Yakitoria

This restaurant is truly excellent. I've been to other similar restaurants such as Nobu, and I must say that this is the best I've been to so far.

I must reccommend the tuna tartare for starters - wonderful flavours, tuna fresh and tasty enough to serve raw. The seabass was delicious for a main course, it melted in my mouth. Any of the desserts I tried were outstanding! I would also reccommend a sushi platter to share between you.

The service was excellent, although not out of this world. The waiters and waitresses were very polite, friendly and helpful. The atmosphere is very classy yet relaxed, and we went on a fairly quiet night, which made the atmosphere even better.

Yakitoria is pretty expensive, but if you like Japanese food or at least have an open-mind, I would definitely suggest you save up for this!
Comment on this reader review

Anika
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Sunday, August 27, 2006

i recently had the pleasure of eating at Yakitoria with a friend and have to say i can only write glowing things about this fabulous restaurant. The food was out of this world, pleasew try the soft shell crab tempura - to die for and as for the sahimi it must have been the freshest i have ever tasted.

The service too was flawless, we were attente to both efficiently and thoughtfully with advice on wine to accompany our meal and a recommendation for desert which was out of this world - a must is the chocolate pudding with green tea icecream (perfect to share!)

All in all a fabulous experience i hope to re live in the near future.
Comment on this reader review

Julia Head
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Thursday, August 24, 2006

I go to Yakitoria quite often as it is on my route home between Paddington station and my home in Maida Vale. Depending on whether I am with someone else, I'll either stop and eat in the restaurant (or out on the patio), or if alone, get some sushi to take home. Either way, the sushi is extremely fresh, delicious, and well made. For the quality, I think the prices are reasonable (try the spicy red eye roll - spicy tuna with caviar and a tiny slice of jalapeno pepper - fabulous). As for the service, they have about 3 times as many staff on hand as what they actually need, and this can lead to over-attentiveness and some confusion at times, but because it is so well-intentioned, it is easy to forgive. The decor is fantastic - high spec and tasteful, and it is clear that a lot of time, effort and money has gone into this place. It may be going through some teething pains as it becomes more established (I think it's only been open about 8 months) but it will get there eventually. It is most definitely worth a visit, especially on a warm summer evening when you can sit outside by the canal and watch the world go by as you eat.
Comment on this reader review

JW9
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Thursday, July 27, 2006

A friend of mine and I went to the restaurant for a Thursday's lunch.

We were both impressed by the interior. It was beautifully decorected. It was well planned. The colour theme was well co-ordianated - Grey and green. It was also spacous for both the main restaurant area and the basement. The washrooms were also beautifully decorated - again grey and green, spacous and clean. The sinks were very impressive. Everything was extremely beautiful, and the design in my opinion was stunning, especially the function room with the glassy cutains by the reception. The staff were very smart and the uniforms were outstanding. This was the place to entertain your friends and clients.

On entering the restaurant, we were greeted by the duty manager at the reception and later guided by a charming and smartly-uniformed waitress to a table by the window. She was very friendly but looked nervous. The restaurant was almost empty while the nearby restaurants were full of customers. There was only one table where five customers were having their lunch. We ordered two sets of lunch from the Lunch Menu - Beef and Chicken Teriyaki and a bottle of Sparking water. When the food arrived, the presentation was beautiful and the quality was good, but not in any way substantial. So we later ordered the Yakitoria Chicken, the SIgnature dish of the restaurant to fill up our stomachs. Again the quality and the presentation were both good although we had to wait for a while and it was certainly not value for money and was not good enough to represent a signature dish. To finish our meal, we ordered the Rhubarb Pancakes with Mascarpone and the Traditaonal Japenese Sweets. Presenstation again was good and my friend enjoyed his pancakes very much and said that it was outstanding, but he did not enjoy my Japenese sweets and I found that they did not quite meet my expectations in terms of taste and favour.

