant would be to get an ordering system where the tables can electronically order when they're ready and not have to keep calling a waitress over. For example, they could create a network that you can connect your phone to and order for the table/yourself and then that's sent to the staff.

Overall this place is very high on my recommendations list and I will definitely be coming back and...