Yamato Steak House of Japan — Restaurant in Marianna

Management (Lucy, I think it was) doesn't know what the actual dish names for menu items are. She berated me when I tried to clarify whether they had nigiri (sashimi atop a pillow of sushi rice) and–if they did have it–whether that was 3 pieces (as listed for sashimi) or 2 pieces (like most Japanese restaurants), since the menu listed "sashimi sushi" and never mentioned a difference in number of pieces, only giving three as a possibility. Given how a lot of generic "Asian" restaurants in the South are, "sashimi sushi" could very well mean several different things.

She rather forcefully tried to "correct" me, that I was asking for "sushi" when I described nigiri to her. That's essentially the equivalent of a manager saying, "You're trying to say sandwich?" when you ask if they have a hamburger on the menu. Unpleasant and kind of rude, but not the end of the world.

When the food was delivered, they'd left the nigiri off. Those finally came after the check had been paid. Sushi rice was undercooked and under-seasoned, but (again) that happens a lot in the South at nominally Japanese restaurants.

The order of chicken yakisoba someone else at the table got had very little chicken in it at all, but was otherwise decent. A little too much sauce to be authentic, but (once again) par for the course in this part of the country.

If you're into Americanized, giant sushi rolls with sauces, fried stuff, and other additions, you'll probably be fine with Yamato. If you like adding yum-yum sauce to everything or generic instant miso soup, you'll probably be good as well.

If you want simple, well-seasoned sushi with only a couple of ingredients in a more Japanese style, you'll be disappointed. Honestly, it seems like either the restaurant is intending to be an "American style" Japanese restaurant (in which case, I wish they'd have advertised that way) or the owners and/or management didn't take much time to learn about Japanese food and expected everyone not to know...

Yamato just recently opened up in Marianna where the old Pizza Hut used to be. That location is right off of Lafayette street (Hwy 90) and directly in front of the movie theater. Being the Asian food lover that I am, my friends and I had to try it out!

First impressions were good. The inside was totally remodeled, and it looks great too. Modern aesthetic combined with a hint of Asian flare give the place a lot to offer. The space is a bit small but they have decent seating and quick turn around time. This place is not teppenyaki style, so they don't cook on a grill in front of you. Rather you are waited on and brought your food.

We went only a few days after their grand opening, and I must say I was impressed with the performance of the staff. Everyone I encountered was nice, and our waitress was very prompt and got our food out to us extremely quickly even while being moderately busy.

I'm impressed by the prices. I posted pictures of the menu so you can see for yourself, but they are very well priced. I paid a total of $32 for 2 people who both got appetizer/sushi and a main course. The meal could easily be $20 or less at lunch for 2 people depending on what you get.

As for the quality of the food, it was also excellent. The Yaki Soba was very tasty, and they give you a house yum yum sauce on the table to add as much as you want. The hibachi chicken lunch portion was good, rice had a very fresh flavor, and the vegetables all around were cooked well. The meat was good, but I felt in comparison it lacked some flavor. The Miami Roll has cream cheese, crab, and avocado, and it was very fresh with 6 large pieces. Very impressed!

My friends have been back since and ordered online for pick up, which apparently is easy to do. I definitely want to go back and...

We are new to the area, and numerous people recommended Yamato. Unfortunately it didn't live up to the expectations. To start, the sushi and sashimi were very good, so no complaints. In fact if we were to return, we would only order sushi. Hence the 3 stars, but sushi would probably be ranked closer to 4.5 stars.

On the flip side, the "hibachi" is not at all hibachi. It really fell flat on taste and quality. Coming from Palm Beach, we were spoiled with several excellent and "real" hibachi restaurants so we do have a benchmark to compare.

The "ginger" dressing is not at all real ginger dressing. It's more like thousand island salad dressing. The miso soup was so bad - very salty and not at all what I have come to known at most hibachi restaurants. Then comes the main dish - steak. The steak was doused in some brown sauce, not at all cooked hibachi style. The rice was not hibachi style either - pretty sure they just have a big batch of this rice and scoop it up for each dish, versus the correct way to make hibachi rice. So needless to say, this was an expensive let down for hibachi.

Not to mention our server was lackluster. They served our main course with a big pile of our dirty dishes from appetizers still sitting on our table. No one offered to pick up the dirty dishes even when we had to approach the older blonde lady behind the counter. So we set them on the floor lot of frustration...