OMI Melbourne Central — Restaurant in Melbourne

My partner and I heard great things about Omi - especially their signature ramen. As a foodie, I was eager to try it!

I ordered the Tonkatsu ramen and my partner ordered the Truffle Ramen.

The presentation looked as it did in the photo which was a great sign.

The broth itself was lacking a bit of flavour but it wasn’t horrible by any means.

After sipping the broth and devouring the meal, I noticed a black speck in my ramen. Upon closer inspection, it was a dead bug.

I immediately gagged and almost threw up. We reported this to the staff and from their investigation, they said they don’t know how it got there because the chef checked the food before it went out. Clearly, the chef didn’t look hard enough. I’m also not sure how he checked when the ramen wasn’t mixed in the first place. The bug was likely sitting underneath all the toppings and only surfaced when mixed.

On top of that, the staff lacked empathy and denied accountability. Instead, saying the bug probably fell into the ramen when we were eating, not when served. Mind you, we were eating INSIDE the restaurant. I don’t care where or how it got in my food. The fact is that it was IN my food so why does it matter where it came from.

Even if it was true that the bug got into the food when we were eating, why is there bug crawling around inside a restaurant anyway? This speaks to either the hygiene of the restaurant or the broth itself is contaminated.

The cherry on top was the lack of empath. It felt like the staff was gaslighting us to feel like it wasn’t their fault but ours.

The kicker? We were only refunded for my meal. They didn’t refund us for the whole meal despite us clearly not finishing it because we lost our appetite after seeing a dead bug in my ramen broth.

To their credit, they also offered to re-do the meal but by this point, I didn’t trust anything coming out of the kitchen. If anyone has made ramen before, you’d know that they’d use one pot for broth. It was likely the broth was contaminated and we care for our health not to take that risk.

Take your money and go elsewhere. Plenty of ramen joints in the CBD who would take these hygiene matters seriously. Absolute joke...

I am absolutely appalled by the behavior of one of your staff members. My boyfriend and I came to OMI to enjoy a meal, and we needed an extra chair. We noticed an empty chair next to a blonde-haired worker who was having her lunch, so we politely asked if we could take it. To our shock, she rudely told us "later" because apparently, another worker would be using it.

Excuse me, but as paying customers, are we supposed to stand and wait for your staff to finish eating before we can sit down? This is beyond ridiculous. What made the situation even more frustrating was that two of the blonde-haired worker's friends were there visiting, chatting, and laughing loudly with her. Both of them were sitting comfortably, while we, your paying customers, were left without a seat.

We only asked for the chair after seeing this, and yet we were denied. Thankfully, after complaining to another worker inside (the girl with glasses in the second picture), she resolved the issue and gave us the chair. But why did it take a complaint to get something so simple sorted?

Also, it’s baffling to see workers all eating together during working hours with no system in place to ensure one eats while others cover. It seemed like no one was even running the floor! The unprofessionalism and entitlement shown by the blonde-haired worker were shocking and unacceptable.

Your staff clearly prioritizes their own convenience and their friends over paying customers. This kind of behavior is damaging to your restaurant's reputation. Train your staff to prioritize customer service, resolve issues respectfully, and manage their breaks properly. This experience left a very sour impression, and I’ll think twice before...

I originally had a disappointing experience here, but I’m really happy to say that OMI absolutely turned things around. I recently came back and the meal was outstanding, full of flavour, perfectly cooked, and exactly how I remembered it from the early days. You can tell the team genuinely listened to feedback and put effort into improving. Huge credit to the staff for their professionalism and for caring about their customers. This kind of responsiveness and commitment to quality deserves recognition. Thanks again, I’ll definitely be back!

Old review:

Disappointed with the recent quality drop at OMI Melcen

I usually dont write reviews but the recent quality drop prompted me to do this. I’ve been a regular at OMI Melbcentral for the past two years, but lately, the quality has taken a serious hit. Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a big decline in both ingredients and portion sizes.

• Rice quality: They no longer use Japanese short-grain rice. substituting it with cheaper long grain rice (see pic 1 & 2). • Sauce and flavour: They’ve started going cheap on the sauces. My aburi salmon teriyaki barely had any teriyaki sauce, and the salmon itself was burnt (pic 3). For comparison, pic 4 shows how it used to be really saucy. This isn’t a takeaway packaging issue since I’ve ordered takeout many times before without any problems. • Staff turnover: I’ve also noticed a lot of new staff recently, which might explain the inconsistency and drop in food quality.

Really disappointing to see one of my go-to spots drop the ball like this. Hoping they turn...