Stopped by on a whim yesterday since we happened to be in the area. I've been meaning to try Daimanya since there are frequent social media posts from the diners here.
We were the first people at the restaurant right when they opened at 4:30 PM. As a nice bonus, it turned out to be happy hour. The current happy hour promotion is $10 off the standard menu price per person if you either vacate your table before 7 PM or start dining after 9 PM.
The inside of the restaurant is pretty small so reservations are recommended, especially during prime time. Since most of the tables were reserved when we showed up, we ended up sitting at the sushi bar. The parking lot right out front is small as well; it was almost full even before the dinner rush when we left.
Daimanya is an AYCE restaurant, and there was only one pricing level, unlike some other AYCE places that have upgraded menu selections if you pay for a higher tier. During our visit, almost all of the menu selections were unlimited except for the signature dish category (A5 wagyu sukiyaki / fried lobster), which were limited to one selection in this category per person.
There is a fairly large variety of dishes on the menu to choose from, and due to the sheer number of items that can be ordered quickly by multiple tables, the dishes can be very hit or miss, similar to other AYCE restaurants (or any restaurant in a general sense, for that matter). It was difficult for me to evaluate all of the food as a whole with one general consensus because unlike some other AYCE restaurants where the overall quality is easy to discern, some dishes at Daimanya were really good and others were subpar.
I feel that being an AYCE restaurant with the big draw usually being value for money spent, this factor should be taken into consideration when evaluating the food at these types of restaurants since they rarely compare to standard restaurants' dishes of the same type. But even comparing the overall quality of the dishes to each other solely within Daimanya's scope, there was quite a variance between them.
As an example, for the fried food choices, the fried chicken skin dish was outstanding; it was light and crispy, fried oh-so-well with the perfect amount of seasoning. The garlic spareribs were also very good (technically in the stir-fried category, but crispy to the point they seemed deep-fried... almost like an Asian version of the dry rub riblet appetizer found in many Western restaurants such as Cactus Club, Earl's, etc.). However, the other fried items like chicken karaage, chicken wings, oysters, and scallops were nothing to write home about. They weren't bad, but we didn't feel they warranted a second order.
Other standouts for our meal included the ankimo (monkfish liver), black pepper diced beef (tender cubes of steak), corn butter yaki (a bit dry due to the cooking process but very flavourful), sake butter clams (the clams were small but delicious), steamed abalone with garlic, and the donburi options (unagi / chirashi). I also enjoyed certain selections of fish from the aburi / nigiri / sashimi choices.
Something else I appreciated was that the sushi rolls could be ordered in small portions of two pieces, which allows diners to try the rolls without becoming overly full on one large roll (compared to other places that only allow minimum orders of four pieces or more). I also liked that Daimanya didn't give an excessive amount of rice with the donburi and nigiri selections, which shows they weren't trying to fill customers' tummies with rice in a surreptitious manner that some AYCE restaurants do.
So although I enjoyed most of the food overall, what really made our first visit here memorable and worthy of 5-stars was the service. Everyone was friendly and attentive, but our main server (who also seated us) was exceptional. She reminded us of a heroine in an anime (tall with really cool glasses); she was so helpful with our orders... super nice too! Hands down the best service I've had in a very long time.
It was a great first experience... hoping follow-up visits will be the same! read more