Nomi Nori — Restaurant in Saint Petersburg

My friends and I went maybe two weeks after their opening. So I want to give them the benefit of the doubt here and say that the lack of stars was due to some growing pains.

Food: Quality of the food was great. I have no qualms with the quality and presentation of the food. I'd consider going back with a plus one or smaller group to check it out again cuz it seems that seems to be the target audience for the small place.

They were out of stock of a lot of beer and sake items for a Friday night. Again, maybe growing pains; inventory and scheduling still getting ironed out.

Atmosphere: We were a party of 8 we so had to sit outside. No big deal. We got there when the sun was setting. There needs to be a light installed immediately outside of the restaurant for that patio area. The only light illuminating the area is the street light.

Service: This is where the place could use some improvement. Our server didn't seem entirely organized. Items were frequently forgotten. Not sure how orders are sent and kept track but we had to constantly remind them of the items that were still left. It all eventually worked out. We played along with it. The owner was super nice and apologetic about it. But it wasn't that that really bothered our group.

It was the automatic 25% gratuity PLUS 4% credit card fee that was placed onto the bill. None of us had plans to tip poorly due to service, but that's an unusually high automatic gratuity percentage. So here's a FYI for anyone who decides to read this review and check this place out with a larger group. What was amusing was the server initially forgot to apply the charges, stopped us mid-payment to go back and place these charges on our bill. I'd maybe give this place some time and check it out then. Hopefully they've gotten everything...

By far the worst dining experience we have had in over 5+ years. Do not go if you’re looking for an upscale night out.

The service was horrible :( - let me explain… there are only 7 tables in the restaurant (each sitting 2 guests only), at the time of our dining experience 5 out of the 7 were occupied. The server couldn’t manage 5 tables which = 10 guests.

Our entire order from start to finish was wrong. We ordered 11 items and received 2 that were correct. The server forgot what we ordered multiple times which resulted in us waiting forever… at the end we still never received or soup/salad.

We were served soy sauce in a soup bowl. Imagine that? A full soup bowl with about 1oz of soy sauce that you had to share.

When we went to check out we knew it would be a mess, sure enough we were correct and we were charged for so many incorrect items.

It was a complete nightmare. The tables on each side of us had equally as bad experiences, you could hear them talking/complaining as the tables are close. The next day they posted a “sorry” message on instagram. Sorry for what..? You were NOT swamped and simply have the wrong employees in place. There is NO possible way this place will have repeat customers with their service. We have no intentions on returning for a few years as it appears management is to blame as this should of been solved prior to opening...

With a booked out reservation for four on a Friday, we were sat in a cramped corner when they could’ve pushed two tables together in the more open area. Because we were sat in that corner, every time someone ordered a Smokey cocktail we were dosed with the after effects.

The sushi was good, not phenomenal and we waited about 45 minutes after ordering for the rolls to come out. The server did apologize as the chef was stuck in traffic and the additional order came out quickly after that. You’ll probably leave here hungry as the rolls aren’t super large or filling and they really should do some dressed fish with the hamachi.

They were out of a lot of the cocktails we were interested in as they are switching their menu (?) and the server kept calling us “sweetie”/ “honey” / “darling” etc. which is a personal pet peeve but also we are all in our 40’s and the server was either our age or possibly younger so just a weird take. Oh, and they have no capabilities to split a bill, in half or otherwise, which is really beyond ridiculous.

Is this a NYC sushi experience? Absolutely not. Is the food generally good? Yes. Everything...