Yamato — Restaurant in Norman

I've been here twice and both time it's been a satisfying experience. The food is quite good, the show is good, and the service, at least once I'm at my table, is very good. There are some minor caveats, most of which explains the negative reviews I've read.

First, people are applying normal "wait time" periods to a habachi grill. It doesn't work that way. At a habachi grill you are going to wait much longer unless you just get lucky. This is practically necessary because everyone gets their own, effectively private, chef. So be patient, the chef will work his way around to your table and take his time with you too. If you're in the mood to get in and get out in under an hour, a habachi restaurant, any of them, is just not what you need. That said the wait at Yamato was reasonable by habachi grill standards.

Both times I was a little disappointed in the host when I walked in. He's not rude or anything, but he seems entirely disinterested. No expression on his face or in his voice, extremely straightforward, etc. Fortunately this attitude is not shared by the other employees. The waitresses seem to be beautiful, friendly and quick, the chefs are funny and put on a good show. So just let the host go, it gets better after that. Hopefully I just caught him on a couple bad days.

A minor word on the decor. The front of the building is extremely non-descript and some of the lights on their Yamato sign were not working. On the inside, things get much better with a highly spacious, industrial-style, accented with plenty of Japanese paraphernalia. However, I noticed that they really need to clean the glass on their giant kimono display. I'm not picky about these things, but the glass was very obviously smeared, which I could see 10 meters away from the table. So a little Windex would go a long way there. If they would spend one day and a little money I would happily upgrade the restaurant to "very good" decor. Hopefully they have by the time you get there.

With regard to the food, I was very satisfied. The quantity is incredibly massive. Each meal (apparently) comes with a decent sized salad, miso soup, an entree that includes vegetables, fried rice and whatever you order specifically, then sherbet ice cream. I ordered a chicken and steak combination, but despite that already massive amount of food, the chef gave me extra shrimp for free anyway. The only issue I had with the food was that the rice was a bit burnt in some places. This is somewhat understandable though because the chef made various symbols (a heart in my case) when preparing it for the show, so I suspect the rice on the bottom probably got a little burnt in the process. But I stress it was only slightly burnt and still very good. None of the other food had these issues.

I recommend that you ignore the majority of the bad reviews here as, looking over them, they seem to relate to the wait times, and as I explained above, you can't apply normal standards of waiting to a habachi restaurant. So if you've got an hour and a half or longer to spare and want a great Japanese steak, give this...

Came in with a reservation for 7:30. Weren't sat until 7:40 and then didn't recieve drinks until 8:00. The atmposhere is horrible; Loud noises everywhere and as someone who struggles with sensory overload I was completely baffled when I read a review that stated this place has a calm and inviting atmosphere. Our cook appeared while another was already working on a table adjacent from us making it to where our cook couldn't fit but he forcefully fit himself in the small space. The cook beside us was constantly making loud noises and at one part started playing with small wooden toys that lit on fire. He dropped one and accidentally threw the other, luckily no one was hurt. The cook beside us then stays an extra 15 minutes after the food has been served and the grill was cleaned just to bang a loud drum and socialize which is fine but still "calm" isn't the best word to describe Yamato. Our cook can finally start and he doesn't socialize with us at all, but gets a number from the girl and her children beside us. He doesn't even tell me or my significant other before he plays the "toss food into the air and eat it" game. He tosses a piece of egg into the air and it hits my S/O directly in the eye. Instead of waiting for him to recover he IMMEDIATELY without hesistation throws another piece, and hits him in the face again. This happens 4 times before he gives up and moves to me. Throws food twice without flinching and then moves to the party beside us where he does the same thing. All while this is happening, the fried rice is SCATTERED all over the grill and by all over I mean there are small piles here and there with no actual organization. I ordered steamed rice, but he tries TWICE to serve me fried rice. The steak was underseasoned, the chicken was overcooked. He brings out the fire wood toys and lights the inner ring of the table on fire as a visual trick, pushing our drinks and food out of the way without asking to move it or anything. He then lights and drops the toys three times, once he drops it and it gets thrown toward my S/O, twice he drops it and touches the flame on accident, he then drops it behind him and it almost burns a waitresses leg. This experience was absolutely horrible and I will not be...

I don't typically leave negative reviews because a lot of this is subjective and running a restaurant is already a tough enough business...but this place was objectively bad. The decor is nice and that's basically it. If you've ever been to a mediocre teppanyaki place, go there instead because this restaurant can't compete.

The tables were sticky even after wiping them down, the staff couldn't get our drink or food orders right, and the chef clearly didn't want to be there. I personally don't care much for the song and dance stuff at the grill, so I'm totally fine just having someone cook up food and serve it. Although I do enjoy it when the chef is entertaining and engaging with everyone. This dude, though, barely half-attempted to entertain and then proceeded to overcook everything we ordered. And instead of using butter like they normally do, they were using some kind of low quality margarine or something that coated the inside of my mouth for the rest of the night. I also watched as he seasoned the food only for it to come out extraordinarily bland. How does that even happen? Was the margarine diluting the flavor? Who knows.

The Filet Mignon was like chewing on leather. The lobster was like chewing gum. And we somehow got shrimp that no one at our table ordered. And then they charged us for it. The Fried Rice was so crunchy and burnt that it made me think I chipped a tooth at one point. And the ventilation in the restaurant isn't great either. Instead of the vents being over top of the grill like they normally are at these places, it was high up and off to the side. Because of that, I kept getting smoke and steam in my face the whole time the chef was cooking. Not to mention, we got this weird feeling like some of the staff members there were forced to work there. I don't know...if you've never been to a teppanyaki place, feel free to give it a shot. At the very least, it'll make all the other teppanyaki places you visit in the future that much more amazing.

To be fair, maybe it was just the one chef we got because the two things they got right which were actually tasty came from the kitchen in the back. That was the shimp tempura and the...