Umi — Restaurant in Wales

Went there the other day expecting it to be a very nice dining experience especially since I saw what the prices were beforehand. I saw photos of this restaurants food and thought it would be a nice date for me and my partner. However, walking in, I was appalled by the layout of the room. Lots of big tables with pews with some smaller tables around. We were seated on one of these bigger tables even though only two of us were booked and we booked a week in advance. We were told we could not change tables even though a smaller table was free for the whole evening and we ended up sharing a table with two other couples. Then we ordered drinks, the wine was alright however they brought it over to us in the wrong size. We ordered some food which arrived on time. I ordered a tofu donburi and it looked fancy and colourful however it tasted extremely flavourless and later I found out that it was missing an egg. Upon reading the comments I found out that missing eggs were a common issue, shame really because for paying £16 for just the rice and bits of veg the cost of making it is probably less than a pound. My partner ordered a tofu teriyaki which looked very underwhelming. It tasted like a casserole or some bland whitewashed curry and the broccoli that came with it didn't seem cooked. The service wasn't great either. Uninterested staff who all looked to be in their gap year from Surrey. We didn't get checked on during our meal and we had to get their attention when it came to pay and order. We sat close enough to the bar to hear all the gossiping from the staff which made the mood of the evening very grating. Overall, the food is all looks but no flavour. The restaurant seems very vegetarian friendly but the tofu is cheap and seems to be cooked exactly the same for each dish, with nothing on it. The staff lack a certain level of competence, forgetting the drink order and items for the dish on the food order, and the waitresses are inattentive. I do not recommend you to come to Umi. Avoid at all costs, Unless you have no tastebuds, are a fan of Wagamama (but you'd still find it underwhelming), or like to tread all over asian cuisine. As a person of asian heritage myself, I feel offended by the...

Sad to say I was disappointed 😞

Me and my husband have always absolutely loved Umi and regularly travel from Swansea just to eat here. We've come for our anniversaries and birthdays and have always absolutely loved the vegan food.

We travelled yesterday excited for the grand reopening but actually left quite sad. The chirpy well-educated 10* staff seem to have gone.

Firstly our order was taken by a young girl who didn't seem to have any dish knowledge which left us having to guess which was frustrating and that really upbeat positive customer experience seems to have gone and has been replaced with quite a deflated service.

Secondly, the food - the portion sizes seem to have reduced and I honestly felt robbed, my husband opted for the vegan katsu which we assumed would be a tofu or chicken alternative only to be given a tiny plate of katsu curry with 3 peices of potato as the "vegan option" for this price this was gut wrenching.

The sesame broccoli to start was delicious but was half cold half warm so I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a hot or cold dish?

The vegan tofu ramen was again nice tasting but there was barely anything in the Ramen for the price, lots of noodles and broth but not much else compared to what it used to be.

We didn't have desert as what you get for the money just isn't worth it in my eyes so we asked for the bill only to be told at the end of the meal that they didn't take card payment so my husband had to then leave, go get cash out and then return.

We didn't leave a tip as usual as the service just wasn't tip quality. The Asian man working seemed the be the only one really putting effort into the service but the other two servers gave quite a deflated almost impolite service.

In summary, the food was nice but just not worth the price anymore and the portion sizes have shrunk. The upbeat positive amazing staff are no more and we unfortunately would not venture there again which is so sad as we used to love this place....

Wouldn't ordinarily write a review for somewhere online; I’d much prefer to give feedback in person. I come from a hospitality background and know that if constructive criticism were to be given, it’s much better in person! However, not only did not one member of staff ever “check back” on us to see if we were enjoying the food (if they had I would have sent some of it back), I think we could have sat there all night before anyone cleared our plates. My boyfriend begrudgingly had to go up to the counter to pay as no one ever offered a bill.

The broccoli served in two of our dishes was basically raw, my teriyaki chicken was overcooked and therefore chewy, and the noodles in my boyfriend’s ramen just weren’t the right noodles. I know this sounds a bit ridiculous, but if you’re serving ramen - it needs to come with proper ramen noodles. The ones served were square and yellow like Chinese egg noodles. When the food arrives it looks really good but ends up tasting quite underwhelming. It wasn’t particularly busy when we visited either and there were at least four people working FoH - this is more than enough people to serve the tables they had in the small restaurant. Yet, our drinks were forgotten about, and so some of our food actually arrived before the drinks, and when the waitress brought the first lot of food she also realised that we hadn’t been given any cutlery or table water. A shame really - I imagine it’s rare to find this sort of cuisine in a small town in the depths of wales! I imagine you might enjoy the food if you haven’t experienced these sorts of flavour before - it would maybe be a good introduction - but the service really...