Oki-Nami Japanese Restaurant & Bar

I went to Oki Nami on Saturday June 5th. When I arrived for our table the restaurant was very busy indeed and there was a great atmosphere. My guests and I were promptly seated and we ordered some Hot sake and some cocktails,edamame and wasabi peas before looking at the menu.

Our Waitress advised that as the cocktail bar upstairs was very busy it may take a few minuites for our cocktails to arrive. We were happy with this as we could see how busy the place was. Our hot Sake arrived and some Edamame and Wasabi peas soon followed.

The menu looked excellent and my friends and I were having great difficulty in deciding so we asked our waitress for some advice. We were told to get a mix of the sushi to start so we opted for the Chisan Setto, Unagi Nigiri and a Ebi avocado Maki and a small misxed sashimi.

The sushi was excellent, soft delicate rice, amazingly fresh fish and arrived a lot quicker than I expected. During this time our fantastic cocktails arrived to help wash down our wonderful food.

For mains I had the Gyu Wafu Terri(rare) this was an amazing sizzling steak dish on a very hot plate that sent the aroma of the amazing wafu sauce to my nostrils. My Girlfriend had the teriyaki Salmon and both of my friends had a selection of the tapas, the yakatori was stunning!

The meal, service, drinks atmosphere was great and a very reasonable price for 4 people to dine out on a lovely Saturday evening. Much to my surprise when the bill arrived at the bottom it advised we could get two cocktails for the price of one so we promptly went upstairs and had a few cocktails in the swanky little cocktail bar over looking the Pavilion gardens.

This is a great venue and I know that sometimes experiences can differ, ours however was great and we will definately be going back to Oki Nami!
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, June 10, 2010

We went to Oki-Nami on a weekend trip to Brighton after hearing such fantastic reviews about the place...to say we were disappointed with the service would be a huge understatement. We were promptly seated with our order of edamame beans and beef noodle soup taken within minutes. We drank our green tea chatting away before realising an hour had passed since our order was taken. Upon realisng that edamame beans couldn't possibly take an hour to prepare we notified a member of staff only to be astounded to find our bill arrive at our table minutes later! We pointed out, to the waiter’s embarrassment, that we had not actually eaten yet.

He went and got his manager who we explained the situation to and upon investigating the matter informed us there was a "mix up" with the orders, the waitress who took our order had gone home, and a few of the other staff had taken it upon themselves to eat our food. The manager then also informed us that only the sushi chef was left in the kitchen but she would get him stay to make our order. What followed next was a bland meal and no offer of free drinks or complimentary starters, only a tiny pot of wasabi peas which only made us thirsty. We asked for more green tea, which we were then informed would be complimentary.

When it came time to pay (2.5 hours after arriving) I assumed we would be receiving at the very least a heavy discount but the manager informed us that she had to charge us full price because she had to get the staff to stay later (yes the same staff that messed our order up, then ate our food). All in all I found Oki-Nami a complete disgrace and the manager’s attitude to the fact they had pretty much ruined our evening was despicable. I will not be dining here again. Shocking.
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Angela
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 0
Sunday, May 16, 2010

Very disappointing : Took my parents here for a birthday lunch one Sunday and came away feeling ashamed of having subjected them to such an experience. We ordered beers/cocktails/soft drinks first. The cocktails took over 20 minutes to arrive, waitress spilt one over my mother and offered a very offhand 'sorry' : having worked in restaurants myself I consider the correct thing to do is to remove the drink from the bill and offer to cover the cost of dry cleaning. Food and service mediocre at best: not as good as Moshi Moshi. Had to ask the staff twice to turn down the volume of the music so we could talk without raising out voices.
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Mireille Pedder
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, May 16, 2010

Guys - we came here for the first time today and had the greatest cocktails EVER from Giuseppe. We're going to come back with friends... this guy rocks! Cheers for a great evening. Jim

Thanks again to the best barman in Brighton! Lyndsey
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Jim and Lynsdey
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, May 01, 2009

I would just like to comment on the poor service we have had from this restaurant. I booked Okinami for my wife's 40th birthday with 30 guests invited and were persuaded by Mike the owner to use his bar upstairs ( to obviously take advantage of the increased drinks sales no doubt ) and dine informally with the waiters bringing the food around on plates rather than a more formal sit down arrangement as we did originally book the private dining room at the back of the restaurant downstairs. Our concerns about people being not being satisfied were realised when the food was extremely slow coming out and there not being enough of it . There were many hungry people who hadn't eaten and were expecting a decent dinner.......this didn't happen. They must have taken a fortune over the bar and also demanded £20 per head . Having raised our concerns throughout the night the situation didn't approve and we decided to ask for a refund the following Monday after the Saturday's disappointments. Despite a constructive email which needed a chase there was an offer of a £5 voucher per person which we were not happy about . A further e-mail was sent again with a reminder and as of todays date we have still not heard from Mike the owner - its now April 8th and still no resolution. 30 customers lost I'm afraid Mike . I will be posting this on further review sites and I apologies to poeple who will read it more than once. Lovely venue shame about the food and the service !!!
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David Flower
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, April 08, 2009

