UMAMI ASIAN CUISINE
Hoppen Hierarchy:★★★★
District: Bellevue
Authentic Asian Cuisine & Sushi
Perfect For: Date Night; Upscale Dining; Casual Dining
Standout Dishes: Sushi & Salmon for 2; Dynamite Roll
There are very few perfect dining experiences in Omaha.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many, many very good ones, some even tip-toeing into greatness. But a flawless meal to extremely difficult to achieve, and any restaurant that gets even close is worthy of recognition.
If you’re a sushi fan, Umami Asian Cuisine can get you to the brink of perfection.
You would never guess you were passing greatness if you drove by Umami, housed in a relatively small, humble building in Bellevue, just south of Bellevue University.
Fortunately, nearly everyone who visits Umami leaves singing its praises, generating some incredible word-of-mouth marketing, which is how I heard about this place. I don’t venture out to Bellevue much (though it does have some excellent dining options), but too many people told me Umami was legit to ignore. I had to check it out.
The restaurant offers a completely unique experience. Its menu has an abundance of sushi rolls, as well as sushi and sashimi pieces, all of which are prepared by a team of chefs in plain sight.
There are also traditional Chinese, Thai, and Japanese dishes, three different curry options, and a few hibachi grills. You could come to Umami several times and have a vastly different experience during each. If all that selection isn’t enough, you can simply ask for the chef’s opinion, and the supremely talented head chef, Keen Zheng, and his team will come up with a delicious dish.
I recommend exploring multiple parts of the menu, and the Sushi & Sashimi for Two is an excellent way to do so, especially on date night. The dish comes with 10 pieces each of sushi and sashimi, all selected daily by the chefs, and a Crunchy Roll, Dynamite Roll, and Manhattan Roll.
The service is extremely friendly and walks you through each piece of fish on the plate. Our meal included a sampling of tuna, salmon, yellowtail, and much more. It looked so delicious that I couldn’t decide if I wanted our helpful waiter to slow down and walk us through everything on the plate or get him out of there ASAP so we could start feasting.
The presentation is just gorgeous. Normally this has little affect on me—you can serve me a meal on a garbage can lid and I’ll rave about it if the flavors are on point.
But Umami’s chefs put such craft and care into how the plate is constructed that I can’t help but appreciate how beautiful it is. Each roll is thoughtfully arranged, and the sushi and sashimi pieces are perfectly aligned. Two pieces (monkfish liver!) arrived in a beautiful golden bowl, while some slices of albacore tuna were perched upon a nest of twigs. Is this ambience necessary? Of course not. But it’s still fun and visually appealing.
Each piece of fish is fresh and delightful and, even without an incredibly-refined seafood palate, I can discern unique flavors in each. The sushi pieces comes with a few bites of sticky rice, and while all the fish is great on its own, the house-made soy sauce just raises it another level.
Everything I’ve tried at Umami is fantastic, but the sushi really takes the cake. The rolls are large and filling, and they’re very well-packed. These pieces won’t crumble on you even if your a novice with chopsticks.
With more than 50 sushi rolls on the menu, Umami allows you to be as basic or adventurous as you please. The simple rolls are still delicious, especially when dipped in the delicious soy sauce. If you want to try some different things, consider the Lobster Salad Roll (tempura shrimp and mango, topped with lobster salad and mango sauce) or the restaurant’s nod to Nebraska, the BBQ Omaha Steak Roll, complete with a crab mix, avocado, crispy potatoes, and seared steak.
I highly recommend the Dynamite Roll, which is deep fried to add a brilliant crunchy exterior. The coolness of the cream cheese balances the spicy sauce, and the salmon and crab inside are tender and delicious.
While there are dozens of appetizers available, you can’t go wrong with the Pork Gyoza. These dumplings are pan-fried to achieve just enough of a texture contrast while still maintaining the doughiness that makes dumplings so pleasant. They’re packed full of flavorful pork, and the provided dipping sauce is tasty enough to drink from a straw. On my wife and I’s first visit, these vanished within two minutes of hitting the table.
The beauty of Umami is it allows diners to choose their own adventure, and they do everything so well. Want sushi? Craving the hibachi experience? Need to please a family with familiar Chinese takeout classics? Umami offers all these and more, and it does them so well. No restaurant has a 100% approval rating, but everyone I talks to just raves about the place.
Count me in that crowd. I really have no complaints with this restaurant. You might have to wait a bit at peak meals times—that happens at every popular restaurant. And its Bellevue location makes it less convenient—that says more about my laziness than the restaurant itself. Umami is not only the best sushi restaurant you’ll find in the Omaha area, it’s one of the best restaurants, period.