Yama Sushi & Izakaya — Restaurant in Portland

Not sure why this place is so high rated because every time I'm gone, the menu seems to have potential but it's never executed very well. The biggest issue with the Clintons St location is the ineffective and rude wait staff.

On my first visit, 05/25/21 I was greeted by the petite Japanese hostess when she walked out the front door looked me in the eye, and then allowed the door to slam in my face. I was blown away. I let myself in. She came around through the back door and informed me there was a one-hour wait. I had just called 15 minutes earlier and she said then, I would be able to walk right in. When I explained this to her she looked at me with a blank face, Shrugged her shoulders and said "oh well". Needless to say, I left with a very bad impression of this restaurant.

I decided give them another try based on all their good reviews and I found myself to be a bit disappointed then as well.

We were the first ones in the door and it still took 40 minutes until they took our order. I'm not sure why this was a problem as there were only five people at two tables in the whole restaurant. The girl was running around frantically with a priority of answering the phones instead of helping customers that were already in the restaurant. You know, Millennials and their phones...

When she finally did take our order, she picked up the menus and ran off with them before we had even finished our order. I was baffled. Service was hit and miss from there.

Now we get to the food. Both the chashu and the Miso salmon we ordered were burnt and had to be sent back. The waitress looked at us in bewilderment like we were asking something very unreasonable but, took them anyway. Before the entrees were delivered again, the sushi showed up. The volcano roll was tasty although it a bit tepid. It was obvious if it sat up on the counter waiting to be delivered for an excessive period of time. The two selections of white fish nigiri were wet and soggy like they'd still been a little Frozen. The unagi was however, very good.

The exceedingly salty soups were a real disappointment. The Miso soup, which usually arrives at the table hot enough to scald your tongue, was barely above room temperature, as was the potentially, very tasty tonkotsu ramen.

At this point we had already been there for over an hour and we just didn't feel like sending more food back as we figured we needed eat sometime this week.

This restaurant has potential to deserve the higher ratings it already has but, as far as I'm concerned, hasn't done that so far. Cold food and abismal service just don't make for a good combination. The management really needs to pick up their game and resolve these problems. 2 stars...

I really enjoyed my time here. However it is expensive so be ready to spend. I think we got there towards the end of a hectic shift but we were a bit rushed while we were there to order. The wait staff forgot our soy sauce / small plates so we were sharing appetizer dishes at times across the table. They were busy so we weren't really able to ask them for it until a few dishes in. The food was mostly delicious with some pieces that were merely satisfactory. Nothing was bad though. The Japanese uni was delectable but that maybe just me as I am new to uni and love it. The salmon flight: one of the salmon I believe king was delicious and the other two were a little chewy and merely satisfactory. The toro sashimi was amazing and delicious. Completely melt in your mouth. The ahi tuna was also great but I like toro more, personal preference. Hamachi carpaccio I felt was very good, and has a sesame oil flavor which is pretty heavy. We still enjoyed it thoroughly but maybe a little less sesame would be good. We also had some other sashimis that were very delicious on special but I forget what they were called. Rolls, we had Hawaiian which was really delicious and Waikiki which had too much mayonnaise. The half shell oysters were amazing, if you haven't tried Japanese half shell oysters you need to try them as they are prepared with a different type of soy marinade than American oysters. All in all was a great experience for a birthday or similar special occasion. I think everything is hectic from covid right now so they are very busy. All in all a good experience....

The food was great but the service was so bad I can't recommend this place. It was one of the worst dine-in experiences I've had in a long time.

The person at the front didn't notice we were waiting. Once we pointed out that we would like to put our names down, we were seated without a wait. Once seated, we waited 10 - 15 minutes to get water. Our first interaction, after being dismissed by both a waitress and waiter (waived at them, asked that we get service), was to bring us water and take our order. We ordered hamachi as an appetizer along with two entrees. The appetizer was delivered and again, we weren't given an opportunity to order drinks or any more food. Our entrees were dropped off in a similar fashion. Nobody came to refill our water or even take a drink order. Nobody asked how the food was. I'm surprised that we were even able to order with their staff's inattention. Sam was the name on our receipt. I assume it's the waitress. She did a phenomenally bad job. She made our experience awful. The restaurant wasn't very busy. Customers don't deserve to go to a restaurant and pay $50 for lunch to be treated like they're a nuisance.

The food was EXCELLENT but the service was so bad I won't go back. What a waste of a...