My fiance and I traveled from Chicago to Madison to enjoy the Labor day weekend. After a quick search on new restaurants in the Willy St. area, I decided that we should check out Umami. We wanted to like this place more, but the service just won't allow that to happen.
Positive:
*The food - we truly enjoyed everything we ordered. The pork buns were light and airy. The chicken dumplings with the spicy sauce were tasty and each of our bowl's of ramen were perfectly seasoned, (the spice bomb was necessary to add that next level of heat).
*The host guy was nice and helpful and seemed like the only person to have any sense of hospitality about him. (Our server was nice, but seemed to be reeling from a long day and didn't give any sort of personalized service).
Negative:
*The service - why and how are these people working in the restaurant industry? The bartender seemed to not only hate her job, but resent every person that walked in the door or tried to order a drink. She never said "hello, how can I help you?" Just walked up and looked at us to order a drink. She never said "Thank you" or even presented a check to us. At 8:30pm (the restaurant closed at 9pm), we saw her come out from behind the bar to tell people walking in that they weren't accepting anymore walk-in's for the night... She also repeatedly told servers to give their last call to their patrons - Maybe she had after work plans? Because she definitely didn't want to be there any longer than she had to.
Everyone else seemed aloof or non-caring. The restaurant industry is about hospitality, and it completely baffles me when people are hired who obviously can't stand being nice to other people.
Go for the food and opt for carry-out to save the headache.