Umami — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

Was ranted and raved this place by a friend who is a local to Pittsburgh. We did a great test for any restaurant by showing up 30 minutes before close with a reservation and the treatment of the server was rather odd as if they didn’t want our money. Just very cold, stand-offish and very pushy attitude like we needed to hurry up and leave. Kept telling us we had a few more minutes to order because they were taking last call. The water tasted straight up like rust. Not sure if they have any sort of filter on their water machine. The sushi was ok. I could tell the fish was not cleaned properly due to high fishy taste. The ramen i had was rather sub-par. The noodles tasted like over cooked spaghetti noodles and the ramen eggs were cold. Asked for a side of rice and they gave me a side of sushi rice which is not very good to eat by itself as it has a high acidity content due to the process of adding a vinegar mixture during the preparation process. Ya know. I could go on and on. But i’d rather not.

I’m not looking to brag or boast my credentials as i am an award winning sushi chef from Seattle, so i feel i have a good understanding on sushi & Japanese cuisine should be but this seemed like a higher end sushi place upon walking in via the vibes, atmospheres and the $110 bill at the end for just a few plates of food but seemed more mid-level on food quality and very low-level standards on care. Even my buddy who is a local, rant and raved this place was disappointed because this supposedly was not normally how the kind of service they have received in past visits. Where i work back in Seattle, come to my sushi restaurant 30 minutes before close… even 15 minutes before close! We’d still love to take care of you and give you a wonderful memory you won’t forget.

Would i come back and give Umami another try? Sure. I’d give it some time to come back again so hopefully they read this review and maybe do some work internally to improve quality of their...

Amazingly cheap and very good drinks! However, if you're here for the atmosphere and food, you're in for a bad time.

For the good... They have a really good $5 beer and sake combo special that will satisfy anyone. They also have $8 warm sake that's not the best (obviously cheaper sake) but it passes for decently drinkable, especially for people not well-versed in sake.

Now for the bad... I'm expecting some angry readers after this, but Umami Izakaya is no more or less a better Nakama. The atmosphere reminds me of Nakama's, where it caters to people who more or less don't know what Japanese bar/restaurant is. It panders to an obviously non-Japanese experience and sucks the money out of your wallet, taking advantage of the people that go to the restaurant to eat since they don't know any better.

As for the food... I tried the ramen and was instantly upset at the taste. The ramen is actually worse than Ramen Bar's, which is sadly a low bar for noodle soup and ramen in general. Even worse, it's not filling at all. When I was here, the Onigiri was $7 a piece, and included is a pipette of soy sauce. While it tasted decent, it was definitely not worth $7! I had 4 pieces of Karaage for $10... why? The okonomiyaki was also just... ok. Everything is snack-size (as is a usual izakaya tradition), but each snack is easily $8-$12. In order to be full, I ended up with a $60 check. Way too much for the quality of food I ate.

As for, in my opinion, better alternatives, if you want better similar snack-style food, go to Teppanyaki Kyoto since the food is just better and more satiating with a better atmosphere. If you want to go to a sit-down restaurant, Chaya is still the best in the area. I don't quite understand why the OpenTable reservations are always full for Umami, and last I heard from a waiter, they didn't set up their restaurant...

I was always impressed with Umami in the past, and it was one of my top 5 restaurants in the city. Recently, they’ve been giving me “what is you doing, baby?” vibes and I’m not sure why that’s the case when this place used to be rockstar.

We had our reservation cancelled a few months ago because a staff member had COVID. Although I respect the decision to close promptly, they dropped the ball with people who had reservations whom all showed up and were not notified. They did nothing for people who were forced to reschedule, which I thought was a chance for them to flex their customer service muscles. We got a “tough stuff” and a pat on the back from their instagram account. Great.

Finally secured an elusive reservation, only to arrive there and the place was as cold as an icebox. The ladies were all wearing the winter jackets. Not a good look. The food was fantastic, but was alarmed & surprised that the food was coming out sporadically. Some people were getting their dinner while others were waiting on their appetizers. We also ordered skewers at different times, and some skewers were loaded and the others had 3 bites of meat on them.

Lastly, kept asking about making a reservation with more people than originally planned- and was told “no” because of strict booking. (Still was under 6 people COVID limit) Even when we got there, there was plenty of room and asked if we could pull up 1 single chair. The answer was still “no”. Meanwhile there was a vacant table behind us the entire time. Someone probably cancelled. Would have been a good time for a floor manager to approach us and invite those extra people to come. That’s money lost for your business, that’s already operating lean as it is.

Really surprised by this whole experience as Umami was always a hitter, but this latest turn of events does not...