UNKAI — Restaurant in Vienna

Dinner | 1 person | 67€

tldr: good food, high prices

I ordered some Oolong tea, the 12 mixed Nigiri (substituting the Tuna with Ama Ebi due to preference) as well as 1 Scallop and 1 Eel Nigiri each. Additionally I got served a bit of pickled/marinated mackerel as a free starter. Pros:

The mixed set, which goes for 42€, had a nice bit of variety. Fish seemed high quality, fresh, and tasted great. Ratio of fish to rice seemed just right. Rice perfectly seasoned.

The single sushi are quite expensive but were, alongside the Ama Ebi, the stars of the night. Both scallop and eel (7€ and 10€ respectively) were exceptional.

The service staff was friendly and polite as well as knowledgeable about the dishes they served. Cons:

Sadly the salmon roe Nigiri was kind of a let down as it did not at all feel balanced in flavour (not enough rice) and had several hard pieces of rice in it. The octopus Nigiri, while great in taste, was rather chewy and hard to eat. Portions were more on the small side which was to be expected.

Ginger and wasabi seemed standard (not sure if real wasabi or cheap paste which would be a shame with prices like these).

Waiting time to be noticed when wanting to pay were a bit long but this could have been due to the table I was seated at being not that easily visible. Overall I had a pleasant experience (if you ignore the few hard pieces of rice and the chewy octopus) and was very happy with the food.

I did have a coupon (which made dinner a lot more affordable), however it was not considered in this review.

Would I go again? I don't know. As amazing as the food might have been, 67€ (without tip) is still quite a lot of money. The little slip ups might not seem too problematic but in this price range and when talking about a Michelin Star restaurant it shouldn't happen. Maybe revisiting for special occasions and probably with another coupon but definitely not on a daily basis (at least for now). S Tier: Scallop, Eel

A Tier: Ama Ebi, Yellow Tail

B Tier: Squid, Salmon, Sea Bream, Sea Bass

C Tier: Ebi

D Tier: Mackerel, Oktopus

E...

Ich besuchte das Restaurant am 25. Dezember, zum Abendessen.

Die Speisenfolge war attraktiv, generell wuerde ich dieses Restaurant fuer Oesterreichische / Wiener Verhaeltnisse als hervorragend bezeichnen, in Japan (insbesondere Tokyo oder Kyoto) rangierte es wohl bei 6 von 10.

Aber das ist ok, mehr kann man realistischerweise nicht erwarten, mich erstaunte jedoch die Tatsache, dass keine Japanische Speisekarte verfuegbar war.

Einmal mehr jedoch empfand ich bei einem Abendessen in Wien das Benehmen einiger Gaeste als aeusserst unangenehm und wurde eigentlich nur in meiner Haltung bestaetigt, in Wien kaum in ein Restaurant gehen zu wollen.

In diesem Fall waren es Russen (nicht allzu ueberraschend), 4 Personen, die sich ganz einfach wie das allerletzte Gesindel benahmen, sodass das Gegroele dieser Herrschaften ueber etwa 15 Meter hinweg in einen geschlossenen Tatami-room klar und stoerend zu hoeren war.

Der Chef-Kellner teilte mir (in hoeflicher Form) mit, es sei ihm diese Thematik bewusst, er koenne jedoch in Anbetracht der Hoehe der Rechnung dieser Herrschaften keinerlei Massnahmen ergreifen, "bekomme er es andernfalls mit dem Management zu tun".

Fuer mich KEINERLEI Ueberraschung.

Meine Nachricht an das "Management": ich bitte Sie zu beachten, dass dieser betrunkene, groelende Haufen 1 Mal in Ihr Lokal kommt, andere Gaeste (wie beispielweise ich) gerne regelmaessig kaemen, sich jedoch von derartigem abgestossen fuehlen.

Der Grund fuer die Reservierung eines Tatami-rooms WAR (unter anderem) die Erwartung derartiger Vorkommnisse.

Auch wenn die Rechnung dieser Herrschaften sehr hoch war, so ist Ihre Vorgangsweise kurzsichtig, weil Sie ganz einfach andere Gaeste verlieren (es sei denn, das IST Ihre Stamm - Klientel).

In diesem Fall empfehle ich jedoch das Entfernen der Japanischen Einrichtung und der Bezeichung "Japanisches Restaurant" und das Unkai in eine Traenke und freilich eine Einsack - Maschine von Geld Russischer Proleten umzugestalten.

Ich fuehlte mich an diesem Abend nur bedingt wohl und werde einige Zeit nicht mehr bei Ihnen speisen.

Ich vermute, diese Entscheidung werden auch andere treffen

I visited the restaurant on 25/12, for dinner.

The order of courses has been attractive, by Austrian / Vienna standards I call it excellent; by Japanese (in particular Kyoto and Tokyo) standards it might be given 6 out of 10.

However, this is fine, realistically not much more can be expected, nevertheless it has been astonishing indeed that not menu in Japanese has been available.

As in many other cases I found the behaviour of some guests uppermost inconvenient and finally found my opinion confirmed to better refrain from dining out in Vienna.

In this case, not very much to my surprise, it has been Russians, 4 people, behaving simply like the worst kind of ragtag, so that their bawling could have been heard over a distance of at the least 15 metres into a closed Tatami-room, clearly and dreadfully well.

The headwaiter informed me in polite manner that he would be aware of this, but given the height of their bill he' d find it difficult to take appropriate action, in particular in front of his management.

To me, not at all a surprise.

Here is my message to the management:

please note that this drunk, bawling bunch of people is visiting your place once, other guests, such as myself, would be visiting regularly, considering their behaviour repulsive though.

Even if the bill of these guys has been high on this very evening it must be deemed unbelievably shortsighted to ignore that the restaurant has lost profit in the long term at this occasion (Unless this IS your steady customers).

But then I recommend to remove all Japanese furnishings as well as the misdirecting label of a "Japanese restaurant" and to convert the Unkai into a drinking through and sacking up - machine of money from Russian chavs.

I can confirm that I felt well only with clear restrictions that evening and for quite a while I will not dine at your place anymore.

I assume that also other guests will share...

After visiting the Plachutta I and my family wanted to have the same excellent experience only with the Japanese cuisine this time. Unfortunately, my family was kind of disappointed. The restaurant positions itself as an eatery with spectacular views of Vienna, since it is located on the 7th floor of the hotel. So we wanted to eat and enjoy breathtaking views of the city. In practice we could hardly see anything. The food was healthy and good quality. Service was good. But the place was too expensive. You can find better Japanese places in Vienna with good food and environment, and pay probably half of what we paid in that restaurant. Therefore 3 stars. Oh, and also, when you make a reservation for a table in Unaki you are asked for you ccard , and informed that you will be liable to pay 13 EURO...