Yoko’s Express

Yoko’s is one of those places that bring me back. It is like a trip back in time, to another life were I spent alot of time in Japan, before business meetings every day and the world moving to fast. I think about being @ Hokkaido U… anyways, go here, get some good food, and enjoy the time it takes to both get your food and eat it and reflect on something that is special to you.

I was a bit leery of Yoko’s based on some of the lukewarm reviews, but my wife misses the food from her native Japan, especially country style restaurants like Yoko’s, so we took a chance and were rewarded handsomely. The one lady working (Yoko?) said that she hoped we weren’t in a rush, and that it would take 30 – 45 minutes for us to be served. It ended up being 45 minutes, but my curry udon was just what I needed, and my wife’s grilled mackerel was done perfectly.
I think that the long wait was due to the fact that the place was very crowded and that everyone came in for lunch at the same time. That’s Denver for you. My advice is to order, then go to the Japanese market next door. By the time you get back, your food will be ready.
I’ll definitely be back. The food was good and the service was unbelievably sweet, if slow. It’s like going to Grandma’s for lunch. What’s better than that?

No no no.
I never heard of this place but we ran across it after going to the Cherry Blossom Festival and thought, hey, why not?
So many reasons why not:
*They replaced their normal menu with a «special» (read: more expensive) menu for Cherry Blossom Fest go-​ers.
*Service was sketchy. Not like crackhead sketchy but sketchy as one minute our girl would be right there then we wouldn’t see her for 10 minutes.
*We both ordered sushi which came with soup or salad. Rock on! However, in just about every place I’ve ever been to, your soup or salad comes out first. Not at Yoko’s which comes to the next pain point of my experience here…
*The food took about 30 minutes to come out. What the hell? I can be patient when it comes to sushi if a place is busy but there were about three other tables in the place, two of which already got their food. So what was the person prepping the food doing?
*With the food, we finally got our salads and it was mediocre at best. If you’re going to make me wait, at least give me some quality lettuce or dressing.
*Sushi was bland and comparable to the quality of sushi I could get at a supermarket. And I’m not talking Whole Foods or Safeway quality, more along the lines of Wal-​Mart.
*No music in the place, not even ambient background music. It was awkward.
Even though I’m a Beatles fan, I was expecting a little more from Yoko’s. It’s a small place with minimal staff and menu and usually those are my favorite kinds of places but I would not waste my time or money here.

We went during the Cherry Blossom Festival so it wasn’t as packed as we thought it would be. They quickly greeted us at the door and sat us done. Drinks and orders placed super fast… then we played the waiting game. We were one of two tables (out of five) that didn’t have food on our tables. Within the 30 minutes that we waited, no one else came through the door. The table that was seated after us received their entire meal faster than us. We received our salads 10 minutes later and about 15 minutes after that we got our sushi meals we ordered. 3 sushi items: California roll, tuna roll and Spam roll… all of which shouldn’t have taken 30 minutes to make. Sushi wasn’t satisfying in taste or texture. I really wanted to like this place because I am a fan of authentic Japanese cuisine but the only times they were quick was seating us and giving us our check. I might be back but at this point, I’m really not sure.

What I had? Croquette Curry and Gyoza
Food review: Several years ago, I was introduced to a fried mashed potato ball called croquettes for the first time in the European country of Slovakia. It was one of many delightful foods I tried out in said country. The past few years I have come across a few restaurants back here in the states that had «croquettes» but found myself a bit dissapointed. The time had come again but at a small Japanese restaurant in Sakura Square? It was a dangerous decision but decided to go with the croquette japanese curry and wow. it was well worth the risk. I found it! :-) While it wasn’t in a ball form the croquette was certainly delicious. The curry was about on par with Domo if not a little better. It was quite an enjoyable meal. The Gyoza was kind of tasty but unfortunately not the kind I have been looking for (it was more like a pot sticker than the flat kind I’m looking for (they have the «flat» Gyoza at Oshima Ramen)).
Service? Nice but really slow… we had a group of 9 and have never been there before so did not know what to expect. Anyway, the slowness was not a surprise although maybe wasn’t expecting it to be this long.
Other thoughts: No matter what size your party is do yourself a favor and be sure to order ahead. I don’t know this for sure but I believe their cooking staff is pretty minimal and you’ll have a wait no matter what size party you have.

