Yonaka is sleek and shiny...I could almost smell the newness on them. We happened to visit on their 6 month anniversary.
No sugarcoating it - the food can get pricey here. Sushi is sold in singles or in 5's. Five - kind of an odd number but I guess it feeds 2 with an extra piece to fight over??
The amuse bouche was cute but not super impactful. Cherry tomato and Asian pear, topped with roasted quinoa. Would probably have been better as a palate cleanser but oh well.
They attempted to start us out with our dishes, saving sushi for later on. First up was chicken karaage. This was probably the ONLY dish we really didn't care for. We understand the "modern" twist on the classic Japanese dish but quite honestly, this was more reminiscent of Orange Chicken. It was battered chicken stir fried with onions, mint and lots of sugar. At this point, it's just a whole 'nother dish.
Standouts for us included the Pokuyaki, the Hotateyaki and one of their specials Uni to Ika (Sea Urchin & Squid). There were definitely a lot of re-using ingredients - it was obvious one of their favorites was the roasted quinoa. Not a bad thing but things just started looking very familiar.
Sushi was very fresh. Our favorite was the uni. Chef recommended that we eat the sushi without soy sauce (none is provided on the table) but when our first order of fish came out, it had stuff on it but virtually no salt. Everyone at the table (including my mom who is salt-adverse) says there was no salt. I actually think he forgot to put salt on it. There were no grains visible on top! We had to practically beg for soy sauce.
Service was nice but the food could have been a little quicker coming out. There were long lulls between SOME dishes while others came out at lightning speed.
We skipped dessert since the selection seemed like an after thought. Nice place but I think it's gone some work to do. I really only want to score this a 3.5 but rounded up for their effort and beautiful décor (love the walls).