I came because of the good reviews on here and on tiktok, unfortunately i was mislead :/ Vibes: 8/10 The ambiance was pretty good. The interior is really nice! The music was playing hits back to back and if its your birthday they have pikachu come out with "bottle service vibes" lol. Food: 5/10 Would not come back again for this. They do have a buffet station with a decent selection. They had mixed seafood (crawfish, muscles, and shrimp), a few soup options, lots of fried foods, and salads. They don't have a big variety of meat selections compared to other KBBQ spots. We did try most of the meats and they all tasted just about the same, it was nothing really special. The sashimi was okay, it came out a bit warmer than what I expected. Overall I would rate this place a 6.5/10. **Note: my brother did say the food here destroyed his stomach! read more

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Did you know? Yama in Japanese literally means: "mountain" or a name for a Japanese restaurant that serves food in an aesthetically pleasing way, My first ever sit down. Food: Enticing to the eyes, fresh, and quality is top notch. I definitely recommend. You get more for your money the average cost per person dinner was 34. Service: Our first time here to the "mountain " and I must say we were met with smiles and courtesy by the manager/owner. Waitress who sat our party was friendly . Our waiter who was Derrick, was so knowledgeable on the menu and was prompt in checking in on us. He really made our experience one in which we will come back! Ambiance: How can you not love Pikachu. Enough said but the overhead star lighting on the ceiling combines with the sports like TV's, the bar area was nice to sit and eat. If you order from bar they will grill you proteins prior to bringing out. Guest Centerpoint table grill was clean also had spray oil, staff made rounds frequently to change out the centerpoint grill for a fresh one. I observed them cleaning a section after guest departed inwhich included a wiping down of the entire seats top and bottom and back ( wow impressive!!). It's not only a family oriented restaurant, but if you only want to go have drinks maybe watch the Game this is the SPOT to be. Final: I never ate Japanese food where it was brought raw (AI robot) and we were able to grill it. I must say Yama Kitchen where have you been all my life? I highly recommend and thank you to the two managers and Derrick for making our first visit a memorable one. Oh lastly we were given a sample of: Japanese Plum wine, it was delicious! read more

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I have no formal complaints about this place. I loved the location (it's near my house!), the spread on the all you can eat, the menus selection is pretty good. The seating is nice- i do wish they had chocolate ice cream instead of strawberry tho. Lol our server was very attentive & explained the menu & it's dynamics. The restaurant & bathrooms were clean. There was a birthday & we got to witness that. Too cute! read more

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Service: mid - it took 15 minutes for anyone to acknowledge us after we were seated (and the host was the one who asked if we needed drinks). Food: the short ribs were weird, low-quality. The meat was poorly marinated. The sushi and sashimi was only slightly better than HEB or Kroger quality. The best part was probably the fake Chinese food buffet. Paying $43.95 for fake Chinese food buffet is absurd (we got the prime) the American wagyu was tasteless. They use vegetable oil and don't have higher quality oils or butter available. Atmosphere: the bar has a bunch of random soy sauce buckets behind it. They promised my 3 year old daughter they'd bring Pikachu out and they didn't. She was highly disappointed. We won't be back, was pretty disappointed that we only got one round of food and left. read more

We got seated at a big table, not usually the size they give to 5 people so I was quite impressed. It was on the Sunday Mother's Day so there was actually a small waiting line. We still got seated within 10 minutes. I saw the alcohol special, draft beer was only $3 USD, I definitely got one as in Toronto you can't get this price for Sapporo and on a Mother's Day at that. It's all you can eat, lots of items to pick from. You can have the Asian hot food or the cold sushi. The steak strip was pretty good so we had a few rounds. I liked the sashimi as well surprisingly. The cooking plate was changed often for us, the servers are really attentive so we've never really had to wait long. They should change the order system to self serve digital pad though but it was fine as the servers came around a lot. I finished off the meal with soft serve ice cream. The place is pretty cold in the end when people left in our section though as the AC is high but I like it because the BBQ usually gives off a lot of heat. At least during the meal I wasn't hot like in some other restaurant. The draft beer was amazing too. I truly like this place for the amount of selections of food and service. read more

