Umi Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Starkville

The hibachi area is so worth the price, and you get so much food if you order a menu item that includes rice. All of the cooks I've had were cool. I also tried the eel sushi, and it was awesome! Surprisingly, I never thought the texture of eel would be creamy. It is now my favorite sushi. I'm giving four stars because a couple of the servers were not okay in my last visits. One of them tried to illegally swindle/solicit a tip from me in the hibachi area (was me and my partner) and thought I would not notice. He automatically assumed we were with these other people and decided to apply gratuity. I'm glad my experience working in restaurants included paying attention to things like that and learning what gratuity for groups even means. He immediately fixed my receipt and started freaking out. Sorry, person... If he didn't fix it, I would have gotten the manager involved. Definitely, always check your receipts. I don't know who else does this, but it is not okay to auto assume groups. Other than that, I was never displeased with the food. Atmosphere is okay, maybe bring a light jacket for the dining room. Be prepared to spend a little money since it is a hibachi/steakhouse and the ingredients seem and taste higher quality. Definitely order some miso soup! Their miso soup is the best miso...

So originally I reviewed Umi's and said I have never had a bad experience there. I have been going to Umi's for years and have always enjoyed it, until recently. It seems like over the past few years it has kinda gone down from what it use to be. Tonight we had probably the worst experience we have ever had. Normally you have a bit of a wait if you sit at hibachi, but the sushi side is pretty quick with service. Tonight I went with my husband, and 3 other friends. We were informed there would be an 18% gratuity. That wouldn't have been a big deal. We normally tip more than 18%. The problem was that because we were a large group our server didn't seem to care about us. We waited over an hour and a half for our sushi and ran out of drinks while waiting and didn't get refills until our food finally came. Other smaller groups that arrived 30 minutes after us got their food and nearly finished while we continued to wait. It sort of seemed like our server decided she didn't need to give us good service since she was going to automatically receive a tip from the gratuity. We may be could have complained, but honestly we had been there so long l, we just...

I heard about this restaurant from a good friend of mine who said that when she lived in Starkville was the absolute best place for hibachi. I was very excited to dine here due to her glowing review. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I waited to be seated while countless employees including the hostess looked right at me and kept walking. My son and I were the only ones in line waiting and it was not busy at all. Once they eventually took us to our hibachi table, I decided I would give them the benefit of the doubt and despite my first impression. I regret that decision. The waiter we had was great. Very attentive. The food however was awful. The edamame appetizer was not only cold, it was so overdone that it was impossible to eat. The chicken hibachi was both bland and undercooked. The chef burnt my sons salmon. Needless to say I paid $89 for food we couldn’t eat. Don’t recommend. Don’t waste your money. Huge...