Yokozuna — Restaurant in Oxnard

One of few small shops serving Japanese styled food which haven't hiked up prices considerably since Covid compared to when I last visited. 2 item combination lunch was $13 (approx, rounded up), which I chose Tempura and Bulgolgi. Hot tea was an additional charge, which is a departure from super traditional standards of East Asian restaurants where it is included -- let's be real, almost nobody does that in the United States anymore since serving tea leaves and hot water are both additional expenses, especially with Covid economic conditions. I also had an additional appetizer of Soft Shelled Crab ($12)

Food quality-wise... it isn't the greatest, but it is well within reason and can be considered fairly good given the price-tag. The Bulgolgi did not have the strongest flavor ever, and had a bit more water than I was expecting... quite possibly due to cooking method, potentially straight from frozen and cooked while covered, and lacked the carmelization from being cooked a bit longer. The basic ingredient quality is still good. Because it was not too strongly flavored, I did not need to shove large spoonfuls of rice in between each bite

The Tempura was of reasonably good quality. The fried batter was of moderate thickness and did not taste completely bland. The shrimp was of good quality, as were the vegetables used. Only minor gripes with the pumpkin skin being a bit thick and included when fried, and similar with the broccoli having the tougher parts of the stalk when fried. Some restaurants deal with the skin and tougher parts by either peeling them or boiling the ingredients a bit (then letting them rest/cool off a bit) before frying. There is a dipping sauce included, which tasted a little different from what I am used to for Tempura. I'm not mistaking a slight bit of vinegar or citrus added to it, am I? Still a very nice flavor for the sauce

The salad had a very nice white colored dressing that was mildly sweet. One of my favorites since I have a bit of a sweet tooth. The miso soup is very standard for more traditional shops - compared to Genmai Sushi's slightly sweet version but still lovely version that tastes like mirin was added to it, and Saku's potential cardic arrest if fed to the wrong person abomination that is worse than ocean water. Rice is also reasonably standard. The meal was good overall and reasonably filling

They gave a slice of orange with the combination meal. I cannot emphasize how special that is, considering it is omitted in some restaurants due to them believing it is just an 'extra decoration' when it is supposed to serve as a "dessert" in traditional context - even more-so with an ongoing orange supply issue that made orange juice increase considerably in price more recently

The soft-shelled crab is absolutely delicious. Expensive, as it should be, but delicious. Definitely a guilty pleasure I'd be continuing to have if I remained in this area. Not many places in this area serve this delicacy

Service was good and considerate, and asked if I needed anything every so often, such as refills for hot tea

Definitely not the best out of the best store out there, but it is within reason/very good for its price-tag (the 2 item combination would have been closer to $20 at a higher end shop at a base in current times) with good service, and could easily fix issues with minor adjustments to food prep/cooking. In all honesty, these results are a sign of business being slow so preparations are done in a manner to keep food as fresh as possible while serving as soon as possible, such as preparation of certain foods from a frozen state and not peeling and boiling foods that are kept...

I was surprised at the low quality of food and service here, given the several high reviews. I stopped by on a Friday for lunch, and ordered a cucumber salad for $9 and a Chirashi bowl for $19. The pictures in the full-color glossy menu looked quite enticing. Alas, the accuracy of these photos was worse than a McDonalds food pic.

The menu picture of the cucumber salad shows an artful arrangement of cucumber spears, radish, various bits of seafood, and seasoning. What I got was a couple dozen thin round slices of cucumber swimming in soy sauce and a piece of Krab laid on top. At a minimum they could have left me to season the cucumber myself, rather than drenching it in soy sauce.

The menu picture of the Chirashi bowl showed a huge variety of treats (see attached photo): shrimp, tomago (egg), masago (fish roe), daikon radish, artfully arranged with a wide variety of fish, all seasoned with furikake. Compare that with what I received: ten or so pieces of roughly cut sashimi covered with a few onions and scallion pieces. No shrimp, no tomago, no masago, no radish, and unbelievably not even any furikake. The rice bed was small, and completely unseasoned.

This was not a Chirshi bowl, it was a mere sashimi plate. Traditional chirashi, which means “scattered” in Japanese, has a big bowl of seasoned rice topped with fish, vegetables, and a variety of other extra touches. At a minimum, a restaurant should deliver what they depict on the menu. This was not even close, and at $19 was way overpriced.

The restaurant was virtually empty, but the service was mediocre, with food simply plopped down on the table followed by the male server instantly vanishing, not asking if I needed anything else.

Two stars, because the fish at least...

R1: Crazy shrimp roll 7.5/10 Good mix of flavors the popcorn shrimp was cold when its a deep fried shrimp, a little soggy as well. Could be 10x better if this was at least refried or fried fresh. Do watch out for shrimp tails at the end of the rolls, I personally like them but some people dont

R3: Great White Shark Roll 9/10 We ordered this twice, awesome mix of flavors Garlic is freshly roasted and hot. Strong flavor The Jalapeno gave a nice texture and flavor to the roll A bite or two isnt too spicy but the spice does add up the more you eat Overall highly recommended

R19: Volcano Roll 5/10 Lots of scallops on top of the roll but it just kinda rolled everywhere and its flavor didnt really blend with the roll itself. Scallops itself were good and the roll itself were good, we just didnt enjoy eating both in one bite. Too much sauce, it made the roll soupy to where it would fall apart when you pick it up Might need to change the plating of this dish because it does have potential. But flavors all together were unpleasant

R21: Albacore Roll 7/10 Simple and decent roll Spice level is about a 3/5

We ordered 5 rolls total with 3 cokes and a tea, the total was $98 so i say it was pretty decent for the prices.

We do plan to come back and taste more stuff. We came around 4pm so the store was a little empty and maybe thats why the atmosphere was...