Yashin Sushi — Restaurant in London

There isn't much to say because, quite frankly, it's a waste of time to review this place. We've dined at every top sushi restaurant in the world and expected Yashin to be like Sushi of Gari in New York City. The service is most unusual: though a sushi chef (not Japanese but French) is sitting two inches In front of you he 1) does not engage you in conversation 2) does not hand you your sushi. Rather than preparing a few pieces, passing them to us, and explaining each piece, the chef piled 15 mediocre pieces of room temperature fish (we ordered their most expensive "omakase," the Yashin) on a plate right in front of us and then passed them off to a counter 15 feet away where it sat five minutes until our waitress picked them up and brought them to us. At most sushi restaurants I never have to ask for anything after an omakase, but when I dine at the sushi bar at a place like Yasuda or Kurumazushi in New York, we'll often ask the chef to prepare us one final piece of nigiri that he feels is his best fish that night. When our waitress told Yashin this he ridiculed us as if we weren't sitting a foot from him. He then served is a cheap piece of unagi, likely mocking us. We shouldn't be surprised, as through out the night Yashin and his French Sous Chef were mocking patrons at the sushi bar through out service. I really hope this is not what London is forced to consider good sushi, and would recommend anyone who's eaten at a Yasuda (in my opinion the best sushi in the world) to stay far away from this place. This is simply a small Tao in London and if there is anything right in this world it will not last unless the service is drastically improved, because it is an insult to...

We always rated Yashin highly, having visited it many times over the past few years. Having returned to the restaurant after a year break last Friday, we were stunned by the overall decline in quality. While the service has never been Yashin’s strength (endless waiting, borderline indifferent staff mixing-up orders), the food always used to make up for it.

When after a series of irregularly served but consistently unimpressive starters (greasy tempura drowning in mayo, bland cappuccino soup, tasteless soft shell crab) we were finally (with a massive delay) presented with the signature nigiri selection, we quickly realised there was something wrong with more than a few items (some were questionable, some tasted outright rancid). We promptly voiced our concerns (including sticky tables and dirty plates), but were promised that the fish was fresh. Despite us explaining that we used to be regular guests, we received ‘maybe this style just isn’t for you’ in response. Luckily, we trusted our gut feeling and left the plate unfinished. Unfortunately, it still resulted in severe food poisoning for both of us and a horrible night at the hospital. 2 days after, the ‘symptoms’ aren’t going away.

With twice more staff than visitors at 8pm on a Friday, the once great restaurant is now clearly lacking in managerial oversight and overall hygiene. In all fairness, the dish in question was excluded from the final bill (even if after an agonisingly long yet peaceful conversation with the manager(?) - we insisted that we just wanted to pay and leave, but the persistent yet polite employee tried to convince us that we were being unfair). Well, at least our poisoning was partially...

i am writing this not out of anger but out of a genuine plead for improvement (or so that people DO NOT visit this place until they actually improve) this is the worst sushi i've ever had. i never thought anyone can f up sushi. but this restaurant did it. wasabi's even better.... fish is not fresh. they try to be creative with how they make sushi but its either too savory (sukiyaki roll) or too sweet (the yuzu one with omakase)... literally our group agreed anyone with proper taste buds could do a better job at their own kitchen. the sushi rice is... well. not sushi rice. sushi rice is suppose to stick together. but the sushi is cupped sloppily, or, they just used the wrong type of rice.

Third: this restaurant makes the adventurous attempt to mix everything asian together so i suspect this is made for white people - for instance raw salmon with kimchi?????? in a japanese restaurant? really disappointed especially with the price paid.

ambience and decoration of the restaurant is tacky.

staff is not well trained for an omakase, so at the least borderline fine dining, it was just not adequate. though two star is given because they tried. the price is for fine dining, but the table is scratched, the toilet is unclean (to the point of a mcdonalds toilet in central london) clogged with tissue everywhere. one can see the poor management with all aspects that should make a good restaurant, and they have failed most if not all element that goes into making a restaurant that labels itself for 70£ per...