Otani Japanese Cuisine — Restaurant in Maryland

Usually our go-to place for sushi because the service was as good as the food but it has slipped, a lot. Don’t know his name but had the only Asian male server for the second time in a row and he just isn’t good. Took wife & daughter last night and he took the order but would not face my daughter while she was talking but rather side-eyed her while facing us. Weird but whatever. She ordered veg tempura and a hotel ca roll and the food came out in that order and was great but when the roll came out before she was finished with the tempura, he tried to take the rest of the tempura plate and walk off. We stopped him before he could even turn, told him she wasn’t finished and took the plate back and set it aside on the table. She finished it and moved on to the sushi roll and no kidding, as she picked up the last piece of sushi, still holding it in the chopsticks, he swooped in to grab her plate before she could even dip it in the soy. We tried stopping him but by now he had put his thumbs on the plate to pick it up…no thanks. AND THEN, for some reason known only to him, he grabbed the plate for my playboy roll and moved it in front of her. We weren’t sharing it or anything…she hadn’t even tried it. He just moved it. Just bizarre. And I can’t even say it was a one-off kind of situation because he did something very similar last time we were there. Moving forward we’ll be requesting the manager, who was the reason we started going there to begin with, or the other guy or any of the other girls that work there. Just not that one...

I’ve been to Otani 3 times. While the food and drinks are very good, the staff is incredibly rude and unwelcoming. The first time I dined there it took them 30 minutes to bring us our drinks from sitting down, and our food then took another 20 minutes, at that point our drinks were finished. During the entirety of waiting our server barely spoke to us or acknowledged us throughout our time there. The second time we went there we arrive at 9:30 not knowing the restaurant closed by 10:30, the hostess was cold, they sat us down and let us know the kitchen would close at 10 so we would have to put our orders in immediately, but for some reason left the table and did not return again until 9:55 to take said order which created panic. This final time was today. We went to an early dinner and ordered drinks, one of my friends noted that her drink was very strong after the first taste and that she would like to swap it for something sweeter. They refused to swap her drink going back and forth with her and offering no alternative (at the bf end of the day she just didn’t like it, it’s not the end of the world and a restaurant should be able to deal with people changing their minds), and also refused to remove it from the tab, even though she did not drink it. Ultimately the staff at Otani is the problem. They are not accommodating nor are they gracious, or friendly - it’s really a shame because of how high quality the food is, but eating at a restaurant where the staff is that unfriendly is just not something I am...

We have gone to Otani in Crofton multiple times. It's always been really good! Although the service has been unreliable we go for the sushi and the atmosphere. Lastnight we made a reservation and got there on time. We ordered drinks amd the 3 sushi roll combo. A soup or salad comes with it. We asked for soup. We specifically asked that the sushi be prepared with rice on the outside to which he agreed could happen. When he brought drinks we asked for an additional side salad but said he could only bring a big salad. I had to explain that we wanted the salad to be our side then, and just charge us for the extra soup. When the sushi rolls arrived we were very surprised at how small they are now!! Also that they were not made as we requested. We reiterated our request about the rice on outside and the server took them back to have them made as we ordered. And what happened next has NEVER happened to us before... the server returned and said we would have to take them as is. (Basically the sushi chefs refused to redo his order.) It was SOooo awkward as he stood there and said you have to take this. 😳 We could have said we wanted the bill for what we ate and left. Instead we ate the tiny rolls and cancelled our valentines day...