OHMIYA JAPANESE RESTAURANT — Restaurant in Ōrākei

I was very happy to see a Japanese restaurant come into Orakei Bay Village. I go there a lot as Silky Otter Cinema is our local and I always like to have dinner with my husband and friends before a film and we love Japanese food. With the reviews I had high hopes. Unfortunately, those reviews did not echo our experience (if they are even legitimate reviews!).

The space is really nice, decent ambience, open space with simple decor but inviting. The first issue was that the menu is quite simple, focused on small plates. Although prices seem reasonable you can spend a lot on all these smaller offerings.

We ordered the spicy tuna roll and gyoza to start, specifying we wanted these as starters. The gyoza were excellent, very tasty, but only 5 pieces. The tuna roll while tasty, was almost impossible to eat. First off, we had to ask for soy sauce which wasn't on the table nor any small dipping bowls as expected. The serving was large and each piece was quite large, at least two bites for each. However, the pieces didn't hold together. The tuna on top slid off, the rice fell apart as you bit into it, the whole thing was a mess to eat. Definitely not standard sushi rice or a Japanese style roll.

Before we had even finished these, my husband's Udon soup arrived. This was served with tempura, just a few very small pieces. He said the soup was just okay, he'd had better. I ordered Teriyaki Chicken Donburi. My husband had finished his soup while I waited at least another 10 minutes before my main arrived. A few small slices of chicken over a large serving of rice. Barely any sauce and a handful of lettuce thrown in the bowl. The flavour of the teriyaki was not familiar in anyway to what I have had a hundred times before. In fact, nothing about our meal tasted Japanese at all.

We thought we might have dessert so waited for someone to take our plates and bring us a dessert menu. And waited and waited and waited as we saw all the other tables being served continuously.We finally got up and went up front to pay. We left hungry so had our dessert at the movie theatre.

A very disappointing experience overall and we won't be back. Which is doubly disappointing as we expected we might become...

🌟Japanese Yakitori – Just $4 per skewer, unbeatable value! Tamaki is best known for its izakaya-style small plates, and yakitori is one of the signature highlights.

Yumyum Sauce Salmon Yakitori: Lightly seared salmon topped with a garlicky, eggy, slightly sweet mayo-based YumYum sauce – rich and flavorful!

Teriyaki Chicken Yakitori: Crispy, caramelized skin with a glossy sweet soy glaze, and tender, juicy chicken inside. A true crowd-pleaser!

🌟Beef Tataki & Nigiri Sushi Plenty of Tataki and Nigiri options in the $20–$25 range! Besides the beef tataki, there’s also a tuna version. Nigiri comes in both sashimi and aburi (seared) styles, with large and small portions available. The sashimi selection is super diverse – we even spotted sweet shrimp sashimi this time, didn’t order it yet… next visit for sure!

🌟A5 Wagyu – $56 per 100g Make sure to reserve this one in advance! The fat melts on your tongue, giving a rich, buttery texture that’s incredibly tender and flavorful. Served with smooth mashed potatoes – absolutely divine!

🌟Cooked Dishes First Try – Giant Karaage Don & Agedashi Tofu for just $22 Huge bowl of crispy fried chicken over rice with fresh veggies – only $22! Grilled eel rice is just in the 30s, but we skipped it this time since we just had it last week. Great value all around! You’ll also find udon noodles, tempura, and more...

5 stars? Really? No way... Were there 2 different sets of foods being served during the opening week vs Now??? Issues were:

Fabric/fluff in karaage chicken (Asked for it to be replaced and they replaced the 2 uneaten portions, while the original piece with fluff was still on the plate... ) Seriously... I would expect a new plate of food, especially my daughter only had 1 bite which revealed the contaminated food...

Sashimi... different thickness, some with fish skins on, even some with dark reddish hemoglobin bits which tasted absolutely yuck...

Seared Nigiri... taste was utterly bland.

Seared Salmon Roll... sorry... its terrible...

Service personnel were good, other than that, turn...