Address: | 801 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX 78704, USA |
Phone: | +1 512-916-4808 |
Site: | uchiaustin.com |
Rating: | 4.6 |
Working: | 5–10PM 5–10PM 5–10PM 5–10PM 5–11PM 5–11PM 5–10PM |
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David Liang
Food: 5 Decor: 4 Service: 4 I decided on this place for dinner on a Saturday. I was unable to get a reservation, so we opted to walk in for happy hour around 5:30pm. Luckily, the wait was only 35 min, and we were able to get seated without a hitch. Since everything sounded delicious, we decided to order every dish on their happy hour menu. Almost all their dishes came in 4 pieces. 1. Uchiviche salmon, striped bass, yellow bell pepper, tomato, cilantro $6 Delicious. Perfect mix of sashimi and citrus. 2. Machi cure maplewood-smoked hamachi, yucca, asian pear, marcona almonds, white soy $6 Delicious, one of the best dishes of the night. All the components blended perfectly together - the juicy pear, crunchy almonds, fresh hamachi, and the crunchy chips. 3. Hama chili yellowtail sashimi, thai chili, orange $6 Pretty good. Yellowtail was very fresh, although it only had trace amounts of chili and orange. 4. Kakiage sweet potato-onion fritter $3 Okay. My least favorite dish of the night. Most of it was just fried stuff, but it was okay. 5. Crunchy spicy tuna hand roll with avocado, cucumber, tempura flakes $6 Pretty good. Tuna had just a little kick to it. 6. Shag roll salmon, sun-dried tomato, avocado, squid ink sumiso $6 Yummy. Everyone raves about this roll, but it wasnt as impressive as I expected it to be. Its a hot roll and tasted pretty good. Squid ink sumiso was good. 7. Negihama baby yellowtail, scallion $6 Okay. Pretty basic ingredients, and it wasnt as good as some of the other dishes. 8. Ume jiso cucumber, japanese plum $3 Okay. Probably my second least favorite dish. Plum was a bit sour, and it gave a weird aftertaste. 9. Bacon steakie grilled pork belly, basil, citrus $6 Delicious. Pork belly was perfectly cooked, and it went beautifully with the watermelon radish, basil, citrus, and jalepeno. Spicy, sweet, and sour all in one. 10. Walu walu seared escolar, yuzupon, yuzu marmalade $6 Delicious. Arguably my favorite dish of the night. Escolar was perfectly cooked, and the yuzu marmalade was amazing. 11. Coffee panna cotta coffee panna cotta with mango yolk, coffee soil and white chocolate sorbet, 9 Good. Pretty dessert, although it wasnt as good as I hoped. Coffee soil was a bit too strong and salty, although the white chocolate sorbet was pretty good. Coffee panna cotta and mango yolk were okay, although I wish the mango made a bigger impression. My HH menu ranking (for those of you who dont want to read the above): Amazing 1. Walu walu 2. Machi cure 3. Bacon steakie 4. Uchiviche Good 5. Shag roll 6. Hama chili 7. Crunchy spicy tuna hand roll Subpar 8. Negihama 9. Ume jiso 10. Kakiage Total was only about $23pp before tax/tip, which was absolutely ridiculous. I would have gladly spent 3x that for the food. There is self-parking and complimentary valet in their lot. However, it filled up when we arrived, so we parked across the street in the residential area and walked over. Service was excellent, and each separate server explained the dishes well. As some reviews have mentioned, skip the sushi (their rice is off) and get the sashimi and specials instead. Regardless, Id probably come here every week if I lived in Austin.
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Lorena Lopez
What can I say about Uchi that hasnt already been said 1,000 times? My review is for the Community Table dinners Uchi is now hosting on the third Monday of every month. You dont get to see the menu beforehand, but are promised plenty of surprises and "off-menu" items...all for $45/person. AMAZING! Turns out getting a reservation is pretty difficult because there are only 16-20 seats available, you have to be dialing Uchis reservation line about 3 seconds before noon if you want any chance at snagging a seat. Ive luckily attended 2 of these dinners, the first one in July. If you arrive by 6:45p you are given a complimentary glass of prosecco to enjoy while you wait to be seated.This meal ended up being 7 or so courses with Hops and Grain beer pairings; I felt like I died and went to heaven. Ceviche, Thai fried chicken...you really start to lose count of all the dishes pretty quickly because you are seated with strangers, having great conversations and the food just keeps coming out in spectacular fashion. I also attended last month, September, and was rewarded with some truly incredible dishes presented beautifully. Pastrami brisket, fried lotus chips with salmon mousse...again, so easy to lose track of what youre eating. But the whole fried fish served directly on butcher paper on the table (with several accoutrements) and the deconstructed, liquid-nitrogenated smore dessert stole the show. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND attending one of these dinners if you can get a reservation!
