Yosaku Japanese Restaurant

Amazing sushi place, the happy hour pricing is great and the service was phenomenal. The sushi itself was well prepared and delicious. We sat outside on the patio and we were checked on frequently which was appreciated. Definitely the best sushi I've had in DC in quite a bit, and pretty affordable too.

Best value sushi in NW. Indoor & outdoor seating (in the shade). Happy Hour 4-7pm daily = $2/piece nigiri + $5 house wine/sake/Asahi 🍺🍶🍷 🪑 Larger dining room upstairs for large groups (up to 12 people at 1 table) + smaller tables downstairs. They can take up to 3 cards per group 💳 ♿️ Accessible outdoor + first floor dining.

A lovely experience! Given it was my first time, I kept it simple and ordered a salmon avocado roll, a tuna avocado roll, and an eel avocado roll. It was all delicious, with generous portions of fish and avocado.

for more information, i’m an avid Japanese restaurant goer. i ordered two Hokkaido (salmon and avocado) rolls for dinner at 7:30pm. it came out to be 16 dollars, 20 with tax and tip. i hate to give these type of restaurants a poor rating but the salmon has a questionable taste. in my first bite i immediately noticed it was also lukewarm. also, some rolls were heavy on the rice. but the rice does has some flavor. hey, the carbs filled me up though. for two rolls it’ll fill you up so i’ll give them that. only a few rolls had an equal portion of salmon and avocado. so like almost any other sushi, it was disproportionate. on some rolls there was so much rice it covered the other side of the roll (seen in the photos). this might just be a preference of mine, but i don’t like a lot of rice, i need to really taste the fish in the maki. i don’t know if i’d go to this spot again. i’ll look for a better place nearby.

Yosaku Sushi is a hidden gem! I recently had the chicken katsu, and it was absolutely delicious – perfectly crispy and flavorful. But what truly sets Yosaku apart is the exceptional kindness of the staff. They made me feel so welcome and went above and beyond to ensure I had a wonderful dining experience. I can't wait to come back and try more of their menu. If you're looking for delicious food and top-notch service, Yosaku Sushi is the place to be!

I went for the happy hour deal $2 per piece of nigiri sushi. The sushi was fresh and the fish was very tender. I also ordered the pork shoyu ramen which was delicious. Inside the restaurant is small but they have outdoor dining during the warmer months.

They have run the family-owned business for over 40 years! Very fast and excellent service, great affordable sushi options and great location.

Great service, the waitress was very accomodating and very nice. The fastest we ever had Sushi deliver to the table. Food was awesome!!! The environment was intimate and quiet. They have Happy Hour Sushi everyday from 5-7:30, too bad we got there late, but it was worth it. Whenever we come back to Washington DC, we're definitely coming back. Highly recommend it.

Clean and compact Japanese restaurant with an impressively large menu. We found everything to be well made with high quality ingredients. Our favorites are the Alaskan Roll, Dragon Roll, Spicy Crunchy Rainbow Roll, and Veggie Delight Roll -- all as tasty as they are artful. Many sushi restaurants do not put much effort into their vegetarian sushi offerings (not that I really blame them), but it's wonderful when they do! I really liked the crunchiness and texture of the veggie delight sushi. The kids gobbled up their avocado cucumber roll and chicken udon. The restaurant has a decent little patio in addition to the indoor space, but we often opt for takeout, which is always packaged carefully. If you live in the neighborhood there's free delivery within 1.5 miles

Always a solid choice. Good sushi, good tempura, good service. Nice owner. Causal atmosphere.

All around the best! The ambiance is lovely and the service and hospitality is refreshing. So kind, welcoming and friendly. The food is always fresh and delicious. I typically order the miso mushroom soup. So filling and cozy. I get the avocado salad and tuna and salmon sashimi. The fish is fresh and melts in your mouth. Hubs got the dynamic and rainbow. He loves them! It's our local neighborhood sushi spot and we are happy to have them. Highly recommend.

