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| - My boyfriend and I decided to go to Yamamoto for New Year's Eve and boy was that a decision we regretted. We planned early and made sure we had reservations before venturing onward to the restaurant. When we got there we were seated quickly and noticed most of the tables were vacant; a few tables here and there. We were seated near the middle of the restaurant and next to a family on our left.
We scanned over the menu and got excited as we discovered a lot of our favourites would be available for order on the AYCE menu. After reading a few reviews as well on Yelp, I really wanted to try the chicken cartilage. So we order that alongside a large order of beef tataki (20 pcs), some salmon, sweet shrimp, and scallop. We also order some rolls (spider and spicy salmon), and of course, some of the cooked goodies consisting of the baked seafood avocado, cubed beef, tempura, grilled squid, etc.
We get our soup/salad orders really quickly, even before our pop orders arrive. And not soon after we start getting more dishes. Our sashimi order arrives and it's displayed beautifully. On a small bed of ice, it's thoughtfully plated and looks really beautiful. I'm quick to note that I've never seen an AYCE spend so much time on making the dish look this impressive. Despite the lovely display of food, the taste wasn't that great. The salmon wasn't the freshest and the temperature (despite being on a bed of ice!) was lukewarm. The tataki had the ponzu sauce on the side and we only received about 8 slices even though we had ordered 20. The ponzu was the same as the bottled Kikkoman's brand of ponzu straight out of the bottle. They skimped out on the ponzu which made the beef really dry. The slices of beef were slightly overcooked and starting to brown while the cuts of the meat were inconsistent and often chewy. The scallops tasted fishy and were difficult to get down.
After devouring our sashimi, we eat our order of rolls and cooked food. The tempura squid rings came out cold and were nothing worth raving about. All the other foods we had just seemed lackluster and we had disappointment setting in. We wait on our order of chicken cartilage before getting hungry enough to submit our second round of orders. We try again to order the cartilage which doesn't appear but we do get our other orders consisting of the seafood baked avocado, enoki beef wraps, spider roll, and some more sashimi (in hopes we get more tataki). I quite enjoyed the seafood avocado bake as this was my second round of ordering it. The creamy avocado melded well with the salmon and kami in the mix. It was nice and way and went down easy. Our second round of tataki ended in up disappointment as we only got 10 out of our 20pc second order. Again, it was inconsistent and overcooked. We were served the end piece of the tataki which was completely cooked and was more like a dry piece of beef teriyaki, minus the teriyaki sauce.
We inquire about the chicken cartilage and our waiter says that he can't find our order sheet and that we should just order it again. Frustrated, we try one last time for the order of the chicken cartilage along with our dessert. As we receive our dessert, a waiter comes and tells us that it's our last call and inquired if we had any more orders. My boyfriend and I, still eating our desserts, were caught off guard and we make a small order of repeat desserts. We again inquire about the chicken cartlidge, and the waiter tells us that they're sold out for the night.... Couldn't this be something they had told us when we placed our first order?
We check our phones and notice that we had only been there for an hour and 20 minutes. We check the menu for a seating limit and realize that it states that 2 hours is the seating limit. The table next to us that had been there since we walked in were still making orders while we were being rushed out. Not wanting to cause a scene on New Year's Eve, we leave. As we're leaving, we notice about 6 or 7 tables that were vacant. Our initial thought was that perhaps they had a different policy on the holiday so that they could get faster turnover rates; however, after seeing the empty tables, it was clear that wasn't the case. They just wanted us out.
How disappointing that we spend $65+ to eat there on a holiday and we're the only ones being rushed out the door? Just like my 3 orders of chicken cartilage that never came, I won't be going back to Yamamoto. No thanks. Next!
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