Umami Cafe

We came here on our way to Lightscapes. It had good reviews so had to try it out. We were a family of six and a baby. They seated us in the outdoor section which was a little too hot but they had some fans on to keep us cool. The atmosphere was relaxed and chic, with blue walls and adorable lights hanging from the ceiling. They serve chips for munching on while you wait to order your food. Our server only gave us one SMALL bowl of the chips, we requested more Being we were a big party. The waiter politely brought back three more bowls. We ordered two truffle Mac and cheese bowls to start and it had great flavor but was a little watery. Turns out putting the Mac and cheese on the chips tasted great. I had the lobster roll for my entrée and it was delicious. Very fresh and tons of meat. My boyfriend had the chili burger which also tastes pretty good. Everyone enjoyed their entrée. Dessert was good as well. I had the banana foster and it wasn’t what I was expected but it was still satisfying. A cute spot to grab a bite if you are in the area ! All of the staff was pleasant and made the experience enjoyable

Good place to go with kids. Excellent service and good food.

Arrived with the familia, and tried the appetizer special of dumplings and dinner special of chops. All tasted great and freshly made. Also tried the curry chicken which was really good. Also had the Lava and Dates Cake in caramel sauce made on site. Really good. Great family spot, reasonable pricing. Will definitely be going back.

This is a cute little restaurant barely five minutes away from the Pumpkin Blaze event. We were craving hot soup and comfort food after meandering in the cold gazing at pumpkins and this was the perfect spot. We didn’t experience any issues with slow service that other Unilocalers mentioned & everything we tried was spot on.
During the Blaze event, the dinner menu is scaled down and not everything you see on their website is available, but there’s still enough to choose from.
What we got:
Coconut lime soup (vegetarian)
Ahi tuna tacos
Veggie spring rolls (special of the day)
Evil jungle chicken curry
Everything was hearty, flavorful and really fresh. The spring rolls and the soup were particularly excellent.
Just a note — none of the food is really spicy… even though it mentions ‘spicy’ on the menu (like the soup for example). It’s mild to medium at best.
Service was warm, friendly and efficient.

It was recommended that we try this place and we are so glad that we did! Went to The Blaze right after (abt 3 min away). Fantastic experience.
I had the Umami Burger ($ 4 off on Tuesdays!) and my husband had the wontons. Both were absolutely delicious. My mouth is watering, writing this review. I asked for some sauce for my fries and that gave me their homemade steak sauce. Ho. Ly. Mo. Ly. So good. I could drink that stuff.

Positives: Dishes are creative, delicious, and generally well-​prepared. Servers are nice. The duck quesadilla is great.
Negatives: Desserts tend to be boring. Poor beer selection. Too many kids. Dining room can be freezing. Patio area can be hot and stuffy.

I have to say, I think Umami has gone downhill in the last few years. The food was sub-​par: the pad thai tasted sour, the appetizers were greasy. The menu sounds good but was ultimately disappointing.

We chose Umami because of its proximity to Van Cortlandt Manor where we had a timed reservation to see the Lightscapes show. The restaurant was half-​empty when we arrived, and we had an hour and a half until showtime, but we ran late anyway because of Umami’s slow service, ugh!
We were seated in front of a large powerful fan so we asked to move. To reseat us, all the hostess had to do was push together two of the many empty tables, but she busied herself with other things and made us wait about 15 minutes – super annoying! Our server forgot to get one person’s order, so more time was wasted finding her and getting her to come back and finish. All the staff were in such a hurry (doing what?) that it was hard to catch one just to ask for a napkin, and to get the check and pay.
Umami is okay for a vegan or vegetarian to eat with omnivores, but many of the menu items are labeled SPICY (in CAPS) which can really limit what’s available to someone who’s sensitive to spice. The restaurant menu varied a bit from the menu we saw online. Coconut-​lime soup (the only soup) was labeled spicy but was actually medium. My Pad Thai (vegan), was okay. My companions had steak, shrimp, and chicken dishes, and liked them well enough.
Since the food was pretty good and there’s vegan options we may try Umami again if we come back for the Jack O’Lantern Blaze, but we’ll make sure we have 2 hours allocated for dinner!

After rushing home from NYC and a Broadway show the six of us were very hungry. All of us loved the pot stickers and beef spring rolls. Delicious avocado dipping sauce for the spring rolls. I ordered the St. Louis ribs — super tender and delicious with excellent mashed potatoes. The cole slaw was inedible but I really didn’t want it anyway. My wife ordered the grilled shrimp with coconut rice — she loved it and I stole some and found it more of a risotto consistency — which was really perfect with Grilled Shrimp. The lamb special was decent according to my brother-​in-​law. My Nephew ordered the riblets which he was warned was really an appetizer. He liked them but then starting stealing the rest of our food.
The service was good and looking at previous reviews — the snow is an issue but getting better. The restaurant has a nice relaxing atmosphere. We will be back soon!

