Okami Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Wollongong City Council

After our First visit, I was happy to rate Okami 5 Stars!

Yesterday was our second time visiting Okami and the food was great, as usual. Our booking was at 12:30 (30min after they had opened) and the place was packed as usual. At 1:35pm, one of the attendees started going around from table to table and advised to order last rounds and removed our QR code as the kitchen was closing at 2pm.

After this, we were approached two or three times asking what we have ordered, how many plates were still to come out, etc. Someone brought our ice creams (desert) out while we were still waiting for hot meals which was then taken away again and returned to us after we had to ask for them as everything was busy cleaning and clearing out tables.

We pretty much had to gulp everything down in 1 bite to get out of there by 2.

From the website: Sunday Lunch 12:00 pm – 2:30 pm (Kitchen Close at 2:30 pm)

They rushed us like crazy, however, this did not happen the first time we visited this venue and yesterday felt quite unpleasant. Also, Due to the busy restaurant, the meals came out very slow and therefore, being rushed after being there for only 1 hour, we hadn't eaten nearly enough to cover a $200 bill.

From the website: For “All You Can Eat” bookings, the maximum sitting time is 2 hours from the reservation time

Why allow us to book at 12:30, give us 2 hours but then start rushing us to close the kitchen 1 hour after we arrived??

We are Not very pleased about our experience we had yesterday. I hope this issue can be rectified/clarified! As i said, the food is pleasant and my kids love going here, I just hate feeling/being rushed especially if you're trying to have a family Sunday lunch and only have 1...

Sydney phone number for Unanderra branch was never answered! DO NOT WALK IN! Even there are vacant tables at 7pm, here is still full due to the next reservations. Thanks for rigid booking system, to secure minimum 2 seats on weekdays is still very hard. 2nd session always starts at 19:45 but lots of people from the 1st session do not dine that long so gap is wasted & not many dine to 9:30pm but it closes at 10:30pm without 8:30pm session on Fri & Sat. Hanok Shellharbour is just around 20kms away (depends on which way) for $17. 2 more. $59 Korean BBQ Buffet 7 days a week lunch & dinner is an easy alternative in Illawarra for the people who have to turn around from here.

Below is the original review in May before editing: Currently, the best Japanese Buffet in Wollongong due to no others. Many Okami in Australia are located in small towns or suburbs, their success maybe based on no drinks are included except water. $41.8 is still reasonable. The tables are small. 5:30pm & 7:45pm dining sessions only, to order within tight time limit though most days are open to 10pm. Sashimi portion & salmon sushi is less than shown in the photo. No raw/red tuna sushi served. All 3 different impressive Australian Augus Beef maybe a bit salty to consume without boiled rice. Steamed vegetables have salt too. The quality of cooked prawns are close to the Buffets in some RSLs. Soup, dumplings, salads & etc are as usual. The only Free Drink is water. Coffee & tea have a small price tag, by not having them during dinner can ensure better sleep. Local customers like me would come back because the better deals are as close as Sydney. Take it...

So unfortunately my partner and I had a bad experience here last night. We booked 2 weeks in advance for the 5:30 slot and we got there at 5:25 and it was already completely packed. We sit down and choose to go for the buffet option and order on the QR code, we both only got a soft drink and it took 30 minutes to get to our table which we understood as there was only 1 girl on the bar. Then we got our first dish which was the chicken karaage and don’t be fooled about the pictures on the menu as you may only get half that amount (it did taste good), we had to wait just over a full hour for our first sushi roll to come which I find ridiculous and it took ages for the rest to come out. The table next to us I overheard complain about the wait times as well. I seriously doubt we will be going back but I just need to say if your kitchen can’t handle that many people at the restaurant at one time then you need to rather have more kitchen staff on at once or don’t let the place get packed out that early if the food is going to take that long to come out. We were there for maybe 2 hours and $93 later and were still hungry after leaving which is sad as it’s the “buffet” option so we had to go to Woolworth because we just got tired waiting for the food to come out. And to top off our bad experience the lady that took our payment wasn’t nice at all. I’m usually not one to write bad reviews but I am just so disappointed as I’ve heard really good things...