Best take out in ages! We ordered the veggie gyoza, grilled asparagus, grilled fish, miso eggplant, and a few sushi rolls. The grilled fish was mind blowing. Everything else was excellent. I can only imagine how delicious the food is in the restaurant.
Excellent Food and Service in the downtown DC area. A regular stop for me when traveling to DC. Staff is incredibly friendly and the food is outstanding. Look forward to going on next trip.
The restaurant has a casual, fun vibe, that is enhanced by quick service. I also appreciated the wide variety of food on the menu, with separate pages devoted to different categories like sushi, ramen, skewers, etc. There is also a pretty good selection of alcoholic...beverages, including a lot of different kinds of sake. But prices are NOT as cheap as appearances would lead you to believe -- by the time you add up all the bits and pieces ordered from the menu, the total bill is fairly substantial -- comparable to a white tablecloth establishment. In addition, whatever food you order seems to emerge from the kitchen at random, whenever it's ready. So, for example, our appetizer came out last, while various skewers and sushi appeared intermittently and all mixed up.More
Hands down — THE best ramen in DC. Don’t let these other trendy “exclusive” places fool you (honestly, ramen is cheap Japanese street food, folks!), this is the real deal. The space is big, yet comfortable. It is overpriced and the service can be spotty,...but the tonkatsu ramen ROCKS! I do not say this lightly — I have tried almost every option in the DMV — this place is great. The last time I went there for lunch, I was one of two non-Japanese patrons. That should tell you something. One warning — if you order a large house sake, make sure it is filled. My dining partner’s small sake produced more pours than her husband’s large! And that was the case on two separate visits.More
My nine companions and I all enjoyed our dinners at Umaya Izakaya. The service we had was pretty good, since our waiter explained everything and answered our questions about the food. We ordered different dishes and everyone enjoyed almost all of them very much. The...seafood was very fresh. .I had a sushi roll and the chirashi, which included fish roe, raw tuna, yellow tail, and salmon, all good. I looking forward to returning.More
We went at Christmas Day and it was full. The food was nice and service okay. Good option for a good meal in downtown DC.
Went there tonight prior to Caps game, one of few places that had reservations available on short notice. Conveniently a few blocks away from the arena and the casual dress code allows for you to wear gameday attire in the restaurant. The sushi rolls were...fantastic, skewers were tasty but small portions and took forever to arrive at the table. The timing from the servers was terrible. Wifes ramen came out with the sushi roll, dumplings shortly thereafter and my prawns came out after that, yet the kids skewers were the last to show up (chicken, filet, scallops). By the time their food showed up, our entrees got cold while waiting.More
This is a bit of a strange review because the food wasn't terrible, however I would never ever go back there. This place is not an authentic Japanese Izakaya at all. - We were seated at the table and it took at least ten minutes...before anyone showed up to give us water take a drink order (they never did take a drink order until we asked them to do so). Beverages are a major moneymaker for restaurants, and the waiter should have been over as soon as we sat down to take our drink orders. - The food wasn't bad, but it wasn't authentic. I could tell there was no supervision by a Japanese chef because the quality would have been better. The takoyaki were OK, but you could get better takoyaki on the streets of Osaka for a few bucks. The robatayaki (yakitori etc) were OK; but again nothing special; the kara-age wasn't bad per se, but it more like popcorn chicken - not at all authentic; the grilled pork belly which should have been served on a stick like the yakitori (as it would have been at a real Japanese izakaya), was instead a huge portion on a plate served Korean BBQ style - ironically it was quite tasty, but not at all Japanese style. ---- -To be fair to the waiter - he was quite nice, but terribly inattentive and extremely slow. I am not sure if they were short staffed or he was just a space cadet, but the service left a lot to be desired. -The atmosphere is CHEESY. It's so bad that it's almost offensive. It's a tacky Chinese motif when when this is supposed to be a Japanese izakaya. I was just waiting for a gong sound to play in the background. In summary, I will never ever ever go back. You would have to pay me to go back - and even then I would probably only go back if I didn't have to eat. Which is funny because it's not the worst restaurant I have ever been to, but when I really wanted to go a great Japanese izakaya and this was what I got instead; and I was so so disappointed that it infuriated me. PTSD This is a restaurant for basic people who have no idea what real Japanese food is supposed to taste like.More
This was my second attempt on a recent trip to find some good ramen in DC, but was disappointed a second time. The ramen wasn't bad, but also not very good. Service was friendly, but then quite slow. I feel this place is average in...just about every way I can imagine. Not bad, not great.More
A fiend and I stopped here for an early dinner and were impressed with the setup - mostly indoor, but with walls that slide open to let in a breeze. We shared the agadashi tofu, which was very good, and I enjoyed Kirin on tap...and curry ramen. My ramen was pretty good, and I was pleasantly surprised by the reasonable prices. Service was friendly and efficient. I would return.More
