Umi

Magnificent omakase experience in a gorgeous intimate setting. Two Michelin star Chef Seiichi Shimamoto will make you feel so welcome and you will be in awe of each dish. We felt so lucky to have dinner at Umi during our short visit to Tokyo and we can't wait to return! We highly recommend!

Visited March 2024

In a sea of great sushi restaurants in Tokyo, Umi stands out for being accessible for tourists. I accidentally came upon Umi while watching Youtube videos for ideas. I saw a video and the food looks delicious and reservation was available online. A few clicks later, I had a reservation for lunch ...at Umi for my first full day in Japan. The meal set the tone for the rest of the trip! Umi is located outside of the main tourist areas but it was not hard to get to at all. Google map was accurate and took me to the entrance. I was confused in the beginning because there wasn't any signs. However, the curtain outside and a little lantern on the ground showed me it was the right place. Like most sushi omakase restaurants, Umi is an intimate place with just 9 counter seats. Since we were first to arrived, we took one of the end seats which gave us a good view of the chef as he worked. Lunch starts promptly and the service moved quickly. As you would expect from a 2 michelin Japanese restaurant, the service was impeccable and attentive without feeling overwhelming. The chef was friendly and spoke a little English. When I asked him a question that he wasn't sure, he took out his phone and gave me the answer via Google Translate. It is rare to have a chef be as interactive as him. The best part of Umi is the food. The sushi, nigiri, and the cooked food were excellent and beautifully prepared and presented. It is still amazing that every good restaurant in Japan has access to the same high quality seafood but each one can make it taste unique. Umi is no exception. The starter was a cold dish in a beautiful ornate cup and then it just keeps going from there. Highlight for me has to be the selection of fresh seasonal fish and shellfish from around Japan. In total, we got 21 different serving and every dish builds upon the last one. For the shrimp nigiri, the chef made sure to slice the shrimp into two pieces for the ladies at the counter but kept it as one big piece for the men. Little careful touches like that makes a huge difference. The selection of sake was excellent and reasonably priced too. He had some sake that were limited bottles and I will probably never be able to find it myself. I have been recommending Umi to nearly everyone I know who is planning to go to Japan. The lunch is an excellent value and Umi is a good introduction to anyone who wants to have an incredible omakase experience. Wonderful food, attentive staff, and a super friendly chef makes everything perfect!

Visited March 2023

My wife and I would have loved to go to this place. We are from Austria and Umi was very much recommended to us. It would have been the dinner before we left Japan to go home from our 25 year wedding anniversary. We had a confirmed reservation for November 8 made via opentable a week before. The nig...ht before this day we simply got an email via opentable that there is a private group at the restaurant, that there was an error and that they cancel the reservation. I think this absolutely sucks. You have a reservation and then a group books the whole place and they simply kick you out. I tried to email them directly but I could not find an english website. The email simply said to call them if I had questions. Thats why I am writing off my frustration here!! I sincerely hope that this is not their understanding of hospitality. So: I dont know how the food is! I dont know how the service is! I dont know anything about this place But: If you happen to have a reservation there, be sure to have a plan B! Because they might cancel your reservation the night before as they did with me!

Visited November 2019

Umi is tucked away in a pretty non-descript building in Minato, and not that easy to find ...Once you're inside, you'll sit behind the wooden counter with place for nine. The chef and hist staff are very lively, shouting instructions... The food is of excellent quality, even though the nigiri sushi ...was not of the stellar level as at Harutaka the day before. Still, the otoro, gizzard shad , anagi, uni were all of very good quality, and the steamed abalone was excellent, not in the least chewy. Beer and sake were fairly inexpensive. A particularity of Uni is that the omakase meal is longer than at almost any other top end sushi restaurant I know - I went for the 9 pm seating, and that lasted until almost 11:30 pm... With 2 Michelin stars to boost, Umi is deservedly popular..... good that TableAll was able to secure a booking for me.

Visited July 2019

What an fabulous meal. Great quality omakase manu, attentive service, fresh high quality ingredients and so many courses we lost count. At the end they checked if we wanted more!! Tiny restaurant and it definitely needs reservations. The two Michelin stars are well warranted.

Visited May 2019