I would like to thank Yamato for providing us with a truly dreadful dining experience from start to finish.
Maybe because we've lived in cities and have eaten great Japanese food, our expectations for the fare in our new small-town home were too high. Regardless, at least two of the things I'm about to tell you are unforgivable no matter where you're eating.
Unforgivable occurrence No. 1: We ordered glasses with our beers. When the glasses came (unchilled, by the way), mine had lipstick residue all over the rim. After waiting several minutes for our server to come to the table so I could tell her, I carried the glass to the front of the restaurant, where the hostess approached me. I explained the problem and--AFTER DEBATING WHETHER IT WAS LIPSTICK OR MERELY FINGERPRINTS (she said fingerprints)--she went into the kitchen to get me another glass. My server emerged from the kitchen with the new glass, which I inspected immediately. This one clearly had greasy fingerprints all over it, including all over the rim. So I guess at the end of the day the hostess and I were both right--LIPSTICK AND FINGERPRINTS! Needless to say, I opted to drink my beer from the bottle.
Unforgivable occurrence No. 2: We ordered a tempura-breaded appetizer from the menu. Tempura batter is supposed to be crisp and cooked through. When our item arrived, it was doughy, soggy, soft, and disgusting. It was obvious that it simply hadn't been fried long enough...by a long shot. Vegetable and shrimp tempura are Japanese staples. I've gotten awesome tempura at some pretty bad Japanese restaurants; In fact, I don't think I've ever had horrific tempura until now. Getting underdone tempura at a Japanese restaurant is like getting a pile of raw julienned potatoes at a restaurant called French Fry Factory...or even McDonald's. If anyone has been plagued with the question of whether thick, undercooked tempura would be disgusting (I wasn't plagued with this question, for the record), the answer is a resounding YES, it's inedible.
Aside from these things, the food was also generally bad (teriyaki chicken tasted more like black pepper than teriyaki, rice on sushi rolls was undercooked, and don't even ask about the "Yum Yum sauce" (yes, I'm serious)). The service was a joke, and our server's inexperience manifested itself in every aspect of the meal, from her lack of base knowledge about the menu and Japanese food in general to the order she brought our dishes (our soggy tempura appetizer arrived LAST, after our entrees) to general confusion about common aspects of food service.
If you're a masochist and think you deserve only the worst, go to Yamato. If there's someone in your life who you hate a lot, send them to Yamato. All others steer clear of this choose your own adventure of misery. read more
