Yoshitsune — Restaurant in Honolulu

TLDR: POOR HYGIENE AND HORRIBLE KITCHEN PRACTICE, avoid this place if you don't want to get sick.

I went to this restaurant for lunch when I was traveling in Waikiki area because of so many good reviews from google and yelp. From the moment I stepped in this restaurant, I was hesitant already because of poor hygiene situation. The table and the floor is very sticky, and mosquitoes and flies everywhere. However, I was so hungry and it was hard to find restaurants in waikiki during lunch hours so I still sat down. We ordered omakase sushi, grilled eggplant, and kamameshi for food, and oolong tea for drink. We waited for 15 min to get our bowls and utensils, another 10 min for free appetizers, and then endlessly waiting for the courses, which left us even more hungry. For the drink, we ordered oolong tea but got green tea, and the cup was not clean. I read reviews saying that this restaurant made them feel traveling to Japan, I've stayed in Japan for years and never saw a restaurant in such a poor condition.

For the food: The appetizers were ok, not something I'd eat if it were not free and if I were not that hungry. The grilled eggplant (yaki nasu) - probably the worst eggplant I have ever had. It's over cooked and tasteless. Kamameshi - It took them our hour to even serve the uncooked rice on our table, and another 35 min to get the rice done. The rice was tasteless. Sushi course - tamago (egg) was good, and we barely touched the other sushi pieces because there's some seaweed on the fish, which was very suspicious and we didn't want to get food poisoning during travel.

Later on, it turned out to be a good decision after we heard the experience from one of our friends who also dined here. She dined here in 2019, ordered the assorted sashimi, and found some seaweed salad on the scallop, which was not supposed to happen. When she brought this up to the waitress, they admitted that THE SCALLOP WAS TAKEN FROM OTHER CUSTOMERS' LEFTOVER. And unfortunately they had a stomach flu after dining at Yoshitsune.

I was sorry about her experience and was sad that we didn't talk with her before we dined here, and apparently the kitchen practice had been staying horrible in the past two years. When we got our check and paid in the lobby, there was a strong smoke in the lobby and smelled like something was burnt. I also saw the chef cutting the sashimi behind the counter, the counter wasn't clean and he did all the dishes without wearing gloves, even though he touched the counter, used the stained towels, and went back and in some doors in between his preparation of food. He didn't wear a mask either.

To be fair, one of my other friend also dined here (this is a popular restaurant, I know) and had fairly good experience. But cmon, you don't want to play lottery at a place that has hygiene issue and horrible kitchen practice during your travel. The bill we paid for the lunch was $100 for 2 ppl, with this budget you can get much more decent food in waikiki without worrying about...

A bunch of my mom's friends took us out to dinner here. Having stayed at the Park Shore Waikiki before, I never took note of this restaurant that's located toward the back of the lobby.

ATMOSPHERE: I can forgive it's dated design as it feels like you're dining at a hole-in-the-wall space in Tokyo. They even sport a tatami dining room where you sit on the floor. It was toasty inside, especially where I sat which was underneath one of the ductless a/c units that did not cool off the room properly. And, instead of Japanese music playing overhead, we were treated to unbecoming pop music.

MENU: Shochu, sake, beer, wine, Japanese apps, full course dinners, hot pots, sushi, noodles, chazuke, seafood, meats, pork, desserts.

FOOD: House Made Tofu This specialty of theirs was included with most of the dishes. The super soft block of tofu was precision-cut to resemble udon-like noodles when pulled apart, drizzled with a subtle tempura sauce and garnished with grated daikon. Consuming with chopsticks proved a challenge as it kept breaking apart.

Sake Steamed Clams The clams were small as was the portion for the price. I liked the broth as you could taste the natural clam juices and just a hint of sake.

Nabeyaki Udon I was actually craving a rice dish but nothing sounded enticing and no one wanted to share a hot pot with me, so I took a chance on this. Boy, what a big mistake it was. The broth, while searing hot, was horribly bland. Toppings were plentiful, including shrimp tempura, a dropped-in egg, enoki mushrooms, won bok, green onions and a huge piece of aburrage. Noodles were plentiful and chewy. Adding in a swish of shoyu helped a bit but not by much as there was nothing to enhance to begin with. Pass!

Everyone else on the table ordered full course dinners which included miso soup, a combo of small apps, rice, and chawanmushi (egg custard dessert). Several varieties of fish were not available, forcing some to re-order twice.

SERVICE: My mom's friends have been here quite often so they know the elderly server well. She's a sweetheart, rough around the edges, and knows her stuff. Her old school ways don't include follow up throughout the meal which also resulted in a low alcohol bill as we just had one drink each.

Chilled hand towels were given before meal service. Food delivery was quick but the order in which they came out was backwards. Everyone's entree came out first with the rice arriving at midpoint through the meal forcing an ETA question, and miso soup at the end.

Our table was cluttered with dirty dishes along with the soiled hand towels till the very end. No clean up at all throughout. There was a younger guy helping her who could've helped her bus but I guess that's not their protocol.

OVERALL: Despite the lengthy menu, choices for me were slight. The lethargic vibe and service yearns for a...

I came to Hawaii with a joyful heart, but ended up having one of the worst dining experiences here. We chose this restaurant for dinner, but it took an unreasonably long time to receive our food. We ordered the Chirashi with uni and the Beef Nabe, and it took nearly an hour for the dishes to arrive.

To be honest, neither of the dishes seemed like they should have taken that long to prepare. What made it worse was that the chirashi came out first, and then we had to wait another 15 minutes for the beef nabe. It's hard to understand why a main dish would be served so far apart at the same table during a dinner service. Especially since the nabe isn’t something that typically takes that long to cook.

When the table next to us asked for their check, I also asked for mine, along with a water refill. Strangely, I didn’t receive my check for another 10 minutes, even though the staff continued giving checks to other tables. I couldn't understand why mine was being ignored. On top of that, the server completely forgot my water refill. I was so frustrated that I didn’t even want to drink water anymore—it felt like I was just waiting and waiting throughout the entire dinner.

We ended up spending almost two hours at this restaurant. To make matters worse, when we were finally ready to pay, they told us the card machine was broken and asked us to wait again. I ended up just paying in cash so we could leave.

Also, for a chirashi that costs $68, I expected it to be fresh. It should go without saying at that price point.

The service was absolutely disappointing—highly not recommended, and I will definitely not...