Awesome neighborhood spot. Friendly staff. Fresh delicious sushi, soups and other Japanese dishes. I especially love eating outside in good weather.

Meh. I got the veggie sushi combo and it was underwhelming. Not bad but nothing to write home about. Have had amazing veggie sushi elsewhere so was a bit disappointing. The service was great though!

Cozy spot for Japanese food. The specialty rolls are very good, most notably the double yellowtail, and lobster roll. Continues to be a staple in the neighborhood. Service is always fast.

Fresh sushi--it has always been delicious! Service is good but I mostly do Takeout. Crab shumai, Age dofu, tuna sashimi, manhattan rolls,

For better than 30 years I have been patronizing Yosaku. I knew the original owner, under whose command orders went out without flaw. This evening I placed an order by phone. Using the online menu and ordering system I asked for several deviations - two salad dressings instead of just one. The ordering system took the special request. I also asked that mackerel not be included on a chirashi platter. They did neither! They actually added three pieces of mackerel and included no tuna. I called back and talked to someone who started "explaining" to me where I went wrong. He said that a credit would be issued towards my next order. There will be no next order. I used to be a goodwill ambassador for Yosaku, but no longer. I would not recommend this restaurant.

Excellent Japanese cuisine and fantastic personalized and professional service! I was visiting my sister and she recommended it. Due to the weather we ordered delivery. It was well worth it!

Great deals on fresh sushi/sashimi here. I came here for lunch at noon on a Friday. It was pretty dead, but maybe that's because AU isn't in session. Service was fast and friendly. I ordered the sashimi/tempura combo meal, a great deal for only 11 dollars! The sashimi was great and fresh. I got three pieces of tuna, two of salmon, and one of flounder. All were amazing, and it came with miso soup and rice. The tempura was too fried and greasy for my tastes. My favorite part of the tempura was probably the shrimp, but I like it better when it's more lightly battered and fried. All in all, this is a great deal for lunch.

Got the shrimp tempura udon since I was craving udon and the actual noodle soup definitely hit the spot. However, the shrimp tempura was poorly fried and super bland. Literally had no flavor whatsoever! California roll was ok. Nothing special. This is not the place to go if you want high quality food. However, it will satisfy your immediate cravings for Japanese food! Service was good and food came out quickly. Price was also pretty cheap for all the food we got so I would give it a 3.5 stars if you factor in the price.

This was good- not great. I'm always looking for new places to try out and DoorDash was running a 20% off "Winter Wednesdays" promo with this place so I ordered. We ordered the Sashimi dinner this past Wednesday, two spicy tuna rolls, a Mexican roll and an avocado roll. The sashimi dinner was good with one weird exception, the tuna wasn't the same quality tuna usually on a sashimi platter. The maki were as excepted with one difference, the spicy tuna rolls were not the typical chopped up tuna mix. They were full chunks of tuna which were very different than the sashimi tuna. This isn't my personal preference but some may prefer it this way. Just something to note so you know what to expect- you can see it clearly in the photo. This carried over to the Mexican roll which is basically a spicy tuna roll with some crunch. Overall prices were reasonable, especially with the discount. I noticed that they have great happy hour specials that might be worth a try in-store after the pandemic.

Mmm, we ordered delivery through a third-party app from Yosaku and LOVED the food! It was some amazing and fresh sushi, as well as other perfectly cooked side items. Between the two of us, we ordered: -Fried shrimp and veggie tempura -Sashimi Platter (the fish was extremely fresh and came in a variety of salmon, tuna, yellowtail, snapper, octopus, etc) -Spicy Tuna Crunch Roll (I was impressed with the generous portion size and how perfectly crunchy this was) -Miso Soup (this came complimentary with our food - so yum) We were very impressed with this meal! I would certainly order from there again. Even though we didn't eat it right away and it was delivered, the food was perfect. No complaints. I would love to visit the restaurant itself someday.

For decades this incredible go to place has consistently delivered the most delicious and fresh sushi in DC. Their rolls are some of the most creative anywhere. This place never misses!

