Omi - Baton Rouge

I think Omi is a great value, but very misunderstood. The food is authentic and the content of each dish is very fresh. GO if you want REAL Chinese dishes, prepared with fresh ingredients and are vegetarians. DON'T GO if you can't use to ask a spicy plate, but then complain it's too spicy and don't go if you want $100 value of the ambience and a $12 meal. Just order from one of the franchise food mills.

Ordered lunch here while staying at the Drury Inn across the parking lot. We ordered sashimi and flounder bento boxes with sides of egg drop soup and hot sour soup. The sashimi was generously proportioned and the California roll was tasty, but not tacky from being boxed. The hot and sour soup was very hearty, but without being too thick or overly seasoned. The egg drop soup was like I've had it on Chinese commercial vessels, lightly flavored with bits of tomato. The founder was very tasty and enjoyable. I plan on eating here again and would recommend this restaurant to anyone staying in the area.

The food was excellent steamed dumplings, spicy cumin beef, sesame chicken the service was average. If I wanted a refill on my drink I had to flag down a member of the wait staff. There were three of us, and all of our food came out at different times. But the food! So good as to make any minor aggravation worth it.

Another Chinese restaurant, with a Japanese name that serves Chinese and Japanese cuisines, owned my Chinese people. Can get a tad confusing. I'm all about authentic cuisines and not fusion... We got takeout tonight. We ordered 4 dishes that yelpers recommended. Slow cooked pork belly with pickled veggies. Pork belly was melt in your mouth tender, but we didn't care for the taste and could hardly taste the pickled veggies. There's plenty of it, but the other flavors were overpowering the pickled veggies. The calamari was bland, I think they forgot to slightly salt it. Batter had no taste and I can't believe we just ordered it and it was soggy. Not sure if they rushed it because they were getting ready to close. Spicy ribs were just that, spicy. In terms of flavor, there was none. Hardly had any taste, I just ate it by itself without rice. I did like the texture and cook on it. I think the best thing we ordered was the steamed flounder. It was light, but still a tad oily. It needed more ginger. We've had these dishes at other Chinese restaurants in Cali, Texas, Nashville and New Orleans so I'm comparing it to that.

2.5 for a rating. Right up the middle. Food was passable, certainly not the best but wasn’t the worst, so on a scale of 1-10, it’s a 5. Ordered Chicken Fried Rice. I can’t comment on other food, could be better. Honest opinion on appearance: Building looks abandon from entrance, could easily mistake it as shut-down except for Open sign on door. Entrance/foyer was not very welcoming, does not look kept up. Lots of old looking hand written signage unsure what was specials or just menu items. Upon entering the restaurant it looks a bit junked up. Front desk has piles on it. Wall to right is incomplete or in middle of update, unsure no signage. Various boxes and such sitting in view. The appearance does not look like it is taken pride in. The actual dining room from my small peek looked maybe kept nice, but looks like it could all use an update. Staff who took my to-go order didn’t seem like they wanted to answer questions/made to feel I should know answers/ also felt rushed. Some of it could be cultural, unsure. Don’t normally feel this way at my local stops. I feel normally your restaurants appearance quality usually reflects your quality of food. Take pride in your building and usually you take pride in your food, and vice versa. Update: Had a strong reaction to food. Very sensitive to MSG. Also tastes like very old cooking oil. Lowering to a 2.