Okami Narre Warren — Restaurant in Melbourne

Be aware that 200g of uneaten food incurs additional charge. I like the concept of less waste at a buffet yet I don't think this detail should be outlined in fine print! Not knowing this can alter your whole experience.

Food here is delicious! I would give it 5 stars yet my rating is reflected in the experience as a whole. The menu isnt a huge variety, but it's enough to feel like you have choice's and try a bit of everything. The dessert menu is limited to 2 items.

The level of service leaves a lot to be desired which surprised me. This place surely gets packed often and yet even the most simplest things missed the mark. There was a serious lack in flow with their service and it seemed rather chaotic to where waiters seemed to run around like headless chook's. The method of buffet is you have someone take your order and they will serve your dishes. It's rather ineffective if you don't have a service system that works seamlessly. Especially when it's BUSY! You run into issues of being overlooked, people getting impatient, food being served lukewarm, not receiving your complete order, seeing other tables being served food when you ordered well in advance, zero flexibility in being able to order whenever you want resulting in people getting off their seat to ask for service, being rudely addressed by a stressed waiter (long blonde ponytail) cutting you off mid sentence when asking to be served - all of which occurred during our dining experience. The tables aren't numbered so we were served the wrong food so many times and constantly asked if this dish or that dish was ours. An exchange we shouldnt even be having. Expect to be packed in like sardines. Venue is tiny. I noticed the bigger tables were being catered to a lot more, the level of service they seemed to be receiving was more than the smaller table's were getting. Its only good value for money if you have an appetite. Food was the only enjoyable part otherwise the rest...

We used to love going to Okami, but after last nights visit we will never go back. We could hear an extreme amount of noise before even walking in, after walking in the noise was deafening. It was so full people we were crammed in like sardines we couldn’t even have a conversation, the atmosphere was loud, uncomfortable and irritating. The food was nowhere near the standard it used to be and a few menu items were extremely unpleasant. For one tuna sushi roll was incredibly dry. The service was hideously slow, we had hoped their new ordering system would speed things up it certainly didn’t. Our orders took a long time to be delivered and we assumed that items had been forgotten such at the seaweed salad we ordered when arriving, everything else came to the table except that so when we ordered more food we ordered another one. When it was delivered by a very rude woman she said so you wanted two of these, we said no the first one just never arrived to which she put them both on the table and walked off. The seating was horribly crammed I was squashed in between two men and it was difficult for all involved when anyone had to arrive/leave the table. The overall experience was just horrible, we didn’t even stay for ice-cream which is usually a highlight but we just couldn’t be bothered waiting. The staff looked miserable and were most unfriendly except for one man that was lovely, that’s were anything positive ends. We are still talking about what a horrible and disappointing experience it was the next day. No longer being able to purchase duplicate items meant we had to order one sushi and sashimi patter share that, then order another so we could both have all the items on the plate. Visiting here was an absolute waste of money it was $42.50 each for an unpleasant experience we won’t be coming...

Before coming here, we went to the Okami in Pakenham and had a great experience, so we assumed it would be good here too. Yet- we received the worst service we’ve ever had. Tried to order 2 sushi platters - waitress couldn’t understand what we were saying so we clarified a couple times and even pointed to the item - yet she just nodded, didn’t bother to write it down, and we never got it. Then when another waitress came along, told us it was never written down, and she finally took down the order - and brought out 1 sushi platter with half of each the 2 sushi types split on it instead. Then when we got to the counter, we were charged for all you can eat even though we thought we were ordering a la carte - we were told it was our responsibility to ask for an a la carte menu, which is apparently an entirely different menu, rather than it being on the tables or displayed anywhere. We said we didn’t know there even was a separate menu for a la carte as no one told us or provided one. The lady at the counter was kind enough to give us a discount due to the misunderstanding caused, which was the only part of the dining experience we can say was worth giving this star. The public holiday surcharge - if you can even call Easter Saturday a public holiday - was a whopping $25. My mother also got food poisoning from the agedashi tofu, and felt sick immediately after leaving, and has spent half this morning throwing up. Would never come back...