Yanagi Sushi & Grill — Restaurant in Santa Maria

Oh where to begin. We arrived a few minutes early for our 6 o'clock reservation for a teppanyaki grill, only to wait while the owner answered the phone three times while we were standing there to take carry-out orders.

Finally, we were informed that there was no reservation for us. There was a reservation for a group our size for 5 pm, but, according to the owner, who wouldn't even look at us or speak to us, if that was our reservation, we were too late.

We were told by the server we would have to wait for another group of 6 at 6:30 if we wanted to sit at the grill, but that we could order drinks and appetizers while we waited.

Unfortunately, there was one server for the entire restaurant. I am aware of the struggles restaurants and other small businesses face at this time due to COVID-19, but they seriously should have had one person handling phone orders and at least one other server on the floor for the volume of patrons in the establishment.

We sat down and in about 15 minutes, we placed our drink orders. In another 15 minutes, we got our drinks and placed our appetizer orders. Another 15 minutes after that, we placed our entree orders. If you're keeping track, it is now over 50 minutes after we were seated and the group of 6 we were waiting on had never arrived.

Our waitress had so many other patrons, especially two large groups at the other grills, she truly never had a chance to check on us for refills or anything.

Finally, an hour and fifteen minutes after we arrived, we were informed that our chef was on his way, yet somehow our appetizers went out as carry-out orders, and did we want to place new appetizer orders. Again, our server was very apologetic and you could tell she was completely overwhelmed.

Finally our chef came out and he was great, so skilled, funny, and entertaining! We really appreciated his talent and effort. At one point, he was told he needed to create multiple carry-out orders while he was preparing our dinner. He told the server he did not appreciate the way our table was being ignored for other tables and carry-out orders and that she should tell the owner that.

I feel really bad for the people who worked so hard to make a bad situation work to the best of their ability. The bottom line is, the owners do not appreciate nor respect their patrons, their servers, or their chefs. The owners need not worry, we will make sure not to burden them with our...

Why 1 star?

The rating would not be fair if I did not provide justification.

The first sign of a bad dining experience was not receiving the usual complimentary green beans. I was ok with not being served the beans.

We ordered sushi and short ribs and those items were delivered to the table. However we had no plates, silverware or chopsticks. We had to ask for them, then waited another 5 minutes to receive them. Ribs got cold.

The sushi boat order comes with miso soup and salad. (3 of us ordered this). Those items never arrived. This ties in to the other reviews against this place! That is 6 plates of food we never received!

Sushi was delivered, but no wasabi with our almost $100 order of sushi. Again, we had to ask for it. Another 5 minutes go by before getting wasabi. The waiter gave us soup bowels to prep our wasabi and soy sauce.

As mentioned, we ordered 2 entrees of short ribs. Each order comes with a bowel of rice. We never received our bowels of rice either. 2 more plates of food we never received.

The portions and quality of short ribs were not good. We were served bones surrounded by gristle. Those familiar with short ribs know about the round bones. All of this served on a mountain of fried cabbage. Bottom line was $50 for fried cabbage and gristle.

My experience about this restaurant continues to get worse. I communicated with our waiter about the plates of food we did not receive and he said they were "complimentary". I was shocked. We did not get 8 plates of paid food. The menu specifically says what items comes with the paid entrees. I had to explain to the waiter, who is also the cashier, 3 times about the missing miso soup, salad and bowels of rice. I also offered to review the menu with him to show what items come with the order! He refused and displayed no sense of concern.

I was discounted $8 for not receiving 8 plates of food. Yanagi Sushi & Grill has failed to deliver the full order to customers before.

There are similar reviews and empirical experiences of folks not getting their full paid entrees and I believe Yanagi knows what they are doing. I do not want to classify this as theft, but others must speak up and make it known if this...

I would not recommend this place to my worst enemy! From the start of walking in we were given horrible attitude. We had a reservation and were on time to it but they were very busy so I guess that was our fault. The cook was extremely rude!! Would throw our rice bowls on our plates, he didn't ingage at all with us. The vegetables were not fully cooked and the meat was so raw most of us didn't eat it. One of our guests had a soda spilled all over them and they just gave him towels and napkins to clean it up. We were told walking in that there is a $10 cake fee for bringing your own cake which they provided you a knife lol. Then the waitress said "oh that cake looks good and you have extra piece for me" so my husband they kind man he is gave up a piece because he felt awkward. Well they still charged us the 10 for using their knife to cut it even though we gave her a piece. Then the bathrooms, let me tell you are absolutely the most disgusting bathrooms i have even been in. The stalls dont lock at all, toilets dont flush and the toilet paper is on the floor. For paying $350 for 5 plates and 2 drinks you would like the place would be better quality for sure. I would hate to see what the kitchen looks like. So moral of the story, WE WILL NEVER BE GOING BACK HERE AND DO NOT RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE EVER!!!!! WORST SERVICE AND FOOD IS NOT...