Origami — Restaurant in Los Alamos

I wanted to bring my significant other here to try something new. It seemed like a nice cozy local restaurant we could enjoy.

I ordered us two appetizers, the shrimp shumai and the soft shell crab tempura. Both plates were plated on top a bed of very poorly cut raw julienne carrots for whatever reason, and the shumai had cheap mustard to go with it and there was only 6-8 bites of it. The soft shell crab was the one that hurt the most, I nearly threw up from the first bite, as something tasted very wrong. My partner said he didn't notice but said it tasted really cheap (he is from the East Coast) and ate the rest of it.

We also had two sushi rolls, which we both very much enjoyed, those were prepared as you would expect, tasted very good, and were fresh. We were going to order more sushi, but the restaurant ran out of rice... which is 90% of their menu besides the terrible appetizers. Props to the sushi chef, but the back of the house (besides the wonderful sushi chef) needs to fix their kitchen practices. Two stars since the sushi was that much better than the apps.

We then got dessert, mochi green tea ice cream, which they cut into 4 bites which was nice, but topped without anything on the menu to let us know with cheap whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

We tipped our server Dimitri (not his fault about the food), our bill was 82ish and we paid with a $100 bill and let the server keep the extra 18ish. I did offer to work here, as Origami is nearby and I thought I could help with their kitchen practices, but unfortunately I don't think I want to get involved myself, it isn't my place to do so.

Unfortunately, about an hour after we left, both myself and my partner had terrible diarrhea, nausea, and discomfort from food poisoning, most likely from the soft shell crab. We should have gone to the hospital, but opted to take some Pedialyte and home remedies (sushi as eating raw onion) which to my surprise helped by the following day (otherwise the hospital would be necessary in case it was something more serious).

This is likely the second or third worst restaurant experience I have ever had, very surprising to me for being in the heart of Los Alamos.

In conclusion, the sushi is as you expect, and was made properly, but stay away from anything else on the menu. The appetizers were plated just as poorly as they tasted, and we're just as cheap and likely made in unsafe,...

So I will start off saying the food was delicious. We had miso soup, house salad and a mixture of 3 different rolls. It took a very long time for our server to order our drinks and we already knew what we wanted so we went ahead and ordered everything. We got our sushi rolls before our drinks and soup. The rolls came out fast which was nice but we had to prompt our server for the little bowls for soy sauce and our drinks and soup. Our soy sauce ran out so we asked the server for more and he started messing around with the other server and forgot. We ended up taking one from another table. I never tip just 10% but I did this time. The servers were very young and a lot of people came in all at once so I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt but when they started coking a joking and just sitting at the register zoning out I got kinda frustrated. I do plan on trying it again to see if the service is the same because the food was so good but if it doesn't improve I will not be back. Also the floor...

Looking at the reviews thought I'd give it a try. Not impressed. I ordered the Chicken Katsu and Shrimp Shumai online for pickup right when they opened. Shumai had a squirt of mustard in the container for the shumai to roll around and coat itself in. Though but it would be in a separate container. It's not a fancy mustard dipping sauce. It just plain ol mustard. Not a fan of it. Chicken Katsu barely had an Katsu sauce on it. So it was pretty much just breaded chicken cutlets. Rice didn't taste fresh. I was hoping since I was picking up right when it openes up that my food would be hot. Warm at best. Miso soup was in foam to go container and that was borderline cold. I know most reviews here are for their sushi, but chicken Katsu is pretty much an easy no-brainer menu item. So I'm basing the rest of the menu off of this one time ordering. Next time I find myself having to stay in Los Alamos overnight I'll take the time to drive down to Santa Fe...