UMI Sushi & Tapas: Merry-go-round Sushi and No Tapas
Posted: May 31, 2012 Filed under: Restaurants - Hartford Area 7 Comments »Blue Back Square | 53 Isham Rd West Hartford, CT | 860.206.0290
Click here to visit their website and view the menu and prices
There is much to be said in favor of creating a convivial restaurant environment that encourages the sharing of sisterly or brotherly camaraderie. So when Gaspar received an invitation to a luncheon with some of his dearest friends; Pedro Lucumi, Dr. Motumbo 3X, Selig Mwandenga, Kotoku Sakae, Goodtry Methuselah, and Aquiles de las Baleadas, he jumped at the opportunity despite the fact it would mean venturing into Blue Back Square in West Hartford, known to some as “Blue Blood Square.” Goodtry sent excuses from Shanghai, Aquiles bowed out; they were both sorely missed. Nevertheless, the large booth at UMI Sushi & Tapas accommodated the remaining five amigos, who enjoyed their outing tremendously – despite the decidedly uninspiring food.
UMI is a clever restaurant with plates of sushi making the rounds on a conveyor belt or kaiten. This restaurant format is not uncommon in Japan, where customers can even fill their tea cups from a spigot at their seats. The little plates that circulate on the conveyor belt all have a colored band around them with different hues denoting different prices. UMI also features high-definition televisions, colorful lighting, and a posh bar serving sake cocktails such as “Tokyo Sunrise” and “Sakerita.” The room could be described as trendy or kitsch. It’s certainly comfortable. However, the sushi is mediocre at best.
You can’t make sushi without rice; and you can’t make good sushi without good rice; well prepared and properly seasoned. Sadly, this is where UMI fails. The variety, texture and seasoning of their rice is all wrong. It’s not the right kind of rice, it’s not properly cooked, and it lacks a well prepared vinegar-sugar-salt dressing. If you can’t get the basics right, it does not matter much how good the other ingredients are. As any reader familiar with Gaspar’s taste knows, he is not obsessed with so-called authenticity in cooking. To the contrary, he admires adaptability, so long as it is carried out with sensitivity. So while you’d be hard-pressed to find a “BLT roll” in Japan, Gaspar harbors no inherent prejudices against such concoctions. Unfortunately, at UMI the bacon was soggy and the roll tasted rather musty. Like the “BLT”, the traditional maki rolls were also insubstantial and tasteless. And so it went. Gaspar did not try the ramen or udon but if he were to visit UMI again, he’d strongly consider that option instead of the sushi.
In-keeping with the high-tech atmosphere, there is a gadget on the table with several buttons you push if you want service, a refill, the check, etc. Selig sarcastically theorised that pressing the buttons administered a small electric shock to the server in order to get her attention. Gaspar could not help but feel all the lights and buttons were a bit gimmicky, as was the inclusion of the word “tapas” in the restaurant’s name. But if you’re looking for a good place to watch a sporting event or have a few drinks, and you don’t mind the “plastic” atmosphere of Blue Back Square, then UMI Sushi & Tapas could be a agreeable option.
Spicy Rainbow Roll, which looks good but did not taste like much, and the Seaweed Salad. The color of the rim of the dish indicates its price. There is a price chart on the wall.
Dear Gaspar,
The food at our luncheon was uninspiring, as you note, but the company was excellent. Mrs. 3x and I have had dinner at this restaurant a couple of times and found the food far better than it was at our luncheon. Even then, I would not say that it was excellent sushi, only decent sushi. But, at our dinners, we found the convenience of the conveyer belt to be a selling point. No waiting on the wait staff for one’s food!
We must assemble this group again to test some of the area’s other gastronomic establishments!
Yours,
Dr. Motumbo 3x
Mr. Sancoche,
Thank you for visiting our restaurant and taking some nice pictures. I’m glad you enjoyed the visit.
But you should know that our seasoned rice is where our pride lies. As opposed to many who skip the painstaking process that requires much attention to detail, we choose, cook and season our rice faithfully in the traditional method that was perfected and passed on from masters to apprentices for 200 years in Tokyo, Japan. So when you write “all wrong”, then you are saying the generations of great Japanese chefs developed the sushi rice all wrong, which is laughable, yet not ignorable.
