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| - Maybe my expectations were too high...or maybe we hit Yonaka on an off night, but this cute little modern Japanese joint hit a few sour notes for my date and I. The restaurant is brightly lit and has a modern, upscale cafe feel so I'm not sure it would make for a great date place like some of the other yelpers have suggested. As far as the rest of the ambiance goes...and I know that Yonaka can't control it's clientele, but there was a family with a small child dining in the restaurant and a good number of that group had on sweat pants, pajamas and slippers. Really? It definitely took away from the Saturday night experience were shooting for.
When we were seated the restaurant manager came to our table and instructed us on how to eat the food. Fine. But then she insisted that she new my
boyfriend. She asked him what he did for a living, if he wore glasses, etc. The abrasive questioning went on for an uncomfortable length of time. It was very strange. In spite of the weirdo start, the wait stuff was awesome. They were knowledgable and overall helpful and friendly.
So moving on to our order...we started off with the fried octopus. No bueno. It was tough, rubbery, soggy, oily and worst of all, terribly salty. I couldn't eat it. It was the kind of heavy salt that stings your mouth a little bit. My boyfriend, who is a salt fiend, even commented on how salty the food was. We went on to try the scallops that cook yourself on the hot rock, the tuna/jalapeno/watermelon dish, a few of the salmon sushi options and their tempura veggie/hashbrown dish. The fried veggie/hasbrown was, again, heavy on the salt and greasy. All of the other dishes we tried were awesome. Beautiful textures and fresh flavors that were a treat to eat.
I can't say I won't be back to Yonaka, there are still a few more options that I'd love to try. But I'll stay away from the fried options.
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