OMAKAI sushi — Restaurant in Miami

Miami still struggles to get premium sushi right. But Omakai is a step in the right direction, with room for much needed improvement.

The Pros -Premium fish options -Traditional preparation -Nice ambience -Finally a traditional sushi restaurant in Miami -Good location

Cons -Overpriced for the quality. It does not meet the LA/NYC standard of sushi. Everything felt almost great, but rose to the level of very good. Nothing was out of this world amazing -Rice - inconsistent sushi rice. If your rice isn’t spot on your sushi is never going to be amazing. I’ve now dined here twice and ordered the Oma deluxe and nigiri à la carte. The rice was inconsistent, and it’s cook throughout the meal, some rice, al dente other pieces were very soft and slightly overdone. Some pieces the rice was very cold, and other pieces, The rice was room temperature. It was missing that balance, and that sweetness and that vinegar hit and left a little bit of an aftertaste which I don’t care for.

Service: Well, service is good here. It also left a little to be desired. We had plates taken away before we had finished what was on our plate, and we had to stop the server or busboy from removing the plate. Don’t make me give you a deathstare in the middle of my expensive meal. This happened multiple times during our meal, including our dessert. Prior to ordering, we asked what the specials were so we didn’t repeat any pieces while ordering nigiri à la carte, to avoid the mistake we made the first time. Our server did NOT give us the right information and we ended up ordering two or three pieces which we had already been served.

This was extremely annoying because the server knew what we were trying to do yet didn’t catch that we were repeating pieces and never warned us or corrected his mistake.

The food came out way too fast for some people in our party, and at one point we had three plates in front of us with sushi still on it, and only before the last two pieces that they offer to slow it down. I also had to ask for extra wasabi rather than it being replenished.

This is NOT how you manage a premium sushi experience. Timing is EVERYTHING and they failed failed failed over and over in this respect.

The salmon sashimi with ponzu was delicious with the onions, though a very lean cut, and a very strong slightly too salty ponzu. It was overpowering.

The salmon belly aburi (torched) was probably the best bite of the night. Chu-toro was decent, but for one of my favorite cuts, it wasn’t a stand out and didnt have the texture of a premium chutoro.

Ikura had a very salty marinade. The rest of the sushi was again, good, not great, while I had to wonder why the quality doesn’t seem to match the pricing that I’m used to at a premium sushi spot

If you’re paying for a premium sushi experience, this is not the best in Miami. I don’t think many locals know what to compare it to because premium sushi is still rare in South florida , but becoming more common. The freshness is a 7 to 8 out of 10 where I was expecting 9 or 10 out of 10. I would return and only order à la carte because I cannot trust the servers to give me accurate information.

There was no check in by a manager either. This may sound very nitpicky but when you’re spending $100 plus per person without alcoholic beverages , you should be getting a premium experience with the utmost service and freshness.

Omakai still has improvements to make. Both to flavor/freshness and service, despite being good, has not reached the bar...

A great dining experience from start to finish. Starting with the hostess, Emma. I actually had sushi the night prior, and thought I was stopping at a different restaurant. When I told Emma of the confusion, she gave me some options nearby, but assured me they were no match. I would have been skeptical hearing that from most people. But Emma struck me as a person who would give it to me straight. And she was right!

The lighting and music further elevated what was an exceptional dining experience. When I sat down there was a real candle, which led me to believe I was going to be in for a treat. To me, that small touch tells me about the attention to detail. I’ve been to many restaurants claiming to be fine dining establishments, but then will put a fake flicking candle and QR code on your table. Are you kidding me? The individual candles are chiefly complemented by long black cylindrical lights that are suspended from the ceilings, some recessed wall lighting, and the light from the street from the floor to ceiling windows on the perimeter of the restaraunt. Anytime I open Shazam at a restaraunt, it’s a good sign. I opened it several times throughout the course of the meal.

Claudia was my server and she was delightful - fun, upbeat, friendly, and great recommendations. I went with the matcha iced tea, the signature Omakai omakase, the heaven sake flight, and the burnt cheesecake paired with a Yuzu sake. I learned so much throughout the course of the meal due to the knowledge of the employees. For example, I learned that hamachi was yellowtail in Japanese, and about the Joto Tuzu sake. It’s sounds small, but stuff like that makes a big different to me. Dining out is a learning experience for me!

Let me start by saying everything was delicious. But the Wagyu and the Scallop Truffle are MUST haves if you stop in this restaurant. Truly special dishes.

I also really love that they automatically include an 18% tip on the bill “to ensure fair wages and benefits for all team members all year long.” When you deliver in that way, you don’t want your employees who are stiffed by customers. I think tipping culture in the US is strange and very ad hoc, but I think that this is a step in the right direction to ensure that the employees are protected.

Thank you for such a...

I don’t really know where to start, this place definitely needs improvement but has potential, First starting with the food, the nigiri pieces were great but sometimes it was inconsistent? the king crab came out in 3 different preparations each time one of us ordered it? We asked and she said “it is still king crab, just prepared different but it’s like why? We didn’t know it was unexpected, she came off a bit rude when we asked… we just wanted to make sure it was the CORRECT nigiri pieces… I also asked about the Zuke and she told me it was a “different” part of the fish? But that’s not true so it was a bit confusing and I felt like we were not on the same page at all, not very good at explaining things that’s for sure. The best was definitely the Truffle Toro that was my favorite piece from the menu, I highly recommend that.

Service, I would say definitely needs improvement- I felt like my waitress wasn’t knowledgeable and didn’t even know what I was talking about what I was asking about and didn’t understand what I was even saying and asking on the menu it made it difficult to ask questions and know what exactly we were getting…. We also asked if we could get sauce and she said “WE DO NOT give out any sauces at all. So we asked “so why are their bowls in the table? As she replied oh we do give out soy sauce…..? Ok? Also losing a star for not being able to get ponzu sauce, my husband has a weak palette & usually uses ponzu sauce because of the strong taste that sauce has. They told us absolutely not…. Very disappointing and for that reason we will never be returning.

I felt like maybe it just was an off day or maybe our waitress was new but it made an impression on us that’s for sure , and the impression was…. Us knowing Japanese terms and looking up things ourself to get a real answer instead of our waitress providing that…

Atmosphere is nice, great tables and nice...