O-Ku — Restaurant in Atlanta

O-Ku is located in West Midtown, tucked away in the very back of the Westside Ironworks building along with Barcelona. Parking is extremely limited, however, there is complimentary valet directly in front of O-Ku.

The restaurant is nice and spacious. Hostess is polite and inviting. I always make a reservation ahead of time on Opentable. If you are there during lunch or during happy hour (M-W 5pm-7pm) you may consider sitting upstairs on their rooftop patio. NoteThe stairwell to the patio is tucked away on the side of the restaurant. The patio is pretty spacious with quite a few small tables and even more lounge couches and tables. They have their own bar and menu, although the food is prepared in the main kitchen. Their are skyline views of Midtown Atlanta which are amazing on a clear day.

The main downstairs seating area is dimly lit with upbeat background music, creating a wonderful ambiance. Their drink menus consist of beer, wine, cocktails, and a great selection of hot and cold sake. The Tozai Living Jewel sake is my personal favorite, not too dry or sweet. The cocktails are also quite wonderful, with the Sugar + Spice being a favorite of mine.

Service is amazing; everyone is super attentive and helpful. There is always someone checking on our table to make sure we have everything we need. Their food menu is very extensive including plenty of sushi of course in addition to other wonderful starters and both fish and meat entrees.

Let's begin with their starters. I highly recommend the Lobster Tamaki. These are three beautifully presented lobster hand rolls that taste even better than they look. Some other great selections are the Otoro spoons, Otoro tartare, and Hamachi carpaccio. The Otoro spoons are also beautifully presented on individual little spoons. They also had a great fried tofu dish that I guess they removed from the menu as I have been unable to find it.

Their sushi rolls are absolutely amazing. You can try some out for half off during happy hour. The Marilyn Mon Roll left more to be desired but I absolutely love the Baja California and the Over the Rainbow. I can't wait to try some more of their rolls. Additionally, they have amazing nigiri and sashimi, with the Hamachi, Otoro, and Madai being my ultimate favorites.

As if their menu couldn't get any better, they have these wonderful entrees. My boyfriend is not the biggest fan of sushi therefore we always pick an item from the hot entrees section to share. The favorite is definitely the Misoyaki, miso marinated black cod. It is perfectly marinated in a slightly sweet and savory miso sauce and then perfectly cooked and placed on a bed of glass noodles and spinach.

Overall, this restaurant has impressed me over and over with their impeccable service and their even better food. It never disappoints. It is definitely on the pricier side so expect a hefty bill if having a whole meal. A dinner for two runs us around $150,...

Since moving from Chicago to Atlanta over a year ago, we haven't been impressed with the majority of the restaurants we've dined at thus far and settling in Johns Creek, thee most culturally-diverse city in the entire state, we expected to have access to a slew of fantastic cuisines in our back yard and 18 months later, that has not been the case, especially for Asian cuisines. Luckily we're near Buford Highway but with sushi being one of our favorites, it's been pretty bad after already trying multiple places. They seem to overdo a lot with relying on endless sauces being the primary flavor instead of the proteins & rice themselves.

Nobu is our favorite restaurant and while we knew O-Ku wasn't on that level, we expected to finally find great sushi, especially after many raving reviews from my wifes' coworkers and damn, did they come through!

From the service at the bar where she spent a few minutes going over the drinks and menu we were about to experience, which went above and beyond what you'd expect from a bartender to our server & the restaurant manager that also spent a lot of time with us at our table. At nice restaurants, you get many restaurant managers checking in at each tables but usually, it feels like your normal duty of simply making your rounds but she also must have spent 3-5 minutes with us as if we were family and you could tell she, and everyone else, genuinely loved being there and wanted to take care of every customer to the best of their ability and what transpired in the end was a moment we've never experienced before in all of our dining experiences before.

When I booked the reservation, I added notes that it was our anniversary and right from the beginning at the hostess stand, they wished us happy anniversary and how many years its been. Our server did the same. The food was amazing but what truly set O-Ku apart, was right before and after we left the restaurant. At dessert, we told them we were gonna pass cuz we were craving Jeni's ice cream which was blocks away and while waiting for our check, which took longer than usual, our server came over to apologize but "they're working on something in the back for us and it won't be too much longer". Later, she brought us a bag with "Happy 17th Anniversary" written and their sesame doughnuts to take home to try since we weren't gonna stay for dessert. Truly, a remarkable touch but it didn't stop there. As we were pulling out of the garage, they called us and we thought we left something there but they told us they wanted to do something nice for us and that they emailed us a gift certificate for Jeni's Ice Cream which as you can imagine, we were blown away. That was truly ice cream on the cake!

We can't wait to return & are so grateful to everything O-Ku did for us on our special day.

We...

When I say we have no complaints. We have no complaints. Service was wonderful from the time we sat down to the time we left! Allena took wonderful care of us making various suggestions, checking to see if we were OK throughout our dining experience. Joe came and checked on us giving us suggestions on menu items that was he favored. We just had superb service all around!

Food - We had the Red Rock Tempera Shrimp. Enough to give everyone at the table a few bites. But not full, this is truly a small plate. Allena brought us another small plate that was like Japanese Chicken Nuggets with Kewpie mayo and seasoning. At first glance, I thought they had been overcooked but they were fried to perfection! Just the right amount of batter and crunch. For dinner we had the Braised Beef Short Ribs which were tender enough to be cut with a fork. The gravy BBQ sauce or sauce was not heavy, but just added more flavor to an already tender piece of meat. I had sushi which was really good as well but the names escape me. I'm sure if you show them my picture they'll be able to tell you the names. I liked the one with the spicy crab salad inside over the other more.

Drinks - We had our staples, the Long Islands but subbed out the Coke and sweet and sour for Lychee juice. It was a cool twist to our go to drink.

Dessert - We received a favored dessert from Joe. It had everything but the kitchen sink in it. Surprisingly I wasn't sure I was going to like it but by the end I was the one that finished it off. It was called Matcha Namelaka (excuse me if it's spelled wrong) there was ripe strawberries and mangos on top of a Matcha custard finished off with I believe granola and Pistachios. It was a nice ending to our meal. Lastly try their Moche ice cream is nothing like what you may get in the grocery store so it's definitely worth a try.

All in all we enjoyed dinner and will return to try...