YAYOI Hillsdale — Restaurant in San Mateo

With so many Japanese restaurants in San Mateo, Yayoi stands out from the rest by offering something unique. The focus here is Japanese comfort food, so you won't find sushi here although they do have a dish with raw salmon over rice. They offer mostly set meals with cooked vegetables and meat over rice with sides, and there are a few noodle soup dishes as well (not ramen though). I really like the flavors of the food here, and the ingredients seem good quality. I especially LOVE the soft boiled egg, the yolk was very creamy and the egg white was liquidy and smooth. One minor complaint is that the broth in my sukiyaki was a little too sweet. If you have kids, note that there is only one choice for kids meal set here. But my son loved it as it has a bunch of different things in the set (fried shrimp, chicken karaage, butter corn, udon noodle soup, and a treat of course). I also really like the presentation of the meal sets: the dishes and trays used looked nice. The restaurant decor is modern and clean, and I really like the ordering system where you pretty much do all your browsing and ordering on an iPad, and you also check out through that iPad. There's no assigned waiter, if you need help just request it from the iPad. I found the service to be pretty timely and the food came out quick enough as well. The prices may be a bit high, but given that there's a no tipping policy here it all probably works out the same in the end. Still, I probably can't come all the time, but if I'm in the mood for a nicer meal I'll definitely...

I don't know why anyone would give Yayoi anything more than 1 star. I'm really starting to question all those local guides' reviews that are giving this place more stars than it really deserves. Yayoi wins the award for worst Japanese food I've ever tasted, and I've been to plenty of Japanese restaurants in San Francisco and San Mateo. I don't understand how they could mess up Japanese food so badly. Their ramen has lackluster noodles and watered down broth. Even instant ramen is better than this. The vegetarian gyoza tasted bad; it was lukewarm and watery in the center. I don't know how they could mess up a bento box. The meat was hard and chewy, and did not taste right. Even a bento box from a Japanese grocery market would taste better than this. They even got the dessert wrong. The menu picture showed green tea ice cream with gel cubes, fruit, etc., but what was served instead was perhaps a piece of mango mochi with gel cubes, fruit, etc. I was so disappointed with the food quality. Seriously, the food was pretty bad and overpriced for the portions. Also, service was minimal. Seriously, do yourself a favor and just drive a few minutes to downtown San Mateo where there are a lot more better-tasting and cheaper Japanese restaurants. And if you're already at Hillsdale Mall and don't want to drive, then just go to...

Highly recommended Japanese restaurant with an assortment of curries, appetizers, and main dishes. Located right at the entrance of the Hillsdale Mall with lots of parking within walking distance of the restaurant. The food here is definitely worth a trip to the mall.

The food here is excellent. The chicken katsu curry was amazing and they have several dishes focused around Waygu beef which were also amazing. The serve alcohol here too. They offer several types of sake. They also offer beer being Sapporo Light in a bottle or Sapporo regular on draft. The food was amazing.

They also have an automated service model with robots serving the table. It’s definitely a cool thing to see at first, but you start to miss the personalized feel of a human server. Also, they ask for tips after you eat - but are you tipping the robot?

Otherwise, great food and we were in and out very quickly. If you love Japanese food - definitely come through and try it out! Also check out the...