YOKU — Restaurant in Cheltenham

We understand that the size portions in tasting menus are typically smaller than that of normal meals but for £110 per person we left still hungry and had to purchase more food on our way home. This is the first time I have ever had to do this and the first time I have ever left a tasting menu upset and disappointed.

The service and the food were both disappointing but for the sake of this review let’s focus on the food.

While most dishes were tasty we found the menu to be repetitive and portion sizes were off considering the majority of the food was only raw fish and frankly, we felt a little ripped off.

The first course, tuna tartare was clearly cut offs from the sashimi course. This sashimi course was lovely and I really did enjoy the variations of the fish but the raw fish probably could have stopped here.

The two wagu dishes were again lovely but they were essentially exactly the same thing, other than the one was served with rice. This could have easily been one dish.

The ceviche, was good but again, it was exactly the same as the sashimi with some sauce. This was a common occurrence in this tasting menu, repetitive, small dishes. It just seemed like a cop out.

One of the most disappointing dishes and quite frankly, we found this extremely cheeky, was the tempura ‘prawns’. We had one tempura prawn cut up into four pieces. One piece was the head of the prawn and one was the tail making half the dish inedible.

The miso cod was also disappointing. We found that the char on the fish was way too overpowering and contradicted the other flavours meaning you couldn’t actually taste the fish which we could tell had been beautifully prepared. Such a shame.

With hopes still high for the last course we couldn’t help but laugh when this came out. Two measly pieces of fried banana with store bought ice cream, and yes, we could tell it was store bought as homemade ice cream does not melt as watery as this. We couldn’t believe we had paid this much money to be served this.

We have complained to a staff members on the day and to the Manager as well but were offered nothing but an apology and a a ‘we hope to see you again’.

I can assure you they will not, unless they dramatically...

Our experience at Yoku must rank it as the ultimate vanity project. I had read the positive reviews and decided to book it as a birthday present for my wife and myself. On arrival we were shown to our table in the main room, and were instantly aware that there was a negative atmosphere in the room, due to a table of three men, obviously having already had too much to drink, talking loudly and using foul language. After a few minutes, one of the couples nearest them asked to be moved, and soon afterwards we made the same decision, and were moved to a second room where the behaviour of this group was somewhat less distracting, but still causing an atmosphere that seriously impacted on everyone's enjoyment of their meal. Later during the meal I went to the bathroom, and whilst walking past the disruptive table realised that I recognised one of the three men as none other than Julian Dunkerton - owner of the hotel and restaurant! This instantly explained why none of the staff had made any attempt to talk to them about moderating their language, and made us feel very sorry for what they are having to cope with. We then acknowledged to the staff that we had realised who it was causing the problem, and they all gave us ironic shrugs, admitting there was nothing they could do. we felt very sorry for them, but also commend them for doing their best to avoid our meal being totally ruined. I would suggest to anyone thinking of booking that they check to see if the proprietor is going to be there, and think twice if he is, and I humbly suggest to Mr Dunkerton that next time he designs a restaurant that he plans to use in this way that he includes a private room in the design. A ruined evening and totally unacceptable when paying over £300 for the...

I organised a date night here with my boyfriend for his birthday. We were beyond impressed with the decor of this restaurant and the cosy, yet sophisticated atmosphere. The food was incredible, I was really pleased with the amount of high quality vegan options there were on the menu; my boyfriend enjoyed the selection of seafood sushi. The cocktails were amazing, and there was an extensive choice of Japanese drinks- we really enjoyed the plum Sake. On arrival, we were also given free welcome drinks and edamame, which was a really lovely touch. The only thing I can slightly fault with the evening was the service. They were rather slow to take our orders and serve us the drinks, one thing to note is that the food is served at different times- much of the seafood came first and there was quite a wait before my vegetarian food arrived, so we were eating at different points. The staff were incredible, overall, though. In my opinion, the prices were very reasonable, too. I would love to visit this restaurant again! Thank you for a...