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Kimble Youngblood
We went to Uchi last night from New Braunfels a little after 5:00 (Sunday). We called ahead and were told we could not make a reservation, but should not have a problem walking in.When we walked in there were a number of people sitting down obviously waiting. I noticed about 4 empty seats at the Sushi bar and sat in one. One of the young girls standing by the hostess stand (there were about 4) said I needed to go through the head hostess and pointed to her. She was telling a mother and son in front of us that the wait was an hour and a half to 2 hours. I asked her about the numerous empty tables and seats at the Sushi bar. She said they were all reserved. When we told her we had specifically been told they would not take reservations she swished her hand in dismissal and said she was seating people in scattered seating. I asked her about all of the empty seats and the seats at the Sushi bar and she became more insolent. I asked her what time the reservations were for and she very rudely told me that the people were in the restaurant for the Sushi bar seats and all of the empty seats in the restaurant, but only SHE decided when to seat them, I have eaten at Uchi in the past and the food is excellent, but Austin has numerous excellent restaurants without rude, cheeky wait staff, lower prices and no extended wait. We went down the street to Odd Duck and had a very reasonably priced, excellent dinner in a pleasant atmosphere with extremely pleasant staff and no wait!
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Annie-Lee Taylor
Im going to be brave and say this, Uchi is not that great. There. I said it. I used to be one of those people who was under the influence of this trendy establishment, but the veil has been lifted and I can see again. I recently went here for happy hour before an event. Or rather, went here for Sake Social hour, I guess. Now, normally everything is really pricey here, but during happy hour, quite a few things become reasonable. My boyfriend and I shared the Shag Roll (tempura roll, salmon, avocado, sun-dried tomato), which has always been and still is my favorite. The Crunchy Tuna Roll (big eye tuna, avocado, tempura flakes, cucumber) which wasnt all that special, though you can tell that the fish they use is not cheap. And the Kakiage (crispy tempura fried sweet potato fritter, sweet chili sauce), which were basically asian fries. We did not realize how many of the happy hour items were tempura/fried until it was too late. Lastly, we finished off with a non-happy hour item, the Avobake (krab, avocado, bonito, shrimp) which was also one of my favorite dishes at Uchi, but they have altered it so much that it doesnt taste as fresh as it used to. Yet another thing that is not tempura/fried tasting. Its not that it is a bad meal, I just think that the days of this being "the best sushi restaurant in Austin" are now over. There are other sushi restaurants in Austin that are equally as good, if not better, than Uchi.
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Tom Higson
I had the 6 course signature selection on a Tuesday evening. It was busy, but I managed to get a seat quite quickly without a reservation. The short story: Great, interesting food, poor otherwise. Now I hate to say "poor otherwise", because the food really was inventive, interesting and good; a very well put together menu with each course feeling unique and covering a good selection of sushi styles. However, I really feel that work is required in other areas. Firstly, I found the place quite unwelcoming; I struggled to get the attention of the barmaid for a very long time and, although its nice to sit at the sushi bar and talk directly to your sushi chef, the place was so busy, cramped and loud that I had to shout and there was no real chance of a meaningful conversation. The staff didnt know the menu very well and no-one could recommend a sake to go with the set menu. Small things, but for a restaurant you go to for something special, these small things can be significant. One dish included American bacon, but it was so fatty and greasy that I just couldnt eat it. And really, its good to mix things up, but I dont go to a sushi place for bacon. Im also sympathetic that good tea is hard to get in America, but there is no excuse for a sushi restaurant serving lifeless, tasteless green tea. All these things aside, I went there for delicious sake and sushi and, at least in that regard, I wasnt disappointed.