We are deeply concerned that our cuisine is badly misrepresented here in North America. We obviously care about our own culture, and we used to operate a strictly traditional, beautiful sushi bar, with a great master chef. Sadly it failed, forcing us to realize that we have to start form the bottom; not with a high-end, ultimate sushi experience for connoissiurs like Maeda Sushi was, but with a restaurant that is approachable in environment, menu, and pricing, a sushi restaurant for all, so to speak. Umi’s whole concept is geared toward breaking down the barriers people have against sushi and making it a natural, regular part of their dining, and give honest representation of who we are. That include the “kaiten” conveyor belt system, our refusal of using any Hollywood-Geisha scheme resulting in the “kitsch” room, use of “gimmicky” ServiceLight, and menu items like BLT Roll, etc. They would all lead to our customers tasting and learning the very rice you criticized. When there are hundreds of years of tradition, there is right and wrong way to do things, and we chose the right way regarding our sushi rice, which is at the core of any sushi restaurant. It’s one thing that we got right. But when a self-appointed “know-it-all” like you writes nonsense with a pretend authority, a dear part of our culture can be ruined for many others.
Also, tapas culture is a huge part of Japanese dining we call Izakaya, and if you just look at our menu, it’s there in a prominent way.
With all the third person reference of yourself in the entry, maybe it’s immature of me to take you so seriously, but from reading your “about” page, I see that you want to commentate on food, and on TV. I respectfully suggest that you know what you are talking about before you opine publicly, or stick to anonymous sites like Yelp.com to save yourself from embarrassment. Well, I hope this is all just a satire and I’m just being too sensitive (hopefully understandably so). Sorry for ranting, but frustration mounts when consumers of my culture continue to get miss-educated by your likes. Thank you.
Taki Tanaka
General Manager
Umi Sushi+Tapas
Mon Dieu! What an impolite response from Monsieur Tanaka! He would better serve his interests by offering a groveling apology for foisting such mediocre sushi upon the palate of the great Sancoche! And perhaps pleading for a second chance. Of course Sancoche is a “self-appointed know-it-all;” that is stating the obvious. Therefore, he is always right.
Tanaka contradicts himself. He claims to reject “using any Hollywood-Geisha scheme” yet the restaurant serves such drinks as the “Geisha” and “Samurai Rock.” He claims Gaspar is ruining for others “a dear part of our culture” yet he serves mediocre sushi with poorly prepared rice. Gaspar and his readers must ask; who then is doing the ruining?
Tanaka suggests that Gaspar Sancoche post anonymously on Yelp.com to save himself from embarrassment. For shame! Embarrassment is an utterly foreign emotion to Sancoche! As for Yelp, knowledgeable diners know full well how to interpret Yelp reviews. Individual Yelp reviews mean little but a consistent complaint, over time, can point to a real problem.
Indeed, there is nothing wrong with Umi Sushi & Tapas except the sushi. Perhaps it will improve. Umi is a fun place with a friendly staff and Tanaka is to be congratulated for creating a relaxed atmosphere within the Puritan esthetic of Blue Back Square.
Mr. Sancoche,
I have to admit you made me laugh several times with your reply. Like I wrote, I probably over-reacted, as I am very sensitive to this important issue for sushi in the States. I can’t concede though that our sushi rice is one thing we got right. It came from great chefs from the past, and most everything else about this restaurant is what we created in order to have people try the sushi with genuine sushi rice. Fortunately, there are now many returning customers who enjoy our sushi rice, so I believe it’s working, and we hope to grow along with our customers as far as other ingredients. Thank you.
Taki
Taki,
It is a great thing to agree to disagree! Civility and respect rule the day!
Gaspar urges all his readers to take the challenge and see for themselves who is right. Support Umi Sushi + Tapas! The Hartford area needs more restauranteurs like Mr. Tanaka who are not afraid to try a new approach.
Very truly yours,
Gaspar
My Dear Gaspar,
Your culinary observations are par excellence, as always. My wife, Ms. Kotoku Fumiko, assures me that the ramen and udon are much better fare than the sushi – especially the ramen, which she places on the same level as some of our mutual favorites in the Tama District of Greater Tokyo. I suggest that if we go again, especially at lunch time, we forego the kaiten offerings and confine ourselves to ramen and udon – with plenty of sake, of course. That said, we might also order a better grade of sake than “Ozeki Dry,” which serves as cooking sherry and mouthwash in the Kotoku household.
Finally, about the ambience: I’m surprised you said nothing about the waitstaff. Although I prefer my waitstaff at a Japanese restaurant to be rigorously “ethnic” (kimonos, please, even if you can’t be Asian), we were served quite well, I thought – and that in spite of the ribald conversations that Messrs. 3x, Mwandenga, and Lucumi pulled our table into. It was a spectacle, to be sure. If we do this again, as Dr. 3x suggests (and I’m all for the idea), but I suggest we do so under cover of darkness.
Yours faithfully,
幸徳 栄 (Kotoku Sakae)
Kotoku,
You are wise as always but perhaps our next culinary outing with Gaspar can be to an establishment that is better able to withstand constructive criticism.