I'd give this a 3.5 star if I could. Sashimi is alright but not incredible. Very good lunch specials. I shared the Sushi and Sashimi Combo, and the Katsudon lunch. Each comes with a miso soup, which is quite flavorful, more so than most miso soups. An extra level of umami. The katsudon has really delicately cooked eggs which I enjoyed. It's less heavily sauced which was fine. I dId find that the Katsu (breaded pork cutlet) was disappointingly soggy and not at all crispy. The rice isn't really sushi rice either, lacking in vinegar and definition. Onto the sushi and sashimi, I wish it didn't feature a California roll and crab stick sushi seeing as that isn't even seafood. As mentioned, the fish could have been most flavorful and fresh, though it was passable. The wasabi here is very good and potent. Sushi rice was disappointing. It's incredible that the lunch specials are under $12 each. Friendly attentive service. No trouble getting in wIth a table of two at prime lunch time on a Friday though it was close to full while we were there. I'd go back. It's solid.

Once upon a time Yosaku was an excellent restaurant. Today's order was different. The food is not the same. The sushi roll sauces are overly sweet and mask the other ingredients. The sesame paste in the goma spinach was also pure sugar. What a disappointment. Yosaku was once a reliable local restaurant. Now it is no longer worth a return visit. Did the ownership change?

I picked the sushi up early but it was warm which was a little weird. Not a huge problem. But the sashimi was cut poorly and inedible as a result. That was disappointing. They have some interesting concepts but ultimately I wish I hadn't tried it versus my normal go-to place for sushi.

I got Yosaku delivered and although I can't voice for the ambiance/service. I can talk about the food. I ordered the gyoza, Philadelphia roll, and the California roll. Not good. None of it. Gyoza was fine...but kinda tasted like it's microwaved and was shriveled to bits. Both of the sushi was not good. I couldn't even eat it all and I hadn't eaten all day. I feel sick now and just overall disappointed. Honestly, more than half the time sushi isn't great delivered, but this was worse. Maybe in person they're a better restaurant, but just don't get it delivered.

(4.5 stars) The lunch specials here are practically unreal. For those who can never decide between sushi, sashimi, or a teriyaki dish, this is your spot as the lunch menu offers combinations of these. Not only that, but the portions are more than generous and come with soup (and a large salad for only $2 more). The sashimi came with 5-6 large pieces, which was twice as much as I was expecting. Plus the food is good quality, normally with lunch chicken teriyaki meals I've come to expect the chicken to not be great quality or dark meat, but this one was a clean, well-grilled piece of white meat with a super tasty teriyaki sauce. If only it wasn't out of the way of most other things...

Good sushi at fair prices. When ordering, the orders arrive on time. However, they never include chopsticks even if one explicitly requests them. This has happened several times and is frustrating!

One of my faves! Small and reasonable Japanese restaurant--Osaka oysters especially good--good sushi and sashimi

Cute hole in the wall uptown in Tenley. They have great service and I love to order for pickup for a good dinner in. I would love to try their udon noodles or dumplings some time soon. The miso here is good too!

Some of the best sushi I have ever had. I ordered the Jo Sushi for pickup during COVID. It did take me a little while to get a pick-up time from the website, but it did eventually come through. Fish was fresh, rolls were well-made. Seaweed salad was fantastic too! A great Japanese option in NWDC.

Positive: Service was fine. (no issues with service) Con: The food (ordered from the Japanese Kitchen menu, not sushi). --Not good. Two thumbs down. My impression is: They're running on fumes.

Very solid and reasonably priced sushi, pretty damn good sashimi. It's my go to for takeout during "these trying times" and will continue to be until I escape to my own personal island. The rice isn't dry or excessive in quantity but the larger rolls are very filling. Appetizers are generally good, although the seaweed salad is rather fishy. Dining in is ok, but it isn't a place for ambience so you haven't missed anything!

