Umai Asian Kitchen & Sushi
August 2019
This week we had the pleasure of visiting Umail Restaurant in the unlikely location of Tel Mond. It is unlikely to find such a quality restaurant off the beaten path, but so it is. I suppose the prices are low because of the location, so if you like Asian food, run to Umai and enjoy it while you can have an lavish dinner for two for under NIS 200.
Umai Restaurant offers a mix of cuisines from different parts of Asia. That is part of what makes it a fun. Though the cuisine is not strictly Chinese, you will see eggroll and corn soup on the menu. The cuisine is not Japanese, but they offer miso soup, sushi and gyoza (steamed dumplings similar to dim sum). They have Indonesian soup, and several popular Thai style dishes including Red Curry and Pad dishes.
We perused the menu trying to decide which of the delicious sounding items we would choose. We were impressed at how knowledgeable the waitress was about the dishes on the menu. All too often the staff cannot guide us at all. This waitress was patient, enthusiastic and friendly, and guided us to good choices.
I decided on a meat starter and a meat main, while my companion chose just a fish main dish. The waitress pointed out that the meat dishes take a while to prepare, so if we are hungry we could start by sharing the vegetarian eggroll starter. Good idea! One serving has two vegetable eggrolls, each cut diagonally and presented very attractively. Added to this, we were treated to a portion of Japanese sweet and sour pickled vegetables on the house to keep us busy.
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This would be a good place to mention the presentation. All the dishes were clean and attractively presented. I am a stickler for this, and I was was impressed. The dish are served on a slate tray. The presentation is minimalist and opens your appetite.
I was still enjoying the eggroll when my Bip Ban starter came out, so I reluctantly abandoned the crispy sweet eggrolls to my companion and started on my buns. The Bip Ban (or Bip Bao) are steamed buns similar to hamburger rolls, filled with chopped steak ground with onions, garlic, ginger and herbs. (Sort of an American sloppy joe, but not as sloppy, and with a sweet sauce.) The dish is served on a tray, with a small salad dressed with a sweet sauce between the buns. I found it best to eat the buns with a knife and fork, a bit peculiar, and unlike the way you would eat a regular burger. A meal like this deserved a good beer, so with my burns I had a bottle of the Weinstephan beer.
For our main dishes we chose the salmon and a meat dish from the Thai cuisine. Our main dishes came out promptly, even before I had time to finish my second bun, so once again I abandoned my dish to move on to the next.
My main dish was the Pad Kapow, a popular Thai street food dish. This was a large bowl of steamed white rice layered first with a mixture of string beans, mushrooms and onions, then ground steak with ginger, garlic, a bit of chili and soy sauce. All of this was topped with a sunny side up eggs, sprinkled with chopped spring onions. This was an impressive dish, tasty and filling, but very large. Because the dishes are so generous another strategy would be to choose two starters instead of a starter and a main. I will remember this on my next visit.
My companion had the Sake Salmon, a nice piece of salmon filet grilled with teriyaki sauce, accompanied by a large bowl of stir-fried salad. The salad had crispy bean noodles, crunchy cabbage and string beans layered on top of the sweet Asian noodles. These are delicious when fresh and hot, and best eaten at the restaurant and not taken home.
The main dishes were so large that neither of us could finish our meals. After eating half the Pad Ka Pow I returned to finish the second Bip Ban bun (I love saying that!), and we took home the remainder of our main dishes and the Japanese pickled vegetables. Reheated Asian dishes just don't cut it. So if you can come to Umai, we guarantee that you will enjoy it a lot more than the take away.
Umai is also a sushi restaurant. We planned to buy take away sushi but we left the restaurant with so much food, we decided to leave the sushi for another visit. The sushi menu is large and varied,and we look forward to another visit to this restaurant for sushi.
Umai is in a shopping center called the Mond Center, which is spread over several blocks at a major intersection. It is a corner shop on Ha-Dekel street near HaNarkis street, across from a parking lot on one corner and the Shufersal one another, so there is plenty of parking. There is seating both indoors and out.
Umai does a lively take-out business and will deliver to yeshuvim and moshavim in the area. The 10% discount does not apply to take away orders but you can use it for pick up orders.
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