Oki-Nami Japanese Restaurant & Bar

We have been here for the last few Saturdays for lunch, unfortunately we had a very bad experiance here this Saturday. They managed to mess up the drinks order and gave us the wrong starter. We sat outside and when we had finished I went inside and settled the bill, I then went across the road to look at something and my boyfriend and his son remained at the table to finish their drinks. When I came back after a few minutes they got up to leave. The waitress proceeded to grab hold of my stepson's arm and accused us of trying to leave without paying. As you could imagine everyone looked round at us, i told her we had paid and she did not believe us. I ended up having to show her my receipt. this was deeply embarrassing as she made such an issue and humiliated us. i will certainly not be going back
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Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Monday, September 15, 2008

Disappointing. Maybe it served us right going here on the back of some hype in The Guardian, but even so, this was pretty poor.

My starter was pork gyoza - a pretty straightforward dish I've had in numerous Japanese places - and this was one of the worst examples.

Main was the special - a seabass teriyaki - but either they don't know what teriyaki is or this was a very poor example. My other half had scallops for starter - which was excellent - but also had to endure the seabass teriyaki for main.

Excluding drinks, this came to £25 a head - which I thought was pretty steep.

In summary, only come here if you like the celeb association and you're desperate to hear the Fat Boy Slim-selected background music.
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Albion71
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I visited this restaurant on the 26th June, my birthday and even though they don't (or didn't that day) have the balcony upstairs open they let us sit up there (and subsequently more people wanted to after). The manager and all the staff were amazing and made my day. Gorgeous food, never had tofu so good, and the fish looked perfect. Please visit this place, you wont be disappointed-great location, friendly manager and staff and amazing food what more could you ask for. My boyfriend and i cant wait to go back.. Thank You
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Clare
Friday, July 04, 2008

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