Oki-Nami Japanese Restaurant & Bar

This is a beautiful restaurant situated next to the Theatre Royal and opposite the Pavilion Gardens - good quality authentic food in a stylish and relaxed setting. The Seaweed salad was very tasty as was the charcoal-grilled eel in teriyaki sauce, good sized portions and fresh ingredients . I was very impressed with the desert menu too. I have been back again and again after the re-opened last spring - they offer half price sushi at on Tuesdays at lunchtime too. Its a lovely experience to sit outside in the summer months and makes some of the best cocktails in the land.
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annabella
Thursday, July 03, 2008

Very disappointing. We were customers of the old Okinami and always enjoyed the service and the food. We went on a Saturday night in June and found a huge change for the worse. Service was very poor, my main course was very close to sliding into my lap as the waitress struggled to hold the plate. The food seemed expensive and bland & had lost it's resemblance to the classic Japanese feel (and taste) it used to have.

Hopefully things will pick up as I would assume there are teething troubles with the staff and chef.

Pompoko has now become the best & most Japanese feeling place in Brighton (and is about 25% of the price)!
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Wednesday, July 02, 2008

A group of us went to Okinami on Friday 20th June. I thought that the food was lovely, fresh and reasonable priced. I would've been perfectly happy with the overall expereince if the following hadn't happened - at the end of the three courses we ordered the bill, as you do. We all put it our respective shares and retained about £10.00 to leave as tip when they returned the metal tray. Five minutes after we handed the money to the waiter he came back and my friend thought he said to her "you're £10 short" she apologised and went to get a £10 note out of her purse at which point the waiter said "No, 10p" I couldn't believe the cheek of it! Most of us had 2 courses with wine so one would expect to get quite a large tip from a group of five and he had the audacity to ask us for 10p! I tried to persuade my friend not to leave the tip but she was too soft and did but due this I won't be returning to okinami in the near future and would advise anyone else from doing so until they sort out their staff problems.
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Natalie
Thursday, June 26, 2008

I took my friend to Okinami - she had never eaten Japanese before. We decided to go for cooked food instead of raw! We had tempura, gyoza and lots of other delicious food from their tapas menu. Food was fantastic. The place was beautiful. Service: friendly. Definitely a regular eating place for me.
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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Wow! We went on Monday 23rd June and took advantage of their half price sushi platter offer. The sushi was fantastic and at half price we could afford to try lots of other stuff such as the Teriyaki Seabass which was really fresh and local, it was caught that morning! The oysters were the best I had ever had and ny partner had a nice succulent steak served sizzling on a bed of vegetables. The service was good especially since the restaurant was full and to round off a perfect evening we shared a yummy chocolate and ginger caramel cake topped off with a great coffee. After we wnet and had a couple of half price Japanese cocktails in the bar upstairs. We will definatley go back and check out the lunch specials so we can sit outside and watch the buzzing life of that lovely new New road!
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annie
Thursday, June 26, 2008

I have been a regular customer at Oki Nami for 10 years now and the quality of the food has been maintained at a very high level indeed, in fact the restaurant was in the Obserever's top five for sushi in the country. However I have to agree in part with the other reviews there have been some service issues since the move to New Road but I am glad to say that these are rapidly being imporved and repaired, I went last night and it was packed with seemingly pleased customers this is mainly because of the new half price sushi offer on mondays and tuesdays which I'm sure you'll agree is very good value for some of the best sushi in the country (an opinion expressed in Observer magazine).

I don't think anyone who eats at Okinami (New Road) will leave unimpressed by the modern and beautiful design of the place, or the food for that matter, so don't write Okinami off so quickly as it has just moved and still needs time to establish itself as one of Brighton's most popular hang outs as I'm sure it will. I hope to spend many more happy evenings there and would reccomend you come and make up your own mind.
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David
Wednesday, June 25, 2008

On Monday 26 May 2008 my wife and I spent a pleasant evening at the Okinami. Yes the waiter did have a problem with the electronic hand held ordering device but returned quickly with paper and pen. I made a mistake in ordering a drink but no issue, or addition to the bill, was made of my mistake. The service was excellent as was the food and I hope to book a table this evening
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Philip N
Saturday, May 31, 2008

We went there last week and it definitely didn't live up to expectations. We ordered food and drinks, 15 minutes later the waitress came to tell us one of the drinks wasn't available This wasn't so bad but we had to wait a good 40 minutes for food, so I had to go up and badger them. When it arrived one of the main dishes was missing and it took them another 20 odd minutes to sort it out. By the time it arrived we had finished our meals! It appeared the staff couldn't use the handheld ordering devices adequately, which messed up our order.

Overall, it's a beautiful and funky place to eat, but the staff were quite incompetent and unapologetic. The food wasn't too bad although it was lukewarm when it came out and the tiger prawns in batter were soaked in oil. Wagamamas is still the safer option in my opinion!
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Michelle
Sunday, May 25, 2008

Not impressed at all. The service is really bad which when paying nearly £80 for two is unacceptable. Our experience was something out of the theatre;

1. ordered white wine and was presented with a red - the waitress looked confused when referring back to the electronic handheld gizmo, we only ordered the bottle less than 5 minutes ago

2. The main meal (bento box) arrived before the starters, when the starters appeared the waitress asked if we could have them now to stop them going cold? A firm NO as we had started the bento box.

The staff looked confused, they really need to address their training and pronto to stop this place going down the plug. The food was ok.
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John
Sunday, May 25, 2008

I can only agree with the previous review. We waited so long for our drinks and food to come that we were on the verge of walking out - we sat down at 9 and didn't eat until 11.15. The waitress was unbelievably bad - casual, indifferent and over familiar spring to mind. The food however, was good. I will not be going back.
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Sara, Brighton
Friday, May 16, 2008