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| - So I'm totally over this Pittsburgh trend of new restaurants that prioritize presentation over flavor. My first experience with Umami left me underwhelmed.
Our party of 5 arrived on time for our 7:30 resy on a Friday night, and the restaurant was pretty packed. In fact, we had to wait 15 minutes for our table, which ended up being in the "traditional seating" room. The ambiance all around was pretty sick, from the sunken-in wood floor seating to the muraled windows and skylight. Still some kinks to work out though--a large mounted fan provided ventilation for what would have otherwise been a super stuffy room, but also continuously blew around our napkins and the nori on our plates as we ate. I guess they worked with what they have in this very limited space.
As for the service, we repeatedly worried that our server had forgotten about us, as we waited quite a while for our orders to be taken, and there were large gaps before we received our drinks and our meals--the food all came out at different times, and our meal ended with her intense struggle to split our check correctly. Granted, it has to be super awkward to serve in that room--you kind of have to kneel down to be level with where we were sitting, but we were all left with the feeling that perhaps it was her first night on the job.
Our drinks did not disappoint. The falling petal sake was beautifully floral without being overbearing, the black tea was served in a generous pot, and the beer was priced right.
Foodwise, my fiance and I ordered the SHIITAKE MUSHROOM and JAPANESE EGGPLANT ROBATAYAKI, the BRANZINO SASHIMI, and the TONKOTSU RAMEN. I also tried to order the SHISHITO PEPPERS, but were told that they were out of season with no replacement. Whomp, whomp.
The robatayaki were pretty disappointing, with very little char from the grill and little flavor besides the hint of seasoning from the brushed-on tare, which was all goop and no taste. I was expecting mushroom caps for the shiitakes as previous Yelp photos showed, but received sad little vertical slices of mushrooms instead...is this a cost cutting measure? It certainly did not enhance taste or portion size.
The ramen slightly redeemed the meal. Admittedly, I'm very ramen-picky, but the broth has decent enough flavor but ironically was pretty one-noted...I believe I would diagnose that with a lack of umami. No complexity. Still, it shouldn't be hard to make a great bowl of soup with the crap-ton of pork fat that is tonkotsu ramen is based on, so they met expectations in that respect. My far less picky fiance was very pleased.
The big letdown, however, was the branzino. I ordered it to satiate my curiosity, as I've never before had raw branzino. And I know it's a mild fish, but this sashimi had zero. flavor. I mean, there was a tiny kick from the same weak tare brushed on top, but the fish itself had not even a hint of taste, fishy or otherwise. Also, it was chewy. High quality sushi (unless it's something like squid or octopus or clam, obvi) should melt in your mouth. This did not pass the test. In awe of its absolute tastelessness, we passed this around the table to check if maybe my taste buds were out of order. They weren't. Sad--for the $8, we could have almost gotten another ramen bowl instead. If I had to guess, perhaps they're still figuring out how to cure their sushi (yes, real, fresh sushi has to be cured before it's served--otherwise, it's tasteless).
The only feature of our food that was spot-on with what we experienced in Japan was the presentation. Everything was artfully and tastefully plated, without being overdone. And at the very least, unlike other "trendy" restaurants that have opened lately, Umami is not overpriced. However, much like the restaurant space itself, it was a visually beautiful meal from start to finish but functionally, fell woefully short.
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