Very good service and spacious outdoor seating. House sake and green tea were fine. The ramen is curated for conservative AU appetites-- no egg, not too chewy noodles, chicken instead of pork. The gyoza and ramen combo seems like a good deal, but we weren't hungry enough to partake. Other than their inclusion of surf clam and unagi, the knifework and portioning of their chirashi left something to be desired; tamago ran sweeter than average, but had good texture. We probably won't be back since we have better alternatives for each given the same travel distance... unless we get curious enough to try their oyako don and kara age.

Always fresh sushi, reasonably priced and great service. This place is often packed with regulars, and the owner is often there checking with the diners so it's a real family operation. With the Pandemic, we're ordering take-out every few weeks and we are big fans. They have especially good salmon skin and I recommend you have them make the "New York Roll" as a hand roll and add avocado. Speaking of which, any rolls they make with avocado are great as the fresh fish and avocado is always perfect. When the Pandemic is over, their "Happy Hour" deal is tremendous.

The ramen tastes alright. Sashimi might have tasted better. There were 2 waiters for the whole restaurant, and waiting time was long.

We got a lot of great sushi, sashimi, and nigiri and it was perfect. The chefs did a great job preparing the dishes. We needed a change of pace for dinner and this was answer. All the fish was tasty and well complimented by the rice and wasabi.

We tried Yosaku recently and came away happy and full! We did try a whole bunch of sushi and also Ramen and dumplings. The chicken dumpling (fried) was good and served on a bed of the dumpling sauce. The final dumpling did get too soggy for my liking since I was sitting on it for too long. The miso soup was quite good and so was the green tea. We had the Shoyu Ramen with chicken that was quite good. The broth was excellent and flavorful. Sushi was good too - we tried the Sushi and Sashimi combo and also some eel and yellow tail sushi. Fish was fresh and sushi was well made. The place was quite busy for a weekday lunch meal and the service may have suffered a bit because of that. Will be back here for sure.

have to say it is the worst ramen I have tasted in Washington DC. I ordered miso ramen, the soup was thin and salty, not well favored; the noodles were either uncooked or overcooked, tasted like sand or paper. They do need an improvement on their ramen recipe. PS: serving was fast and friendly, price was rather cheaper than average.

Service was great, my server was on point from beginning to end. Yes, the portion of fish is a very small cut, but hey for a $1, it's serves its purpose. I had 3 rounds to be satisfied & a glass of house wine, which was a nice pour for $3.50...always a good look there. I stayed with the Salmon, Tuna & Yellowtail for the most part, with trying Flounder & Inari once each & all as Sashimi. They do charge for any "extras", yet again it's Happy Hour, so go figure. All the pieces were pretty fresh tasting, so no complaints there. Over looking the menu, it's very extensive so may be back to try some other options besides the $1 specials. It became pretty busy around 6:15, not sure if it's due to the HH or just a good place to eat. Nice patio setting, the chairs could be a little sturdier, overall a nice experience for cheap sushi on an early SAT Night.

I came here after friends told me about the happy hour deal. She usually comes here all the time and loves the sushi. I live closer to Dupont so I usually go to Rakuya. I met a friend here right when they opened at 5pm on a Thursday. We were the first ones there but more parties kept filing in. We ordered the shrimp tempura roll, tuna with cucumber, and the tuna, salmon and yellowtail nigiri. To me the shrimp tempura was the best. The rice with the nigiri was very cold and was slightly undercooked. The fish on the nigiri was cut very very thin so it was mostly rice. Overall, it was ok. Not sure I would come back again for happy hour. I would come back not for happy hour to see if the quality of the fish is better. The service was great and the atmosphere was very cozy.

