Umami

7:15 pm. So far not good. Sanitation Grade 90. Arrived 15 min. early only to be told there is a 30 – 40 min. wait in spite of reservation. Went to bar to get a drink. The bar is one poor girl tending and serving to tables. She says it will be a few before she can help me. 7:23.Gave up on drink.
7:30 bar girl is now bagging to go orders.7:39 Confusion table 11? Lady came up front to pay, man said pay your server patron said everyone just got up and left so they had to go back to pay.
7:44 Seated! For some reason most tables had seating for ten but had 2,4 or 5 empty chairs. We had 4. Why are people still waiting and being told there is an hour wait???
Finally! Great waiter! Great Chef! These two changed my experience. The waiter was very attentive and the chef was hilarious and prepared everything just right.
It’s good just be sure you have plenty of time. 9:04

I doubt a lot of people are looking for this review, but the tofu is amazing!
Also, I ordered take out for a friend who wanted whitefish (with my tofu order) and when I went to pick it up got «white sauce» instead. Funny thing is that it’s happened twice. The saving grace is that it’s actually very good. I mean, I can only vouch for the tofu but he ordered the fish twice…

Pretty empty at lunchtime, however they do have good sushi and great lunchtime deals. $ 14 for a sashimi platter with soup, 12 pieces of sashimi and a spicy tuna roll. The menu looks pretty diverse and the staff was very pleasant. I’m sure I’ll be returning.

The food was good, but the service was really slow, they forgot to bring our salad, and the bathrooms definitely needed a good cleaning. I would have gave this place only 2 stars, but the buy 2 get one free sushi deal bumped them up to 3.

This is in the former Bengoshi building. One side is sushi; one side it hibachi.
It isn’t a classical sushi bar; it is a Southern sushi restaurant. If you go with that expectation, you will be delighted by the buy-​2-​get-​1 deal. We always get the Green Hornet and then each pick one for ourselves.
Bonus, if you care, is a full bar.

Good sushi for the Burlington area. There are two sides, the sushi side and the hibachi side. Service was above par and the food was really good.

I recently moved to Elon and had eaten at Simply Thai while here for an interview, so I decided to go to Umami for their lunch specials. I will definitely return for their wide selection and affordable lunch specials and (mostly) fresh ingredients!
*The non-​hibachi side was PACKED when we arrived shortly after noon on a Friday, which was good to see for us first-​timers. The only available seating was at the bar, which was not a problem at all. I prefer to sit near the sushi chef. However, there was only one woman serving all guests, so our soup was never given to us.
Rolls I loved: Spicy tuna classic roll (great toasted sesame seeds) and the crunchy dynamite (the flavors in this roll are incredible — tuna, salmon, snapper, uba (Japanese mint), cucumber, crunch, masago, spicy mayo).
Rolls i will not order again: Shrimp tempura classic roll — did not have much flavor. Also, the crazy monkey sounded good on paper (smoked salmon, mango, cream cheese, wrapped with avocado, umami and sweet soy sauce). The cream cheese dominated the roll (and I love cream cheese, but I wanted to enjoy the mango). Also, the avocado was pretty brown.
I took a paper to-​go menu home so I can keep track of what sushi rolls I like/​do not enjoy for future meals at Umami!

I was very hesitant to grab sushi in NC, specifically Burlington. But since leaving Europe (over 6 years there) where their standards are very high and craving it ever since returning back to America, we read the reviews (mostly positive) and decided to give it a try. I am so very glad we did! The nigiri and rolls were on point! My husband shared the sushi and the scallop and steak tepanyaki with me. The seasoning for the hot dish was perfect! Mostly I was super impressed with the delivery of the sushi (beautifully placed) and the freshness of the fish. The tuna had NO fat what-​so-​ever on it and the marbling on the salmon was perfect. Both melted like butter in our mouths! The California and Tuna rolls we spot on as well. The only tiny thing I wish was better was the tobiko that my California roll was «rolled» in. I am use to, and like it completely rolled and cover in tobiko. It was barely dabbed in it. The quality of the tobiko was not the best either. It was a little bit smaller (not talking about the larger roe either) than I like and the color was a dense orange. Not a vibrant orange. Also even if it is smaller roe it should still «pop» with sweet juices in your mouth, this did not. However, that is not a deal breaker for me and I just figured it is harder to get here. IT was an excellent dinner and now that we are back in America and have family nearby, whenever we are in town we will definitely be repeat customers! The waitress, Erica was very very nice and provided excellent service and Roger, I believe the owner, was super friendly and makes excellent sushi!