In terms of service, it was satifactory. Although the staff were very friendly they weren't very informative. Some of the staff looked a bit bored, and we understood that it might have been because the restaurant was not busy. It seemed to me that there was little interaction between the staff and the customers, and for sure no co-ordination between staff because the Cucumber and Seaweed Salad did not come with the meal and nobody was aware of it until we questioned them about it. There was no satisfaction check-back by the waitresses thoughtout the meal. The duty manager who was aware of this when we questioned a number of staff about the missing dish did not do anything about it or instruct his staff to rectify the mistake. In my opinion, there was no customer care at all from the manager. Also thoughout our meal, the duty manager and his asssistant manager spent their time playing with the laptop at the reception while ignoring the customers.

On the whole, the experience was interesting. The quality of the food was good. The interior was superb. The service was ordinary. Value for money was variable. Surely, the staff training was a must for the manager in terms of upselling and customer interaction. The manager himself should have spent more time with the customers rather than playing busily with his toys!

Lastly, I must say that that it would be very unlikely for me to come back but I would definitely recommend it to my friends for the interior - it is a very beautiful restaurant where you can entertain your friends and clients for an enjoyable and relaxing evening - providing that the service will improve. It is a beautiful beautiful restaurant.
Comment on this reader review

Jackens WONG
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 5
Thursday, July 13, 2006

My wife and I went to Yakitoria based on the good reviews about the food but ready to expect poor service. As expected, the food was excellent but we were pleasantly surprised by the service. It was a lovely evening and we were able to sit outside by the canal. The service was both friendly and efficient so no complaints at all. We mainly had sushi but also tried the tempura and found both to be excellent. Their variation of a mojito certainly added to our enjoyment. As previous reviewers have commented, it is not cheap. But we felt the price was justified by the freshness of the fish and overall quality of the food. As a final comment, their website gives excellent directions on how to find them. Five minutes walk from Paddington and a quiet location by the canal. Well worth the short walk.
Comment on this reader review

BR
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Sunday, June 18, 2006

I live very near the restaurant and go there regularly.

No bones about it, the service is ropey. There is a reasonbly fast turn around. I would echo the comments about knowledge of the menus.

But I have to say that the quality of the food means that you can overlook the service issues. It is always exceptional.

It is not a cheap evening out, but then again sushi of that quality never is in London. It compares favourably with what I would class as the leading Japanese restaurants in London on the price front.
Comment on this reader review

Stephen
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, May 08, 2006

Yakitoria was a challange to find but I will definitely be going again. Great spot for summer lunches, our food arrived quickly and my cocktail was so yummy I had to have another.
Comment on this reader review

Emma Ward
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Monday, May 08, 2006

The food is outstanding, everything is fresh, great quality and beautifully presented.-One of the best meals I have recently had in London.

Despite a rather out of the way venue, its well worth the visit.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Saturday, April 29, 2006

Great Food but outrageously expensive, Funky Decor, good music.

Service is very slow.

A nightmare to find.

This is not value for money.
Comment on this reader review

David C
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Months later the service is even worse than before. The restaurant is always empty yet the staff wait around talking and ignoring their customers. We waited a full 10 minutes before anyone came over with a menu! The worst part was they never even gave us a drinks menu so we had to wait even longer for that.

The waitstaff are ill trained: they don't know the menu well, and they are obviously not experienced in the restaurant industry.

The sushi however is to die for. The salmon & tuna nigiri are the best I've had and the even the California roll was amazing. The prices however are not set up correctly. A supposedly 'set menu' is actually more expensive than if a customer ordered each item separately. Order a la carte and it's fine.

The hot meals however are not served in a traditional manner. The chicken terriyaki is more for show than for eating, and the yakitori skewers were very small and cold.

I'm not sure why this place hasn't begun to advertise or market themselves, or better yet...hired competent staff. We can only assume it's not open for the reasons it appears to be open (i.e. a Producers type deal).

This place will close soon so eat the fresh sushi while you can.
Comment on this reader review

Sam
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 5
Saturday, February 18, 2006