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Met up with my friend in Galveston at Yama Kitchen in Pasadena. This is a Japanese bbq and sushi place that opened last year. They have 2 different tiers but we just got the most basic ones. Our favorite cuts were the classic bulgogi and short rib. They also have sushi and I especially liked their salmon and yellowtail nigiri as well as their salmon sashimi. They use really good quality salmon here. They have a buffet far for any appetizers like fried rice, crab Rangoon, fries, eggrolls, a sauce bar, some additional items for the grill like lettuce, jalapeno, garlic, and a pickled veggie section. The apps were all pretty mid except for the lo mein. I was kind of expecting the meats to be more flavored from the marinades but they were all pretty bland, the sauces were just ok too in my opinion. Overall just an ok place, definitely an option if you live in Pasadena but I rather just drive to bellaire read more

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Service was great and no complaints about the staff. Food wise was a hit or miss and lots of misses We took both Japanese bbq and sushi option Salmon and yellow tail sashimi were hits, fish was fresh. Chuck beef was the best hit as the marbling was excellent The rest of the items were all a miss: signature pork belly, short rib, "pork cheek". Thus we stopped ordering the other items except for the hits above. Pork cheek on the menu was definitely not a pork cheek. The meat were slices of pork butt. Both short rib and pork belly were marinated and unexpected. They were sweet Unfortunately, no comeback on this restaurant read more

Yama Kitchen - Korean Near Me - Pasadena, Texas

So nice to have a local japanese bbq restaurant in Pasadena! The restaurant is so modern and beautiful. The ceilings are just illuminated with these really cute lights, very aesthetic. The restaurant definitely gives a modern Japan feel, especially with the "robot food runners" rolling bye, super cool. Staff was very kind and helpful. Staff definitely worked together to bus tables, get refills and my waitress was very kind and helpful. For food, it is all you can eat and can choose to do sushi & the bbq or only bbq or sushi. The food was great! I really loved everything but the meat, for me, lacked flavor. Seems like sushi is their forte? We ordered primarily the marinated meats and it was good but it just wasnt bursting with flavor like other Japanese BBQ restaurants I been to. Was everything delicious? Oh you bet! Overall, all the appetizers and sides were so hot, fresh and delicious. The tenderness of the meat was perfect! Just wish the meat could have had a stronger burst of flavor and honestly more of a variety. Parking is super easy with it being right in the shopping center of Academy and Party City! read more

New restaurant in Pasadena, right off Beltway 8 and Fairmont. Great location! Service is quick--go in, get seated, and then start ordering your food. For $6 more, get the beef and sushi buffet--it's worth it. There's a 2-hour sit-down limit, and if you leave too much food at the end, they may charge you more. All the sushi rolls are fresh and delicious. The meats are good too. I had a lot of different things, so I'll say this: don't get the spicy yellowtail roll. Everything else is great. Some meats had no flavor, but just throw some salt and pepper on it and you're good. It's definitely worth the price to chill and eat a lot. The grill in the middle can be switched out if you don't want too much char on your food, or just wipe it down with your napkins--that's what I did instead of waiting for them to change it. Ahhh, the tips--I'd recommend taking cash for your waiter. According to two workers, I was told the restaurant keeps the credit card tips, and they don't get them until they're split among everyone, and that takes about two weeks. So I highly recommend having some cash for a tip. Overall, it's a great place to go--definitely worth checking out. Ambiance was calm and chill. read more

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We were celebrating my early birthday and they gave me a bang along with a delicious dessert. The food was outstanding but the robot too the cake. The food was fresh and hot. It's a buffet restaurant but also serve sushi on the line you can order dozen of each or half dozen of each to make a dozen. We did Korean bbq, rice, cheese corn. We walked out full and satisfied. The servers and the manager checked on us constantly. Let not forget the decor is absolutely beautiful read more

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First time, all you can eat. You have a small oven griddle on your table. A robot will bring your food. They have a small buffet line where you can get veggie rolls, desserts, crab, shrimp, fried rice, and other items. The manager brought us out a complimentary glass of plumb wine since it was our first time. Very spacious place. Reminds me of a restaurant in a casino. They have booths and tables. Food was good. Server was informed. read more

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Food quality is pretty good for the area (much better than Sushi Yoto). I wouldn't go out of my way to go here but I definitely left full and satisfied. Salmon sashimi was good, and the toro beef was my favorite. The pork belly was very tender but I'm pretty sure it+some other meats were marinated even though it wasn't specified as marinated. The interior of the restaurant is stunning and service was nice. read more

