OMI Chatswood — Restaurant in Sydney

Two disappointing experiences here.

I visited this restaurant twice and was overall dissatisfied eating here due to the high prices and slightly small portions. Some of the food was good tasting, but I found issues with them in my opinion. In addition to this, there was also mediocre tasting food.

However, the major gripe I had with this restaurant was the fact that some of the dishes were instant/packeted food. This is disappointing as you wouldn’t expect a restaurant which positions itself to be more premium to sell this type of food. Additionally, you could purchase something similar at a grocery store or other Japanese restaurants for a cheaper price.

1st experience:

We first got the tonkotsu ramen which was poor. For its taste, you could tell these were instant noodles. The noodles were soft and not chewy. The broth was thin and did not have a deep pork flavour. This was something definitely not worth close to $20.

We also got the fried tako rice bowl with the Singapore chilli crab sauce. The octopus was tender, not rubbery, and had a nice crispy batter. The chilli crab sauce coating the tako was decent, having a tomatoey, and slight chilli flavour. The onsen egg was runny and made the rice bowl creamy. However I found the dish to be too salty and hard to finish. The additional sides were poor. The salad was average and could’ve had a little more dressing. Additionally, the miso soup was bad. You could tell it came from a packet, as it was watery and thin in flavour.

Moreover, the truffle mayo fries were crispy, and had a nice creamy, truffle aroma to them. However, these were also too salty and hard to finish.

The matcha crepe cake was disappointing. The cake felt like it was left in the fridge for too long, as it tasted a little stale, and the texture was a bit more mushy.

2nd experience:

We got the soft shell crab with udon. The soft shell crab was crispy and the black pepper sauce was ok, but once again, I found this dish to be a little too salty.

However, the udon was highly disappointing. You could tell this came from a packet, evidenced by the unmelted granules at the bottom. The dish also had quite a small portion. Again, this is something I wouldn’t pay close to $25 for.

The wagyu beef bowl was good. The beef was tender and flavourful with the teriyaki sauce, and the onsen egg was cooked well. However, I was disappointed about the fact that the dish looked nothing like what was on the menu.

Staff were also mediocre. Some servers were good, some looked like they didn’t care.

Overall, from the overpriced food and mediocre service, two disappointing...

Lined up for 30 min with my crew of 3 people. Took the number.

We were next for a table for 3, instead. Another group of 3 people walk in and waited 5 min from taking their number. When a table for 4 was open, the staff just ignored our number and let the new group sit before us.

When we brought this to the attention of the staff, instead of apologizing and owing up to their mistake, they kept making excuses.

This is some of the worst customer service I've seen and unacceptable.

We took our business elsewhere to a place that know how to respect their customers.

Omi, you can do better.

EDITPost Omi's response

Thank you for the response. BUT I don't buy the excuses. When we brought this to the attention of the waitress. She lied and told us that she called our number, but there was no response. I corrected the waitress and told her no number was called, which was the case.

She then back tracked and stated the same explanation you had on the response, i.e that the table was for 2 and because it was 2 adults and a 6 year old that had just walked in that this was the reason we were skipped. Again, I took a look at the table where these patrons were sitting and it was NOT a table for 2, but could seat 4 people. SO this reason you gave is in fact not true, for I was monitoring everyone who was coming in and out. The table that was opened where we should have been seated next previously seated THREE Teenaged girls. Myself and my crew are all slim build so it was definitely not a size issue.

By taking ownership of your mistakes and not participate in dodgy practices and better communication, this would be ideal, instead of making excuses. There was no apology issued by the waitress as well at all despite trying to deceive us.

It was because of the initial excuses, and trying to put the blame on us by lying to us i.e that we did not respond to our number, that gave the impression that you guys may take the rest of your patrons as fools, but in my line of work, I pay attention to many things, and will not be lied to.

You can do better, and the best way to do this is to operate with integrity and...

Came here on a Sunday to try out this new restaurant after hearing some good reviews from friends.

I arrived earlier than my partner to see that no one was in the main lobby area leading downstairs to the seated restaurant area. As I walked down, I was advised by a staff member working at the cake and coffee area that I needed to put my name down for a waitlist system (not very obvious as the piece of paper was flat face up next to this area), so I agreed to do so and waited for a table for 2. Approximately 5 minutes later, another prospective customer walks into the shop and immediately walks downstairs and asks for a table for 2, and this coincided with a table of people leaving at the same time where the staff member on duty was preparing menus and about to walk said customer to their table. Had I not intervened and said that I was already waiting, my table would've been given away. There needs to be a system in place which makes it obvious to customers upon entry that you need to put your name down.

Besides that experience, the food was ok. For mains, the black truffle ramen was really tasty, and the karaage chicken was ok paired with the wasabi mayo too.

We also decided to try some dessert with the matcha tiramisu and hojicha parfait. Firstly, the portion size didn't really match the pricing, the matcha tiramisu was super powdery for us and it overpowered the entire dish and the hojicha parfait was hard to eat given it was served in some type of martini glass and our dessert became a grey gloop of liquid since it melted really quickly. Probably would give the desserts a miss next time.

I would still come back in the future to try other main hot food items (like the unagi and beef dons which looks nice in the photos of the menu), but hopefully the above feedback helps the store owners with fixing up some issues as some food...