I think the last review was pretty harsh, those people must have been VERY unlucky. I have ate there several times, and always had a great, timely, hot authentic meal. The manager has always been very friendly and had some great recommendations such as the plum wine. The waiters and waitresses have always been helpful, friendly and competent. The £5 lunch deal is great, as are the fantastic cocktails. Try the Japanese bloody Mary!!! And ... the sushi is divine! I have eaten in all the Japanese restaurant in Brighton and this one is by far the best!
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Shelley
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Sunday, March 29, 2009

We booked after seeing the restaurant from leaving the Brighton Dome. It looked great and we loved sushi.....how wrong we were. We booking ahead for a table at 9.00 on the 21st Feb 09. We arrived at 8.10 and we told the table wasn't ready for another 5 minutes. We were asked to the bar upstairs and we would be called for. After waiting for 20 minutes I went down to see and were told just another 5 minutes, that they were 'mega' rushed and were promised the table would be ready. We were complaining about the wait in the bar and also the price of the drinks there, when the barman came over and apologised and phoned down to the restaurant. Hey presto they had our table. We ordered fine and the starters came very quickly. They were not too bad, nothing to right on here about though. We were waiting a while for our mains to come, when a waitress cleared our table of placemats and asked if were wanted dessert! Our mains would be nice I said! Eventually we did get our mains which was extremely disappointing. My main of seabass was luke warm and the vegatables were just a mush of onion and a few carrots! My partners sizzling platter, well....was not sizzling. I think they had made the mains earlier as the waitresses were only interested about clearing the restaurant. The Chef/Manager never asked if our food was any good and was more interesting in drinking sake with a group of pals. I complained to the waitress who apologised and said would get the manager. Heh presto after waiting for over 20 minutes, no manager and were the only ones sat at a table waiting for a bill or someone, anyone to talk to us!! I would never set foot in the place again and told the waitress the same. It is a over hyped, over dressed restaurant and definitely doesn't portray japenese food as I know it!
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Kerry Martin
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Monday, March 16, 2009

Booked a table for two for valentines 2009 as we love sushi. After waiting nearly an hour for our starter, which was from sets menus as that was all they were offering that night, we never saw the second course. We waited another 40 minutes before we walked out. Two free drinks were offered but I went to eat, not drink. I went down stairs and asked to pay for my drinks and cancel food as were very annoyed. The head seater/manager was understanding and didn't charge us. The worst point was the bar upstairs which only seat 3/4 in the eating area, but this night was like sitting in a Yates on a saturday with very strong and offensive language for all to hear. The service was very unprofessional with a waitress bursting into laughter at my girlfriends distress whilst talking to the manager.

By the time we had left no other restaurants were serving so our night was ruined. There much better sushi places to go in brighton. Pompoko is less than 100 meters away and Moshi Moshi is unbeatable.
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robert tarrant
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, February 15, 2009

I went to this restaurant recently with my parents and what a HUGE disapointment. Dispite the fact that I told them it was my mums birthday and that it was quiet, we couldnt have been placed in a worse table. The restaurant was freezing cold, food was too cold and the service was unprofessional. Some on the food was nice and they were not rude by the service was very over the top and they behaved as though they had never owned a restaurnat before. There was a big air of unauthenticity about the whole place too, wehn being served by non-Japanese people and seeing non-Japanese people walking around in full costume trying to be "trendy"...I can not for the life of me understand what FBS likes about this place so much. The sushi rice was too cold, cocktails weren't great, although quite cheap, and the waitress also started packing up the table before my Dad had finished eating...nothing more rude than that.
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Tizwazrip
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 5
Sunday, November 30, 2008

I've been to Oki nami several times now in the last few weeks, each time I've been impressed with the quality fo the food. I'm suprised how many people have written reviews on this site saying that they couldn't tell the difference between Oki nami and somewhere like Yo Sushi - don't get me wrong, I like Yo Sushi but the quality of rice and fish at Oki nami is much much better. They also do some things like pickled plum and natto in their sushi plates which more mainstream places often shy away from.

All in all, it's yummy, if you go Sun-Tue you can pre-book online for half-price sushi plates, and the staff have never been anything but uber-polite and friendly. I'd recommend this place to any of my friends.
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irvingwashington - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Monday, November 24, 2008