yakuza

09/06/2008 Posted by Mogwine

My friend and I have been frequenting sushi/izakaya restaurants in portland, trying to find the best spot for atmosphere, sushi, and service... I think that we may have found it. We originally held off after reading some of the negative reviews on here but decided to make a visit to Yakuza last night, (Friday sept 5th.) Not knowing what to expect, we were blown away by just the initial impression of the place. What a beautiful building and the architectual work on the inside, wow. After being readily seated by our server, (we picked a spot on the patio with a heater) we knew right away that this wasn't your normal sushi place. The items on the menu were not the same old repetitions you find at most japanese restaurants. From the greens n peaches to the lamb tsukune, everything was so unique. Our server was also ready to answer all of our questions and showed he really knew what he was talking about and not just giving us some answer. We started of with the Greens and Peaches which I have to say was very impressive. What a perfect combination! After that we tried the scallop tempura and Lamb tsukune. I cannot tell you how good these two dishes "inparticularly" were! Next we tried our taste buds on the Ahi poke, Carpaccio, and pear avocado roll. These three dishes may be the the best pieces of shashimi/ sushi that I have ever eaten. I've had tuna poke many times before at other restaurants and have always thought that it was just OK. However the fish filets, mixture of sesame, avocados, greens and mitsuba were so intune with eachother in the Ahi poke here, that I have a new appreciation for the dish. Our Carpaccio was also beautifully cut, and bathed in just the right mix of ponzu and seasonings, soooo good. And I've never had a roll quite like the pear avocado(wich also had hamachi in it) YUM! The food at this place was just half the experience, the staff was extremely hospital, knowledgable and fast, and the amience was soo devine! I will be back again and again!

Pros: Ambiance, Mouth watering sashimi, Extremely freindly fast staff.

Cons: not closer to downtown

07/31/2008 Posted by mpc77

We sat right near the birthday group from the other 7/31/08 review, and I can second that the experience of our dinner was horrendous. Started out nicely, friendly servers, great drinks. We ordered our food and fairly quickly got two of our appetizers. At some point realized there would be avocado in one of the salads to come and asked if we could have it without as my friend is very allergic, they reluctantly agreed (come on, it's an allergy, you can make some exceptions to the "no substitutions" rule!). An hour later, no food. Finally our server comes over to tell us that the kitchen forgot our order. Hmm. And that we will get 15% off our bill. 20 minutes later, still no food (we only had sushi rolls and salad coming, shouldn't take long to throw those together). I tell the waiter we will skip on the rest as we've already waited long enough and have now missed our movie, but of course the food finally comes. Well, some of it. They still forgot part of our order. And the veggie roll had, guess what, avocado in it! Not listed in the ingredients, but apparently it must be part of the "spring vegetables" category. Now we are offered 20% off our meal and given a free bottle of sake. We left there hungry, drunk, and pretty determined never to recommend it to anybody again. I live in the neighborhood and have always loved this restaurant. I've recommended it to many friends, my family comes here frequently, and now I am just angry and disappointed. Mistakes happen, sure, but nobody in the restaurant seemed pleased last night, and the lack of concern on the part of our servers was disturbing. You screw up that much? You comp the meal. 20% is just insulting. I would highly recommend to the owner that he overhaul his approach to service here or this potentially wonderful local restaurant isn't likely to survive very long. The food here is great, the drinks are great, the servers are nice people, but the service is some of the worst I've ever experienced in my life.

Pros: Great food, great drinks, beautiful space, nice people

Cons: Unbelievably bad service, no awareness of how to make a customer return

07/31/2008 Posted by hearrrmeroarrr

The first time I went to Yakuza, I had an amazing aesthetic dining experience. The ambiance was stunning, the service fantastic and friendly, drinks were spectacular and the scallop tempura and pear avocado roll were simply to die for. My next visit was as equally splendid. Spider roll to die for and the honey basil drink was awesome. However, last night I brought a group of about 12 people to Yakuza, thinking this amazing restaurant would be an ideal place to celebrate my birthday, but I was thoroughly mistaken. The service was horrendously slow-a brand new server was throw into our group and had no idea about the food, drinks, or really how to wait tables at all. She was obviously flustered, but our sympathy and understanding only went so far. The other staff member started getting incredibly testy with us as well. It took us over 45 minutes to get our food and when we got it, it was NOTHING like the food I had experienced before. The spider roll in particular was simply horrendous and nearly inedible. The food simply tasted old and gross. After dinner, one by one, all 12 of us started complaining of stomach pain, which then lasted well into the next morning. It then took an hour to cash out, which was not pleasant considering all of us were suffering from severe sour stomachs. I have no idea what went wrong this last time, but luckily this was the last time I will be visiting Yakuza. It such a shame...this place was so AMAZING the first few times. The only thing that was constant were their drinks. They were still fabulous, however they were not able to make up for the horrific service and sickening food.

