Umi Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Winter Park

Yes I know this is a long review but it was needed: I came here with a group of people for my friends birthday and I was absolutely disappointed with the food and the service. The group we had was about 11 people, the reservation was set to 7:00 pm but we weren’t seated until around maybe 7:20-7:30. When we were seated we were greeted pretty promptly and had water at the table as well. After ordering our drinks our server, Muna, took everyone’s order at the table except for mine and my boyfriends order. As we see our server walk away my boyfriend raises his hand to get anyone’s attention. Another employee walks up to us and we ask him if he can send our waitress back, we then see her shoo him off as if she couldn’t care any less. When the server finally comes back she takes our order but then tells my boyfriend that they no longer have the beef short ribs so she recommends the bulgogi beef or the robata grilled kalbi which was one of the more expensive entrees. My boyfriend ordered the robata grilled kalbi and I ordered the tonkatsu pork. My boyfriend received his entree and the ribs are short ribs so then we questioned why he wasn’t able to get the entree he originally asked for. There was barely any meat on the short ribs, the meat was dry, and it came with a side of grilled eggplant and bok choy, definitely not worth $42. As just about everyone at the table receives their order (orders come as they’re made) a lady walks up to the table whom I presumed was the owner and told me that they are sold out of the tonkatsu pork that I ordered. Why it took them so long to realize that they didn’t have the ingredients for my order blew my mind. I then ordered the Bimimbap and the owner said that the meal would be on the house which was the only good customer service we received that night. My boyfriend has finished eating as well as the rest of the table and I finally get my meal. I eat maybe half of it, honestly the meal was subpar, and the server comes back around and snatches my plate from me without asking if I’m finished. I repeated twice that I was not finished with my meal and then realized I see a lady at the end of the table boxing my meal up. I’ve never been treated so poorly at a restaurant before especially with how expensive the food was. Of course when our check came my meal that was supposed to be on the house was not comped so I had to mention it to our server. Our bill was over $100 for subpar food and horrible service. All together we ordered the $15 carafe of hot sake, the mango sushi dish (which was good but the sushi was so small and for the price definitely wasn’t worth it), garlic and lime edamame which seemed to have uncooked minced garlic on top of barely cooked soggy edamame, and two entree dishes. These aren’t the only instances that happened that night. Someone else at the table ordered Yakisoba noodles with ingredients that were not listed on the menu. When she brings this to the servers attention the server said that they changed the ingredients of the dish and that menu is from a few years ago. I don’t understand why they never updated the menu to reflect the ingredients in each dish. This is a hazard especially for guest who have any allergies and the server doesn’t make the guest aware of the dishes ingredients. I used to work in the service industry, I know how stressful it can be especially working after a holiday but that’s no excuse for how poor our service was. I didn’t want to cause a scene since it was my friends birthday and that night wasn’t about me but sadly I will never come back to this restaurant. If you want better customer service and better sushi for a decent price you’re better off going to Bayridge sushi in...

Just don’t get the sashimi. It’s not that kind of sushi restaurant. We ordered takeout and almost the only thing I can eat at a sushi restaurant is sashimi because so many restaurants somehow put gluten in the sushi rice ? Why? I’m not a sushi chef, but I’ve read that there shouldn’t be any gluten in sushi rice… Anywho, I digress. On this particular December eve, we had the necessity to order takeout and my daughter picked sushi. I ordered sashimi because apparently I am a glutton for punishment.

My husband got to the restaurant. They’d lost our order. This should have been a sign unto us. Alas, they offered him a salad and beer, so he sat and waited while our food was prepared. Therefore, and this is the key, our food was freshly prepared when he made the 7-10ish minute drive home.

I opened the box of sashimi, which looked beautiful, but the smell of outdated fish overwhelmed me. I tasted a few pieces and found the culprit(s).

For context, I have had sashimi and raw fish sushi, before I had a food issue with gluten, more times than I care to count. I also AM NOT a complainer. I never send food back unless something is wrong, like undercooked, spoiled, or contaminated (once I had broken glass in my food) and even when I do send it back for those reasons, I am nearly apologetic (“I’m so sorry, you seem to have broken a glass and some has fallen into my food, my apologies for asking for a new plate”). I’m also an accomplished home cook who regularly get rave reviews from friends and family.

I literally spit the fish out of my mouth and lost my appetite. My husband, who has a terrible sense of smell even commented on the offending odor.

I called the restaurant and what took place after was probably the worst or second worst customer service I’ve ever had at a restaurant. They shamed me, they told me it was the “delay” between ordering and getting it home (see note on how order was prepared while my husband waited), they told me I didn’t know what I was talking about regarding the freshness told the fish (b- please!) they unapologetically apologized (you know what I mean), they made uncountable excuses. They offered to drive to my house and take a look at the offending dish (to which I said ‘ok’ and the offer suddenly vanished) and bring me something else (appetite lost). They did offer me something “free” the next time I came in and then said they’d send me a text with said offer (also magically did not happen).

What they never did was make me feel like I was remotely valued as a customer in any way or validated. So, I get to feel like a real “Karen” out THIRTY EIGHT dollars for a dish i couldn’t finish and paid too much for in the first place.

Guess we’ll be going...

A really great looking place .... and that's about it?

Thw "theory" of Ramen is it's supposed to appeal to all your senses - the smell, the vapor, the piping hot broth (feel?), the slurping (sound) as you pull in cool air to cool the noodles as you eat - but that was largely not present. The noodles seemed to be the standard Sams club or Sysco noodles that I see everywhere. Those noodles clump (which they did here), they don't cook through well (which they weren't here), and they lack any real texture or flavor. Just noodles from flour, I feel like.

The experience is: the ramen came out cold. Not a hint of steam coming off the broth. I could put my finger in and hold it there without pain. The included pork was thoroughly cooked, but room temperature. The bean sprouts, other vegetables, and fish cakes were cold to the touch. Honestly... I asked them to throw it in the microwave. I've only ever done that once before. Here, I was honestly concerned about eating cold pork. (Again, it was cooked through.) My guess is that the method of prep is to boil the noodles, replace the water with broth, and add ingredients - straight from the refrigerator. The problem is that there's just not enough heat in the broth to maintain a high temprrature while warming nearly-freezing ingredients. Perhaps I stopped in at a bad time of day (2:30pm, weekday).

When they brought it back out two minutes later, there was just a hint of steam from the broth, but they seem to have taken everything out beforehand - the fish cakes were still cold to the touch (even sitting in the slightly steamy broth), the pork was warm on the outside and just nothing in the middle. I gave up. Three minutes later, the broth was luke-warm, and the ingredients were blah.

The miso soup was great. The service.. no, it really wasn't. One person was really making up for lapses with the assigned staff. The ramen is an absolute pass. The other dishes, I don't especially have reason to doubt them. Ramen is...