Yaakuza Japanese Thai Fusion & Sake Bar — Restaurant in Florida

Yaakuza Japanese Thai Fusion & Sake Bar Merritt Island, FL 1 Star

“A good rule to remember about life is that when it comes to plastic surgery and sushi, never be attracted by a bargain.” – G. Norton

Relaxing on my favorite Empire Recamier in my living room, I realized that one can only digest so much pub food before one begins to crave a different diet. To that end, I grabbed the car keys and headed up to Yaakuza Japanese Thai Fusion & Sake Bar for some good ole Far East grub and rice wine. As I pulled into Emerald Plaza just to the west of Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary, I became curious as to the spelling of the word Yakuza. Maybe they were trying to avoid a copyright infringement suit? Maybe they were just trying to be cute, either way, I found it amusing.

As the very name of the place has the words “Sake Bar” in it, imagine my surprise when I saw they had none to offer. Apparently, a beer and wine license does not cover rice wine, otherwise known as Sake. This did not bode well. However, I was here, I was hungry and I had a job to do, so I went ahead and asked for a table. It was at this point that I noticed three young patrons with green hair so as I was being led to a table I asked if it was Free Food with Green Hair Day. Sadly, it was not. After having been seated and handed a menu, as per my modus operandi, I took a quick gander about the environs. It was garbed with your traditional Thai decor and had some rather beautiful artwork on the walls. It wasn't too long before my waitress, Gabby introduced herself and asked if I was ready to order. I found Gabby to be another peppy, happy person who at least acted like she enjoyed her job and was glad to be there (unlike a few previous servers in recent reviews). I asked Gabby for one JB Cut Roll, my sushi barometer of a Spicy Tuna Handroll, an order of the Isaan Sausage and one Chicken Green Curry. To be frank, I was a bit scared of ordering any Nigiri Sushi as the case did not look all that fresh.

The JB Cut Roll, while serviceable in a pinch (by pinch I mean you're actually starving), I found the rice to be a tad pekid, however, the cream cheese seemed fresh as it was rather tasty. The Spicy Tuna hand roll was what you would expect in a non-traditional sushi house. As I observed the sushi roller (I can't in good conscience call him a chef) I was not at all surprised. While stuffed, it was passingly edible.

After cutting open one of the pieces of Isaan Sausage my stomach cringed at the pink inside. As you can see by the pictures it was very pink so if I die of ptomaine poisoning, you all know why. Gathering my courage I took a bite. Wow. Was I shocked. It may look undercooked, but it certainly had superb flavor. They start sneakily with a salty flavor then reach a finishing kick that was very pleasant on the palate. If I thought these were properly cooked I certainly would have scarfed them all down. They were really delicious. The side salad was an unappealing mound of Iceberg.

Given the quality of the food so far, I took a pass on the Curry. I have a friend that lives in Thailand and he has informed me on numerous occasions that the majority of Bangkokians do not eat sushi, perhaps this is why the chef and offerings weren't quite what I expected going in. My bad.

The Big Boy says, “If you are looking for some good Sushi and Thai Fusion Dishes, this is not the place you are...

An experience so bad we walked out without even eating.

The people running the restaurant tonight (9/17) have no business being in customer service the way we were treated waiting over 50 minutes for 2 rolls. When one girl brought our sushi over all we did was ask why it took almost an hour. She said well we make them in the order they come in and “we have a lot of takeout” and shrugged. No apologies no nothing pretty much oh well. We asked “so does it normally take this long why were we made to wait like that?” All she does is go “sorry there’s only one guy. do you want your noodles in the back or not. We can make them to go.” Our server then came over and shoved a ticket in our face and said “actually it wasn’t almost an hour it was 37 minutes” 37 minutes since you rang it in.. not when we ordered it..okay? Was this point better? 45 minutes/50 minutes is this acceptable to wait for 2 sushi rolls when we were one of the two tables without food? We were actually trying this restaurant for our coworkers and we will be sure to tell them to never go here. Being told no manager runs the restaurant & take out food is priority over us so “deal with it” is a disgusting business practice and if there’s any virtue in this restaurant at all someone should reach back out that they’ve rectified how these servers treat the customers.

After getting ganged up on and argued with at our table in front of the whole restaurant like we were the bad guys for questioning why we waited an hour for 2 sushi rolls that weren’t even presented nice, we decided to just leave. Never coming back and being sure to tell others not to either. Never seen...

I have been there 3 times now. The last time was 6 nov. I love katsudon, can't find it anywhere unless you are willing to drive to Orlando. First two times it was really good. The last time the onions in the sauce were not cooked enough and to be honest there wasn't much sauce. The pork was very tough and instead of cooking the egg over the katsudon it was more like a fried egg shoved underneath. Come on.i know that you can make it but more sauce and cooked properly is important. less sauce ment more soy sauce and then was too salty. PLEASE TRY HARDER.it was so good before. I amend my post. Last week I went and had katsudon again. And this time like b4. Hardly any sauce. It was dry. The egg was a fried egg on top. Should be mixed and poured over the hot Porto and sauce. The gyoza was not properly prepared. I know that the owners know better. There is a new place in cocoa beach that calls themselves Japanese but a true Japanese restaurant serves staples and miso,, yaksoba, katsudon. Yakitori,gyoza, are found in any small eating...