Review The Food - Fort Myers Restaurant Dining Guide

We arrived at Origami at lunchtime on a weekday. The restaurant was a little less than half full at the time. The host was very cordial and seated us promptly. This, unfortunately was the extent of their good service.

Now, this is where we would usually review the meal that we ate. However, since we never actually got our food, we have chosen to review the service instead.

After being seated, our waitress came over and took our order. We ordered one appetizer and two bento box lunches which came with salad and miso soup. Now, the restaurant was far from capacity and seemed to have several waitresses on duty. More than enough to suffice their apparent lunch crowd.

After 15 minutes, our appetizer finally came out. It was a vegetable tempura basket which contained several pieces of somewhat greasy tempura fried vegetables. Not really noteworthy at all.

We finished the appetizer and the waitress promptly removed the empty dish. So then we waited..... And waited....... And waited. After 20 minutes since the waitress took away the appetizer plates, we enquired as to whether our food would be out soon. It was apparent that she may had somehow forgotten that she was our waitress. The waitress then brought out our salads and soup. The salad was small as expected and was okay. You really can't screw up a handfull of lettuce and some ginger dressing from a jar. The soup was also okay, but was most likely instant miso judging by the taste of it. I myself spent two months in Japan and have had better miso soup from a street cart.

We finished both the salad and the soup in all of 5 minutes. We were starving at this point. So again she cleared away our soup and salad bowls..... And we waited...... And waited...... And waited....... At this point people who came in well after us had been served and were already gone. After 30 minutes since our soup and salad bowls were taken away, we again inquired as to whether our food was coming out soon. The waitress said it would be out in just a minute. So we waited.... And waited..... And waited.....

Now, just so you know.... Each bento box lunch that we ordered only comes with three shrimp, some rice, and a sushi roll. It could be thrown together in a matter of minutes by anyone working in the kitchen. I would even expect that the dishwasher could do it.

Okay.... So we're now sitting for about an hour and a half at this point. We were served a vegetable tempura appetizer, a small bowl of soup and a small bowl of salad. We did about 10 minutes of eating throughout this hour and a half and our bento box lunches have still not come out.

We were getting extremely annoyed at this point and decided that it was time to just go. We called the waitress over and told her to cancel the bento boxes and just bring us the check. We told her that we had been there for an hour and a half and that it was ridiculous that our food had not come out yet. So she huffed and puffed and walked away. She brought the check back and walked away. We looked at the check and found that since we canceled the bento boxes, she was charging us al a carte for the soups and salads at $3.00 a piece. This is where I nearly blew my top.

We went over to the manager and told him that they had some nerve handing us a bill for $22 for a lunch that we never even got after sitting there for over an hour and a half. He seemed surprised that we were there for so long and never got our food. I pointed out who our waitress was and he said he knew exactly who we were referring to before we could even point her out entirely.

So the waitress storms over yelling at us stating "you order too much food. It not my fault". I'm thinking... WHAT??? We ordered too much food??? Two people share a single appetizer and order a single lunch item each. That is ordering too much food???? On what planet???? Thank God I'm good at biting my tongue.

The manager said that he would take care of the bill. I then pointed out that I had already paid the bill. He then tried offering us a free lunch on our next visit. I then informed him that not only did we not want his free lunch offer on our next visit, but there would in fact be no next visit. We then left, our bellies empty, and our wallet $22 lighter.

We would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. There are plenty of other Japanese restaurants nearby with far superior food and service. There is actually another Japanese restaurant right in the same lot named Ozeki, who's food and service are exceptional. There is also another Japanese place just a few blocks away. Our advice is to avoid Origami like the plague.

Favorite Entree:
Due to poor service, our entrees were unfortunately never served to us. Thus, we do not have a favorite.

Favorite Appetizer:
We were not served an appetizer even worth mentioning. Nevermind referring to one as our favorite.