Yoimi Sushi & Hibachi Twin Falls — Restaurant in Twin Falls

Yoi Mi Sushi & Hibachi Steakhouse conjures up a distinctive image of a teppanyaki restaurant found especially in Hawaii and Japan, and major Mainland cities.

To be fair, hibachi (fire bowl) is not teppanyaki. It's a small grill fired by coals, where you cook your meats and vegetables, whereas teppanyaki is probably an elaboration of that for a crowd, where food is cooked on a large, long, flat top.

But both are cooked simply, teppanyaki served with savory dips like ginger or mustard. Neither are dressed with overly sweet teriyaki sauce.

I avoided going until I had more than myself, because I mistakenly believed Yoi Mi was more like a teppanyaki steakhouse, with a presiding chef, than a dine-in restaurant for one to four+. Maybe that was the point?

Recently, I took my husband and mom, visiting from Honolulu, only for us to be shocked and disappointed.

The only good things we had were an appetizer — tuna tataki, dressed with a savory, lightly sweet sauce, the very hearty miso soup, and the "Sushi" part of the restaurant, very fresh.

My mom lived in Japan and now lives in Hawaii. She knows old school Japanese dishes. So when she saw sukiyaki, she got excited. Still, she didn't order it, out of fear it wouldn't measure up to the dishes she had growing up in the 1950s-present.

She might've been right.

I, however, gamely tried a filet & shrimp hibachi steakhouse dinner, expecting the meats and vegetables (carrots, zucchini, broccoli, onion) to be grilled and lightly brushed with butter, maybe an umami soy-garlic-ginger marinade that didn't take over the dish with the dominating, cloyingly syrupy-sweet flavor of an average American teriyaki sauce that pervaded the entire dinner.

My steakhouse dish, the filet -- tender but hard to chew -- and shrimp with shells on, was covered in what tasted very much like teriyaki sauce, not the good kind, and very much on the overly sweet side. Even the pink "Yum Yum" dipping sauce was nothing but sweet with maybe a creamy back-end finish. Fried rice, typical of teppanyaki, was good.

The chunks of filet steak had no flavor, other than the sweet from the sauce. The shrimp tasted a little better, grilled in its own juices. I didn't even bother with the vegetables. I would've, if they'd been left alone.

When the "tempura" arrived, I took a bite of a small, battered, deep-fried piece of broccoli and instantly didn't want to go further. The batter wasn't familiar, or airy and crisp, with little craggy nubs sticking out; it had a weird, pasty aftertaste, as if semi-raw. It looked like a basic, wet-flour-only-batter fish fry. The dipping sauce tasted the same as the teriyaki-like sauce that covered the hibachi steak & shrimp.

Interestingly, the gyoza is offered either fried or steamed. We weren't sure if fried meant deep fried, or half-pan-fried/half-steamed like we're used to and served properly in ramen shops, so we went with steamed. It was decent. Again, the dipping sauce could've used a smidge of vinegar to off-set the sweet.

The restaurant, operating on the bones of the previous proprietor, a sandwich shop, I believe, felt cramped, oddly out of place, and unworthy of a Japanese steakhouse moniker. An afterthought.

Service was friendly enough, but there were lapses. They forgot our extra wasabi (which wasn't nearly strong enough) and our tempura. Prices were very affordable for a "Japanese steakhouse," $20-something for the filet and shrimp, for example, which is a good deal. Only one restroom, as far as I can tell.

Still, the place was packed with locals, so what do I know? Reviews are some of the highest of any restaurant in town. Bizarre.

We'll continue to try and find decent Japanese offerings up in Boise... We have yet to enjoy anything remotely close to what we've had in Hawaii and Tokyo.

People who haven't experienced a true Japanese Hibachi Steakhouse, or teppanyaki for that matter, would have no idea that what they're eating at Yoi Mi falls short of authentic...

I was so excited to try this and have more options for hibachi in town. However my group and I got there an hour and a half before going to an event at hands on right around the block last Friday and ended up leaving before even being served with 5 minutes to spare before our event. We sat outside and ordered within 15 minutes of sitting. Around 20-25 minutes after ordering our waitress said hopefully it should be out soon. At around the 40 minute mark she came up to us and said our order "got lost in the sauce" and that the kitchen was an hour behind. Many tables in just the outside area (there's 5 tables) where we sat had been seated, served, and left at this point. We waited an entire hour after ordering before just going to pay our drink bill and leaving. As my mom was trying to pay the bill to leave the waitress asked her to "hold on", she had addressed us 3 times by that point saying our food was coming. I believe the order was not put in and or lost. Totally get that their new and trying to figure it out, but my experience was so disappointing and unprofessional that this is my first ever...

I made an online order at the correct restaurant, pictures included. I went in to pick up my order and the gentleman was very rude and accused me of ordering at the wrong location so felt very embarrassed and I walked out of the store, I called my wife and questioned her and she sent me all of the information for the online order and sure enough I had all the proof as well as my bank confirmation saying it was paid. I went back in and had to basically prove that I ordered it through them and at the very first I gave them the confirmation order number but that wasn’t enough I had to prove I had made the order online and also prove that I paid. If your online orders doesn't work then don’t offer it. Very embarrassing not only publicly but also to my wife I’m very disappointed I’ve been to a lot of sushi venues in Fort Collins and Denver and this one doesn’t even compare to the customer service, at least at Sushi Ya in twin you get treated like a customer and don’t get disrespected. Hope if you decide to go to this venue that your experience is better than mine. Rolls are pretty small,...