Yujo Izakaya — Restaurant in Kampala

The place is on a beautiful low-traffic side road with no potholes or other issues. The first major issue with the establishment is that it is virtually impossible to find. For whatever incomprehensible reason, the owners have decided to not display anywhere that we could see, a legible sign on the street with the proper name of the restaurant. Instead, they decided to place a small circular red placard with a Japanese Kanji language word that no one but someone able to read Japanese characters could understand (see photos). We needed to call several times to find the entryway to the complex. (•) the response to this review is that this inability to have a lesvable sign to the place is by design and part of a “game”. Are you serious, you want your patrons to have to call and search to be able to figure out where you are located. This is terrible business sense. Let's hide the place….

Once inside you are created with a few Japanese-themed shops and one of them, in the far back is this restaurant. Again no clear signage as to the existence of the location of this place.

Inside you are met with a relaxing and pleasant place of wood and open-air design.

The service staff are accommodating and very much do their best to give an authentic experience for a Ugandan neighborhood.

There is the perennial problem of menu items are either out of stock or unavailable, and you don't learn this until after you have ordered and are awaiting your order and someone comes out and reports that what you orders is out and you need to try to find another selection. WHY can't the staff take it upon them self to already know what items are unavailable so when the menu is placed in the customers hands a simple announcement can be made that the following items are not available this evening… but no, we need to wait for this to be reported back to the table minutes later.

The bar is closed at 23:00 sharp andnthia without an announcement to sitting guests and so an after meal sake is impossible to order at 23:01.

portions are mediocre and the rice was not as fresh as would be expected in a top-of-the-line Japanese restaurant. The rice was bad, whoever plated the meal had include the hard dried scrapings from the bottom of the cooker so the rice was intermixed with hard indigestible chunks or over cooked rice. Very poor form and would never be accepted in a restaurant in Japan or anywhere actually. 3 stars is generous for this failure alone.

The Maki roll we ordered was bland and without character. No matter how much wasabi was used in the dipping bowl the dish was bland and unsatisfying.

I asked to have the owners contact information and I was told that it wss not available to customers. You were not allowed to voice you comments to the director as the ultimate person responsible. This coming from the manager M Y. Who refused to pass along the request to speak to the owner and ask them to return the call. Instead was told that it is policy not to spwaknto the actual person in charge of making ultimate business decisions. I was actually asked; do you expect to speak to Colonel Sanders at KFC if you have a problem? This is a ridiculous answer. There is no colonel Sanders at KFC. It is an icon not a real person. True corporations that want to have positive public feedback and improve their business in a substantial way have a leader that listens. has a director or CEO that has an open mind and ears to what his customers actually want. The age of story of the king wandering through the village in the incognito mode in order to assess what is actually happening rings true here. So while I don’t wish to speak to Colonel Sanders, I wanted to give positive positive and negative feedback to the actual person in charge who would make decisions and be able to, objectively lead the organization in a manner that represented the desires of their customers. Not some middle manager who is put in place to protect their own job by not passing along comments that may reflect badly upon...

This place has a pretty good ambience and the customer care is just okay at best. The hostess who sat us down gave us an attitude and walked away mumbling in Luganda when we asked to be seated out on the patio.

We went out tonight on Valentine's Day to enjoy some sushi, our first in Uganda, and the experience was nothing short of disappointing. It seemed to us that the patrons who look like 'expats' received more prompt service. We were promised that our food would be out in approximately twenty minutes since it was a busy day, however, the first two of four orders came out after approximately an hour. Our kids quickly ate that and kept asking when the rest of the sushi was going to arrive. Half an hour later, the third order arrived, which prompted me to raise my concerns to our waitress. Although she was generally nice, she was lacking in communication. Not once did she come by our table to ask how things were going. My kids are their sushi without soy sauce because we couldn't get any help. The sushi took too long that we had to take the last two orders to eat at home.

So, why two stars- the sushi was okay. The spicy Tuna and the Black dragon rolls were good. The Philadelphia roll and dynamite rolls were lousy at best. They were kind enough to give us some chocolate after we complained, however, not once did a Manager come by to address our concerns. It's ridiculously overpriced. For these kind of prices, they should hire more staff and not have patrons waiting for hours. Plus, take care of local customers because our money is just as good as...

I really like this place and it only has the occasional minor flaw that keeps it from being 5 stars. Both the deep fried gyoza, and steamed and fried gyoza were excellent. Both pork and chicken versions were good. Salmon sashimi was perfect, with wasabi, pickled ginger and quite a rich, almost fruity soy sauce. A real wow! The Bulldog (Katsu) burger was the only slight disappointment. We had the bulldog version which is a chicken Katsu burger with bulldog sauce (saute mushroom, onion and teriyaki sauce). The kitchen had trouble cooking chips on time to go with the burger. Our burger sat on the pass for about 5 minutes while they waited for chips to cook. When the chips came they were warm and soft, barely cooked, and not crunchy at all. By this time the burger sauce and soaked into the bun and it fell apart. We asked for the chips to be cooked more, and they were done better, but by this time we were finishing the Katsu burger and sauce with a knife and fork. Better timing and attention to detail will get 5 stars. The menu has huge ambition and I hope it gets better because it will become my favourite place to eat in Kampala. Lovely atmosphere and very...