Umi Sushi Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Austin

I dont usually leave reviews but felt almost obligated to say that on July 7th around 9:30pm I observed a customer (young man) be verbally attacked by three female employees from this establishment. As I was having dinner with my friend I noticed that for no good reason the bartender started screaming and yelling obscenities directed at this man sitting at the bar. The young man kept his composure and honestly looked shocked as to why he was being yelled at. To make the situation worse, a second woman that looked and dressed like a man was sitting at the opposing end of the bar joins the bartender and also starts disrespecting this man. I never heard or saw the young man give the bartender a reason to be disrespected or kicked out, he did not seem to be inebriated or be causing any sort of trouble, or disturbing anyone. The treatment this man received was truly appalling and disrespectful at all levels. it really seemed to be for no apparent reason. At some point a third woman came into the already horrific situation and proceeded to yell and curse at the same individual. I wish I could shake that young man’s hand because the way he handled the situation was honorable. He never lost his cool, he never raised his voice or cursed at these women, but did stand his ground and deflected all the toxic remarks that were being directed at him. The “cherry on top” was when the young man asked for his check, the bar tender ran his card then proceeded to throw his debit card across the restaurant towards the exit door and told him “GTFO”. As a loyal customer I believe business owner should really take a look at the cameras and see the kind of employees they have working for them. If this is how paying customers are treated at this establishment I will think twice...

update Was 3 star, dropping to 1. It is with heavy heart I say we will no longer be back to Umi. The service is terrible and the atmosphere is run down yet prices remain high. Great food if you live close and can do take out, but it's not worth the drive to have to be inside this place anymore. We used to spend hours and hundreds of dollars, this time we lasted 25 minutes and left to go finish our anniversary somewhere less depressing. Such a shame. RIP

I could list all of the good food they have here but I would probably hit a character limit, look at the menu and know you likely won't regret anything.

That said, I'm only giving this place 3 stars because each year the staff seems to get worse. We go every year on our anniversary and sometimes in-between for other special events. Last year they were not allowing anyone at the sushi bar and table service is never fun, this year we were at the sushi bar and somehow still no one spoke to us. To be fair to the sushi team, every time I tried to speak with them they made it clear they didn't speak English 😕. Sitting at the sushi bar and having the chefs make whatever they enjoy has lead us down an intense path of new and interesting rolls over the years. We enjoy hearing stories about the industry and food we are eating and you just won't get that here anymore.

The waitress, when she was around, made us very uncomfortable. She stood there watching as I figured out the tip commenting on what I was doing while I was doing it. We were there of 2.5 hours and she only came around like 3-4 times without being flagged over. Not a fan.

Great food! Poor service. 3 stars for now but I will keep trying and hope I can edit this to a 5 star...

You dont usually go to a sushi place for a steak, but in my case, I sure as heck will. My wife loves seafood, so when it was her night to choose a place i had no option but to oblige.

I was pleasantly surprised that this place served ribeye.

I ordered the umi rib-eye steak, fried Brussels and gyoza.

Wife had the crispy spicy shrimp and the tempura roll.

Wife loved her order, it wasn't too spicy for her, just the right amount of spiciness and tang.

The zucchini fritti was shared between me and the Wife, it was a good shareable, came with a tasty sauce dipping that was sweet and tangy as well.

The gyoza was the best I have tasted so far from any establishment! It came fresh and hot, crisped to perfection! I will be comming here for the gyoza alone!

Now what surprised me the most was how good the rib eye was! It was served to me medium rare like i had asked, the mushroom and rice brown wine sauce gave my ribeye a nice hint of sweetness to it while still being incredibly tender, the mushrooms and scallions went well with it, all accompanied with a side of buttery mashed potato and lightly salted and peppered grilled asparagus, for the price it was amazing! Im happy I was able to enjoy my food here as im not the biggest fan of seafood, it came as a pleasant surprise.

The server was amazing and always attentive to us, i am happy to have been served by Nic...