I have eaten here several times with my kids and they love it. They have excellent sushi. Lunch is a great time to go they have great deals then on sushi and hibachi. I enjoy talking to the chefs. They have a great variety. If you like spicy try the fire cracker shrimp appetizer, for sushi the molten lava, green hornet, and oya is awesome.

Five stars isn’t enough for the fresh cooked food in front of you here. So much food and a great chef (Gary). Overlook the wine selection changes, but Joe took care of our drink orders the best he could — good job. Very good and will come back here. ¹⁰⁄₁₀.

Awesome food, rolled in after nine and they still seated my girlfriend and I with a positive attitude ! We had a blast hanging with our server/​manager! You need a raise Erica ! Mad props

The Hibachi Chefs are fantastic. They’re funny and keep you entertained while they’re cooking your meal. The food is awesome and there’s always left overs. The price is reasonable and you get a lot of food for your money. It’s my favorite place to go for a special meal. The wait staff, managers and owners are fantastic. They always make us feel comfortable and as valued customers. The sushi is fantastic, the drinks are awesome as well. I highly recommend you try this place. It’s better than any Japanese steak house/​Hibachi in the area.

This is the best place for sushi hands down. The Hibachi is good too but I come for the sushi. The Molten lava and the outer banks are my favorite!

First of all, I’m going to say that the sushi is good, best in Burlington and my go to, but sushi that I’ve had in Greensboro is better.
With that being said they don’t have brown rice and the hibachi is salty and they should get more rolls on the menu without crunch.
It’s the service that took away the three stars.
They offer a roll with cucumber on the outside, therefore should offer that option for any rolls however they do not
They fail to tell you all the details of a deal or special, and don’t tell you that they cannot do a certain order until after they gave it to you the wrong way.
The blonde server is inattentive, slow, and not 100% knowledgable about the menu.
When you call to order takeout, the person on the other end doesn’t know the menu.

Worst customer service ever! Cannot believe how rude the people working here were. There was no hostess, we asked a bartender about a table and she was incredibly rude, said she would get someone and then did not return. Another group of customers was equally disgruntled and had been told the same thing. The staff continuously talked down to us and gave us no one when we asked to talk to a manager.
We waited fifteen minutes with no change, and no hostess. Finally, we were seated, the menus were sticky, too many people at a table, and crud on the bottom of a plate. Throughly disgusted. The food was only ok.
NOT WORTH IT. Take your money and go somewhere else.

We are from our of town and stopped for dinner. hibachi chicken and shrimp was great. Daughter got a bunch of sushi and loved it. We will stop again before we go home.

I went in with on 15 minutes left for lunch service. They couldn’t have been nicer & I ordered 2 special rolls to go. I’ve never tried raw fish in a roll before and don’t know that much about sushi. The guy who took my order explained the differences between the sushi, rolls, nigiri, sashimi, etc. I decided on a metro roll & the Alaska. I thought that the Alaska roll would be soggy when I got home-​15 min. away, because it’s fried. It was still crisp and warm on the outside & the insides were cool. The whole thing was YUMMY. The metro had a little spice to it & the balls on top??? added a poppy crunch. I will definitely be back!!!

