Yamato Japanese Restaurant - Warren, Ohio — Restaurant in Ohio

Went here for the first time last night. We usually go to Tokyo House, but sadly the owners have decided to retire. After a brief mourning period, and hoping Tokyo House would open back up, we decided it was time to move on. We decided Yamato’s since it was locally owned. To be honest I knew it was not going to be the same, but it’s hibachi so....

Waiting Area: They told us a 30 minute wait, we were used to that, no big deal. After an hour I went and asked, she apologized, explained that they were short a chef and told me they were preparing our table now. 20 minutes later and seeing people that arrived after us be seated I asked again, that’s when we were finally seated. The area was very crowded, they were very busy. The chairs were not sturdy. Everything was sticky & looked dirty.

Table: Once we were seated we did not see a waitress for 20 minutes. She took our drink orders & thankfully our food orders. 10 minutes later we received our drinks. With your meal you get soup, salad, 2 pieces of shrimp flambé, fried rice and your entree. The soup was room temperature, the salad dressing was watery, the rice was salty and my entree was swimming in the sauce. The chef cooked the chicken, poured the sauce on and put it on my plate. I ordered an egg roll that was cold when I took a bite. I also ordered shrimp flambé, the chef did not have my shrimp, did not realize it until he was almost done cooking and did not burn the liquid off so it was dripping in liquid and very salty. The Yum Yum Saice was not thick & had the consistency of soup.

Final: They have a policy that if your party had 6 or more that they add 18% tip that is split between the chef & waitress. Even though our checks were split they still counted us as 6. The chef barely talked & our waitress barely came to the table. The busboys were the ones we seen the most & had the most personality. Our meal was $100 with tip for 4 of us. That is high for subpar food. We have been to steak restaurants that weren’t that high. I feel that because they were busy that our chef rushed through everything to get to the next table, and because of that our food suffered. All the waitresses looked like we’re not used to them being busy. The whole staff looked very stressed and over it. Except the busboys, they actually looked like they enjoyed their job. I would like to try it again on a not so busy day to see if I’m wrong, but I would have to go by myself because everyone that I was with never wants to go...

NEGATIVE 10 stars. VERY bad overall experience, the cook was the only Good part, the server and manager/ owner were very rude. We arrived at 6:30 with reservations for my sisters 21st birthday and the waitress didn't even acknowledge us sitting there for a good half hour and then proceeded to not even get our drinks to us until after an hour of waiting. I asked her the difference between the plum wine and the plum wine cooler and she said the cooler had sprite in it so i asked if it was like a sangria and she rudely said no it's wine and sprite very sarcastically. I personally never liked the food at Yamato's having gotten food sick the last two times we were there so i stuck to an alcohol drink and my fiancé and rest of the family ate, i just wanted to spend time with the family since it was a birthday dinner with 18 of us, So when the check came i was suprised there was a share fee. I asked the waitress about it since i didn't share food i just had a drink and she said to take it up with the manager she just worked there so i went up to the front desk where what i assume was the manager was even more rude and saying if i sit im charged so i said i wasn't aware of that fee and instead of her being polite and trying to keep our business by removing it since they were making money off the other 17 people and we have gone there the last 3 years in a row she just shrugged her shoulders and said you sit we charge you so i replied at least Iv never gotten sick at mizu bc at this point I'm no longer being polite.. Iv waitressed for over 10 years and know what it's like but they auto gratuitized every check so apparrently they don't feel the need to be polite. Save your money and time and def don't expect good service...

Based on some of the reviews I was reading I started wondering whether it was a good idea to take my wife, son, daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren to Yamatos for a family celebration. Fortunately I ignored the bad reviews. First, parking in the rear doesn't mean down some alleyway. There is a large parking area and it is well lit as you move towards an obvious entryway. My family met up there and the grandchildren started heading in. We were greeted inside and waited all of three minutes before we were taken to a table. ( that may have been because our whole group was present and we weren't waiting for anyone else ) We had an opportunity to sit for a moment and catch up with each others events as we took in the sights of fiery cooking going on all around us. The grandchildren were captivated! It was not immediately, but there was no delay before a waitress started taking drink orders. Following that delivery we made our dinner orders and before many minutes passed we were eating soup and salad. Again, nothing happened immediately but it did not seem like much time passed before our chef arrived. He was a very personable and outgoing fellow and the kids immediately hung on every word and action. Fortunately for them he had plenty of both. But of course we were also there for the food. It was excellent from the vegetables and rice to the many types of protein you could have prepared to cover them. It was all we could eat and then some. I would not have changed a thing in their preparation. I don't know what happened to the people with the bad reviews but it was not my experience. As a family we celebrated an important event and Yamatos made it even more special as a...