Omi Japanese Restaurant

 Omi is located on Carlton, near Parliament. It looks a simple place and after some ordering warm sake (the menu said only cold sake, but warm sake is also available) and some hesitation, decided to skip the Omakase, and went for our own selection.

They present you a box full of sake cups to choose from. I like the roughness of ceramic cups, so I chose this one.
They also provide tea for free.

 

Appetizers

Ordered Soft Shell Crab Roll and Beef Enoki Roll for appetizers.
The Crab Roll was unique – in some Japanese restaurants the rolls are about 2-2.5 centimetres which I think is too big while the Omi ones were about 1.5 cm – with some new ingredients. The rice was also good without too much sourness that I have found in some restaurants. They tasted really well, even though this was one of the rare Soft Shell Crab Rolls that I have eaten cold.

On the other hand, the Enoki Rolls were warm. Short stems of the mushrooms were enveloped in thin and soft beef slices and grilled. They came with a sauce with a dash of sweetness. The mushrooms were fresh and the beef very juicy.

 


Main

For main, we had Chirashi Bi Bim and Omi Sashimi. The first one came in a bowl with slices of salmon, tuna, sweet shrimp, crab meat etc – all on a small ball of rice. In retrospect, it was not a good idea to have selected both because they were almost identical, except for the container – the Omi Sashimi came in a long plate.

At the end of it, I still felt hungry. And this was stimulated by my neighbours who were being treated to lavish courses of Omakase by the chef. All salivating dishes.
I called the waitress for the menu card and told her to give me a few minutes.
After about ten minutes I was considering the option of calling for the bill when the waitress came, so I ordered appetizer Tempuras. We had shrimps, carrots, green beans (this was my first ever) and Zucchini. It was fresh.

The small size of the tables reminded me of JapanGo but Omi is more spacious and they have an open kitchen concept. I never had the chance to talk to the chef.