U-MA-MI Restaurant & Bar

Ok … unfortunately, after an ROTD, Umami is closed. Signs taken off, lights off — it was a short but sweet run. *shrug*

I hate to give a poor review however I feel its important to say what I feel. Having traveled to Japan over 100 times I was really looking forward to a Kushiage restaurant in Hawaii. So I went to Umami excited but left very disappointed. I brought 9 guests from Japan whom also where disappointed. The main complaints where first the staffs lack of knowledge of their menu, they use or at least it tasted like they use a very low quality oil. Food came out late and scattered. There was only one other table besides ours. When it came time to pay the manager told us that the credit card machine was broken so they could only accept cash and offered a $ 30 discount… Good thing we had cash… Apparently they haven’t fixed the credit card machine as I heard from two other people with same experience… It would have been nice if they explained to us about their credit card machine issue beforehand. What if we didn’t have the cash? How embarrassing would that be???

i’d give ½ a star if i could! why?
1-​FLAVORLESS, poorly made food. Either way too oily kushiyaki, or over cooked yakitori meats. not the greatest menu :(only decent 3 star item was the yakitori pork belly with onion-​but pork belly with all it’s fat is always tasty
2– SERIVCE so, so. Nice ladies but they need a lot of training. I was brought the wrong dish twice! so we had to wait an extra 15 – 20 min for the right dish, and I didn’t ever get the yams i ordered?! ugh
3-​ATMOSPHERE is just off? Nice interior, but too bright, bad music, and the «feel» is too simple and boring for the food? They should dim the lights, vary the music, and make it more of a bar/​lounge type place, i think it would be more successful that way.
4-​OVERPRICED, food, and sake for what you get.
Hey at least the parking was free! but i should have known it was a BAD sign when on a Saturday night, at 7:30 the parking and restaurant is EMPTY!!! take a hint next time!
oh and i’m convinced the 4 star reviews on here are either friends, family, or owners?
I tried to give the benefit of the doubt, and kept ordering. i’d never go back, sorry

Had a really bad experience at this place.
I ordered the grilled assorted meats ($ 16) and the fried assorted vegetables ($ 15) with a chicken karaage appetizer ($ 11). All 3 tasted ok, but were really small-​portioned.
Seriously, I wasn’t even that hungry. These portions are what you’d find at a 5-​star French restaurant — very small. I later got an order of the chicken yakitori ($ 4) which consisted of 4 small pieces of chicken on a single stick. Seriously, guys? One stick?!
*Check out Michael W.‘s photo of the kushiage, if you want a reference picture. That one stick’ll cost ya’ 4 bucks.
That’s just the food.
The service was really depressing, too. There was one waitress, the bartender (he was cool, gave us an extra drink. which accounts for the single star), and my table (2 people). The waitress didn’t know what an Ichiko with Oolong tea, or a Crown and Coke was. Our table was the only one there and the service was really lacking.
Then I ordered a couple of items after receiving the mediocre portions. After waiting 10 minutes and NO food, I was asked by the bartender if I wanted the check. Then a few minutes later, I was asked by the WAITRESS if we wanted desserts (still hadn’t received the food).
When the food was finally ready, they asked us if we just wanted it to go, like they wanted us out (It was last call when we left).
Really?!
There were other problems, but I’ve already written a graphic novel over this. I promise our demeanor throughout the whole dinner was overly-​friendly and pleasant, and we tried to be understanding, but… Wow.
I won’t be going again and would advise anyone else against going also.

Coming from New York, there were lots of Yakitori restaurants (Yakitori Taisho, Yakitori Totto, Hagi etc), but couldn’t find a good one here in Hawaii that was comparable to the ones in NYC.
My girlfriend and I stumbled upon this place, after we were looking for Tokkuri-​Tei, but it moved (which we later discovered, they moved right next to Hee Hing further down Kapahulu).
The Good: Yakitori (got the assorted meats platter)
The GREAT: the shave iced dessert. They use homemade syrup and fruit chunks. and the way they shaved the ice .i can’t describe it, but it’s not your standard ice shavings that other places do… it’s just good. trust me…
The Mehhh: They are fairly new, so service isn’t up to par yet. Wait staff is attentive, but a little slow, but nothing that would prevent me from going there again. It’s just a matter of working out all the kinks in the service model.
Bottom Line: Would go there again, and it compares favorably to the likes of Yakitori Taisho in St Marks… word…

I’m not gonna go again ! Beef kushiyaki was smelly. All yakitori were over salted. One small piece of scallop kushiage was $ 4.5 !!! If they charge like that, all food gotta be organic or something special like all other good Japanese restaurants do. I would not recommend at this time. Save your money and time. There were other issue but I will not go into it at this time. Those issue lead me to believe there is no respect for the customer wants or needs

1. strange menu items
2. kushiyaki — too much flour and egg before dusting with panko. Over cooked.
3. yakitori — dry and over cooked
4. amateur cooks with obviously no prior experience in kushiyaki or yakitori.
5. amateur wait staff
6. over priced — food and sake (one sake serving is probably about 3 ounces at the most)
7. great interior — far cry from the Asian brothel look of Sake Street

This review is about a visit I made PRIOR to the grand opening, so things will inevitably change.
This is a startup restaurant that occupies the space on Kapahulu where Sake Street used to be. It’s a three minute walk from my place, so I figured «what the heck?»
The menu is chock-​full of every meat option that you’d like to eat fried, in reasonably priced sizes. Basically, each item is priced «by the stick» so you can list them off and get a unique plate of each one, with sauces to compliment each one.
For the less-​common eaters, I really have to push the pork belly. It’s a unique texture with a combination of crunchiness and buttery meltiness (yeah, made that word up) all packed into a fried little package. I also tried out the spicy chicken karaage fry (amazing) and the tomato/​bacon fry (due to Mike’s suggestion). I’d have to say that this restaurant has great potential, and I’m eager to try out the newly released yakitori menu.
The location seems like it may have had some slightly heavy turnover in the past couple of years, but I’m hoping that U-​ma-​mi breaks that trend. The staff sparkles with bubbly conversation and outgoing personalities, and the food speaks for itself.
Why I come back: exceptional fried food, friendly staff, neat koi pond inside

I drove past this place on my way to Kapiolani Park and I almost caused an accident when I saw Yaki Tori and Kushi Age Soft Open on the sign out side. I made one more pass and see the sign that says it’s not open til 5:00pm… my watch says 12:30… CRAP!
Fast forward to that night, I make the trek back over as it’s been almost a year since I’ve had kushi age (one of my all time favs)…
They were staffed fully, but much to my chagrin, only the bar is open until the «real» soft opening on November 18^th, they will be fully up and running on December 7^th. Still hammering out the menu I guess.
5 seats at the bar and plenty of table seating in the main area, bar area, and a big lanai complete with a koi pond gushing about 5 gallons a second (poor fish).
The set up is more like a restaurant than a traditional yakitori or kushi age shop that typically has an open kitchen. Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to the opening after which I’ll update my review.
Staff is super friendly, if you’re in the area, its’ worth poking your head in for a drink before the opening.