Yakitoria

I go to Yakitoria weekly, they know me by name in there. It is quite expensive, but I am willing to pay a high price for good, quality food. This is by far the best Japanese restaurant I have been to in London, and I have been to almost all of them.

The sushi is bar far the best sushi I have ever had. They serve great portions and have a very unique variety of sushi rolls (hot and cold). The service is amazing, which is very hard to come by in London. They are very prompt and eager to please. They will follow you to your seat and pull your chair out. When your glass of wine is low, they are always there to fill it up.

With the quality of food, service and atmosphere, you by far get more for your money than most places. I would 100% recommend this place, and especially for a date. Once you are finished eating you can go downstairs to a nice comfy, quiet lounge and enjoy some cocktails and wasabi nuts. I promise you won't regret going to Yakitoria.
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L&D
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Not too sure what the previous review was talking about in terms of rice ,as far as I could see the lunch menu was pretty reasonable for this type of restuarant and the dishes we ordered certainly were not 80% rice. The restaurant was not busy for sure but it was a sunny day and the atmosphere was just right for a lunchtime. Service was quite quick and assured and the food was not over pretentious which is as it should be for the time of day. I will definitely return as we heard a whisper of a new menu in the offing.
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J.Scott
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, April 10, 2007

We went to Yakitoria at lunchtime and the atmosphere was awful: despite being a lunchtime late in the week, the vast cavernous space was totally deserted save two other tables. The location is diabolical as well and certainly does not help to attract customers. Anyway, we paid about £20 each for dishes off the set lunch menu which weren't bad but they definitely were not worth what the price (obviously it is hard to tell what you are getting because of the Japanese names of dishes, but all the dishes we consisted of about 80% rice which is very cheap for the restaurant to provide). In retrospect, the lunch menu was probably a bad idea as most of the things from it appeared to be fairly bland and mostly just consiting of rice, but we didn't want to go a la carte and pay upwards of £30 per person for a lunch in an atmosphere-less, deserted place. I don't know about standards of Japanese food so it is hard to comment, but ingredients seemed to be good quality and everything was beautifully prepared and presented, there was just too much rice and lunch dishes were too bland and uninspired and not worth what we paid. Service was efficient but there were too many staff and we were being watched nearly all the time. Would not particularly recommend and probably will not be returing.
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GH
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Saturday, March 10, 2007

been there....'cos heard about stunning deco..and then?? that was it. staffs were no trained, was sooooo slow,don't think they had any idea what they sale,how to serve. all they do just chat, chat, chat. don't care about customer. food was totally average. over priced.

strongly NOT RECOMENND. in LONDON...there is many nice japanese restaurant out there.
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

I have read some of the comments in this website and I feel that I need to add my comment. For me and I go frequently the service is great (maybe because they know me), the ambient is even better as I don't like crowded restaurants, food is always great if you know what to choose and it's not cheap but this is London my friend.

Love Ig
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Ignacio Huici
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Sunday, November 26, 2006

Slightly embarrassingly, we went here because it got a style award in Time Out. Bit of a mistake. It did indeed look great, with funky and comfy chairs, smart décor, chic look and well-dressed staff. It certainly looked the part and it’s obvious why it won that award.

However, the food and service were not up to it, not at all. The food was just about ok, but really quite average. The sushi was quite bland, though the texture was good. The Teriyaki chicken looked like it was from Tescos, cooked and shoved in a sauce. Desserts were bland and a bit pointless, made me think I’d been had.

However it was the service that stood out, and not in a good way. It was so badly co-ordinated that it actually became quite amusing. It was fairly empty when we got there, but there were still loads of waiters strolling around with nothing to do. We got served by probably 6 or 7 different people, while several times several of them got together in a little huddle to discuss what was going on. God knows how they cope when things are busy. They lost a couple of dishes that we had to hunt down and were a bit cold when they got there.

Basically the only reason to come here is to have a look and if you don’t mind eating average food for high prices with amusingly bad service.
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Stephen H - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 2
Thursday, November 09, 2006

This is by far the worst Japanese restaurant I have been to (and that includes YoSushi). The starters were OK, if not slightly over-priced but it went down hill after that. I know that Japanese people tend to order a lot of different dishes and share then, but the prices in this restaurant did not permit us to do this. The mains were an absolute joke. I had the Yakitoria selection, which must have cost them 50p to put together. It consisted of less than quarter of an asparagus spear, a tiny and I mean tiny piece of chicken and an equally tiny bit of salmon. By tiny I mean 3.5cm by 1cm. There were also 2 hard boiled quail's eggs, which were vile and half a miniature courgette. They were presented nicely on a food warmer, which to add insult to injury burnt the food before I even had a chance to pick up my chopsticks. That delight cost £11.50 and didn’t even come with rice, which for a tiny portion was £1.25. The miso soup cost a ridiculous £3. My husband got the sushi, £15 for 5 pieces, that's three pounds a piece! It might have been acceptable had the fish been a delicacy or had they tasted outstanding but unfortunately it was your average salmon and tuna on their fancy style of rice. Really not that tasty at all. If the food had been good I could have swallowed the price, but it was average verging on not nice. It was a Saturday night and the place was pretty empty. There were far too many staff, 8 of which seemed to like congregating around our table, watching and listening to our every move. The minute we put our chop sticks down the plate was whipped away. Also, one of our many waitresses was chewing chewing gum and was remarkably huffy. Basically it was rubbish. You could go to one of the good Japanese run, Japanese restaurants in Mayfair and pay the same but leave feeling you have had a good filling meal. My advice for this place is don't bother, I'm still angry about it.
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Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Monday, October 09, 2006

Great location, great concept. Menu is vibrant and unusual. Venue itself is well designed even if it loses some atmosphere on account of its size. Only thing lacking is vibrancy of service. it's not that they don't try hard. They are some of the most attentive, thoughtful, respectful serving staff on London, and manager Ricky is a great ambassador for the place. I guess what I mean is that overall the place needs some energy, even if our visit was midweek. And oddly the food is generally warm, not hot. definitely worth a visit. As it becomes more popular it will no doubt become a great destination.
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Orlando Flint - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 6
Thursday, September 28, 2006

Conveniently located just next to Paddington Station. Atmosphere is very cold and despite the fact that the place was nearly empty we were asked for our reservation. Quality of fish and food was good first time we went there, but seemed to have dropped recently. Portions got smaller probably because they expected more business. Staff was nice.
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 2
Sunday, September 17, 2006

Although the decor is nice, this restaurant has the worst customer service. I actually don't even think they know what customer service is. Not only do they not respect the Japanese culture by correcting translating the Japanese words to English on the menu, when I pointed this fact out, they insulted me by saying 'This is not Japan.' When pointing out that they brought the wrong dish out, they came out with a myriad of excuses and made us pay for the dish. When looking at the total bill, the only conclusion we could come up with was 'It is defintely not worth the ridiculous price.' I recommend that you do not try this restaurant. My advice to this restaurant? If you're trying to be a Japanese restaurant, then at least respect your Japanese customers. But if you don't care about the fact that it's rude and shows no respect to the Japanese culture, and you want to pay a ton of money to be left hungry for another meal, you should try this place.
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Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, August 30, 2006