SUSHI YUKIYA — Restaurant in Oceanside

I do not know where to start, if I could leave this place negative below zero reviews I would… I will start by telling my experience from A to Z... I first called this place after seeing the positive reviews and wanting to take my family out for a nice meal, upon calling I first asked "DO YOU OFFER ALL YOU CAN EAT SUSHI" I STATED "SUSHI" NOT "SUSHI ROLLS", I was told we sure do and given the adult prices and asked how much it would be for my 6 year old daughter and 10 year old son I was quoted a price of $6.95 and $7.95 respectively, as well as the reg adult price for me and my wife...Upon arrival I wanted to make sure those prices were correct and was told after viewing my children the prices would be $3 more per child... My daughter barely eats and is small, while my son is a pretty big eater so I said no problem... After ordering our drinks, I was told its not all you can eat sushi but sushi rolls HUGE DIFFERENCE AND HAD I KNOWN THIS WOULD HAVE NEVER COME TO THIS PLACE... Still after arriving and hungry we stayed and accepted the haggled price of our children and the fact it was not all you can eat sushi but sushi rolls... We then ordered and come to find out its 3 rounds of ordering, we ordered some roll that the tuna was disgusting foul tasting inedible to eat, flat out nasty tasting.. We ended up leaving a few pieces of it as we literally couldn't consume it... The meal was subpar to say the very least... The very same guy I talked to on the phone about my children that lied to me about the price of them, lied to me saying it was all you can eat sushi (not sushi rolls) came to the table with a despicable look and demeanor & said you didnt finish every piece of this roll we have to charge you $3 extra per person... He was simply hateful... At first I told him I do not understand its not edible, we can not eat it, we had to force down the pieces we ate of it, never intending to order anything and leave it... He was just a beast to us ruined our entire meal that was already a complete disaster, I finally said no problem charge us... Then at the end of the meal the encompassed a gratuity into the meal... I would never ever ever recommend this place for its food or customer service... My wife called the owner and as expected he was hateful as well not willing to do anything... STAY AWAY OF THIS PLACE YOU HAVE...

Before I begin this review, I would like to write a disclaimer relating to the previous reviews for this restaurant. For some reason, Google decided to keep all of the reviews for Hana, the restaurant that was in this location before it changed to Yukiya. While these two restaurants are in the same place, I can attest that both have very different menus, staff, management, specials, and overall a different experience. Therefore, I recommend that anybody reading these reviews take the older ones with a grain of salt, for they reflect upon a restaurant that no longer exists.

Anyways, time for my review. As mentioned previously, before there was Yukiya there was Hana, which I ate at on several occasions. It was good at first, but over time the quality lessened, and eventually I moved on to other better Japanese restaurants. Today, my party and I were passing by when I noticed that the place had changed ownership to this new restaurant called Yukiya. I decided to go ahead and give it a try just to see how it compared to Hana. Needless to say, Yukiya greatly exceeded my expectations. Admittedly, I had a rather negative impression of the restaurant at first, since we came in to an empty place with barely any staff around (though in their defense, we came in at a rather off-hour, and near the end of our meal more staff showed up and treated us well). We were sat down and served by who appeared to be the new owner of the restaurant. He had a strong Japanese accent, but he had a kind heart, and you could tell he was very passionate and caring about his food. I think he even cooked our food personally, for he gave us salmon rib on the house because it was his favorite, going as far as instructing us how to eat it so we wouldn't swallow the bone. As for the food, it was amazing. The katsu chicken I order was cooked almost perfectly, and contained very high-quality chicken. And although I never eat seafood, I actually loved the salmon rib, and would recommend it to anyone else who loves salmon. Overall, eating at Yukiya's was a very pleasant and personal experience. While the restaurant is in its early stages and a little rough at the edges, I can tell it has the potential to become a popular sushi spot. I'd definitely recommend it to others, though you should keep in mind that Yukiya has just started and needs a...

This was a tough one for me. The service was great, it really was. But that only goes so far when your food is ok and your prices are high. The unagi handroll was flavorful, but really doused in sauce. I've never had so much sauce on unagi before, and I order it pretty much everywhere I go.

I also got this vibe that they are very used to their customers having no idea what any of the stuff on the menu is. Maybe that's the crowd in this town, but I get the sense that they don't typically have to be compared to other more authentic seeming establishments.

It's an old building, playing trendy music, with fancy lighting, and an overall attempt to come off as modern... But the building looks and feels so old. The food, between the handroll, and the tonkotsu was... Just alright. I will give them that the meat in the tonkotsu was actually very very good, but everything else about the tonkotsu was frankly bad. Especially dousing it in so many sesame seeds that it felt like it should just be called a sesame​ seed ramen (which still, even other sesame seed based ramens I've had were better.)

I would love to see the place focus more on maybe a yakitori style atmosphere (keeping the sushi, but focusing on small items.) Their emphasis on alcohol here seems very high, and I feel like more of a yakitori type of menu could benefit them greatly. But as it is, it seems like their claim to fame is sushi, and you can get way better sushi across the street for less.

Alternatively, they could invest in remodeling and improving the food to bring it up to the style I feel they are trying to portray, but ultimately not achieving.

I've never felt so bad writing a review like that, as I really really do have to emphasize, the staff seemed really really nice, and honestly, I want to see this place do well. I just cannot suggest it to anyone at it's...