Yosake Downtown Sushi Lounge — Restaurant in Wilmington

High on esthetics and ambience, Yosake is far less impressive regarding food and service. After hiking up a stairway which rivals Mt Fuji in height, you enter into an almost pitch black room, illuminated by accents of red through various Asian lamps, filtered crimson gels, and cheesy Christmas lights. It overwhelmingly looks like a sterotypical bordello with less style and charm. At the bar, I had to use my phone's light to read the uninspired menu, during that time the bartender was chatting up a storm with the ladies sitting next to me. When he did look in my direction, he quickly averted his focus and attention at the last minute to take the drink order of patron who got up from his table to order, because his parties server was MIA. After a 12 minute wait and completing drink orders, I got the chance to finally order, I asked him a question about the sashimi and he gave a nervous grin and said "before taking the job I knew nothing about sushi and I am (nervous laughter again) still learning." He could have said I don't know, I just work here.  Nevertheless, I order something called the "Shrabster"-lobster, crab and cucumber inside topped with avocado, ebi shrimp, spicy aioli and tobiko. It was $16 worth of nothingness and should be called the "Crapster." Six pieces of disappointingly pallid shellfish slapped together with blown out carolina rice. However, the biggest regret was the bartenders error incorrectly keying in my order of Shanghai Firecracker Shrimp and instead giving me the Spicy Crab Dip with Pita toast points. Unfortunately, I failed to check my order before I left, but I had already spent 40 mins in the "bordello of blood" and was ready to go, only to discover the grotesque mix-up upon my arrival at home. I cannot accurately convey how vexed I was gazing down at what looked like a regurgitated cats meal with danity pita aside of it. I was too angry to call to let them know their error and was too far away to return, so I decide to try it and became disgusted and enraged all over again from what tasted like ammoniated paste. I finally, I accepted defeat and gave it to the cats, and with one sniff they aloofly turned their noses up and refuse to eat it. I have dined in some of the finest sushi restaurants in Japan, New York and L.A, and do not consider myself a sushi snob or aficionado. However, inattentive service, along with unnecessary errors compounded by mid-grade sushi in the largest port city in N.C. is absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable.  If you dare to venture into the "bordello of blood",  I recommend you are anaerobically fit for the hike up the stairs, bring night vision goggles or a individual light source, lots of patience and check your food for accuracy if it is a take away order and for freshness if your dining in, or just avoid the...

YoSake boasts strong reviews, and on paper, that makes complete sense. The menu is deep and varied, the location is convenient, and the use of local ingredients is commendable. The actual experience of dining here, however, proved to be fairly disappointing.

YoSake is located on the second floor of a historic building, accessible by pausing halfway up a long staircase. Inside, the ambiance is half industrial (bricks n ducts), half imitation Japanese (red walls and anime art). While a “fun” atmosphere with space for groups, it’s also quite loud, making conversation difficult.

Billed as a sushi lounge, YoSake has classic and specialty rolls but also curries, noodle dishes, soups, salads, and more. There are Thai as well as Japanese influences and vegetarian options as well.

My wife and I ordered a coconut lemongrass soup, a farmhouse roll (cucumber, sweet potato, avocado, and asparagus with cream cheese), and a crispy salmon (salmon, forbidden rice, scallions, and avocado cream). Our server was friendly, and in light of what followed, very apologetic, but the meal was one mishap or letdown after another. YoSake makes no claim on authenticity, but even faux Asian fusion should be able to do better than a bag of Bigelow in the tea department. The soup (perhaps tellingly not billed as tom kha gai) was salty to the point of inedible (no hyperbole here) and filled with overcooked vegetables to boot. Somehow, my crispy salmon (listed that way on the menu) was interpreted as a crunchy roll with salmon, a mistake that was, thankfully, quickly remedied.

That said, the meal wasn’t a complete disaster. The farmhouse roll offered a healthy change-of-pace from the traditional Philly, the salmon was cooked well (crispy as advertised without being dry) if a bit understated in the flavor department, and the rice was quite tasty.

It’s possible that we caught YoSake during an off-night, but the acoustics, miscues, and presence of more reliable options in the area make it unlikely we’ll be back during our next...

Let me start by saying that I am a local resident of Wilmington, and had previously had very good experiences at Yosake. So much so that when my grown children were visiting from California, I was excited to take them to a restaurant that had always provided good service and exceptional food. My good friend and I, (also a local) popped into Yosake on May 22 about 5 pm. We were met by an extremely hostile, overbearing hostess who, when we inquired about the possibility of securing a table for 5, snipped that she had nothing available for the entire night. (Let me say that the restaurant was roughly half full at this point and the bar was completely empty.) We were a little taken aback by her attitude which was quite rude and abrupt, and said that we would be happy to sit at the bar. (Remember, it was empty). She snipped that the bar was fully booked as well and that basically we needed to leave. At this point my husband and the kids were on their way, so I said to my friend, “let’s just go sit at the bar and call them so we can make other plans.” At this point, (I am still stunned to think of it) the “hostess” sharply told us that we were not allowed to sit at the bar; that all the seats were reserved. I told her that at best it would take me a couple of minutes to make my call but she told us we COULD NOT SIT THERE TO MAKE A CALL! Should I take this moment to say that both my friend and I had been at a film event that day and both were dressed nicely; so it wasn’t as if we were homeless trying to secure a spot out of the rain. We left, speechless at the outright rudeness of this person who’s only job is to interact with the public. Wow. BAD CHOICE Yosake! We ended up going to Seabird where we were accommodated immediately. At this point I will never go back to Yosake and will take my year round, non-tourist dollars to all the other many wonderful restaurants...