Ok, having been in the burbs now for 7 years, I’ve come to accept the fact that restaurants up here mostly stink.
This place is on our VERY short list of places we go out to eat. I fear that soon they might be removed from the list — and we can’t afford to lose any restaurants off of the short list :-/​
Food is ok, not great, nothing special. I feel like I could make everything on the menu — and make it better :-/​The waitresses are all very sweet and try very hard. However, I can’t stand eating out, spending $ 50 and having to listen to a screaming baby the whole time!!! I understand they are kid friendly — but come on — why do you need to bring a baby to a restaurant??? This isn’t the first time that screaming kids have ruined a nice dinner out at this place :-/​. My other issue is that they have been doing a VERY poor job of cleaning up their parking lot this winter of snow and ice. I fear it’s an accident waiting to happen. My husband slipped in the ice there but was able to catch himself — someone older and less athletic can really hurt themselves in that parking lot :-/

Plenty of seating for a Saturday night, but the food was less than salutory. Ribs fell off the bone but tasted like beef stew. Blaze burger was bland and the bun was doused in grease. Truffle mac and cheese was alright. The beer selection was weak and our «yuengling» suspect.

We took three adults and three children to Umami this week and we were universally disappointed. We had two Evil Jungle Prince meals and the children had an assortment of noodles — and yet none of them liked their meals. I had an Evil Jungle Prince because I generally like Thai-​spicy, coconut-​milk-​based curries (and yes, okay, in part because of the name), and it didn’t taste that great and my stomach hurt for hours afterwards.
In addition, the service was friendly but very slow. I won’t be returning to this restaurant.

Starting with the Endive, Pear, Walnut And Stilton Salad, it was absolutely fresh. The Yaki Udon Noodles were my main pick, while I got to sample the Evil Jungle Prince and Barbecued St. Louis Ribs ordered by friends at the table. The waiter was very accommodating, if you needed something tweaked to your liking, they did it.
The Yaki Udon Noodles just hit the spot. The menu has so many diverse choices, I didn’t know which way to go, but I have no regrets.
The Barbecued St. Louis Ribs were cooked to perfection. The friend that ordered this was complaining how he was starving when we first arrived, and that usually means he’ll be inhaling his food. As soon as he tried the ribs, he actually slowed down and said he was savoring them.
Evil Jungle Prince was good, but adding the shrimp was a big mistake. «Add Shrimp, Eac $ 2.50» ended up being 4 shrimp. Pricing turned out to be per shrimp, and 4 ended up being what we got, without anyone asking how many we wanted. When you have an entire meal that costs $ 15.00, that $ 10 totally skews the value. The price itself wasn’t an issue, but the shrimp were of average size, not really seasoned and so overcooked, the tail was fused on and there was no way to separate it.
All in all, the food was good, and I’d come back, we’ll just skip the shrimp.

Just want to like this place. Been here twice with husband & 10 year old. I remember the soup we had the first time, & that soup deserves a star all on it’s own, although that 1^st time was two years ago. So let’s break down the details.
Food first of course. I love the variety in cuisine, there should be more of these around! Presentation– lovely & comforting. Inspiring food– not too far from your comforts, but not boring. Nice plating, makes you want to dig in. But… Then you dig in & uh oh. So so so greasy. I was left with a craving for something bread-​y to absorb the grease, but couldn’t find anything on the menu to help with that. Not good at all for the even semi sensitive stomach ppl. Specifically, the quesadillas were just way too oily.
On the décor & ambiance. Love the colors & cuteness… But it’s not clean. I saw dust that was begging to be cleaned on the top of the windows (Top of windows is pretty high– these were big piles of dust). The baseboards were clearly neglected for a while. The windows take up more room than walls do on the exterior wall side– so you’d think they’d be carefully cleaned — but they too were begging for attention. Bottoms of pedestals of tables were gross. My mind goes to. «What does their kitchen look like?» All this I noticed while eating & it felt yucky, especially when combined with the over greasy food. Kid friendly — yes… Except it’s kind of gross kid friendly. After looking around at the lack of cleaning care the other parts of the restaurant have, I imagine these toys have never been lysoled. The kids pasta looked as if its been reheated too many times. Overall, I’m disappointed. I want to love it. If it announces a new approach to cooking and if I hear (from you Unilocalers) their cleaning standards have improved, I will come back. I want to support eclectic restaurants that don’t do the regular the Italian or Asian, but cleanliness & proper cooking can’t be sacrificed.