Excellent food! Everything was tasty and fresh. Helpful staff. Lighting is a bit low and the menu text is small so my aging eyes struggled to make out the dining options. The spicy tuna is top-​notch.
Be sure to check out the faucets in the bathroom!

I went to Umami with my husband and two of our friends last night for dinner, and we enjoyed ourselves very much. It was my first visit. I heard about the restaurant on the radio and decided to give it a try. The location is in a strip shopping center which isn’t the most glamorous of locales, but it made parking convenient, and the inside décor more than makes up for the outside. Dramatic use of red walls and beaded curtains. We sat at a hibachi table, but there was a separate sushi bar area as well.
Because we were meeting up immediately after work, we got to the restaurant rather early for dinner… about 5:30pm. As a result, we basically had the place to ourselves. Our party of four only filled up half the hibachi table, but the restaurant didn’t make us wait for additional guests before serving us, so that was nice. And then I found out about the myriad of specials being offered for Tuesday night… excellent! I may get it wrong, but I believe it was BOGO sushi (off a menu of limited selections), $ 5.00 cocktails (the fun «girlie» ones!), and half-​priced sake (be still my heart). Pretty much my idea of heaven.
I knew ahead of time that I wasn’t going to be able to eat all my food, but I simply am unable to resist sushi, and when you make it buy one/​get one free, I have no choice but to dig in. All the BOGO offerings were rolls; I would have liked a few nigiri selections since that would have been less filling, but that’s probably just me. The rolls were decent… not the best I’ve ever had, but certainly not the worst, and again, once of them was free! I had a shrimp tempura roll and one with crab/​avocado/​etc… nice sauces drizzled over them. I ate about half and took the remainder home (my kid says thank you for breakfast, Umami!)
After the sushi, we all ordered hibachi dinners which come with soup, salad, vegetables, noodles, and fried rice. TONS of food. The soup was the typical onion broth soup served in a neat little cup, and I really enjoyed the ginger dressing on my salad. It seemed like it had more sesame oil (?) or soy sauce (?) than other ginger dressings I’ve tasted. It was good.
Our chef was very pleasant. He did the obligatory little show/​presentation, but he wasn’t obnoxious about it. I sort of felt bad because we only get together with this other couple once a month so we were yacking with each other up a storm and only half paying attention to the showmanship, but the chef didn’t appear upset. I had the tuna and asparagus special; I like my food bloody raw, so maybe I should simply avoid fire all together, but I found the tuna a bit overdone for my taste even though I ordered it rare. But it was flavorful (again, my kid scored majorly for breakfast). My husband had steak (I believe filet mignon, not sirloin) and chicken teriyaki, and our friends had steak and lobster. They all did the clean plate thing and said they enjoyed their meals.
My meal and my husband’s, along with my sushi appetizers, a lychee cocktail creation, a big bottle of cold, unfiltered sake, and my husband’s iced tea came to $ 71.51 before the tip. Pretty darn reasonable in my opinion for all that. I’d go again (Burlington is a bit out of my way so I can’t be a regular).

I went here for lunch with to of my girlfriends to try out their lunch special. Since I moved here from Cali in January, I haven’t had much luck with sushi around the Burlington area. But, I’ve been craving sushi for the LONGEST time, and this placed seemed to get descent reviews.
So the #1 reason why I like this place– is because I did NOT get sick lol. For North Carolina, the sushi wasn’t that bad. Their lunch specials are pretty good too:
Choice of 2 Specialty rolls for $ 14
They also have bento boxes and other things at reasonable LUNCH prices.
My only complaint– it took FOREVER to get our rolls out– and there were barely any customers. But, since they have good lunch specials– and I hear good happy hour prices (Monday-​Wed), I’ll be paying this place another visit when I need to get my sushi fix
OH, and OYA Roll is a MUST! so fresh and SO light =)
the mushroom broth that they serve with entrees is delicious as well. not too salty like most Japanese restaurants
This place is in a complex with other restaurants (ie Dan Thai). There is ample parking space.