Umai Umai — Restaurant in Philadelphia

It's obvious that Umai Umai is under new ownership. When this restaurant first opened approximately 10 to 15 years ago, we went at least 3 times a month. The owners were meticulous and you can always count on the freshest food, fish. They had an extensive menu with many items to choose from. That is definitely not the case now. This is the 3rd time I have been to this location since the pandemic, the 3rd time I made reservations, and the 3rd time my name was not on the reservation list when I arrived for dinner. When I gave my name the server said well I have an "Alexa" on the list, I said well that's not my name. I proceeded to tell him this was the 3rd time this has happened to me. At this point a table which was not cleared yet was quickly wiped down, and I was directed to sit there. In the darkest corner of the restaurant. The restaurant space looks dreary and "worn out" and the menus were falling apart. I had to use the flashlight on my phone to read the limited menu. Once my friends arrived we all agreed that this is probably going to turn out to be a bad idea if we stay and eat, but we gave it a shot. First we started with gyoza, which came out dark and burnt, (not how gyoza is prepared or should look) we all looked at it and at each other thought... this is disgusting, we were not about to attempt tasting it. We asked the waitress to take it away, and we explained why. We were told that's how gyoza looks. NO WAY, we told her that. Oyster shots - just okay. Not as satisfying as I remembered them to be. I guess the ingredients were not too fresh. My friend ordered Miso soup and said it tasted like dish water, so he didn't eat it. Sushi and Unagi served, another disappointment, the unagi was overdone, too much "sauce" on top, which overpowered the eel. The sushi was boring, no pop, no explosion of flavor I waited to experience, I guessed that was also due to the lack of freshness of the fish or maybe the sushi chef, (which by the way was not dressed as a sushi chef). PAD TAI - was the only dish that was decent and served very hot. We ate some of that, but what we enjoyed most of all was the Sake and Sapporo beer that we brought with us. Bathroom - was dirty, run down and disgusting. Our table had a view of the kitchen, once my friends who were facing the kitchen saw that and one of the workers in the kitchen, they were DONE. That was it, we had to get out of there and couldn't do it fast enough. In closing, I will never ever go back to what was one of the best sushi spots in the city ever again, and you definitely won't ever find me at their new location in Queens Village. NO THANKS! My advice is to stay away from Umai Umai especially the dirty run down location at 22nd Street, unless you are a novice at eating sushi and you could care less about the atmosphere and you have no idea about eating sushi, good sushi, then by all means knock...

It took me awhile to write this review, and I wondered if I still would. I haven't been able to stop thinking about the experience, therefore, I have decided to share.

My sisters and I made reservations for 8 o'clock one evening, and were told we had a 15 minute grace period to arrive. We were reserved to sit at the Sushi Bar.

Honoring the grace period was no problem. We arrived 15 minutes early, but decided to wait a few moments before we entered the restaurant. At 7:50 we walked through the doors of Umai Umai. After a few waiting minutes, we were asked for a name. The name was provided. Then it was told to us, our seats were given to someone else. I thought okay, but we will be seated immediately in another area. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The host mentioned that, but walked away and never returned for an update. At about 8:05, feeling very frustrated and noticing other seating, I asked if someone could figure out what will be done, as we arrived before 8 PM, and due to the restaurants lack of managing their bookings, could not be seated.

Management came to speak with us, and I reiterated their policy that we honored, and how we needed to be seated in the vacant seats. It was mentioned that we could not be seated because those were two person seats. When clearly, a seat could have been added or tables could have been pushed together. In the same breath, it was mentioned that a table was leaving, and we would be seated right away. That was on time, but still did not explain their lack of proper managing of seating.

I normally wouldn't have stayed past this point, but I did. ONLY because it was my sisters birthday, and we did not want to risk driving around the city to patronize another restaurant that couldn't guarantee us a table.

Umai Umai, do better. If your policy is for patrons to arrive within 15 minutes of their reservation, it is then your responsibility to honor said policy. To give up reserved seats, most likely to a walk-in, was unacceptable. And to have the initial host address the issue, but never follow up was also bad practice...

Have had this place saved on my "Want To Go" list on Google for a while but just haven't gone yet. Ended up trying it out with a friend a couple of days ago and....loved it!

It's a very cute place on the corner of Brandywine & 22nd (which luckily is a short walk for me from my apartment). We sat outside and were immediately helped as soon as I sat down. Our waitress was so great! Very friendly, did a great job of checking on us through out the dining experience to makes sure we were ok, answered questions pretty well or checked on it for us - she eventually mentioned it was her first day when she had to check on something for us but we would've never known by how professional and well she was servicing us! Now to the important part, the food.

The food...was so good! For apps, we ordered the Tapas for Two and my friend got the Oyster Shooter (we thought it came with two but just one). She loved the shooter - said it felt like she had a tasty, refreshing taste of the ocean in her mouth lol - and we both felt like we could come back for happy hour and just order the tapas platter over and over. For entree, I first ordered the Kraken and she ordered the Godzilla. Both rolls were excellent! I love a good spicy mayo which my roll had, with the shrimp and avocado tasting very fresh. My friend liked her roll too and felt the strawberry on it kinda of gave it a dessert type of taste but still worked. We loved the food so much, we ordered one more roll each. I just got a Spicy Salmon and she got an Eel roll which she said was one of the best eel rolls she's ever had for a sushi place in Philly.

All in all, amazing good, great service and cute vibe at this local place. Highly recommend checking them out if you love sushi and I will definitely be coming back - with wine or something next time...