Best cheap sushi restaurant in all of DC! Happy Hour is EVERYDAY 5-7:30 and there's so many $1 sushi options. And it's not even crappy sushi, I swear. HH There are five or six $1 nigiri options and the daily specials (offered during and outside of hh hours) include $3 rolls and discounted tempura. Any bottles beer, house sake, or house wine is $3! Be sure to specify if you want your sake hot or cold (both are fantastic). Food Scallop tempura and $1 nigiri of any type (it comes with wasabi, so be sure to specify if you want it on the side). Miso soup isn't worth it. Accessibility Patio is perfect and The restaurant itself has no steps or inclines, but it's a tight squeeze for a wheelchair. The women's bathroom is up 1 step and not accessible. The men's bathroom is up a small staircase.

Ordered delivery from here because I was too lazy to leave my apartment for a sushi craving. The delivery was free and the sushi was awesome! I'll rate each type of sushi I ordered below. Sake Nigiri - 2/5 - Fresh salmon over rice. For what you pay for each, I don't think these are worth it. They are overall not very flavorful and I found the salmon to be a bit chewy. I'll pass on these next time in favor of a special roll instead. California Rolls - 5/5 - Avocado with crab stick. I also added cream cheese. I got these as a safe bet just in case I ended up not liking the other sushi. These were great and had ample amounts of each ingredient. Dragon Rolls - 5/5 - Inside: shrimp tempura, crab stick, and cucumber. Roe and avocado on top. These were fantastic and had just the right amount of each ingredient. Some of these rolls were rather large for sushi. I don't think you could go wrong with these ingredients together. Hurricane Rolls - 5/5 - Inside: shrimp tempura, crab meat, masago, cucumber, and avocado. Outside: seaweed powder, mayonnaise, eel sauce. These were really, really awesome. The shrimp tempura added a great texture to an already flavorful roll. The only potentially downside would be that these are GIANT rolls (read: hard get in your mouth in just one bite, let alone even pick up in one piece). I think these have the potential to be even better (which would then be life-changing instead of just awesome) with spicy mayo instead of regular mayo, though. This restaurant gets bonus points for actually reading the comments I left in the special instructions and providing a good amount of soy sauce with each item ordered. I've found both of these things to be a surprising rarity with online ordering. I'll definitely be a repeat customer.

Service is okay but food is really good. Definitely my go-to Japanese place in Tenley. Been here 3 times and will be back.

Looking for a new sushi restaurant because I didn't feel like going to my normal sushi spot. Menu had a wide selection of foods if you aren't into sushi. Tons of apps and different kinds of sushi rolls. They will even make a hand roll out of any of the rolls if you ask. The sushi was good and a good hot saki. Edamame was good and service was very good. I would come back here if close. I would have gave 3.5 if it was possible. Like I said the sushi was good but nothing that I would call super amazing. But again the service was very good.

Shared between 2 people who weren't very hungry: an order of california rolls, mexican roll, and the shoyu ramen with gyoza. We came during their happy hour, probably 40% full, but took nearly 30 minutes to get our food. However, our waitress was extremely nice and attentive. Food: the gyoza weren't warm and the soup was tasteless. Pretty disappointed.

Pros: Great atmosphere! Love the bright lights indoors and the patio seating for warmer days. I bring my tiny dog on the patio sometimes when I visit in the summer. Food is always consistent and great! My favorite sushi place around the NW DC area. Service is quick and friendly. Cons: Some of the food is expensive! Tip: They have a happy hour every day from 5-7:30 that serves 1$ sushi! Quality is great!

Excellent restaurant. I have been there many times and this past year got food from there as well.

I ordered food to be delivered and the quality of the food that I got (an hour later than it was supposed to arrive) was extremely poor. The edamame and noodle soup were cold, the tempura was soggy. All the sushi rolls smelled and tasted awful and instead of getting seared salmon on a roll, we received salmon with skin. It's a pity since I had been at the location 4-5 times in the past and everything tasted very good and fresh.

Ate here with elderly but hip cousins on their recommendation, it's their favorite. Spot on! Terrific! Super fresh food, great service. Good sake and beer selection. Easy to park on street.

