O-Ku — Restaurant in Washington

Never in my life have I walked out of a restaurant, until today. What an embarrassing experience.

I had a reservation at 9:15, table for one. I come in and get told there’s going to be a wait for a table, and to please take a seat and wait. As I wait, two separate parties, one I audibly hear also had a 9:15 reservation, get seated immediately. Why? I ask and get told that essentially parties with more people get priority in seating. In other words, you alone are not going to give us as much money as a group will, so you’re not our priority.

15 minutes after my reservation time (9:30) I get seated, and I’m not going to knock them specifically for this, but they give me what appears to be one of their largest booths.. by myself. It’s awkward, at least I think anyone else would feel awkward too (but again won’t discredit them for this).

Knowing there’s a chance I’ll continue to be neglected, I immediately put in a small plate and order a single nigiri while I continue to survey my options, as I can then order the rest of my meal when the server brings me one of the items. I want to be mindful of when they close (10:00), so the sooner I get my order in the better.

It’s now been 30 more minutes (10:00), I have yet to receive my small plate meal, nor my single salmon nigiri. My server has not once even said a quick “hey, sorry for the wait, should be out shortly. Did you want to order anything else before we close?” I’ve seen the table right next to me receive three separate items in those 30 minutes, as well as just about every other table.

It’s been a few more minutes, and nothing has changed. I decide I’ve had enough of this “experience” and leave while I have some semblance of dignity left from just being a complete afterthought because I’m a singular person vs a party of 4+ like everyone else in there.

When do they notice I left? 10:17. Almost 15 minutes after I left. That means my food was just barely coming to my table 47 minutes after I ordered, after I already waited 15 minutes to get seated past my 9:15 reservation.

This was a humiliating and overall disappointing experience. O-Ku has been on my “must go” list for quite some time but they’re always booked so far out in advanced. Today was a rough day and I felt treating myself to what appears to be great sushi. I got treated alright, like an afterthought.

As stated at the beginning of this review, I’ve never walked out of a restaurant before. And I would obviously never walk out if I had already received or eaten any food. But this was the first time I’ve ever gone to a restaurant and left feeling like they didn’t even want me to eat there.

They can have the best sushi in the entire DMV, but it wouldn’t matter to me now. Treat your guests equally, communicate if food is going to take a while, these are basic essentials for what a restaurant is supposed to provide, and they failed to do so. The sad thing is, they’re so popular in the area that they could probably care less about me or my bad experience.

If anyone else is alone in this city and curious about trying this restaurant out, don’t. They don’t care about you, nor do they even want you there. They’ll make sure you feel like an afterthought. Don’t do that...

This can be seen on the outskirts of what people may consider normal DC but it’s worth the venture out here. I used Yelp to find this spot and as usual, it came in the clutch.

Apps:

Rock Shrimp - always love me some Rock Shrimp. Portion size is on the larger end I felt like. It was two of us and we couldn’t finish it. Even though it was phenomenal. Also, not your standard spicy mayo Rock Shrimp flavor. It had a different vibe. It kept me on my toes. It was nice.

Gyoza - beef dumplings is the best way I can describe them. The simplest of them all but the best app we had.

Wgayu Croquette - I’m not crazy about Croquettes but whenever I have them I usually enjoy them! This was solid.

Main:

Crunchy Prawn - the classic shrimp tempura. Can’t go wrong. Another dish that brought a different spin with the crispy rice pearls around the roll. I liked the crunch but it added a bit of saltiness to the dish that made it too overwhelming of salt then. Still really good though.

Spicy Tuna - great. Standard taste but high quality flavor.

Nigiri - got the Salmon. This was awesome too.

Drinks:

Thai Iced Tea - I wasn’t loving this but it did the job for the craving I had for it.

Atmosphere/Service: I called in to make a reservation on a Saturday night around 5 PM (Yup, I’m always that person with the last minute plan) and they said they were booked up but we could sit at the bar and get served the full menu. We decided to take the chance because post dinner activities were happening right around the block from here. The spot is hidden on a street of stores next to Union Market. We almost missed it cause it blended in and the signage was small. It kind of had a speakeasy vibe cause when you walk in, you’re pleasantly surprised at how nice of a place this is. We end up finding out there’s a rooftop and that’s what really gets booked up. After finding a seat at the bar, a server, Lindsay I believe is like would you like to sit on our rooftop? We gave her a profound Uh YES! Thanks to her we got to enjoy the one of the best parts about this place. The vibes. The rooftop does not disappoint. Gentlemen, make reservations here at this rooftop and thank me later. This place has date night vibes written all over it. Overall, service was fantastic too.

My new...

my god, genuinely shocked that this place has 4.6 stars. DO NOT come here if you're looking for good sushi, because this place is not the one.

maybe it was an off night for when my family and i were there but the sushi rice was simultaneously undercooked and mushy at the same time - totally over seasoned with sushi rice vinegar and some grains had a bite to them which made for an overall very unpleasant mouth feel and tough swallow. we ordered the grilled eggplant, chef's choice nigiri and sashimi, some hand rolls, and a spider roll and all of it was just disappointing...

want to stress that our waitress was very nice and the service was okay, but had to remind her to we'd ordered the truffle ponzu dipping sauce as well as a spider roll (i thought the cooked speciality rolls would be better which was why i ordered another roll on top of what we'd ordered, but it was the same issue with the weird undercooked/mushy rice). to charge $80 for 12 pieces of thin sashimi and sour nigiri is mind-blowing, and the eggplant we were given were such tiny little cubes i was just shocked. the spider roll was cut so thin and the soft-shell crab was cold even though our waitress mentioned they have a no-wait rule and that everything comes out as it's ready. the seaweed for the hand rolls were limp when they got to us. the "fresh-grated wasabi" for an extra $10 tasted like literally nothing and there was probably only like 1/2 teaspoon of it spread on the wooden plank. dish after dish continued to be a disaster, and i was the only one staying optimistic thinking that the next dish would probably be better. i was wrong!

didn't bother mentioning anything on our way out because we all felt slightly queasy from the meal and just wanted to leave. so disheartened as we were visiting DC and this was our last (crazy expensive for horrible quality) meal for our last night in such a beautiful city!

so yes, seriously not sure how this place gets such high ratings but truly some of the worst sushi i've ever had. these glowing reviews are crazy. i've also never written a google review before so obviously o-ku influenced me enough to write something because this was...