Sushi Yasuda — Restaurant in New York

Underwhelming and overpriced. Good fish, terrible experience. Service was horrible.

We had the market priced omakase and we ended up with a total bill of close to $230pp (including only one 6oz carafe of sake between the three of us). The sushi was good, although more on the traditional side, i.e., no interesting flavor pairings, just the basics, but high quality fish. Miso soup and dessert were pretty average, far below average for the price point.

The service was terrible: we were pretty hungry and waited 70 minutes from being seated until the first nigiri course (second course after the sashimi). We had to ask for chopsticks, because we didn't get any with our food. They use cheap single use wooden chopsticks (the kind you break apart before using). We weren't offered hand towels . We weren't asked if we wanted to order drinks. The menu suggested that the omakase would be personalized, but nobody asked us about our preferences. Staff was inattentive and hard to flag down. The bathrooms were not great: Floors were dirty and the bin was overflowing with paper towels.

There was one senior member of the wait staff who seemed to know what he was doing, the rest of the staff seemed clueless. They didn't seem to remember who ordered what: the omakase is sushi and sashimi only so we ordered three different kinds of miso soup to start, which they put down on the table in random order. At one point a waiter was bringing out our dessert, walked up to our table, stopped, walked back to the kitchen, then repeated the same procedure two more times before setting down our mochi ice cream. (I guess that he tried to remember who had ordered what) Not really the level of professionalism you'd expect from a place like this.

During the dinner, we suddenly noticed an intense cannabis smell that lingered for a couple of minutes. Not sure what happened there, it smelled like someone was smoking a joint inside the restaurant, but there wasn't a visible culprit. Maybe not directly the fault of the restaurant, but also did not help elevate the experience.

I found the ambience a bit lacking. The place is uniform light wood and very brightly lit up. Wouldn't recommend for a date.

Overall, both the most expensive and underwhelming upscale sushi dinner I've had so far. If you can't tell, I'm feeling a bit ripped off. Very impersonal, no attention to detail. If you're extremely price insensitive, don't care about the experience, the ambience or the quality of service, then I can recommend this place for having high quality fish, but personally, I think you're better off investing this kind of money into an actual fine...

TLDR: Fast food style sushi with tiny portions - My worst omakase experience ever.

I don't know how this place got a Michelin star.

Preface: I was initially super excited to have booked this place for dinner during Valentine's Day but was the initial experience was disappointing. We purposely booked a omakase counter reservation but we were seated at a standard dine in table in a nook. I explained to our hostess that we booked a omakase counter reservation to which she replied "you can still order omakase here". I had to ask for a manager before they gave me my omakase counter seating. We waited 30 minutes in total, 15 for a table to clear and another 15 for the omakase counter to clear.

Environment: Very open, not intimate at all. Felt like I was sitting at a Hibachi counter at an Asian fusion restaurant or a food court. The environment was loud, as there were many people in the restaurant and my girlfriend and I had to raise our voices to speak to each other even though we were sitting next to each other. When I think of Omakase I think high end and intimate, not a loud food court setting.

Food: The food looked fresh, a bare minimum for any good sushi restaurant but the portions were small with thinly cut fish (in comparison with high end omakase spots even those not Michelin starred). We ordered the 15 piece and it was the first time that my girlfriend and I left a dinner omakase hungry, as we're not the type to eat a lot. Usually a 12 piece omakase would have us full to the brim. A couple sushi pieces were also poorly put together and fell apart as we picked it up. Additionally the sushi pieces were not unique or special, even the appetizers and dessert weren't special, they tasted like something you'd get at a take out restaurant. A few hours later my girlfriend and I had slightly upset stomachs, which was the first time it has happened after any omakase.

Chef interaction: Since we were seated at the end of the counter our chef had to make a lot of orders for the table diners (unsure if he was a new chef and they had him do all the busy work). We literally had no interaction with the chef aside from him introducing the sushi. Zero effort in any sort of additional communication.

Misc: We checked our jackets and my girlfriend's bag, when we came to retrieve it they couldn't find our items for 15-20 minutes and when they did they gave my girlfriend's bag to the wrong person.

Would never come back here again, I just cant wrap my head around how this place got a...

Honestly, I think I had too much expectation from this place. After reading the hyped review, I egged my friends to come when we were in NY. I called and made the appointment with restaurant, but had a little bit of issue since we were not understanding each other of what day to come because of the slight language barrier. Anyhow, with that issue aside, my friends and I arrived early and were told to wait until it was time. That's perfectly okay because we were early.

One of my friend, unfortunately, refuses to eat raw fish or raw anything for that matter. We asked the waiter if they had anything cooked for her since she's unable to consume raw food, but he instead gave us a condescending look and told us that's how "japanese food in New York is." If that's not a red flag, I don't know what is. We find some cooked stuff on our own and ordered it for her. After that remarked, I just pray that our food was amaze-balls in order to compensate for that horrid statement.

We order off the specials they had that day since there was grilled fish and unfried crab cake esque that my friend could eat. The rest of us ordered the combination and I, of course, absolutely had to order toro. The sushi was not prepared properly and it fell apart as soon as I picked it up with my chopsticks. Sushi-wise I want to say it's mediocre, I honestly had better in Austin in terms of quality, service, and presentation. Our grilled fish had the resemble flavor of chinese sausage and the crab cake esque ball was interesting, but not to our particular liking.

When it came to paying, it was hell. We were not aware of the no tipping system they had there and we were just going to leave with the tip. They did not let us leave and forced us to get our money. On top of that, they shortchanged us $10. I was wondering how that happened, but it did. I was not willing to go back and demand $10. Hopefully, that will encourage them to give some service to their customers. I will never come back and I do not recommed coming here if you are of the asian descent. They only seem to treat foreigners better than their own kind. That is subjective, but that was my horrible experience at...