Umami Sushi

I came back to Umami after a friend of mine suggested it. The all you can eat menu was updated and had better choices. The wait on a Sunday at 4pm was brutal to which contributed that the place is seriously understaffed. Again, my main concern was the amount of time the sushi sat on the warm counter before being delivered to the table. We waited over an hour for our food and by the time it came, it did not have the desired sushi temperature. I would be back eventually just because for the money, it is a great deal but I sure hope they hire more staff and figure out the food serving situation.

This is my go-​to place for sushi on the northwest side of Chicago. I will eat here over any fancy «fusion» Japanese place around Logan Square for two reasons: price and authenticity.
First, the AYCE menu is one of the best prices for sushi in the city, and the quality of the sushi doesn’t suffer at all. Second, having lived in Japan for over two years, not only the sushi but all of the appetizers taste like authentic Japanese cuisine. A lot of the food at Japanese restaurants in the city taste «off» to me, but Umami doesn’t. Highly recommend.

My absolute favorite AYCE sushi restaurant! I’ve tried sushi AYCE at many other places and none can compare! Highly recommend going here.

Go to stop for me and my boyfriend with their all you can eat for $ 20 and lunch special. The staff is very nice and remembered us when we came back. I enjoy their sushi and they give you a good portion of fish. Exceeds expectations for the price. Highly recommended.

My waitress is so f-​ing cute omg. Food is great and it’s an amazing place to go for a first date. It is BYOB they are so helpful with that too.

This place is great if you need a sushi fix for cheap. $ 20 for all-​you-​can-​eat, made-​to-​order sushi is a pretty sweet deal, and there are some unique items on the menu (i.e. banana rolls). And FYI, the place is BYOB and conveniently located next to a liquor store.
So why the 3-​star rating, you ask? Well, a few reasons. First, the place is pretty small, so there are really long wait times (40+ minutes) during prime dinner hours. Second, the hostess is not the most personable. In fact, she borders on rude. Third, the sushi is good but not necessarily great… definitely not worth a 45-​minute wait. So if you’re in the mood for inexpensive sushi, go at an off time to avoid waiting.

Been here often and although it’s been a while, I can’t wait to go back. The sushi is so fresh and it’s convenient that there’s a Jewel right next door since its BYOB. Sometimes it takes longer than others to get your food but it’s understandable.
Service is debatable. I’ve had GREAT service most of the time.

Shocked to see this place isn’t 5 stars. The food is amazing and delicious. Sushi lovers this is the place for you. For a decent price you can come in and have a pick of all you can eat sushi which is of good quality. The best part is the restaurant is a byob so it’s a perfect place for a family event or friend gathering.

All you can eat… omg its that i need! I can not see my day without sushi. Im really fan of it. It’s my girst time here, nice atmosphere, welcomed staff. I was recommended this sushi bar before, so thanks to my friends i came here.

First time here and def going back. They have all you can eat sushi for $ 20. They were very busy when I went but you couldn’t tell by the service, they were fast with the plates and kept checking back to see if we wants to order more. Its not a very big place so it fills up fast too. They are located in a strip mall so there is plenty of parking too. The rolls were real good, I would have guessed bc its all you can eat the quality would be so so but they were delicious. My nephew goes all the time so I wanted to check it out. They have a app section, main rolls, and even a dessert roll, which was AMAZING. It was a banana split roll, warm banana and cream cheese rolled in rice and covered with whip cream topped off w chocolate and strawberry sauce. The main rolls come in 6 – 8 rolls each and then you can also order the simple rolls individually too. cant wait to go back :)

Can’t say enough good things about this place. It has been a favorite of my husband and I for quit some time now and it is hands down the best sushi we have ever had!!! Their all you can eat for just $ 20 is an amazing deal. I would recommend paying them a visit!!! They are fantastic!!!

Horrible service! We got here at 9:00. Ordered once, next order grumpy waiter said we had 5 min to order. Rice portion on sushi too big. Put rice on side. Waiter said he was gonna charge us for extra rice! Threatened us with cameras! Turn our awesome night to the worst night in Chicago! Can’t believe we paid $ 30 in cab ride to get here!

came here twice. first time was with a friend and second time with a party of 20.
the staff is nice and service is good.
both time we did the ayce. the price is comparable to any other sushi buffets.
good thing about this place is that it has a parking lot. so no worries on looking for street parking.
first time the sushi has less rice which was a plus and made me like the place. the second time i went back there was a lot more rice. so the consistency is not there.
they do have a good variety of sushi to choose from. also their appetizers are pretty good too!..
oh and its BYOB for the ppls that care…
i give it a 3 and a half star as of now…

The All you can eat (AYCE) is the reason we rolled into this place at 11:30am on a Friday morning and trust me we ate our fill and more. It’s 15.95 for lunch and there is a nice selections of rolls, nigiri (piece of raw seafood atop a cube of rice), and appetizers. The place is very clean and cool on a hot summer day in Chicago. The sushi does take time to get out to the tables, but I feel that time in between sushi plates is filled best by stocking up on the yummy appetizers like calamari, haramaki (fried rolls), and gyoza (dumplings).
My personal favorite was the spider rolls (soft shell crab) and the huge hunks of salmon nigiri. They do NOT skimp at this place and if you get there early and hit it often, you will get more than your money’s worth. We will definitely be see Umami again.