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Social media got to me again! Yama Kitchen kept popping up on my feeds and the high ratings on here made me pull the trigger on visiting. It's located in Pasadena right off the Beltway. Easy to find and easy to park as it is in a large shopping strip. My date and I came on a Friday night. I made reservations online but noticed I probably could have gotten away with just walking in. Not that it was dead inside, but more like this place is massive and there is plenty of seating inside. It looks as if they combined 3 businesses and made a mega space. Not knocking Pasadena, but this place is fancy looking inside for the area. Cool lighting, comfortable seating and they even have robot waiters! You order with a waitress and then the robots bring alot of the items out. Valerie was our human waitress and she did a great job from start to finish. Yama is an all you can eat Japanese BBQ and Sushi buffet. I've seen all the combinations at this point like hot pot and bbq, sushi and hot pot, etc. I haven't been to one of these combinations yet though. Back in the day sushi buffets were not that great with the exception of a few spots, but we're starting to see them pop up more and more and I'm all for it. I'm especially happy to see more places like this on the southeast side of town. Pricing differs from lunch and dinner. Sushi OR Japanese BBQ will run you 20.99 for lunch and 30.99 for dinner. Sushi AND Japanese BBQ will run you an additional 6 bucks. They also have alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks for purchase. You have a 2 hour limit. Excess food waste will be charged. We came hungry and my date has never had Japanese BBQ so we opted for the sushi and bbq option. They have a variety of soups, salads, appetizers, grilled items, rice, noodles, and hibachi from the non sushi and bbq items. We started off with some spicy edamame (very good), crispy calamari (good), gyoza (very good), beef short ribs from the robata grill (very good), tonkotsu ramen (surprisingly good), and shrimp fred rice (good). For sushi we had three different types of rolls plus some sashimi. The rolls were presented nicely and made well. I do feel like it was more filler than any of the proteins but still tasty. The sashimi was ok, not as fresh tasting as I would have liked. As far as the bbq goes, we ordered quite a bit of different meat and veggie options. The grills were changed frequently and easy to cook with. They only provided tongs for cooking. I do wish they had scissors like more other establishments like this. Some of the meats were good on it's own and the flavored ones delivered as well. We asked for different sauces there wasn't many options. We finished off our meal with tempura bananas and Oreos, and green tea ice cream. The Oreos were great but the bananas were not very ripe which gave it a bland taste. Overall, this was a very solid spot of the southeast side of town. I will gladly make that drive over when the cravings hit again. read more

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Only my 2nd time being here & I love it. Our server was Nell & she was the sweetest. Very attentive & had good recommendations. This place is very clean, restrooms are clean, great music playing and the food is so good. All you can eat sushi & Korean bbq. All the staff were really nice. Great place will be coming back. read more

Yama Kitchen - Apps and tablets set up - Korean Near Me - Pasadena, Texas

It was just okay - nothing special. All you can eat Korean barbecue and all you can eat sushi. My daughter got the former and I got the latter. The beef my daughter ordered was all gristle and fat. For all you can eat sushi there should've been a better selection. I was underwhelmed. read more

Great for friend date night!! I would suggest to ask the process on how to order before you order. That way you know what menu to look at and options are available to you that is included your price. I chose the BBQ option and I felt like the menu options were just enough. Appetizers and food items to cook come out quickly and staff are very accommodating. I love how often they came to collect dirty plates. This place was a fun and interactive experience. Happy Yelping! read more

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Absolutely incredible experience for all you can eat sushi and Korean barbecue. The restaurant is fun and great for kids with robots delivering food and a vibrant atmosphere with fun music and cool vibes. Super traditional Korean side dishes and the food was ultra fresh. Wish we lived in Houston because we'd go to this place regularly!! read more

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Was super excited to try Yama with my partner and friends this weekend, left feeling a bit disappointed. The Kbbq itself wasn't authentic in flavor as it felt like a very western take on it. The Banchan was not my favorite as well. The dipping sauces for the Kbbq were also a strange combo, and no salt or pepper at the tables! Some of my appetizer orders did take a very long time to come out, where I had to remind staff that it was something I had ordered a while ago. I will give it was a relatively busy Saturday so that may have played into that. The things that did shine at Yama kitchen were the appetizers! Very yummy variety and I would come back just to load up on those. My favorite of the day was the octopus robata! Perfectly cooked and flavored! Sashimi was also very fresh. The seating area booths are really spacious, which is very nice. My server, both human and robot were very sweet too (although one of the two did tell me something concerning regarding the tipping system at the establishment...) Overall, it's nice that a Kbbq place has opened in this area, but I personally would not come back just for it. There's another Kbbq place in Webster I'd rather make the extra 10 minute drive for if I'm really craving Kbbq. It's still very new so hopeful that it's still growing and evolving for the better :) read more

