Atami Steak & Sushi — Restaurant in College Station

Today my mother took myself and my aunt to Atami for her birthday. Neither of us had ever been and she was eager for us to experience it. She has eaten there with my sister and her children before and loved it.

There were only 2 other couples there (and this was during lunch hours). The first thing that I noticed was the entire floor is greasy and slippery (I assume due to the oils being used). My aunt had to hold my hand to prevent slipping and our chairs would not stay in place. I actually went to the restroom (I apologize for this but...) while standing at the urinal, my feet kept sliding apart. I had to hold on to the stall. Shouldn't they be mopping with bleach to cut the oil in the evening?

We waited for about 15 minutes with the other 2 couples that you sit with. The staff was very friendly.

Our chef came out for the "show". He slapped the spatula a couple of times and made a very small onion volcano which took him a while to set fire to. I asked my mother "is this it?". The entire table looked bored as he did not speak or do anything. Never seeing it before I had no expectations but my mother said it was nothing like her previous visit.

We ordered scallops which I love. They were raw in the middle. We asked if they were done and he said that they were. The rice had so much soy that we could not eat it. And the scallops we so slimy and under cooked (a gelatinous texture) that I only ate one scallops. I again went to the restroom feeling queasy. My mother spoke to a waiter who said the chef "was new". As we were pulling out near Razoos, we had to pull over. My aunt began vomiting. We had planned on going shopping but my mother's stomach felt a bit upset too (she and I shared so we did not feel as sick as my aunt that had her own).

My mother called and spoke with the manager. For some reason she said that she would speak to the chef and call us back. She never did.

A $30 meal for 2 orders and an appetizer (which was good but made by someone else) and no drinks. The manager offered no compensation nor did she have the courtesy to call us back or the professionalism to handle the situation during are first call. We should have spoken to her in the restaurant but as I said...we all felt ill.

This may have just been an off day. But raw food that made us sick, greasy/unclean floors could be a part of the reason that nobody was eating there during lunch.

We will...

The female manager on the night of 4/25/2024, who I believe is named Mallory, yelled at our entire party in front of the entire restaurant over a simple misunderstanding. Not only was it extremely unprofessional, but it made everyone in our party very uncomfortable as it was embarrassing. She then continued to give us dirty looks throughout the night. I understand coming from someone who has worked in public food service that customers can be frustrating, but I have never even contemplated speaking to someone the way this manager addressed our party. The attitude and blatant disrespect should never be tolerated in a public space meant for others to enjoy. However, we still tried to have a good time. Then, our experience worsened the next morning when people from our party got food poisoning from this restaurant. Our party understands that the food poisoning came from this restaurant as everyone who got ill ate the same food (shrimp). Also, people from our party did not start to feel ill until 12 hours after we ate there, which is the standard incubation period for food poisoning to occur. This is incredibly disgusting and disheartening as we went to Atami to have a nice time, but we were met with horrible mistreatment and illness that tainted the whole experience. This morning, a member of our party attempted to contact the restaurant in order to receive an apology, explanation, or a refund. The standing manager of the phone defiantly declared that she was the one who had raised her voice at our party, and in her words did not appreciate how our party had “lied” to her about our party size. The reality was that the person who told her our party size was unaware that another couple would be joining us. She was very defensive and constantly interrupted the caller to clear her name. She then refused to give any kind of compensation for the food, claiming if we were not willing to provide “proof” that Atami was the cause of food poisoning there was nothing she could do. This is extremely unprofessional of the restaurant as the ill party member had a doctor’s note and a prescription proving food poisoning happened. I hope this manager gets reprimanded appropriately as no one with such a bad outlook on customers and terrible attitude should have a higher up position in food service. Do better, as it is embarrassing for Atami, a nice place, to have such...

I would like to preface this review by saying that I never leave reviews, but after my experience here tonight, I thought it would be beneficial to others to share. After coming here several times and noticing that each time has gotten progressively worse, tonight was the last time we will be dining here. To begin, we walked in with a party of 4 and were told it would be about a 25 minute wait. We were totally fine with that, although we did notice 6 open tables. While waiting, we noticed the temperature in the dining room was extremely warm. Once we were seated, and dripping with sweat, we were then told that the AC was out. This would have been good to know by the host before we waited 25-30 minutes to be seated. The server, very obviously over worked, was not able to greet us for about 10 minutes after we were sat. The entire time we were here, we noticed all the other staff just standing around instead of helping this one server as she seemed to be the only server helping 8 tables. Once our food came out, we noticed we were still missing a plate. After 15 minutes of waiting for our server to come check on us, someone finally came and asked how everything was. We told them we were missing a plate and after going in the back, she came back out and told us that our plate was given to another table and offered us 10% off... yep.. 10%. On a $15 sushi roll. So stoked to receive that $1.50 off and 20 minutes later, we finally got that plate. By the end, we were very ready to leave and asked for the check. We were offered 10% on our entire bill, which was considerate. It did up being $10 off the entire bill. We looked at the check even closer to see that the staff had AUTOMATICALLY tipped themselves $21... We paid and left. There are many other sushi restaurants in town with much better service, food quality, and working AC. Do yourself a favor and go to one of those restaurants instead.

Side note- Atami, you might want to proofread your chopstick...