You should never even try to eat food on moving day. Anything and everything will continue to be a disaster.
So, sometimes you ask the internet where to send you. And the internet sends you here. And you just don’t argue, because you’ve been moving all day and the internet is supposed to be able to do your thinking for you.
Umami is cute. It’s child friendly (toys all over the waiting area, which is either thoughtful or kinda gross, depending on you how feel about communal toy shares.), great for families, and the staff is really nice. We noticed the owner coming around to every table at the end of their meal (on Saturday night!) to check on them. That was really nice of him, and he seemed like a good dude.
But Umami, dude, I don’t know what you’re doing. Besides having an identity crisis. Are you an asian fusion restaurant? German? New-​American? All of the above? I have NO IDEA. And it doesn’t really pay off. Do one thing and do it well, y’know? Variety is great, but when it’s all mediocre, it isn’t doing anyone any favors. Peking duck quesadillas and fried calamari and bratwursts and burgers and rice bowls and thai curry and chicken laab and… no, seriously, my brain hurts and I just don’t get it.
But anyway, the food. Was mediocre at best. We were there at 6pm on a Saturday, and they’d already run out of one of their specials. The salads were frighteningly over dressed. (Luckily, we’d split one as an app, and everyone else was able to order their dressing on the side for the mains.)
Their Classic Ceasar Salad is listed on the menu as coming with a mustard vinaigrette. I… what? Ordering it with chicken was sort of insulting to the idea of a chicken ceasar salad as an entrée. The portion of chicken was laughably small, especially in proportion to the salad.
3 of us ordered the Grilled Ahi. It was sort of like eating airplane food. The rice and the bok choy were all super bland, and the fish was… weird. It wasn’t poorly cooked, but it seemed to be a weird cut of the fish. 2 of us ordered the «Korean Kalbi» sauce on the side. I can’t decide if this was a brilliant move or a tragic mistake on our part, since this was the only part of the dish with any flavor. It just wasn’t _​good_​flavor. Kalbi is supposed to be a Korean BBQ sauce… this was more like sweet and sour sauce with some sesame seeds in it. The wasabi cream had no wasabi kick at all, which left us with something that pretty much just tasted like whipped cream on top of a piece of fish.
Dad seemed to enjoy his burger, though, so there’s that. (But wagyu burgers are a personal pet peeve. You think you’re getting something snazzy, but Wagyu is just the breed of cow. It’s like bragging about your angus steak. It’s steak.)
Pro: Wednesdays are Wine Nights. I don’t know what that means, but it was on the chalkboard. Yay wine?

My boyfriend and I come here almost every weekend! Whenever we can’t decide on a place we can always agree on Umami! When I first brought him he was skeptical because he would never stray from Italian but after the first time going he now wants to go every weekend! He gets the hanger steak and craves it almost everyday. I love to try to new things and I’ve yet to have a dish I don’t enjoy! The salads are so fresh and the salmon with ponzu sauce is the best salmon I’ve had!
The sticky date cake for dessert is the absolute best!
Umami is the best go to place for a quick or relaxed dinner! It is very kid friendly which I don’t mind because you never feel out of place!
I hate going to place where you could hear a pin drop!
Have a open mind about different food and try out umami you won’t regret it! There’s a dish for everyone! Especially the amazing prices!

Tried Umami on Jan 29 2014 upon arrival the place was empty which made us nervous but by the time we finished our food you almost could not find a seat. Good place for kids with books and toys in the front that the kids can bring to the table. The service was great the place was clean and the food was really good would recommend…

Reading the food snob mom reviews made my day. «Now I’ve had the seared antelope brains all over the world, and they just didn’t stack up here». Get over yourself you noobs. «For Croton» is the silliest qualifier I have ever heard. Croton’s selection of restaurants is great for the size of the town. And believe me, I’ve eaten everything and everywhere, including food that was specifically designed for astronauts, and I believe food and service snobbery is abhorrent.
As for Umami, the food is really good and different. I loved the Hanger Steak entrée and the lime soup is delicious. My brother orders the evil jungle prince, and I am always jealous of not just the dish that comes out, but the bitchin name of the dish. The servers are little high school girls but they are trying their best and usually more than sufficient.

Sorry to give this place only two stars, but the rating fits: I’ve experienced better. I was confused by this restaurant’s identity. Is it asian fusion? Is it asian, mexican and german inspired? My husband and I arrived at about 8pm on a Sunday evening. The restaurant is small and there were about 4 other occupied tables. It’s got a disjointed feel and unappealing and bright lighting and walls painted an offensively sharp royal blue.
We were given house made potato chips in lieu of a bread basket. The chips were stale; greasy, bendy, and chewy. I appreciated the clear labeling of some menu items as healthy and/​gluten free or vegan. We ordered a spring roll appetizer thing. It was very fried, very greasy, very unsatisfying. My entrée was listed under healthy and gluten free and was basically some vegetables and beef. The sauce accompanying the dish was tasteless. Since I’d like to say something nice, I’ll say that our waitress was pleasant and readily available.

My fried udon and sangria was pretty good, however my hubby’s burger was «0 stars». It was blend, and tasted like «burnt» cow and overall: vulgar” — said husband. The food came really fast though.