Umi Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Wichita

As an east sider, I was excited to have a hibachi place opening up on this side of town. Unfortunately, I want to warn everyone about coming here to Umi. I recommend to just make the drive and go to either Kobe's or Old Tokyo instead. There are so many things wrong with this place I don't even know where to start. My party did not have a reservation, so we did a walk-in and only had to wait in the lobby for 20 minutes. However, once we got seated at the hibachi grill, it took 15 minutes for a waiter to take our drinks and then another 15 minutes just to receive the drinks. And it was a very complicated process, despite the waiter having a notepad, everyone's drinks still somehow got mixed up. And me and one other person did not receive our drinks. They simply "forgot" to put in the other person's drinks. For mine however, they didn't let me know my drink was out until I had inquired about it. So now 30 minutes into this experience, we just received our drinks but the waiter wasn't ready to take our order. We waited quite a bit longer (at this point I lost track of the time) and they eventually came out to begin serving us with soups before we even placed our order! Since they love to make us wait, everyone was so bored that we started chatting with the other parties at the table. According to the couple dining with us, their soft opening was so much different and better that they said the experience was like night and day. Not to mention they said the soups being served were totally different from the soft opening, so they didn't have anything to compare to. After a wait that seemed close to an hour, everyone got their orders placed and the wait for the chef begins. Given that we've all been waiting for over an hour just to eat, people's moods were all over the place. Unfortunately, they had sat another group of people at a different hibachi grill ~20 minutes after us but they somehow received their chef before us. As we all saw that, this angered 1 of parties at our grill so they just got up and left. After confronting them about that, they were quick to sort it out, but it definitely left an unpleasant feeling for the rest of us. We did place some appetizers along with our order and the waiter got them mixed up once again with the other party's appetizers. I'm not really sure if the waiter received proper training because nothing seemed to go right for him. And they forgot about one of our appetizers so we had to remind them for it. For our hibachi experience it wasn't anything spectacular it was just average. I guess the good thing was that the chef got everyone's orders correctly. Unfortunately, I have to say that the food was not appetizing at all. With even being hungry, the food just wasn't good. The fried rice was really light and bland, we could only taste the butter they put in it. The shrimp was cooked inconsistently. Some were over cooked while others were seemingly under cooked. And the chicken was definitely over cooked. The texture was very rubbery I ended up not eating the chicken. Once everyone had finished eating and paid for their tickets, we were just sitting there talking. We got into the conversation and hadn't realized another 15 minutes or so passed. To our knowledge, the meal should have been finished with ice cream so we were all just sitting there waiting for the ice cream. Once we realized 15 minutes had gone by without any sight of our server, someone decided to go and ask about the ice cream. Guess what, they ran out and didn't say anything. They were hoping we'd forget! I could not believe they were going to just let us sit there and wait for nothing! From start to finish, we did not receive any apology or food comps or price adjustments for the horrible experience we received. (Please note that we never asked for that since we understand we aren't entitled to it.) I understand this is a new restaurant, but it just seems like both the staff & cooks were not ready for the grand opening to happen. I will not be recommending this place to anyone after our awful...

I recently had the pleasure of dining at Umi’s Hibachi Grill in Wichita, and let me tell you, the experience was unforgettable—but not in a good way. While I’ve enjoyed other hibachi grills in town, Umi’s managed to turn what should’ve been a fun dinner into an Olympic event of patience and frustration.

Our reservation for two was at 7:00 PM, but we weren’t seated until 7:20 PM—only after my husband had to nudge the front desk. We were placed with a larger party of seven women celebrating a birthday. Turns out, their reservation was for 6:30 PM, but they weren’t seated until 7:20 PM because they waited for their late-arriving friend. Why this was allowed to derail everyone else’s evening? I’ll never know.

Service was a slow-motion disaster. Our shy waitress took drink orders, but waters didn’t grace the table until 8:04 PM—an hour after sitting. A couple of cocktails appeared before that, but apparently water is an elusive luxury at Umi’s. Appetizers trickled out like they were being hand-prepped by toddlers, and soup and salad finally arrived at 8:11 PM. By then, my husband—a third-shift worker who had just woken up and was starving—had already taken it upon himself to speak with the manager. Thankfully, they comped our meals, but that was about the only thing they got right.

