Yokushi Robata — Restaurant in Houston

I’m giving this establishment a one star, due to witnessing an appalling situation by the manager (Will) involving a customer. I’m not here to speak negatively about this establishment as a whole, because the food, service, and ambiance is spectacular. It’s specifically the manager who dampened the experience.

Last night, between 9:00 and 9:15 (March 21st) A young woman walked in for a bite to eat, giving her order to the server, and conversing about the menu. Will, the Manager, or so he says, calls to the server while behind the sushi bar numerous time saying the kitchen is closed, and no longer serving. One fact to keep in mind is, the weekend closing hours for Yokushi Robata states 9:30 via Google.

He approaches the now seated customer, and says they’re no longer serving. She politely responds their weekend hours state they close at 9:30 (true), and Will is in full refusal to serve. She asks his name and for a manager. Will states his name and says he’s the Manager. The customer continues asking if there’s anything quick to order up, at least an appetizer or something, and Will still refused service. He drummed up long drawn out excuses, like mentioning the Pandemic (which I understand, but in this case, you can no longer blame the Pandemic at this point since the state is fully open) , and blaming the kitchen. Will also kept reiterating, “If the kitchen closes, I can’t do anything about that.” and walked off. Will did not want to serve this woman. Will did not properly manage. Will created a problematic environment.

The young lady speaks to the server again asking for their corporate office information. The server calls Will over again. While the customer is trying to ask a question, Will blows up rudely interrupting her saying “OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO!! JUST DO WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO!! MY GUYS HAVE TO GO. I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THAT. I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER WHATEVER THEY WANT TO DO."

Pointing out the many errors here, from what I’ve gathered, Will, the manager, was rude, inconsiderate, incompetent of properly resolving the conflict, incapable of improvising from a management perspective, lacks identifying error on his part, and refused to take accountability for his actions. How does, the manager, whose job is to manage, blame their kitchen for the reasoning to not serve this woman? You’re the manager. The hours state 9:30 closing. The restaurant isn’t even full. Is management not cross trained? Everything about this situation was unacceptable and could have been easily avoided.

To the owners/corporate entity over Yokushi Robata: Indeed, your restaurant is awesome. Coming from a former bar manager working in the service industry for 10+ years, we all know, or should know, bad management can eradicate a business, especially with social media and camera phones involved. I hope you all will take the proper preventative measures for this to never happen again, and I wish you the best...

Was excited to go to one of Houston's few yakitori-specialized restaurants. The interior is very well decorated and definitely had a lot of effort put into it, loved the ambience. We came away disappointed overall, albeit with maybe high expectations. The service was attentive but lacking at the same time, due to there being only one server for 10+ tables during a late lunch rush. Did two separate orders of small bites and then yakitori.

Small bites: Hamachi sashimi 4/5 - 4 large pieces, good quality for the price you pay. Spicy Cold Tofu 5/5 - The best overall pound for pound dish we had. Tofu had great texture, dashi was flavorful, and the spice level will satisfy the biggest spice-head like myself. Chicken Gyoza 4/5 - Satisfying but uninspired, likely frozen. Okonomiyaki 3/5 - Uninspired, outside was not crispy. Bacon was too mushy and hard to cut with the provided spatula. Overall it was tasty due to the kewpie, but expected more.

Yakitori: Beef with daikon and ponzu 1/5 - one of the worst things I've ever ordered at a restaurant. It tasted like day-old reheated meat. Awful cut and texture. Did not get a hint of charcoal and question if it was even cooked over the charcoal or just microwaved. Unagi 3/5 - Very fishy unagi. Taste and sauce were good. Bonus service points for splitting a single in half for us 2 Chicken Wing 5/5 - Hard to detect charcoal flavor in this one but wing was split well and grilled very well. Chicken Thigh 4/5 - No skin on the thigh and could have been grilled hotter for a better char. You could smell a SIGNIFICANT amount of charcoal on this skewer. I am confident the previous skewers were not grilled over charcoal after having this one. Chicken Breast 3/5 - overcooked and uninspired, but great charcoal flavor.

What this feels like to me are two different chefs of various skill levels making different dishes in the back. The chicken wing was fantastic, and if the thigh was prepped with skin and green onion, would have been a home run. I think another issue is that this restaurant, while yakitori-focused, needs to maintain a large menu to be viable, resulting in the downgrade of dishes overall and succumbs to over-prepping to maintain reasonable service times. I wish I had a better experience here overall and was so excited to try this, but an inconsistent kitchen and understaffing were its downfall.

Overall rating - 3.5 - The meal was satisfactory, but I would not choose to return, nor would I return if someone else...

Most dishes are good. Some are great. All are pretty expensive.

Yokushi Robata is a kushiyaki (though informally misrepresented as "yakitori") place that unfortunately falls into that trope of kushiyakiya's and izakaya's becoming posh high-end exclusive low-light gourmet ateliers in the U.S. for some reasons. You know, places for desperate salarymen to drink some sake and drown their sorrows, now complete with light so dim you won't be able to read the menu without your iPhone's flashlight on.

(No, that was serious. Do bring some flashlights.)

So, being a grilled-stuff-on-a-stick place, you'd expect their grilled stuff on a stick to be good and for that, they mostly are. Mostly. Didn't try the chicken skin myself, but my friend said it was just ok. Personally, I'd just nom the chicken tsukune's. Their cheese tsukune was the tastiest, cheesiest, most calorie-packed thing I've digested all month. Too bad each skewer is like a single ounce worth of food each for about 5 dollars.

Speaking of skewers, if you have extra sorrows you'd like to drown out that day, you can also order an unaju for the price of 2 unagi skewers plus 2 dollars for the rice and oshinko, but you get 2 unagi skewers on some rice and oshinko. The eel itself is good, but Domoishi in U of H also has equally good eel, and a lot more of it, for the price that YR charges for 2 skewers plus some rice and oshinko.

Their ankimo is good, their eggplant is way too bland, their chikuwa is great if hot but sh-tty if cold.

The last thing to talk about was the ramen, which we were too busy eating to take a picture of because it was that good. Honestly, the whole yakitori thing works, but they might do better if they advertised themselves as a casual ramen spot if you ask me. Their ramen is aru-dente, their tare is great, their tonkotsu supple and their kurobuta quite oishii. I just got out of Otaku Food Fes that day.

(We also forgot to take a picture of the kinmedai. That was pretty good too, and you do get an entire fish for about 20 bucks.)

TL;DR Texas-quality BBQ but Japanese at French prices. The ramen is actually not that bad, but I did get too used to the hypothetical sound of my wallet crying...