Yokozuna South- Great food, horrible, horrible service
My family was so excited when Yokozuna Southside opened. Now they could get great sushi without having to drive downtown. Yokozuna (both southside and downtown) are super hip, sushi places with amazing sushi and entrees (for the people that aren't really feeling sushi). The issue that my family ran into here was horribly slow waiting times and bad service. Let me explain..
My family called and made reservations ahead of time. It was for 5 people and we know it gets booked. Plus, we had my grandfather there and he can't really stand around waiting for long. When we got there, they had a table for us in the loft. That's normally fine but my grandfather could not walk up the stairs (this is totally not anyone's fault, I'm just laying the groundwork). So, we asked if we could get another table. Normally, you'd think that it wouldn't take them long to get a different table set up but, unfortunately, that did not happen. We waited for 45 minutes for our table while we say numerous other folks who did not have a reservation get seated. I fortunately asked for a chair for my grandpa about 30 minutes in, so, he didn't have to stand the entire time.
Once we got seated, our very friendly waitress came over and asked for our drink orders. We quickly got our waters and our waitress disappeared. Everyone who ordered a different drink (my dad and grandpa ordered beers and I ordered a tea) got ignored. My mom, after 15 minutes, flagged down the floor manager and he quickly took care of the drinks.
Then, after we got our drinks, we waited another 10 minutes before the waitress took our order. I ordered the pork belly ramen that is in a spicy chicken broth and has cabbage, cilantro red onion, fresnos and lime as well as the rising run roll which normally has coconut shrimp, imitation crab, cream cheese, mango, avacado and is served with a pineapple rum sauce. I had to order it with smoked salmon instead because I am very, very allergic to shrimp (which I told the waitress when I ordered it with the salmon).
So, we wait for another 20 minutes without seeing our waitress. My mom again flags down the manager and he gets our waitress to get our food out for us. My mom checks my sushi roll and, to my huge surprise, they brought out the roll with shrimp. Thank goodness she checked or else I would have had to go to the hospital. Now, I don't know if this was a waitress mistake or a kitchen mistake but I have a feeling it was the former. I have done this order many times and Yokozuna Downtown has always done an amazing job preparing my meal without any shrimp. So, my mom gets the manager and tells him this. He quickly goes in the back and gets this fixed. At this point, my mom tells him that I'm a food blogger, so, the service from now on is going to be biased because the manager essentially becomes our server for the rest of the night.
Alright. Now to the part that I prefer talking about- the food!
The ramen was awesome. The broth was hearty, spicy, herbal and so incredibly well balanced and all of the components were super well seasoned and executed. The only exception was the quail egg. I was expecting a runny yoke but it was cooked completely through. Still tasty though. My only other issue with the meal was that the vegetables were so thickly cut (as shown) that it was really difficult to eat. I wound up cutting it all up before proceeding too far.
So, I love love love this roll. It is creamy, sweet, savory and the pineapple rum sauce gives it an acidic sweet kick that I can't get enough of. I have had it before my allergy began with the shrimp and the coconut shrimp is the perfect balance of hearty, crunchy and tropical. It's a nice, fresh, fun spin on sushi! Plus, who doesn't love eating pink sushi?? I will say that the pink soy paper doesn't hold the ingredients in as well as desired, so, unless you are practiced, the roll will fall apart. It still tastes good in pieces though.
So, I'm super torn with Yokozuna. I only review a restaurant once and the food was So great here but the wait was long, the service was slow (this has happened to me a lot at the downtown location) and I nearly got poisoned! I'm really hoping it was a fluke and that Yokozuna has stepped up their game. I will say that the manager (you know who you are) was AMAZING and really took care of us, even before learning that I was a food blogger. Yokozuna is a great place for a nice date or a night out with friends. It's hip and tasty.
My family called and made reservations ahead of time. It was for 5 people and we know it gets booked. Plus, we had my grandfather there and he can't really stand around waiting for long. When we got there, they had a table for us in the loft. That's normally fine but my grandfather could not walk up the stairs (this is totally not anyone's fault, I'm just laying the groundwork). So, we asked if we could get another table. Normally, you'd think that it wouldn't take them long to get a different table set up but, unfortunately, that did not happen. We waited for 45 minutes for our table while we say numerous other folks who did not have a reservation get seated. I fortunately asked for a chair for my grandpa about 30 minutes in, so, he didn't have to stand the entire time.
Once we got seated, our very friendly waitress came over and asked for our drink orders. We quickly got our waters and our waitress disappeared. Everyone who ordered a different drink (my dad and grandpa ordered beers and I ordered a tea) got ignored. My mom, after 15 minutes, flagged down the floor manager and he quickly took care of the drinks.
Then, after we got our drinks, we waited another 10 minutes before the waitress took our order. I ordered the pork belly ramen that is in a spicy chicken broth and has cabbage, cilantro red onion, fresnos and lime as well as the rising run roll which normally has coconut shrimp, imitation crab, cream cheese, mango, avacado and is served with a pineapple rum sauce. I had to order it with smoked salmon instead because I am very, very allergic to shrimp (which I told the waitress when I ordered it with the salmon).
So, we wait for another 20 minutes without seeing our waitress. My mom again flags down the manager and he gets our waitress to get our food out for us. My mom checks my sushi roll and, to my huge surprise, they brought out the roll with shrimp. Thank goodness she checked or else I would have had to go to the hospital. Now, I don't know if this was a waitress mistake or a kitchen mistake but I have a feeling it was the former. I have done this order many times and Yokozuna Downtown has always done an amazing job preparing my meal without any shrimp. So, my mom gets the manager and tells him this. He quickly goes in the back and gets this fixed. At this point, my mom tells him that I'm a food blogger, so, the service from now on is going to be biased because the manager essentially becomes our server for the rest of the night.
Alright. Now to the part that I prefer talking about- the food!
 |
| The spicy pork ramen |
 |
| The shrimp-less rising sun roll |
So, I'm super torn with Yokozuna. I only review a restaurant once and the food was So great here but the wait was long, the service was slow (this has happened to me a lot at the downtown location) and I nearly got poisoned! I'm really hoping it was a fluke and that Yokozuna has stepped up their game. I will say that the manager (you know who you are) was AMAZING and really took care of us, even before learning that I was a food blogger. Yokozuna is a great place for a nice date or a night out with friends. It's hip and tasty.
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