NAMI - Korean Kitchen & Sushi — Restaurant in Phoenix

Prayers received and answered!

I always thought a Korean place would do well at this location as long as the food was good. I was not disappointed. Please support and try out this family owned small business. This review is on their second day of opening.

FOOD We decided to try as much as possible on this first visit to provide a thorough review.

We ordered the following: Yellowtail Sashimi, Masago Sushi, Daeji Bulgogi, Tteok-Bokki(regular), Kimchi Stew and (Happy Hour Combo) which included, Soju+Beer, Shrimp Tempura, and Bulgogi

Portions were amazing comparatively to another Korean restaurant up in this area.

Taste was on point. I was anticipating that one (Korean vs sushi) would be good and the other bad. To my surprise, both were great!

The fish was delicious and the rice is purple rice.

My favorite among the dishes though was the kimchi stew. Perfect flavor. The two bulgogi dishes were good, cooked appropriately, but it could be perfected with a little more flavor. The Daeji (pork) was better than the ribeye in my opinion.

SERVICE It’s soft opening so they were of course very attentive and nice. They seemed a little slow in their delivery which could be because they are relaxed with it being not busy at the moment. Example: We did not get our drinks (beer and soju) until four dishes in and we had to ask. Not a big deal, but will become an issue if not addressed. I would like to see how service is when it gets very busy. This will be a key factor in their future success.

ATMOSPHERE Amazing. Hands down they did a great job in cleaning that place up from prior groups. It’s clean, simple and gives a Korean bar vibe. It’s a place I could go for a quick lunch, and go to chill after a hard days work.

Recommendations to the Owners:

Work with your servers on understanding the menu and the potential pronunciations among your asian clients. We did not intentionally order the daeji bulgogi, but it got brought it us anyways. We realized that possibly when we ordered the tteok-bokki, the server misunderstood - as we never got it and got the daeji instead. We placed the tteok-bokki order with the owner when she brought us our rice. It was not a big deal for us and we loved that we got to try something we didn’t plan on ordering, but to avoid future issues, it would be good to review with your servers.

On the website it does say you will be getting pictures soon of your menu. The sooner the better. This will help your customers who are new or not as familiar with Korean dishes.

The table next to us had requested Sake. They were informed that you do not serve sake. I would recommend reconsidering only because you are offering (delicious) sushi. The pairing just makes sense. Maybe try it out and see if it’s worth having sake on your menu officially

We noticed that because it’s Korean and sushi based, there is a lot of variety. Variety is great, but make sure you don’t over extend your resources. Keep an eye on what items are selling, and what aren’t. We want to keep this place here to stay!

We met the owners and they were super nice. We got to hear why they picked this location and how they came to open a restaurant. I will leave you this pleasure to discuss with the owner yourself when you come to try this great...

The food and service were great! I will definitely be back!

The only feedback I would have is to make sure a lighted "Open" sign is visible from Cave Creek Rd. It's hard to see the current one even when you're in the parking lot. The only way I knew it was open was from the temporary sign near the road. With previous restaurants at this location I've never been able to easily tell if they were actually open or not when driving by, if there weren't any cars out front, due to the dark windows. Having a few employees park near the front might be a good way to let people know it's open until they get a good following of...

Phenomenal food and service. Ordered way too much but it was so good we finished pretty much all of it. Had the Arizona Roll and Baked lobster roll which were both very fresh. The Galbi is a huge portion and really well prepared, definitely recommend it! The rice cakes were really fresh and the Rose sauce was a great substitute if you don't like the spicy normal version. Shrimp tempura was great as well! Try this place if you like sushi or Korean food, or Korean food AND sushi! Great quality food at a more than reasonable price and really...