Marc Pamatian
Google
Exquisite sushi and captivating technique. Thankfully I was able to secure a cancelled time slot and confirm that Yamato is a wonderful omakase experience. There looks to be a major disconnect between Tabelog and Google reviews. You'll likely read on Google that the restaurant is slightly unwelcoming to foreigners but I being the only foreigner (and I don't speak or understand Japanese) in the building didn't feel anything like. Perhaps there is a bit of miscommunication. When it comes to reservations, it should be make through omakase.in and Yamato's listing isn't as selective as other high end sushi restaurants which means first timers or foreigners have a good chance of getting a seat should they watch the listing closely. Secondly, others getting more courses. So as a heads up, if you're at the dinner seating, there is an appetizer phase that comes first and when you finish the cooked fish dish (barracuda in my case) they'll ask you about a "snack" and saying some words that are actually your extra snack options that come at an additional cost. In my seating, during October, the options were some type of dry roe, ankimo (monkfish liver) and ikura. I recommend you go for the ankimo for sure, it was $15.00 approximately in 2024. During the nigiri phase of the meal, once you finish your uni the chef will say something about anago which is the eel that usually signals the end of the course. What he is saying is the meal is wrapping up and he would like to offer you the opportunity to order more. You can repeat anything in the course even the ebi (they'll cook more) or things off the menu that he will list for you. In this seating it was octopus and a clam of some sort. The sous chef and support staff might use google translate to help with that but just know those are the 2 big moments for you if you are like me - not understanding the language all too well and a foreigner. Yamato was super kind and warm. As for stand-outs in the course for me, I lean towards the katsuo and kohada.