Okay restaurant. Food is fresh, but the service is sub par. They didn't open until 5pm (understandably for dinner time). I stood out there for five mins.. wondering why they couldn't open the door. Didn't think much of it. 5pm rolls around... doors open, no intro or hint (I had my headphones on). Not trying to sound petty, but come on?! No courtesy tap on the shoulder? It's like.. lady I know you see me out here in the frickin' cold. Get in. Say "Hi!" With a smile. NOTHING. Dead Silence. How rude!!! The only great thing was the heat inside. Ugh.

First time trying them and would go again to try other items. Their Mexican roll is really spicy! I personally wouldn't get it again but if you like tuna and spiciness then this is for you! I loved their spicy tuna roll and shrimp tempura.

3.50 stars. Yosaku is a quiet, comfortable sushi restaurant located on the outskirts of American University. Perhaps American students might learn more about the different types of sushi by taking the short trip to Yosaku from campus. It would be a great way to learn more about a number of different types of sushi while ultimately not breaking their student budgets. As an initial matter, I'll talk about the miso soup we ordered. I'll agree with Armenoush A. and state that the miso soup is above standard. There is none of the undesirable chalkiness in this preparation, and the light tofu pieces and kelp do not overpower the soup. I think they use a non-standard broth, but whatever. It was quite delicious. We happened to be here during happy hour so I took advantage of some marginal prices for nigirizushi. We ordered unagi (freshwater eel wrapped in seaweed and covered in a light BBQ sauce), sea urchin (with a thin sliver of seaweed again serving as the nori to the sea urchin's neta) and yellowtail toro (belly - usually a favorite order of mine due to its decadent taste). The latter was fantastic, and I was kicking myself for not taking advantage of its moderate price. My dining partner complained that the sea urchin was a bit "slimy", but I was fine with both the texture (firm) and the cut (two thin slices). Neither of us had complaints about the unagi; it was rather standard but that is what you want. For uramaki (inside-out roll), we ordered a "Mexican roll" which basically consisted of spicy tuna with a healthy portion of tempura flakes. We also tried their "Spicy Crunchy Rainbow" which was basically the exact same roll except with tiny layers of salmon, white tuna, and flounder serving as the skin around the roll. Both were quite tasty but given their similar taste profiles, it might make more sense to just get the cheaper Mexican roll. For hosomaki (thin roll), we went with kampyo (gourd usually marinated in vinegar). Unfortunately, this particular roll was disappointing as it was falling apart almost upon being served to us. Sad. This poor construction made the roll difficult to eat. I would skip it on a subsequent visit. We finished with a special eel roll filled with avocado. While this was a pleasant roll, it isn't necessarily going to remind you of the Green Roll at Momo's in Alexandria any time soon. It might make more sense to just order the nigirizushi unagi than go through the trouble of ordering this maki roll. Overall, though there were some misses, the uramaki was nicely prepared and the nigirizushi was mostly above standard. Essentially, this is good sushi at a reasonable price. I could see myself returning if I were in Tenleytown during happy hour.

This was our go to after Murasaki closed. We came for quickie before our Stresand concert. Ordered mackerel sushi which was good but my Tonkatsu don was way below expectation. Hubby ship ramen was not good at all and he's not that discriminating....will not be coming back.

Best sushi in Washington DC. No question about it. No frills, just great quality sushi. A forever favorite.

I think some of the restaurant's charm and it's selection has been a casualty of the pandemic. I usually went to their staple Happy Hour reduced price sushi early evening time, that's gone by the wayside - the selection of sushi and fish options aren't as replete, pricing has gone up. There were no nightly special appetizers to choose from. The vegetable tempura was completely bland. This place used to be my favourite Japanese restaurant in upper north west DC for it's selection and pricing, it's taken a massive swan dive into mediocrity - very, very disappointing.

Very attentive wait staff. Great specials and reasonable pricing especially happy hour prices. The sushi is always fresh and amazing. We recommend the super jo sashimi which we found to be absolutely wonderful. The chef selection was excellent from the uni to the salmon roe. Miso and bean sprouts marinated salad was delicious.