Sushi Junai Omakase — Restaurant in Austin

I made an online reservation to dine here with my husband on a Saturday night. That's when everything went wrong.

Check in: We had to wait a while until someone attended to us. Finally the manager, Marcus, came up and asked for our reservation. He was flustered and confused. He asked again for our reservation a few more times. We immediately felt unwelcome and felt like we done something wrong about the reservation even though we didn't. They brought us to our seats at the bar. There was no table setting or napkins. We placed an order for the 75 omakase and 150 omakase. After we placed our order, there was a lot more confusion. The chef were pointing at us yelling at the waiter in Korean. The staff were pointing at us and saying something amongst themselves. That made us very uncomfortable and again felt like we done something wrong. The manager creeps up and said we can't order the 75 omakase menu if we made our reservation online. He talked awkwardly and slow with long silences which made us frustrated. So we said fine, changed our menu to the 150 omakase. In my opinion, if they had reminded us when we checked in that our reservation is only exclusively for the 150 omakase, all this confusion and unpleasantness could be avoided.

Service: We were into our second item and we still did not have chopsticks or napkins or soy sauce. We were brought paper napkins which I thought were cheap considering this is a more upscale restaurant. Service was absolutely horrible. Our waiter took the opportunity to badmouth how horrible the manager is and how terribly the restaurant is run, which is in bad taste and unprofessional even if he may be on to something. The manager came over and apologized for the confusion and promised us a coupon for our NEXT visit. Very insincere. This is how I know these people know nothing about running a restaurant. You don't let an unhappy patron walk out of your restaurant without DOING anything. A poorly managed restaurant that affects customers' experiences negatively is not going to last long. As we left, we communicated to the proprietor the service was terrible. He just nodded and said yeah, yeah, yeah with a blank look on his face... Totally blowing us off rudely. He started to say online reservation clearly indicated it was only for the 150 omakase. He was TOTALLY missing the point. We just walked off to save our breath.

Food: Food was decent. The ingredients are fresh and it was fun to watch the chefs preparing your food. That's really about it. Our chef threw in at least 4 more items in addition to our menu. I felt the presentation on some of the items could be improved. The abalone looks like excrement. On the bluefin tuna sushi, the chef put way too much wasabi, overpowering and ruining the mild flavor of the fish. On the wagyu beef sushi, the beef was too big of a bite even though the flavor was good. I felt the items were overrated. None of the items stood out. I watched the chef took mochi ice cream out of a box and put it on our plate. Which makes me think how many of these items were from a box? It certainly wasn't worth 150.

Verdict: Never again. Not worth it. Proprietor who cares more about making money off you than providing quality food and dining experience. I hope they go out of business soon so restaurants who are actually good can move in.

Edited to add: I had food poisoning after eating at this restaurant. Don't do it. Go eat somewhere else. I will leave a -5 rating if I can. After leaving this same detailed review on yelp, he basically replied "f* you you didn't see the fine print on the online reservation, that's on you." He did not offer an explanation why his restaurant is so poorly managed that even his waiter ratted his manager out to us. Why we are served with paper napkins when he is trying to charge 150 per person. And why we had no table setting or cutlery until our second dish. Why does he serve mochi out of a box. Why so service so horrible? Why is everyone so confused and flustered? He just doesnt get it. I have never met anyone so incompetent...

We're from NYC (born and raised) and we've been omakase fanatics for over a decade now. We even went to Japan and dined at Jiro's son's establishment! The reason I'm saying all this is because my review is probably biased to our taste palates. My husband and I are in search of authentic omakase and unfortunately, it's not Sushi Junai Omakase. Sushi Junai is leaning towards western Asian Fusion but, we did love certain dishes and would come back to pick a la carte. Our favorite dish was the Abalone with sushi rice - perfect temperature and soft texture. Easily worth the $150 pp omakase price tag with this dish alone. The appetizers were pleasant to look at but I felt were far too busy in terms of taste profiles - oyster and uni are strong flavors by itself but together is not better...it was overpowering and both were fighting each other to be the star of the dish. The husband and I did not care for the duck breast with corn and green peas and a sprig of Japanese seaweed (I'm sorry, but adding a sprig of Japanese seaweed to an American dish does not make it Japanese). The Chawanmushi is usually my fave appetizer of any omakase. However, I have to rate that one 50% at best because although mine was made perfectly, the husband's had a different version that tasted more like Korean egg souffle. I think the husband's Chawanmushi had more air whipped into it and it wasn't as smooth as mine. I thought the husband was being dramatic until we switched and I tried his ..yup, it felt like two different chefs made our Chawanmushi. Onto the entree sushi: 1) I love the creative aspect but 2) I don't like my omakase experience to have all pieces come out the same time. It's evident the rice soaked the sauces and sat cold for a bit when served in this manner. Our fave pieces were the toro, A5 wagyu, and salmon. We didn't like the unagi as much compared to other places we've tried. All in all, if you are looking for traditional Omakase - this isn't it. But, we would definitely come back for the Abalone dish and...

Food: We ordered three starters and three mains. The highlight for me was the Black Cod Misoyuan-Yaki plate - when the menu said it's baked to perfection it really is! The seasoning on it is excellent. The other highlight was the Agedashi tofu, which was perfectly fried with a light crisp exterior and a soft interior that just melted in our mouthes. The food was all expertly seasoned and tasted fresh. A lot of downtown Japanese food features ghastly over-seasoning and dousing in super-sweet / salty sauce - Junai was the opposite and just perfect! We loved all the dishes except the Gyoza, which we would've skipped next time since it was dry.

Starters: Gyoza (5pc) (Pan fried Japanese style dumplings) 7 Agedashi Tofu (Silken firm tofu, is lightly dusted with potato starch and deep fried until golden brown) 8 Chicken Karaage (Japanese cooking technique in which chicken are deep fried in oil) 9

Mains: SASHIMI DINNER - Sashimi (10pc) + Classic Roll + Seaweed salad 32 Black Cod Misoyuan-Yaki Plate (Marinated in Saikyo Miso and baked to perfection, Black Cod with Miso & Soy and asparagus, mushroom, onion, carrot) 25 Seafood Yaki Udon (Assorted seafood and vegetable, stir fried udon noodle) 12

Service was excellent. We were graciously seated by the hostess and had our orders taken. The kitchen was flexible and offered to accommodate some our party, who wanted cooked fish instead of raw sashimi.

Ambience felt like a Japanese oasis in the middle of downtown Austin. Junai is tucked above a bar but the entryway opens to a faux Sakura tree, which breaks down the booth segment of the restaurant from the omakase bar segment.

Value: Our total (food, tax, and tip) came out to just under $120, which was mid-range to pricy ($40/person for starter and non-pricy main) but we felt it was worth it given we were exceedingly stuffed with delicious food paired with great service.

Overall, I loved Junai and can't wait to return and taste their perfectly cooked Black Cod Misoyuan-Yaki...