Oishii — Restaurant in Houston

So... I don't like that I have to write this. Not only because it's the most reliable way for someone in charge to know what happened, but because what happened today was the result of one person's mistake. But what happened on my lunch break today was rather smarmy and I'm pretty upset about what happened.

I came in today and ordered from the lunch menu, got additional sashimi, and asked for 1 sashimi of the wagyu. I got the rest of my order pretty fast, but I had entirely finished my plate by the time a staff member alerted the rest of the kitchen that "oh no she's still waiting on her wagyu!" When it finally came, the waiter brought me 2 slices (remember, I had ordered 1) and said "sorry for the wait, enjoy". I thought that this extra slice was an apology for waiting 15+ minutes after the rest of my food, and I should have said something when it came as a sushi order rather than a sashimi like I ordered, but I didn't want to cause trouble. I also have eaten here before many, many times and I trusted the staff to be upfront with me. The wagyu was good, so I ordered one more slice from a different waiter before closing my bill.

So, I was expecting lunch item + sashimi + 2 wagyus + tax. When my bill arrived I was charged for 3 wagyus, totaling over $45. I asked why, and the waiter who took my first order said I had ordered 2. I reminded him that I had only ordered 1 with him, then I ordered 1 more with the second waiter, so it should have come out to 2. He said that I had ordered three in total, and I told him that, no, I had ordered just 1 from him, he brought me two slices (which I said I thought was an apology for the long wait), and then I had placed one additional slice with the second waiter, i.e. I had only ordered 2. When I spoke to more of the staff--because wagyu is not cheap--about how this was not an error on my part, the reply was "we admit that we made a mistake, but too bad".

That... was rather smarmy to me. If the server made an error, why am I paying for his error? Do the waitstaff get punished for making incorrect orders or something? I don't get why the staff wouldn't--not couldn't, wouldn't--correct the mistake that they admitted to making and take off the extra charge if they wouldn't receive some kind of punishment for it. Also, that the waiter who made the mistake in my order took off and let his coworkers talk to me instead of staying and owning up to his mistake didn't go unnoticed. The scenario was not handled well, and I feel insulted.

I didn't want to write anything at first, but the more I sit on this feeling that I got deceived, insulted, and punished for someone else's mistake, I realized I had to say something to someone who would listen. At the end of the day it's just food, but the practice of punishing the customer for the waiter's error is not right. Especially when waitstaff make a mistake on the most expensive add-on on the menu. And I hate that this is the most reliable way to get hold of someone in charge and say...

Ughhh I am so conflicted about this place! It's so cheap but how can the sushi be so bad?

As previously noted, no matter how long they tell you the wait is going to be - it's not going to be that long. They told me 2 hours wait, and I ended up waiting less than 30 min. I for one am always pleasantly surprised and happy whenever this happens so truly no complaints on the waiting front.

Parking is a bit of an issue. For reference, I usually don't have too much trouble finding a spot around the corner of the same parking lot Oishii is housed in along Timmons Ln.

Gyoza - Oishii seems to do non-sushi a lot better than it does sushi. No complaints here, one of the best gyoza I've had in Houston. There's a fattier, bigger version at Shan Hu Restaurant that I love but that's miles away.

Ika Tempura - now I've never had ika tempura before so I'm not sure how it's supposed to be, but this one was extremely chewy. Not as in hard to cut bites with your teeth, but it had a lot of thick meaty feeling to it. It was mildly unpleasant only because I'm used to calamari and the like being a bit softer. The tempura batter on the outside was also not that crunchy. Taste-wise this was fine. For happy hour 2 appetizers for $4 how can one really complain, though?

Miso Soup & Green Salad - the miso soup is nothing to write home about. It's on the bland side. The green salad is made only by the creamy miso dressing that they have - I snarfed this down really quickly.

Rock 'n Roll/ Spider Roll - terrible, and again terrible. The whole thing just tasted tasteless and very, very mediocre. For experimental purposes and because I hated to waste the food, I took out all the insides and ate them separately. And do you know what I found? The insides are amazing! The tempura and the soft shell crab were scrumptious, and had lots of great flavor to them. The avocado tasted really fresh. The sauce was abundant. And I have found the culprit of Oishii's failure in taste - their rice! Such a shame that their downfall (although not really because they are exceptionally popular) be their rice!

Tonkatsu - the rice was undercooked. The pork was fatty and had too much breading. The sauce /ugh/ had an overcooked too ripe sort of gone bad taste to it.

All in all, its a nice popular ambiance. The food is very, very cheap. And I will be coming back again. I'll likely just avoid much of the sushi in the future, or at least eat them...

Oishii is one of those classic Houston places where IYKYK because it’s never featured in the media, on any blogs, or covered by influencers on Instagram and yet you’d be hard pressed to ever get a seat here without waiting at least for 30 minutes for a table to free up. This is the last place in Houston where you can get a good fresh meal and a decent buzz for $20. For that reason you’ll see Oishii is frequented by college students.

Let’s address their incredible happy hour first. They have a buy one get one free deal where you can order from a list of disparate items and feel satisfied from the appetizer alone. Options include vegetable tempura, California roll, yellowtail roll, gyoza and more. We got the pork egg rolls (3) yellowtail roll (6) and vegetable tempura (7).

I especially love the pork egg rolls at Oishii because they don’t use a thick egg wrapper for the roll so the egg wrapper for the roll is thin making it a crispier fry and easier to taste the juicy pork filling. They come with a thick, sticky, sweet and sour sauce that provide the right compliment to the hot juicy pork. I love their yellowtail roll because it’s simple and seasoned perfectly with green onion. The vegetable tempura is delicious because the batter is thin and sticks to the vegetables giving them a satisfying crunch. I’ve also never had a mushroom tempura anywhere else before so I appreciate that different experience. They come with a thin, light BBQ-tasting fish sauce. We also ordered the David roll, spider roll, caterpillar, and salmon skin roll for entrees. We couldn’t finish it allá and ended up taking home some sushi.

For drinks we got a large hot sake for $3.50 and the house red or white wine was $4. They fill the glasses to the top and you can order wine to drink while you wait for your table to get ready. There is a sushi bar you can sit at, but as is typical for Japanese restaurants Oishii is a smaller place, and you will wait no matter if you sit at the bar or a table. We were checked on often throughout our meal, but not harassed. We also weren’t rushed out of the restaurant even though there was a wait.

This is a family-friendly chill spot that’s unpretentious and just about good food. Parking is a challenge and the only deterrent to eating at Oishii because even the wait...