At 8:40 PM—yes, you read that correctly—the hibachi chef finally showed up. By then, one woman at our table, completely over the chaos, tried to cancel her meal. I encouraged her to stick it out because the manager needed to know exactly how badly this night was going. Later, the manager (looking very pressed) came over and whispered to me, asking if I told the table their meals were free. I told her no—but maybe they should be, considering the absolute train wreck her team had orchestrated. Her excuse? The group was late. Sorry, but their tardiness doesn’t explain why we were all ignored for hours while other tables (some who arrived long after us) were getting five-star service.

Now, credit where it’s due: the hibachi chef was a star. He tried to lighten the mood and reassure us, even going so far as to say the food was “taken care of.” The food finally hit our plates at 8:53 PM—nearly two hours after our reservation. Only then did refills and service magically improve, but by that time, the damage was done.

The cherry on top? The manager and owner’s behavior. Instead of addressing the table directly, they sent out a drum performance for the birthday girl to distract everyone. Cute, but we weren’t buying it. The manager eventually offered a measly 15% discount on the $589 bill for the group. And the owner? Oh, he was there. Sitting comfortably with his family, likely enjoying a meal that was served on time. Not only did he avoid us like the plague, but we actually saw him drive off in his Porsche. His excuse for not stepping in? “It’s a business.” Really? Because good businesses don’t let customers sit around for hours and then act like we’re asking for the moon when we request accountability.

We finally left at 9:20 PM, exhausted, irritated, and unimpressed. The hibachi chef was the only redeeming part of the night, but not even his skills could save this disaster.

If you’re looking for a hibachi experience in Wichita, skip Umi’s and check out Sakura Japanese Cuisine, Osaka Steak and Sushi, or Wasabi Hinkaku instead. Your time—and your...

My boyfriend and I went there for an early Valentine’s Day date since we’re long distance. To say the least, the hostesses were extremely rude, and while we know it’s homecoming weekend for a lot of schools, we had not done anything to add to the stress. I wore a nice dress and got met with the remark “I am tired of all of these homecoming/prom s**t.” My boyfriend had turned around to ask her what she had said, and she just said she was thinking out loud, even though I heard her clearly, I just didn’t wanna ruin the evening for him. I went to the bathroom a few times during the evening and every time I passed there was extreme glares and laughter. When we were seated, we were told these three chairs were ours (I had my younger brother there with us as well because I was watching him). We sat down and were just trying to rearrange ourselves within the SAME three chairs, but since they were so close together, we had to move the 4th one out of the way to efficiently move. As soon as my boyfriend touched the 4th chair, the same rude hostess rushed over and immediately started to tell us that we need to stay in the same three chairs. I told her that we knew and were trying to move around the order which we were sitting to avoid the giant AC vent. However, in trying to explain this I immediately get cut off in the middle of my sentence with “YOU NEED TO MOVE AND SIT IN THESE CHAIRS BECAUSE WE HAVE ANOTHER PARTY COMING.” Again, I said we were moving and am now very annoyed and looked at her and told her that we were moving and that we know. She then one more time said that we need to move and cannot sit there and I just replied one more time that we are TRYING to move and we are NOT using that chair, just trying to scoot it over since they were SO close together. When we were seated, the restaurant appeared semi-busy, but not overly packed like how sumo always was. The service was slow, with 15+ minutes between all appetizers, and then after the last appetizer, it took at least an hour for a chef to come to our table. However, the service at the other habachi table was sat 30 minutes after us, yet finished everything at the same time. The chef was good, and being forgetful is okay, but she had entirely left out my second entree that comes with the dinner and wouldn’t have done anything if someone didn’t say something. She fixed it with a smile and that was the best part and aspect of service of the night. The food was excellent, but the original encounter with the main hostess was extremely unpleasant, and the priority of the customers was extremely undermined. I work in food service too, and while I am not a perfect server either, I still never rude to a customers face just to be rude. As an east sider, I would say just make the...