My husband and I wanted to experience "the best" sushi/sashimi in Pittsburgh so we heard rave reviews of UMI.. We went last week for our anniversary..
1. When we arrived 15 minutes early..we were sat right away..in the back.. which was great but noone came to offer us drinks or ANYTHING for 1/2 hour.
2. After 2 other tables around us were sat and served their drinks, a server ( i thought she was the bartender the way she was acting) came over, didn't even introduce herself...seemed annoyed first off.. She asked what we wanted to drink and left.
3. (Now, we did ask for the main waiter Larry, which was a friend of a friend, but he didn't stop over until 2 and a half hours later- if we had him the whole time i think the experience would have been a LOT better)
4. Most of the sushi we received had tons of sauce drowning the fish. If it's the BEST sushi selection in Pitt, why drown them with sauces and put raw garlic on them! I was prepared for the small slivers/small rolls as I read comments about the food on tripadvisor beforehand but you couldn't even taste the fish!
5. Every time we ordered something it took at least 20-25 minutes to get. We were in there FOREVER! They were quick with the drinks though... At one point we looked around and NOONE had food in front of them ( there were about 40 people in the place)
6. You can't HEAR the person talking to you b/c it's SO LOUD... I mean REALLY loud. You'd think since you are paying $$$ the ambiance would be a little better.
My husband has worked in the food industry in the past and we eat out frequently - We love trying the new innovative restaurants around town, and we have never had such a bad experience. On top of that it was our anniversary. I have never placed a bad review of a restaurant until now.
I will not recommend this establishment in the future. It's so unfortunate though..I really thought they were going to be awesome.