Mark K.
Yelp
I don't often like to give negative reviews of places, but I really didn't enjoy this spot. My wife and I had high hopes based on the other reviews we'd seen here and on other sites, especially for the onigiri, but we left completely bummed out. We come from LA, where our favorite onigiri spot is a small shop, nothing special, big portions, $3-5 each, and the flavor is overwhelmingly delicious. Every bite is close-your-eyes-and-savor-the-flavor.
Here, at Okome, the portion size was fine, the price was higher than expected but not crazy, and the service was good. But the food itself was just bland across the board. We ordered 6 different onigiri, and even though we ate there and it was served "fresh", the rice was already stale and basically being held together by the nori. And the flavors? Nonexistent. We bought two extra sides of eel sauce and spicy mayo just in case, and those were the only ways we could get some flavor into the rice balls. Neither of us was proud to HAVE to add sauce, but we did.
I'm guessing that the demand for good, flavorful onigiri just isn't in the Twin Cities, but we had genuinely been looking forward to coming here for months and we quickly agreed that we won't come back.
The expensive little appetizer dishes (cauliflower, sesame broccoli) were good, and the udon was mediocre but still not worth it for the price. Service was good and the ambience was great with the indoor/outdoor option, but the food needs to be better.