Umi Japanese Fine Dining

Went here for sushi tonight with my room mate and we are big sushi fans! We were actually surprised that it was so empty, the décor was beautiful, we did kind of laugh at the music choice as it would be one genre to something completely different, but this was of little concern, the staff was friendly and the food was outstanding! Everything I tried was perfect and there was only one single thing that my room mate tried that he didn’t like very much but he did realize after eating it that it was a type of fish that he had had another time at a different location and didn’t like it there either (so he probably just doesn’t like that type of fish). We also enjoyed the funny names of some of the rolls and they had some roll types that I’d never heard of but are my new favourites! Will definitely be revisiting!

After driving around Ajax for about 20 minutes, i’ve come across a new sushi place called umi. very nice from the outside and inside the Decour is really cool. I went into get some à la cart sushi as I didn’t feel like pigging out. The lady working there convinced me to go with all you can eat as she sold me on the deserts. As I was finishing up my meal I headed over to the desert side of the buffet where that same lady advised me that dessert was no longer available, as she proceeded to put the rest of the desert in the fridge under the buffet and haul away the rest of the desert on the trolley, at this point I knew I would probably never returned to umi ever again. The food was pretty good but I felt ripped off.

One of my favourite AYCE sushi spots in Durham because of the selection. The food is good. Customer service is good. Price is good. I can’t speak for their sashimi, but everything else seems fresh and is super tasty. My only complaint is that they aren’t always open promptly at their open times.

I went here recently after not going for awhile. I am not satisfied with the sushi I don’t find it fresh and it’s quite bland compared to before. I don’t think I would try again next time.

This place opened up late last year and since they offered a Groupon we decided to try them out. They are an all you can eat Japanese-​ish place that uses iPad ordering. The décor is rather weird for an Asian restaurant of any type with lots of purple and silver and crystals handing from the ceiling, making it look more like a bar or disco than a restaurant. They were placing rap, hip-​hip, and R&B which added to the «where is the dance floor?» feel, We arrived at 8:45pm and they close at 10pm, but the first thing the server said is to make sure and order right away as they would be cutting off service soon. This was not an auspicious start to the evening and the fact only 2 other people were in there eating raised a red flag.
A look over the menu showed was not encouraging as the variety was distinctly lacking for this kind of place and they were quite heavy on the Chinese style dishes. We started with miso soup which was not as good as the instant mix kind I usually buy at the local Asian grocery. The tempura was probably the best thing they had since that has to be made fresh while most of the other stuff we got was obviously boxed frozen food (coconut shrimp, cheese won-​tons, fried scallops, and dumplings especially). The pork katsu was very thin and very overcooked and probably a frozen cutlet. The teriyaki was not too bad and the beef skewers were actually pretty good. The beef fried rice was awful, very dry and desperately in need of salt and the beef was so thinly shaved it reminded my husband of phily cheese steak meat.
The sushi was mediocre at best and the wasabi was so weak you could eat it straight and still feel no heat. The sashimi was tiny very thin pieces and they only had 4 kinds of fish. The nigiri were OK and had a bit more meat on them but the lame wasabi kind of ruined the esperience. I got a tempura shrimp roll which was OK but no as good as at other places I have eaten.
Dessert was supposed to be on a lame salad/​dessert bar but the staff had it cleaned off before 9:30 so all that was left was the ice cream when we were ready to try it. Even the cookies had been put away! We did manage to snag the last 2 mango yogurts (more like mango jello) when we saw them start cleaning it away and they were OK but nothing I would really want again. The ice cream was awful. Bad quality green tea, strawberry, mango, and vanilla in 5 gallon tubs. The taste was off on all 3 we tried (skipped vanilla) and very icy in texture. (Note: The salad/​dessert bar photo on Unilocal is nothing like what they had this night. They had maybe 20% of what is shown in that photo.)
By 9:30 not only had they cleared away the dessert bar, but they started mopping the floors and trying to rush us out the door even though they didn’t close until 10pm! Not a very pleasant dining experience what with being rushed and the poor quality of the food. We agreed that we will never go back.
Overall, I would say this place has very little chance of staying in business for very long unless they clean up their act. Maybe they are better if you show up early in the evening, but still the food was not good and so much was obviously frozen food service stuff and I can cook that myself at home for much less than $ 22 per person.

This is my third ayce visit plus one for take out hour&sour soup.
Freshly renovated to open a few months ago it is bright, clean and well decorated.
In our two most recent visits, the biggest thing to stand out is the dramatic presentation of the sushi. Banana leaves, beet dyed shredded radish and many other garnishes make the overall impression of a high end restaurant.
Very friendly and attentive staff round out a great experience.