O-Ku — Restaurant in Jacksonville Beach

Made a less than 24 hour before reservation for 2 on the Saturday of 4th of July weekend and was able to update the reservation for 4 after another couple let us know they wanted to join, grateful for the flexibility and accommodation of the hostess on the phone, she was great.

About the dining experience: we arrived to our reservation 10 minutes early and were seated immediately. 4 seats were reserved for us at the sushi bar at the end. An amazing section for the last minute reservation. Unfortunately everything went downhill from here. The restaurant was completely full, far too many people. The volume level inside was obnoxiously loud. It was like being in a nightclub. Being seated 4 wide at the sushi bar made us have to yell at each other and we were still unable to hear each other so I don't recommend more than a party of two at the bar if you want to have a conversation.

The temperature in the dining room was very warm. It was 90 degrees outside so with the doors opening constantly and the upstairs portion of the restaurant being outdoors it was impossible for the building to cool down.

We were served water right away and asked for our drink order. It was difficult to hear our waitress, I had to lean in to hear her clearly. I ordered a glass of Snow Maiden nigori sake. It was great. Then I ordered the highly recommended (and expensive) Otoro Spoons. These took over 30 minutes to receive. Everyone else in our party were served their starting orders much sooner. I inquired about the length of time and was told that certain menu items were backed up. About ten minutes later I was served a complimentary dish of seared tuna and ponzu sauce for the delay and inconvenience. This was nice and the dish wasn't too bad, but they use a lot of ponzu, probably too much, the tuna is essentially floating in it.

I finally received the Otoro Spoons and was quite underwhelmed. The portions are incredibly small and again it was drowning in ponzu. The ponzu overtakes the flavors of everything else. I tried to taste te individual items such as the uni and fresh grated wasabi, but the size of each was very small almost as if the chef had to use tweezers to place them. I would not recommend this dish.

I then ordered 4 nigiri specialties, the Sake Dreams, Kobe Style, Creme de la Creme, and The Side Kick. It took awhile to get these, but not nearly as long as the previous item. All were exceptional. I think I ordered the best 4 of the flight selection. But keep in mind these are all single pieces of nigiri and each cost as much as an entree. I knew this going in, but wanted to try the experience as I haven't had fine dining sushi for over a decade and that was in Manhattan. Jacksonville hasn't had any dining options like this until fairly recently.

I finished up with a nigiri and sashimi order of mackerel, scallop, and tobiko roe. These were fine, but again the portions are very small and the cost is more than a typical sushi restaurant (except for the roe, but another restaurant would serve two portions instead of one for the price). These items were served rather quickly.

As soon as my last order arrived the bus-person started clearing everything rather urgently and carelessly, spilling soy sauce in the process. I was still eating and he took my dining plate while I was still using it. I felt rushed and wasn't pleased.

My total bill was $120 and I tipped $25.

I will probably not return and I regretted not going to Norikase as that was my first choice, but decided to give O-Ku a try.

Overall the experience was poor. The food ok, but not worth the price at all. The ambiance is nonexistent. The service is impersonal and utilitarian. The sushi preparers/chefs are lined up like they are working the assembly line at a Chipotle. It's impossible to speak to them like you would expect from a place that offers omakase.

If you do go at least go on a weekday or for lunch when there are very few guests. Going on a weekend, especially that of a holiday, was a...

UPDATE: The general manager of O-Ku really cares! He reached out to me and apologized, said he planned to speak with his staff, and refunded my meal. While I didn't write this review to get my money back, it certainly says a lot of about the restaurant's management that he would go out of his way to remedy my bad experience. I very much appreciate his efforts!

What a terrible experience! If I could give zero stars, I would.

My friend and I came here for dinner tonight and were seated outside. Emily was our server. Almost immediately we noticed little bugs biting us to the point where we were scratching.

We ordered our drinks and it took forever to get them, but by the time they came we asked Emily if she possibly had any citronella candles to which she said no. She mentioned the bugs had been really bad. No problem. But I looked down and saw the bugs crawling on the rim of my friend’s drink and were all over our napkins so we asked if we could move inside.

In the meantime I had asked Emily what she recommended for someone like me who doesn’t like raw / rare meat. I can’t remember the name of the roll, but it had beef and she said she highly recommended it. I ordered that and another sushi roll that had shrimp tempura.

Emily escorted us to the bar area because of the bugs. We asked if she would still be our sever. She said she would show her manager the bugs crawling on my friend’s drink and see if she could still serve us.

Once seated at the bar - crickets. I had asked for a new glass of water for my friend and me and we never received it. I had to ask the hostess for a couple glasses of water. The hostess was awesome. But we otherwise sat there with ZERO SERVICE.

At one point I approached Emily who had all but completely ignored us if she was still our server and she replied that my friend and I were pretty much on our own, that if we needed anything we could ask the bartender.

Our food came. We were given no utensils, chopsticks, napkins. I kept asking the hostess (who was delightful, btw) and she brought us utensils and napkins.

The food was subpar AND my sushi roll -the one with the beef - was awful. The beef was so raw I couldn’t eat it.

The lobster appetizer that was like $27 tasted like salty mush.

I NEVER EVER leave bad tips. Neither does my friend. We both literally could not justify even leaving 15%. What a HORRIBLE experience!!!

Management of OKU, maybe this was just an off night, but no one should ever be treated this way! I’ve worked in restaurants much of my life and would never dream of treating a customer like this. Someone here dropped the ball.

Mediocre food and terrible service. I will literally...

My family and I came in for Saturday lunch today. We were a party of 9 with 6 adults and 3 kids. Immediately upon entering and telling the host we had a party of 9 (without even a greeting or welcoming us), she told us they don't take walk-ins over 8. They said they had 2 big parties coming in within the hour and they couldn't accommodate us. She did not offer for us to split up and sit at two tables or sit at the bar. She asked a higher-up and she said the same thing. I understand the policy, however it seemed they were quick to turn us away, even though there were more than a few tables available. We asked if we could sit at two different tables, even if the tables would not be next to each other because we came to Jax Beach, specifically to try O-ku to celebrate 2 birthdays. We ultimately decided to sit at the bar, despite being turned off about the host's lack of hospitality. The bartender was friendly and took our order, but was not very warm to have much interaction with us, even in an attempt to smooth over the rocky start. The host did not give us the happy hour menu or lunch specials, even though we arrived at 12:40pm. Our desserts came 30 minutes after ordering, even though it was only two desserts.

The food was good, some better than others, but it all came out at different times. My parents got their rolls before everyone else and were done well before others were done eating. For the price point, I expected the hospitality to be matched. I work for a Michelin star restaurant and it is very disappointing that a restaurant is charging that much for their menu items while the service is severely lacking. If I'm going to pay that much for a meal, which I would gladly do, I expect the service to be on point. I expect friendliness and hospitality and the food coming out in a timely manner. I agree with another negative review posted that their staff seems inexperienced and lack the service aspect of a dining experience of that caliber. They had plenty of availavle tables and their bar was almost completely open. There were more than a few employees just standing around talking and obviously talking about us while looking over at us. They made no attempt to make us feel welcomed at all. Also, those TWO big parties that were coming in, never came in the hour and a half we were sitting at the bar. This one poor experience was enough for us to not come back. There are plenty other restaurants in Jax that would be grateful for...