Elizabeth C.
Yelp
In rating this restaurant I want to balance how excited I was to have some Asian food on this trip with how I would rate this restaurant if I were back home. Yamiko sushi is a Japanese restaurant on the main drag of Isla Verde and seems to be one of very few Japanese restaurants in the area. Disclaimer, though: I haven't tried any of the others for comparison. They have some typical appetizers like seaweed salad and gyoza, and some that are a bit of Americanized Chinese crossover like fried wontons. They also have a long roll and specialty rolls list as well as some kitchen items like stir fried noodles.
We had miso soup, crab salad (made with fake crab fyi), a bunch of rolls, and a stir fried noodle dish. Nothing to complain about with the appetizers which seemed decent but nothing mindblowing.
We had the california roll with caviar, spicy salmon roll, and eel avocado roll. The fish seemed fresh and the avocado was nice and creamy. The rice was definitely the weakest link in all the rolls, though. It was overly soft and seemed to fall apart under gentle chopstick pressure and seemed like it was cooked in too much water. We didn't get any of the specialty rolls because most of them had cream cheese or were fried and we just weren't feeling that at the time. My dinner buddy who had the stir fried noodles had no complaints.
Service was good, brief, and no nonsense. They gave their honest thoughts about various things on the menu which I appreciated.
Strangely it seems like everything at this restaurant is served on disposable serving ware and cutlery. Our dishes came out on paper plates, the miso in a plastic to go container, and the noodles in a to go box, even though we were dining in. Our water was bottled (we were not given an option for tap) and we were charged for it. It's not clear why this is--maybe they don't have a dishwasher or enough staff to deal with dirty dishes.
I was glad for having an option for Japanese food on our trip, but I don't think I would recommend this spot if I were back home.