Umami Omakase — Restaurant in Cambridge

1.5-1.8/5

TL;DR: SUPER LONG REVIEW - not a true omakase and more of a tasting menu. Modern sushi fusion gone wrong. SO overpriced. Took 3 hours

My friends and I wanted to try an omakase spot when visiting Boston and decided on this spot due to all the good reviews. The interior is cute, and service is nice. We quickly realized that everyone in the restaurant were doing the omakase, so they are serving ~30-40ish people simultaneously.

RED FLAGS/Negatives: --Serving 30-40 people at once: can cause delays/timing issues --A lot of the pieces of fish/nigiri were pre-cut --First dish of Miso Soup was so bland (bad start) --Sushi chefs were handling iPads with their hands then handling the food directly after --They tried to upsell dishes (like Japanese uni) party by party: when we declined the salesman made a condescending comment "oh, you don't like uni?" Like no, we do; but you are aggressively upselling it to us --It was ~10+ minutes in between dishes --Experience took almost 3 hours (they said they were down a sushi chef) --Rice was so weird (each grain was a different size and was coated in something weird)

FOOD RATINGS by order (see pics for more): ~Miso Soup (2/5): bland and clam was overcooked

~Oyster with tomato puree (2/5): oyster was raw and temperature was on the warmer side. Tomato puree seemed like an odd choice

~Assorted cuts of fish with fruit and fruit gel (1/5): what even was this. It tasted like a fruit cocktail with jello and pieces of fish

~The spoon (5/5): toro, quail egg, ikura, uni, and caviar on a spoon. Tasted good

~Spanish Mackerel (3/5): mid

~Chopped salmon with yuzu tobiko and sweet cream cheese (1/5): I assume this was their play on like a bagel and lox. They said to mix it up and eat, and it just tasted like sweet cream cheese, and the texture was off-putting. Honestly, disrespectful to the fish.

~Aji (I think)(2.5/5): Mid

~Snapper (3/5): Mid

~Multiple types of toro with caviar (4/5): can't go wrong with toro, but rice and temp made me dock a star

~Chawanmushi (2.5/5): had a shrimp and scallop on top which were both severely overcooked. The egg was decent, but the soy gel on top was tasty but strange texture (maybe too much agar agar or something)

~Baby squid (2/5): Could only taste mayo

~Scallop (3/5): large piece of scallop; but just wrapped in some nori

~Another type of snapper (2.5/5): meh

~Smoked duck breast (2.5/5): great presentation; half warm, half cold. Very dry

~Wagyu (3/5): can't mess up wagyu, but it was just okay and the topping did not complement the wagyu

~Foie Gras (4/5): Foie gras was torched and tasty but ruined by the bad rice

~Unagi Tamago (3.5/5): decent but nothing special

~Mango Mousse (1/5): As a lover of dessert, I was so disappointed. Overly sweet, and again had some kind of gel.

I haven't had a disappointing meal like this in a very long time. It took WAY too long; was WAY too expensive; was NOT an omakase; did...

Overpriced, overrated, and sooo over it…

Price: 168$ a person (not including automatic 20% tip). We booked a 5:30pm reservation at 5:10pm, looking at the traffic we realized that maybe we should cancel and find another place. But when we called they said “you have to pay the 100$ cancellation fee because we already prepared the food and it will go to waste!” After this we were a bit confused as we had just booked the reservation a couple minutes before, but were also excited by the notion that it would be such a prepared experience. But when we arrived, we noticed that they actually had just pulled the fish out of the fridge and were doing all the preparations right in front of us when we got there. I have no idea why they would lie about this (perhaps it has to do with the 100$ fee).

Food quality: while I’m sure they fish was of quality, I’m not so confident that all of it was as fresh as they claimed - some pieces seemed a bit tougher/smellier than others. There was a strange citrusy flavor that slapped my date and I in the face with each course. Not quite sure what this was caused by, but it seemed to be on every single dish (even dessert!). There was not a single course we both ate with any enthusiasm or really enjoyed at all and have had much better experiences elsewhere (FREQUENTLY).

Service & Atmosphere: the employees were very friendly, professional and attentive. Additionally they were also very quick to take dirty dishes and such. On the other hand, the atmosphere left much to be desired. It was a bit uncomfortable and felt a bit like a church, where my girlfriend and I felt like we almost had to whisper if we wanted any privacy.

Overall this was a very disheartening experience. What was meant to be a really nice, enticing break from a long day and a long week turned into a very expensive and very disappointing experience. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. I feel a bit bad saying this, but anyone who truly believes they received a decent value/experience here is only lying to feel better about wasting all of their...

I've tried omakase in a few places across America, and I was excited to try one in Boston given the local reputation for fresh cold-water seafood. I have never been so disappointed. This was some of the worst sushi I've had in a while. The chefs failed to make use of the local seafood and instead served frozen, "imported" seafood that tasted slimy, fishy, and halfway rotten. Out of the 18 courses on the menu, only 3 tasted palatable at all, everything else left me feeling sickened. I was tempted to just leave halfway through, and I wish I did in hindsight. Aside from the awful sushi selection, the "A5 Japanese wagyu" was flavorless and poorly prepared. I have no doubt that it was previously frozen, and the chef failed to provide a certificate of authenticity for it (a common practice for quality omakase) which has me questioning if it was even Japanese wagyu at all. The staff were rude and seemed reluctant to serve us (they even commented on how "poorly dressed" my table was??? unbelievable). I had to ask 3 times and wait nearly 30 minutes to get my water refilled. They were annoyed that we asked for soy sauce, ginger, and wasabi (which should have been provided without asking). Also, the wasabi is powdered, for $200 they couldn't even use real wasabi? It seems like most of the $200 price tag went towards this stupid gold glitter they put on the "wagyu". The staff had everyone take out their phones and record a video of them spraying gold glitter on the "wagyu", which I think sums up the entire experience. The omakase was designed to be pretty and instagram-able. The delicate balance of flavors and freshness that I would expect from an omakase simply was not there - the chefs designed the dishes to look beautiful, without regard for taste. Everything was about aesthetics - and sure, the dishes look lovely in photos, but the lack of quality and care for the taste of the food is ultimately a bastardization of what this experience is supposed to be. Do not spend your money here, everyone involved in this experience...