Sushi Yama — Restaurant in Baton Rouge

This is a sad review to write but I am a bit blindsided. I loved Sushi Yama so much until tonight and was even a bit of a booster for it. I've had sushi all over the world and was consistently blown away by the freshness, cut, art, etc at this unexpected BR gem.

Even tonight, the scallop, flounder (with shisho), and red snapper were all impeccable. I also got an order of uni, one of my most favorite things to eat.

And ... it was spoiled.

Now even that is not a huge deal to me on top of a great meal. I discreetly mentioned it to the server, thinking I was alerting her so noone got sick and was told, "oh they don't like to take charges off."

Which they didn't (though they added a little bit of flounder) and I walked away feeling really weird and down on the place, even after raving about it the server during the beginning of the meal.

I've worked in restaurants and it's pretty bizarre to charge someone for spoiled food they sent back. I made clear I really love uni lest they thing I just decided I didn't like a new flavor - the real issue was a slightly caustic chemical burn and a note of ammonia that I recognized from an experience with bad scallops once.

But also, I didn't even mention money back and that wasn't my first concern. So I kind of stumbled into learning that even in the case of spoiled food, they don't refund you or take the "blame" and it just instantaneously turned me off - why would I eat at a place like that, even if they've previously been my go to?

C'est la vie and thanks for all the much better meals I had...

Another very delicious meal! The cucumber salad is so refreshing and the rolls were excellent! The Atlantic Salmon appetizer was fresh and delicious! We had the Samurai Roll, Thuy Vi Roll, and the King Cake Roll. Lillian made good suggestions! The service was great!

This visit we ordered the Atlantic Salmon, the Thuy Vi Roll, and the Little Rice Roll. Everything was delicious. Thuy Vi Roll, cucumber salad, and the Atlantic Salmon are still my favorites.

A truffle sauce is poured over the Salmon and it’s garnished with pine nuts and orange slices. It’s a unique flavor that is so delicious!

Update 7/2024: I don’t know if they changed the recipe or the chef but the Atlantic Salmon Appetizer was not the same as past visits and my companion agreed. It was still delicious but it was not like past orders of this dish. It wasn’t as spectacular as it usually is. The other rolls that we ordered were...

Despite the high ratings, this was a terribly lackluster experience. The establishment is rather small and compact meaning that during peak lunch or dinner rushes you cannot hear what’s going on. We started off with the Atlantic salmon—which runs at about $25. The flavors were very underwhelming and poorly paired—not to mention its doused in soy sauce. I had high hopes since I love pine nuts. Along with that we ordered the crab egg rolls (probably the best part of the entire experience) and apple crab salad (doused in glops of mayonnaise). Overall we spent about $350 in sushi/sashimi—nothing tasted fresh and had a strange gooey consistency. Needless to say if you have IBS you will not have a good time. Servers were overwhelmed yet incredibly friendly despite some of the “needier” tables. I could not in good faith tell you to try this place out for the amount of money you may end up spending...