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Umai Japanese Restaurant
8400 Bellaire Blvd
Houston, TX 77036

So for lunch, I decided to go hit up a new Japanese Restaurant in town that replaced my friend’s Noodle shop. I can honestly say I was skeptical about this place. It was pretty empty when I first walked in. Overall the feel of the restaurant wasn’t too bad. It was really clean and new I guess you could say.

Sat down with a couple friends and ordered some food of course. My friend, who is a big fan of Japanese culture, explained to me that this feels like a legit Japanese restaurant due to it having a lot of other food besides sushi. He told me in Japan; this would be the place to go for Japanese food and if you wanted sushi, go to a sushi restaurant.

I can’t exactly recall everything we ordered but you can see in the pictures what we all ate.

I ordered the Japanese fried rice with beef. I’m not a very big sushi fan but I also ordered the “Rock and Roll” Roll. Along with this, I ate the appetizers of Agedashi Tofu, Shrimp Tempura, and something like beef and chicken skewers.

The “Rock and Roll” Roll I found very simple. Shrimp, cucumbers, and some sauce all wrapped up in rice and seaweed. Not much there but with a little soy sauce and wasabi, still tasted good.
I really enjoyed the Agedashi Tofu just because I’m a very big tofu fan. Although it was in it’s sauce soaking, it still had a nice crunchy layer when you ate it. It had a nice flavor to it and the portion wasn’t that bad.
The shrimp tempura was pretty good. The batter they used was really good so it didn’t take away from the shrimp and cover it in oil. It was nice and crunchy.
The skewers were really good. You could taste the burnt meat a little bit but it gives it flavor and a bit of texture I suppose. The chicken was really tender but the beef was a bit hard to chew.
The fried rice was mediocre in my opinion. It was not all that great. The portion wasn’t too bad but it just didn’t give me much. It was just regular fried rice with different ingredients.

Overall, the meal wasn’t too bad. It was quite enjoyable and the place was really cozy. I would recommend people to go try it out once for yourself and see if you like it.

It gets a thumbs up in my book.