Yamasaki is new and still experiencing growing pains. They definitely have potential for more stars. But this is based on my current experience. We spent over $200 on two people, and expected to get a bit more for it.
We sat at the sushi bar because usually you get a more unique experience that way. But the sushi chefs were very busy and did not even look at anybody sitting there.
The place was packed and service was very slow. After waiting a while, my husband went to find us menus.
We started with edamame, which was pretty standard. Next we tried the Bird Nest, which was my favorite. It looks as good as it tastes!
We love good cold sake and the only options available were either the house, or the $30 bottles.
We tried the house sake and it was ok. (They serve it hot or cold) They were out of the midrange price bottles so we went for one of the $30 ones. It was a small bottle but delicious.
I was looking forward to trying the omakase. We went for the sushi option.
The waitress brought it while my husband was in the bathroom and ran through the fish names very fast. When my husband returned, I couldn't tell him half of what the items were.
I was expecting a bit more from the omakase. The fish was very fresh, but there wasn't much to it to differentiate it from a chefs choice sushi platter besides a little blob of stuff on top of each piece.
It would have been better if the pieces were explained more so we could appreciate it and I could describe it better than "a row of fish with different blobs on top."
But I get that the waitress was slammed and trying to hurry.
After that, we put our order in for sushi and sashimi and a roll. We got the sushi first and then the roll maybe 20 minutes later. Usually your sushi dinner order comes all at the same time.
Presentation was pretty plain. Nothing special about it. The cuts were small, but the toro and king salmon were delicious. The shrimp was skinny and sad and the eel was also small and a bit lacking in flavor.
Nothing we ate was bad. It just didn't have the wow factor you expect for the prices.
And you get nothing but what you order. No soup, welcome roll, extra pieces or fun surprises from the sushi chefs at the bar.
Maybe we are a bit spoiled by our usual sushi spot where they have lots of extras and big fat cuts of fish.
Yamasaki seems like a good date spot, but not the go-to for sushi dinner.
After reading all about omakase it was a bit of a let down for everything (except the bird nest) to be kind of plain in presentation and just rushed through.
I do want to go back and try again in a couple months after they've had more time to get in their groove. But I don't think I would order the omakase again.
They did have several other fun sounding apps I want to try though! read more