Umi Japanese Steakhouse — Restaurant in Florence

Usually a great place to eat, but not this time! Arrived at 5:30pm. Told there would be a 30 min wait. We were fine with that since it was just the two of us. We were seated with another group of 7 at the hibatchi grill. We had our drink orders taken immediately, but it was 10-15 min before getting drinks and our orders taken. Then another long wait. Finally got the salad & soup. Finished that off and waited. And waited. And waited. Was told there wasnt enough cooks, although 2 other grill areas that were seated after us were being served first. My so ordered sushi, but he too waited until I got up and went to the sushi bar where his order was sitting w/the ticket. I asked our waiter, who was busy talking, if that was our order. He replied yes & sprang into action-leaving the order sitting there to get something, but I got the plate and walked the order to my son at our table, where the waiter came & asked if he wanted sauce. He finished his plate before a chef finally arrived to cook our food. By this time it was 7:20pm. I was starved and ate my food as it came off the grill-one item at a time. Rice first. Waited. Then shrimp. Waited. Then steak. By the time I got the steak, I was full. I waited again, and finally got up, went to the sushi bar and asked for my own to go box. My receipt shows that my card was finally run at 7:48pm. Then waited for it to be brought back. We got to our car at 8:02pm- 2 1/2 hours later...ridiculous. And the hostess girl with long dark hair up in a bun with John Lennon glasses NEVER stopped cramming her mouth with food the whole time I saw her: during the 30 min wait, to/from the restroom, at the sushi bar coming from the kitchen, and leaving. She got to eat more than I did. Very unprofessional and scatter brained. Next time, I will go...

Response to owner: if you want to satisfy customer and are truly sorry for the unpleasant experience then please refund us. This is what should have been done from the start while we sat in your restaurant waiting.

I seriously have no idea how this restaurant is rated well. The only positive was our waitress was sweet and the miso soup was good. We did the dining option. What was disappointing...where to start?... Every thing had a grimy feel...from the menus to the table top to the shrimp sauce bottle, yuck Sweet tea was way too sweet. Salad had WAY too much dressing. Couldn't eat the salad...it was like ranch soup Meat was dry, rice was bland Shrimp sauce sitting on table in nasty food covered bottle....isnt this mayo based and should be refridgerated and not sitting on the table for hours at a time? I saved the best for last! One of our plates had a long hair all tangled in the food. When we mentioned this to our waitress she said the manager would take 10% off our ticket...seriously? Why bother. When i questioned 10% she came back and said the best that the manager could do was 20% off. Ooookay. And to top it off the manager never appeared to appologize for a hair in the food. Any time this has happened in the past in other restaurants the manager is quick to appear to appologize and comp the meal. I have worked in a restaurant and this was always protocol there as well as other restaurants i have dined in. I seriously regret going to this restaurant and wasting our money. Would NOT recommend this restaurant to my...

Update The manager came to my table to personally apologize for our experience. He said he would be correcting it immediately. He was very considerate and kind and gave us a gift card to use on our next visit when we came to see that the problems had been resolved. I also failed to mention that the table service we received, once seated, was awesome!!! Havilah was an amazing server!!!

Hibachi seating is immediate and dining that's half empty is 15-20 min wait?!?!?! Excuse given is there aren't enough servers to wait on dining only customers. This has been twice at the Sunday Dinner rush...your telling me you're so poorly managed you can't staff your restaurant properly So that the half empty dining area can be seated immediately as well?!?! The new ownership is definitely showing!! The first time this happened about 2 months ago we took the immediate seating and since I can't eat the hibachi food (medical reasons) I asked for the regular meanie and was told absolutely not. That if I sat hibachini had to order hibachi! We walked out. This time I was told I could order dining menu at the hibachi if the majority of my party ate hibachi....there are only 3 if us today and my daughter didn't want hibachi either. So we decided to wait. Food was good, but after hearing staffing issues as an excuse for me to wait in the lobby when I can clearly see empty tables it just soured the experience. Customer service on the front end needs to be fixed...