Yamato Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Grover Beach

My husband and I went in last Saturday a little after 5:30pm. They were busy but not packed. We were sat. Server cleaned our table in front too us. We then waited a couple mins for menus. While talking they took my husbands menu away. He had to ask for another one. We ordered beer and sake, they came quickly. When we got our drinks we ordered 2 oyster shooters. Those took about 10 mins to come out. In the meantime, people next to us left. New people came. A party of 6. They got them situated while we waited for our server to come back to take our order. 2 male servers and a female server circled around us but never stopped. Party of 6 got their drinks and food before I ever got my first roll. Finally my husband flags someone down. He, who is not our server, takes out order. We specifically said NO MASAGO ON ANYTHING OF HIS. We told every server we talked to about the food. We ordered 3 rolls and a tuna poke. As well as 2 more oyster shooters. The shooters come out 15 or so mins later. We wait another 45 mins for our first roll. It was my husband's and was covered in masago. He said it was fine, because he didn't want to have to wait for it again. He tried to take the masago off. He kept picking at it. But eventually couldn't eat it. He called the female over and she took it away. Our server came back about 5 mins later, very confrontational. As he was putting it down he realizes it had masago on it. He asked my husband was that ok. He said he'd try because it took so long to come out. He really tried to eat it even though it was wrong. "You should have said something when I put it down." He said. We did say something!! Before he got it and after he got it!! He took it away and had them remake it. My Cali Garden salad/roll came out. It was delicious. I ate it and waited for my husband 2nd roll and poke to come out. From the mistake in the roll forward, we were ignored and treated like trouble makers. We ordered 2 more oyster shooters while I waited for my poke. Looking at the time at this point, we had been there almost 3 hours. Everyone around us had eaten and left. The bill came and I told them I never received my poke. And explained the other mistake. Our bill was over $140.00. We asked if there was anything they could do considering the time things took and that we had a couple mistakes and missing food. Our server goes back and talks to the owner/manager and tells us he said no. We were stuck. We weren't going to walk out on our bill. My poke was brought out after our bill was charged to our card. My husband spoke to everyone there regarding our FIRST VISIT AND ALL THE MISHAPPS. Once again, we were treated like trouble makers. Everyone was very condescending. The food was great but the service is bad. If you make it in, I hope they dont mess up your order. They are not willing to provide good customer service to good customers. I still tipped 20%. I'm not sure...

The food was superb, but expensive as per usual with Japanese restaurants. However, my wife and I felt that even though we were attended to and received our food rather quickly, we were pretty much ignored by our server afterwards. We had to raise our voices to finally get her attention for some refills, even after signaling to her repeatedly and uttering "excuse me" countless times when she'd come close to our table.

I think that aside from one runner, she was the only server there at the time, so I'm not sure if she was just overwhelmed rather than ignoring us intentionally. She also forgot to get us one of the items in our order, which we later had removed from the bill.

Update, 12/01/2023: Much worse experience this time. Our absent-minded server did not end up entering our order into their system, and we were sitting there (at the bar, right in front of these dunces), like a couple of ignored pee-ons for about an hour, until one of the very distracted Sushi Masters or whatever you call them in front of us, finally acknowledged our presence. Then he comes to find out that there's no receipt at all for us, and even worse, he finds out that the server didn't even enter our order. Right as the server was about to enter our order, we stopped him and said there's no point at this juncture, as we've already received absolutely abysmal service and have basically been dismissed.

When we told them that we would be walking out and not returning, they didn't even say anything and averted their gaze. It seemed that they looked down to the ground in shame, maybe a customary Japanese reaction to criticism like this. But, they didn't say "hey, we'll cover your meal or sorry for the inconvenience." Nothing. We will never be returning to this mediocre...

This has been my favorite sushi spot for about 5 years. I’ve been pretty loyal to it, getting sushi take out at least 2x a month. The food has NEVER disappointed. Very consistent. However, I will mention, up until last week- I feel like the last 2 years of customer service had really shifted for the worse (at least for take out). The food was still great, but ordering on the phone- the time estimates were always off and sometimes I’d wait 30 minutes after the estimated time of pick up. And the attitude with staff was really becoming a thing. I continued to eat here though because I love the owner and I love the food! I assumed the drop in customer service and continuous staffing issues was realted to COVID and the stress and demand on take-out? But I am leaving a review to say- its back to the old Yamato’s again! For the last month or so, it feels like a huge upgrade- the customer service is so good, the staff and new faces are so kind, and the food (as always) is so yummy and fresh. Amazing service tonight for a to-go order and no excessive waits times like there has been for take out for the last couple years. I am so glad they got their staffing together and I’m so excited to return to regular sushi take out. Thank you management for getting this...