Umi — Restaurant in Virginia

Absolutely awful. Mistreated unorganized amateurs Please allow me to explain, my girlfriend and I walked into the restaurant, the hostess greeted us with a nice smile, so I thought: oh finally, a sushi place where we can actually enjoy ( We have been hunting for one, but no luck so far ) The restaurant was pretty empty during dinner time on a Friday night, we were seated right away but with no menus because they do not have enough? How does one not have enough menus for your guests? 15 mins in, no one greeted us, we've seen waitresses walking by us left and right, but we are as though invisible to them because we don't look like one of those wealthy looking business men/women. Our food order took another 20 minutes, thought we'd be getting soup or salad right after we ordered, nope, still foodless. Not until 3 mins before they served us the entrees. I've worked at a restaurant before and this is not how you serve your clients. Timing is way off. Waitresses are all young as though they are high schoolers, perhaps they are, which I understand that it does not determine their capability to serve, however they were extremely slow, moped around, and ran around aimlessly. Finally we got served, as we were eating, we saw a group of well dressed business men and women walked in, immediately they were greeted by the manager/owner, other young waitresses followed up immediately with such passion, menus on the table, conversation exchanging between the manager and the guests. How frustrating, this restaurant is as shallow as it can get. Food was mediocre. What an upsetting evening... Please go somewhere else if you're looking to get treated properly.

I'm in the customer service industry as well, so I understand what's right and wrong.

I never write reviews, so writing this review says a lot about this place.

Treat yourself to a better restaurant, you don't deserve to be mistreated...

We visited Umi last evening (7/20/08) for a 9pm dinner and WOW, we were impressed with everything about our visit. Umi opened within the last six months and I think that they might be the best-kept secret in Virginia sushi.

The sushi was simply amazing and hands-down the very best we have had anywhere in Richmond. As a matter of fact, I think that Umi was every bit as good as some of the nationally recognized sushi places we have visited recently.

We tried a variety of about a half-dozen different types of fish and they were all amazingly fresh and flavorful. We sampled both rolls and individual pieces. Presentation is a huge part of this restaurant and Umi has both the best presentation and best ambiance of any Japanese restaurant we have eaten at in the area (about seven others so far). This is a chic joint with up-scale lighting and furnishings -- creating a very hip hangout.

Of all the things that we noticed about the food, I think the most attractive was the pairings of fresh ingredients. Every bit of the food was extremely fresh. Umi has a full and wonderful flavor we have not found in other local sushi restaurants. Everything seems very carefully chosen and painstakingly put together.

We ordered quite a lot of food and were blown away when our bill came out - only $35 for three rolls and six different pieces of sushi. You might think you were at a bargain sushi place with those prices.

All I can say is well done Umi... very,...

eat here immediately!!!! sitting down you know this is going to rock ur world bc they serve sea urchin which im pretty sure is super hard to prepare (woahhh!!) the ambience is amazing, little details like the cool cups and metal silverware and bigger factors like comfy seats and smelling really nice and like the nicest staff ever the service was great i never felt like i was waiting a long time its just amazing but above all else the food is like i dont even know a word for it it is fire like amazing perfect i particularly loved the special double tuna i will dream of it at night when i close my eyes it was the perfect thing like crunchy but not to much and the tuna and the size its just perfect i wish i took a picture but i gobbled it up without a trace!!! and then i also loved the tokyo roll it just like melted in my mouth the sauce was sooo good the tempura in the inside you could tell was freshly cooked because it was still warm but the rest is cool and its just amazing to eat we had cheesecake for dessert which was a great conclusion it reminded me of like funnel cake it was super yummy i would recommend this place passionately it...