Restaurant just opened but food & service was great! Really nice set up in the restaurant We only had the lunch all you can eat sushi but we will be coming back for the all you can eat Korean bbq read more

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Been going here almost every single month for the past year or so. Food and drinks are incredible and the service is very friendly and fast. The entire ambiance of the restaurant always makes you feel comfortable and is very inviting. If you love all you can eat sushi and BBQ, this is definitely the place to go and is 100% worth it. read more

Ambiance is sleek. Perfect for date nights or family/friends. Did the lunch all you can eat. Good value. Loved the table grill. Our favorite was the beef bulgogi. Apps were yummy. Sushi was varied and good quality. Also enjoyed the salad bar. read more

First time eating here & we had a fantastic time. It was very nice and clean inside. The waitress Valerie was AMAZING & Happy Birthday girl!! Valerie helped us pick everything and was very good at explaining options. The food was delicious & service was the best. Will definitely go back. Thank you for making my 12 year olds birthday so good. read more

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Blown away by the service & ambiance! Meat tasted great & was presented well. Derek, our server, was literally the best! He went out of his way to make us a boba drink that wasn't even on the menu, showed us a cool party trick with the soju we ordered, & was extremely helpful & attentive. He made sure the pikachu that was roaming around made a stop at our table which I really appreciated lol. I'm from California & we don't get this level of service or atmosphere. Definitely coming back here once I make my way back to Pasadena. Big shout out to Derek & the pikachu for making our experience so great! read more

Our server Elijah was top notch. He didnt come by too often or let a lot of time lag without checking on us. The portions were perfect if you pick the All You Can Eat option, they dont bring out a lot each time so you dont waste food. This was my 4th time there and the music is a whole vibe! read more

Me and my boyfriend have eaten here probably 4-5 times already. We've never been disappointed. There have been menu changes and price increases since the last time we ate but we both think it's definitely worth it! Fish quality is good, I always go for the sushi ayce and my bf goes for the bbq lol. Now you can do both for 33$. The quality of the fish is good, I always go for the salmon sashimi, and the meat quality as well is good for the price! Presentation has improved and the new drinks menu has many options. All the waiters who served us have been very attentive and very kind, even the owner! The ambiance of the restaurant is modern and family friendly. The music choice is something me and my bf usually laugh about it's either K-pop hits or 2010 summer hits lol. Overall we both recommend this place to everyone especially if you like to get your moneys worth for food, have a few drinks and make some laughs! read more

Yama Kitchen - Booth area, Yama sunset drink, spicy girl roll and double dragon roll - Korean Near Me - Pasadena, Texas

Great food and even better service. Anne-Marie was great! She made our visit so welcoming!

Yama Kitchen is an all you can eat Korean BBQ and Sushi restaurant that just recently opened in the Pasadena area. The restaurant is quite large on the inside in comparison to how it appears on the outside. I went with my family for Saturday dinner, and I most definitely recommend getting a reservation just in case it gets busy. You have the option to pick bbq, sushi, or both, but the whole table has to pick the same option. My family decided to only pick bbq for ordering simplicity. We were warned ahead of time that the kitchen was a bit behind due to some graduation celebrations they had earlier in the day. Little did we know how behind they were. Typically there is a 2 hour dining limit with all you can eat but by the 1 hour mark, we still hadn't received a single piece of meat. We originally wanted to minimize the appetizer ordering to eat more meat instead, but because the wait was so long, we just had to order whatever would come out the fastest. Our server told us anything that could be scooped can be brought out by her personally rather than waiting on the kitchen to make it. However, we ordered some edamame and miso soup for the kids, and our server ended up forgetting about it a couple of times. Our total dining experience lasted about 3 hours with each person eating maybe 5-10 pieces of meat along with a few appetizers. I'm sure the restaurant is just overwhelmed with handling large crowds so early on after their grand opening. The staff otherwise were super nice to us and kept checking in and apologizing for the wait. Service aside, the meat quality was great and what we had tasted good. But due to this experience, I don't think I'll be coming back anytime soon. I'd rather make the drive out to Bellaire for places like Handam and Hongdae 33 for AYCE KBBQ. read more

