Yamatoya Bistro Bar — Restaurant in Hod HaSharon

A friend told me about this place. Said the have great Japanese food and good sushi. I love sushi and ramen so I decided to give it a try although I doubted if I can find anything dissent in Hod-Hasharon. Well, can't say I was surprised. As a first impression this place looks like a warehouse, not a restaurant. And according to my wife not very clean either. We started with agadashi tofu which was very good and very generous. We then ordered buta ramen and kitsona udon. the Udon, based on fish stock was good and tasty. the ramen (and god, how many great ramens I ate when lived in NYC) was pale, thin and the stock had a strange taste. The noodles where over cooked and sticky. The pork was a bit too dry and the egg not cooked enough. Ramen is an art. From stock to all the ingredients and here they failed miserably. There is nothing much to say about the sushi but that it was bad. They put very little fish in their makis and too many vegetables, including carrots. We didnt enjoy the sushi at all. On the alcohol side they have a very interesting selection of sake and Japanese whisky. Bottom line - I am not going back...

I came here because I remember this restaurant was really good around a year ago, but I don't think so still. I wanted to order a ramen, at the start of the day, but they didn't have it apparently. so i ordered bento with my family, and the deal was pretty bad. the salad was simple, there were barely 4 tempura slices, my meal was generally tiny and tasted so-so. even the lemonade was made from concentrate. this would have gotten them a 3 star, but when I was eating I saw another customer just arrived and ordered ramen. Now I don't know why 30 minutes later, without any shipment into the shop or anything the ramen was suddenly available, but this is...

Service is very nice and friendly. Japanese beer was awesome, fried calamari was amazing, noodle salad was very good. We took the traditional Japanese menu Katsudon which was very salty and fried chicken didn't look so inviting and crispy - to be fair we were notified by the waiter the traditional menu is not for everyones flavor- I would skip this dish. Sushi was tasty but I wouldn't say any better than other competitors in town. Lastly...a touch of romantic lighting, candles, etc. to the restaurant would change th entire atmosphere and change it from an open dinner feeling to a place couples really...