06/10/2008 Posted by tastebudblitzkrieg

Got rid of amazing sushi chef. Bartender clad in a grey t-shirt and ratty jeans. We sent back two undrinkable Cosmopolitans (pretty hard to mess up), and guess what? The bartender proceeded to taste, yes, with his mouth on our glass, BOTH drinks. You decide.

06/06/2008 Posted by Acros87

This was not as good as I thought it was going to be. My boyfriend and I ordered two plates and a martini, and the bill came to $30. Nothing was filling except the drink. The salmon sashimi was tiny, very good, but VERY tiny, and the soft shell crab dish had 4-5 small sushi pieces. It was a waste of money. You could go to Sushiville, or heck, even Red Robin and leave stuffed on a $20 tab. Not worth the money, unless you eat a very filling meal before you go!

Pros: Melt in your mouth sashimi

Cons: overpriced, WAY overpriced

04/10/2008 Posted by pizzapizzapizza

Don't go here if you just want to get some sushi rolls- they cut rice from the menu, so more nigiri or rolls. That said, this place offers up some great dishes! Smaller plates, but not tapas small. My wife and i split 5 plates (3 appetizers and 2 small plates), had one specialty cocktail each and split a 22oz. Sapporo. All for about $68 and we were stuffed! Every plate was AMAZING! It was extremely hard to pick a favorite dish, but the grilled asparagus in orange pistachio pesto with manchego might be the winner.. Maybe a tie with the "fish and chips"- raw salmon, yellowtail, and tuna piled onto crsipy lotus root...mmmmmmm.... It wasn't very busy when we went (on a friday around 9ish), so we didn't encounter any of the "bad service" some of the other reviews mentioned. In fact, our waitress was super nice. This place rules.

04/06/2008 Posted by jamyebb

I'm a huge fan of sushi and this was some of the blandest I've ever had! The service was speedy, the decor was crisp and modern, but the sashimi had absolutely no flavor. The dishes were way too expensive for the size and taste. I would recommend sinju in the pearl for melt in your mouth sushi or even a conveyer belt over this.

Pros: None

Cons: poor tasting food! need I say more

03/22/2008 Posted by maguro

On my first visit, we ordered sushi a la carte and I was underwhelmed. The sushi was ordinary, flavorless and of poor texture. It came to $45 a person so I'm not sure why everyone complains of the prices at Hiroshi which is superb and cost only a few dollars more per person. The service was neither excellent or as horrible as the other reviewers' experience. I tried again recently but decided to go with the specials and regular menu. The portions are incredibly tiny: 5 salmon sashimi on what seemed to be potato chips. After appetizer, main portion and dessert, I was starving. The restaurant was empty at 6PM on a weeknight so the service was pleasant, at least in my case. I wouldn't go back again and would rather have conveyor belt sushi.

Pros: Parking

Cons: Food, price, portions

03/08/2008 Posted by jeremyjoseph

5-6 friends and I went to Yakuza last night and I cannot say I am terribly impressed. Although the restaurant is nicely designed, dimly lit, it has terrible acoustics. I could barely hear or make myself be heard to my friends on the next table over. The food wasn't bad, it was quite tasty but it also wasn't impressive at all. THe presentation was nice for some dishes, "vertical food" is how some may refer to it. I ended up paying $21 for a tuna roll, 2 sakes and a salmon avocado roll. The bad point was the SERVICE. Although our waitress was really nice, she didn't do much for us in terms of service. Examples: She delivered my Salmon Avocado to the wrong part of the table (3 tables next to eachother), which as a result got eaten by my friends (unbeknownst to them), she forgot my friend's beer sitting right next to me, never filled up our waters (even with 3 orders of very very spicy tuna) , and she forgot 3 entire orders of sake. I know for a fact a few (if not all) of my other 5+ sushi loving friends will NOT be returning.

Pros: Cute blonde tattooed waitress

Cons: SLOW and FORGETFUL service, bad acoustics, average food

03/01/2008 Posted by YakuzaLover

Please ignore all the other negative reviews of this place. Those people either haven't been here or are complete idiots. I go here every chance I get. Yes, the service is slow, but know this going in and you'll be just fine. DEFINITELY try and sit at the sushi bar. It's fascinating to watch the chef prepare the food and he can recommend the best catch of the day. The food is amazing. The drinks are superb. The prices are incredibly reasonable for the amount of delicious food you get. If they have them on the menu, I highly recommend the soda pop braised ribs. To DIE for! Do yourself a favor and get yourself to Yakuza immediately. You won't be disappointed. Only complaint is that they don't have an official vomitorium to purge and eat more. :-)

Pros: Setting, food, drinks, everything.

Cons: Not having a vomitorium so I could purge and eat more.