We have come here for more than a dozen times. Date nights, hang-​outs or family gatherings. This place never disappoints us!
We love sushi and Asian food. We never have to argue whether we should come here or not. It offers wide range of rolls, nigiri (single piece fish with sushi rice), and appetizers!!!
The food is fresh and service is good. Only once a while we had to wait for a table. Oh, this place is BYOB! You can grab drinks from the Jewel nearby becoming coming here. They also have good takeout price if you are in a hurry!

If you’re thinking about coming here to eat, come for the AYCE! I came here for dinner on a Thursday night and it was packed! I waited for about 20 minutes for a table. Not realizing that the popularity of this place was due to the all you can eat menu, I went ala cart. The nigiri pieces were good, but the fish was on the dry side, thinly cut and came with way too much rice. I can see why they were made this way for the AYCE, but it should be adjusted for ala cart. You can order most of the rolls on the AYCE menu, and it’s only $ 19 for dinner!
Soft Shell Crab Tempura Appetizer $ 6 — This was actually decent for the price. The crab was a little crabby in some parts, but overall it was good.
Spicy Sanshoku Roll (8 pieces) $ 14 — This was the smallest roll I’ve ever gotten at this price point. It was good, but maybe for half the price.
BYOB — There’s a Jewel Osco nearby.
Conclusion: Good for AYCE, but be prepared to wait.

I was skeptical about Umami Sushi, because, let’s face it, 1) AYCE, 2) my boyfriend raved about it. He’s not nearly as picky about his sushi as I am. On top of it, he took me there as a «surprise» on a night where I didn’t remotely feel like eating sushi.
I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised, and would definitely return to Umami.
The only type of AYCE sushi place I will go to is one where the sushi is made to-​order. No buffet line, and GOD, please NO revolving sushi conveyor belts. How long has that been sitting there!!!
I ordered the spider roll and a few pieces of nigiri, as well as some edamame, and a hot green tea.
Service was prompt and fast, I think our server was disappointed that we didn’t order more than one round of sushi — I think they’re used to people coming in really ravenous.
Both the rolls & nigiri were very good — although there was a bit more rice with the nigiri than I would’ve liked. Luckily, my man loves sushi rice, so I ate my nigiri as sashimi and gladly handed him the uneaten rice. The spider roll had awesome fresh avocado, and the soft shell crab was tempura’d perfectly and also fresh.
For $ 19.99 per person for dinner, you really can do some damage.
Please keep in mind that Umami is BYOB and they will gladly point you to the liquor store across the street!

All you can eat sushi at a reasonable price $ 18 per person and its BYOB. The quality of the sushi is not all that but expected for the price still worth trying out. The place is very clean and has a modern feel to it. The service on the other hand leaves a lot to desire. They are quite slow at bringing the sushi out and seems like the servers are little disorganized and unfocused.

Went here for their all you can eat sushi lunch for $ 15.99 didn’t expect much given the low price but people at worked at spoke highly of the place so gave it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised. The sushi here was amazing, avocado roll was my favorite. Also had the salmon, crab, avocado rolls. One thing to remember though is if you don’t finish your plate they will charge you per item.

AYCE sushi for lunch ($ 15.99)! BYOB! Good, not spectacular, sushi! 3 stars!
I got here soon after the restaurant opened one weekday that I was off of work. I knew I’d try the AYCE option, so I started light: miso soup and some gyoza to share. We also ordered our first round of sushi — 5 rolls for 2 of us.
The appetizers were prepared quickly and came out within just a few minutes of us ordering them. The soup was good and warmed me up on a freezing cold day. The gyoza was decent too.
The sushi took a while to arrive — maybe 20 – 25 minutes or so. I knocked off a star for that. I don’t remember the exact rolls we ordered, but there was only one that I didn’t like — the salmon skin. There was just too much crispy skin on the fish. The rest of the rolls were good. Again, good, but not spectacular.
We ordered another round of sushi — just one roll. It took maybe 10 – 15 minutes to come out. We ordered one last roll. Again it took about 10 – 15 minutes to arrive.
At this point, I was done. No more sushi for me!
Do be careful — you must eat whatever you order. If you don’t, you’ll be charged extra for each piece you don’t eat. We saw a couple order something close to 10 rolls, and they came nowhere near eating it all. The waitress boxed up the extras, but the couple paid for it.
I’ve had AYCE sushi before, and this is pretty good for it. Everything is made fresh to order, so worry not, there isn’t a buffet of sushi just sitting out or anything.
I would definitely head back — this time, with a bottle of vino!