Rude service,decent food. I love coming here,actually went here for me and my husband's anniversary couple of months ago and it was great.Today was a whole other experience our server was Kim and she was very rude,slow and not helpful when I asked questions about the menu. She had a horrible attitude the whole time and rushed us towards the end of our meal and said "I'm bring the bill" even though we weren't done eating. Had to ring the service button twice in a row,even asked another table "are yall my table?"Honestly disappointed in the service and wished it was better. read more

Excellent service tasty sushi reasonably priced Spicy tuna roll, spicy salmon roll and white tuna jalapeno roll we're all delicious read more

seafood boil gone :-( meat still good though workers are still nice screen is back to playing kpop stuff meh read more

Had a great experience here! Everything from start to finish was excellent. The food was awesome, with plenty of great options, especially the seafood and meat dishes. The service was just as impressive. The servers were kind, friendly, and very attentive, which made the whole experience even better. We felt welcomed and well taken care of. Definitely a place I'd recommend and would happily come back to again! read more

I have been to a couple of Korean barbecue places and each time each experience was OK. This restaurant went above and beyond always making sure we had food and always making sure we are topped off on drinks. I will definitely be returning here with friends and family if you're in the area ask for Uriel or DI, they will take care of you and make you feel most welcome read more

I was there for the soft opening. Great food & service. I am pescetarian and got enough to eat. I had the spicy calamari, spicy salmon & garlic shrimp to BBQ as well as mushrooms (didn't bbq well) squash, onions & garlic. However, if you are vegetarian, IDK if you could justify $37 for sushi & veggies. All people at the table have to get the buffet, 1 can't skip out on it. But, all on the menu is included in your buffet cost. read more

We enjoyed our meal a lot. Sushi was made to order the bbq was good. We had the combination package of all you can eat sushi and bbq $36. Without the sushi it's $30. Staff is friendly and attentive. I like that I do not have to drive to Chinatown to get bbq. read more

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Attended soft opening of this restaurant. The interior is very sleek and modern. The entrance has a really cool galaxy ceiling with twinkling stars. We sat at a booth, which was nice because of the tall dividing wall. It helps you feel more like you're not in a crowded restaurant because you can't really see other parties. You can choose to do all you can eat sushi and/or Japanese BBQ. I liked how they had a sign in your booth to help you know how long to cook your food. We had a few different items and rolls. Overall the food was good. I did find that the hibachi option was wasn't clear- the menu shows a picture of the protein with veggies and rice, however we were told that it only comes with the protein you choose. Veggies and rice are separate. They are scarce with your serving but the steak was perfectly medium rare, tender and nicely seasoned. Spicy Lady and Orange dragon were a bit spicier than expected but delicious. I like how you can do bbq without having to go to another establishment. We will be back to try that! Novita was amazing and very attentive. read more

Yama Kitchen - Grill guidelines - Korean Near Me - Pasadena, Texas

We got the sushi all you can eat, and honestly it was very good. The volcano roll with the crawfish on top tasted amazing, they gave a generous amount of crawfish. The salmon and white tuna nigiri were also very fresh. However, the yellowtail was a little fishier than usual. The drinks and dessert were included, we paid $20.95 per person. The food did take slightly longer than expected when ordering our second round. Overall the experience was great, we even saw pikachu!!! we will definitely be back for more :) read more

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Fresh, delicious sushi with perfect presentation and melt-in-your-mouth fish. Highly recommend! A++ read more

Yama Kitchen - Korean Near Me - Pasadena, Texas

Dereck was awesome super tentative! Def coming back! Food was very good , good meat quality and all you can eat sushi say less! read more

Time +0, Service +1 and food +3. Totals to 4 stars at Yama's Kitchen. Been looking for a decent / good place to eat AYCE sushi in Pasadena and this exceeded my expectations (they were low). Long wait times between rounds and it was medium full at 3pm for lunch. Regardless, the food was good. Definitely better than a couple other ones I've been to. Staff is friendly and they try their best, I can tell. Most importantly the price. For $22 AYCE sush is a steal. The food was great so I'm willing to come back! Thanks Yama Kitchen, very happy to have you in Pasadena. read more

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This restaurant was awesome with an extremely friendly staff! Alex was the perfect waiter & we can't wait to come back! read more

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