Umi Star

I'm not gonna lie- I used to LOVE this place. Sometime's I'd be there 3 times a week for happy hour! Everything was delicious and amazing and scrumptious.

I went again this last week.   ::disappointment::

Got there, and as usual struggled with their heavy stiff glass door and waddled my way to the bar with my friend. She's a regular too and we're Umi buddies, constantly together there.

Service was usual- slow but worth it. I requested the Sessions ($2) and the bartender offered some other beer choices. I got the Hitachino XH which he said was aged in sake casks. Awesome! I love craft beer... and it was good! 8% abv which was a bit more than I was expecting or prepped for but no regrets on the choice. Heavy to drink with lots o' rice sushi but great taste. My friend had the stormy's which are always hands down amazing. Could have better quantity for $6 each, but theyre tasty so worth it.

My friend and I ordered the 2- Scottish Salmon, Balls w/sweet potato (they have the option of chicken salad which seemed ehhhh to me) and lobster roll.

The lobster roll was as we always remember it- delicious and filling. The Scottish Salmon was NOTHING like before. Before there was a nice mellow off-white eggshell colored aoili sauce. This time it was green almost like puree'd peas but flavorless. How is that garlic lemon? Neither of those prominent advertised flavors are green in color. What a disappointment. It could have used more dill and fried capers. Also, the picture of them on their online menu is close but not what they actually come out like. The online picture makes them look bland- which this time..... they certainly were. They were so tasteless that we canceled the 2nd order. The sweet potato balls were okay. I love spicy food so I didnt find them ver hot but my friend did. The ponzu type sauce was an odd mix with sweet potato. There was more rice than anything else.

Btw, Tater Todds are now the Red Snapper. Guess since Todd left to Ca, they renamed it....  Didn't order it so not sure if it tastes the same or not. I wasn't a fan of these before as they had a slight metallic taste to them to me before. I also didn't order it this time but their kimchi quesadilla torta whatever things are tasty!

We got the bill and my beer was $10! Now I understand a $6.. I'm a craft beer drinking girl. The part that puzzled me was #1- why is that beer not in happy hour? #2- why would the bartender suggest me a drink $8 more than the original Sessions I wanted? You can tell I'm here for happy hour and to get a sweet deal. I didn't mention anything because it was a good beer, but it cost more than my rolls.

This place has changed so much since Todd, the old chef, left it. I don't know Todd personally so this isn't some ode to him... it's just honesty. I don't know if they're not sticking to the original recipes or they just have a bad sushi guy now.

Ehhhhhhhhhhh.... way to go downhill. You went from my 3x a week to maybe once 3 months.

Umi Star is a 4 star in my book, I went back and forth between 4 and 5 stars, but I guess I'm just too stingy with my 5 stars.  Great food, great ambiance.  I sat at the bar and had the Manchurian Mule, a play on the Moscow Mule where instead of ginger beer, they use fresh ginger mixed with soda water - it works!  For dinner, I went with the Umi Star Sashimi Salad, which is also a winner.  To finish, I asked the bartender for suggestions.  I shared that I really enjoy a good old fashioned so he suggested their play on the old fashioned that uses 12 year old Japanese whisky, Suntory Yamazaki Single Malt.  

I highly recommend Umi Star if you enjoy the Asian street food concept with a little Mexican flare in some dishes, such as the Umi Star Torta.

I went to Umi Star with my wife this past Sunday. It was our first time, and we were both impressed.

To start with, they have a unique concept - southwest and Asian fusion - and they execute it VERY well. We went  for dinner on Sunday at around 8pm, and we were pleasantly surprised to learn that Sunday happy hour is 5pm til close (featuring $6 house specialty cocktails, $2-4 sake and beers, $4 generic cocktails, and $1-2 entree and appetizer discounts).

We were seated right away, and our waiter came to take our drink and appetizer orders after a few minutes. I started with the Havana Affair, a house specialty cocktail consisting of light and dark rums, orgeat, and bitters, served chilled, straight up. We also ordered the sweet potato Umi Balls and the Sushi Bruschetta.

The Havana Affair was quite good: it was smallish (4-5 ounces), but tasty and potent (it was all alcohol). One of the better cocktails I've had in Tucson. I'd definitely order it again during happy hour for $6; not so much during non-happy-hour times, when it would be $8.

I wasn't a fan of the Umi Balls (3 for $2): they were just big globs of rice with a little bit of sweet potato filling. The weakest dish that we tried.

The Sushi Bruschetta ($8) was fantastic; definitely order it if you go. It was one of our favorite dishes that we tried.

After drinks and appetizers, for dinner we sort of did a grab bag: we ordered two of the chicken street tacos (solid), and one of the shrimp tacos (very good), a green papaya salad ($7) (average), a spicy lobster roll ($8), and the salmon tapas ($5). I ordered a Session Red Lager ($2) to go with the main courses.

The salmon tapas were AMAZING. I don't use that word lightly. I would eat those for lunch every day for a month without thinking twice about it. They were really very good.

The spicy lobster roll was also quite tasty, and my wife and I were both impressed by the amount of lobster that it had.

We were there for probably a bit over an hour. The service was attentive, quick, and professional. The crowd was mostly quite young; I'm 29 and I was definitely well toward the older end of the spectrum of customers, though there were a few people around my age at the bar. It seemed to be mostly college-aged and mid-20's folks.

A dj was setting up his booth when we left, and I guess they stay open til 2am, which is cool. I'll have to come check it out on a weekend night for drinks sometime.

Our total bill after tax and 20% tip was just about $60, which I consider to be a pretty damn good bargain considering the amount and quality of food and drink that we had. This place is one of my new favorites in town.