Although I have never been to Japan, I think the food here is very authentic, on par with Domo. The presentation is more austere than Domo’s, but the flavors are just as savory. This place has wonderful udon, probably the best Japanese style noodles in Denver, except perhaps Oshima Ramen’s noodle brutalism.
What really makes this place special is that is serves the Japanese community that has been a integral part of Denver history for many years. The trip to Sakura square is great as you can check out the awesome Pacific Mercantile Store and the Japanese Buddhist temple.

I hate to give such a small, innocuous, mom-​and-​pop type shop such a poor review, but I have to tell the truth — this place is terrible.
I’ve been here twice: the first time, I got a to-​go order of vegetable udon soup when I was sick. Pretty good. A little overpriced, sure, but it’s a mom-​and-​pop — what was I expecting?
The second time was a disaster. I walked in at 11 on the dot, trying to catch a quick lunch before my 12PM meeting. I should have read the reviews about slowness instead of basing it off my previous mediocre noodle soup experience — I ended up getting served at 11.52AM. 8 minutes before my meeting. I literally shoved down my food in 3 minutes and headed out the door.
The long wait would have been okay had there not been 3 other faults:
1) The table next to me with Japanese clientele got served a full 20 minutes before I did, despite arriving in the restaurant after me and ordering the exact same dish. Some Unilocalers have argued that they «favor» their Japanese customers. I can confirm this.
2) My food was horrible. I had ordered tonkatsu — which, by the way, should not take 52 minutes to make considering that it’s just deep fried pork — and the meat was of some questionable quality (it had that weird greyish color that pork gets after sitting out for a while), wasn’t warm at all, and the sauce it came with tasted like it had come out of a bottle and microwaved. My water had some weird taste to it too, as if my glass hadn’t been washed properly.
3) My poor coworker who I had dragged along to lunch with me, was accidentally charged $ 96 dollars for her $ 9.60 meal. Simple mistake, right? But it took forever for our server to understand what the problem was and when he finally did, he seemed to imply that it was her fault and that she was causing him a huge hassle.
I really don’t know why this place has gotten such good reviews on Unilocal so far. The food certainly isn’t worth the wait. I know the staff is old, mom-​and-​pop, authentic (?), or whatever, but all that certainly shouldn’t justify the horrible food and service that I just experienced.

Delicious authentic japanese food. Everything is good if you are willing to wait just a bit.

Absolutely love going to Yoko’s for lunch. Yes it does take a while to get your food, but when you do, you will be ok with the wait. I usually get the Omusubi (rice balls) with salmon and curry with chicken katsu. Both are very awesome! I think people need to be a bit more open minded about this place. Yes the waitstaff and cooking staff are a bit older, but they are super friendly! I absolutely love sitting there and talking with them when they have a free moment. So if you go there, please be patient with them, it will be worth it!

I went to this place during lunch, and it wasn’t as packed as slow as the service was.
There was only one waiter, I’m guessing the owner and he was old. It took us a whole hour at the place, and we left right after eating!
The food selection is a little bit more different then a Japanese restaurant. I ordered a beef bowl and my beef was mixed with eggs and vegetables. It wasn’t bad, just different.
Also got the calamari sticks. They were good… except the fact that they were drenched in a weird BBQ Ginger tasting sauce!
Overall this place wasn’t the worst, but don’t think I’ll be back.
And if you’re going to try this place, I recommend going on a day when your not in a rush.

I love hole in the wall places. And of course, those places tend to have quirks. Yoko’s has tons of them.
Quirks like speed. Because it’s literally a mom and pop shop, the older servers don’t tend to churn out food the way you expect at McD’s. You’ll want to grab a book or an iPhone game — it’s gonna be a while.
However, like many hole in the wall places, you’ll get heaping portions of food for a very reasonable price. Yoko’s is probably nearing the boundary on cheap, where a $ 10 will get you a giant eel rice bowl that’s guaranteed to fill you up.
It’s certainly not the cheapest lunch meal (or fastest for the matter), but it’s a fun hidden away spot in Sakura Square that’s certainly worth exploring.

The old lady; maybe it was Yoko herself. She yelled at me to go sit down when I tried to talk to her. I just wanted to ask if I could order food for my hungry kids. We had been sitting there for 15 or so minuets waiting for menus or water, anything…
After watching her help several other customers pay their bill she walked out of the room to the other dining area. She was filling water glasses.
After getting yelled at then ignored, the treatment I received made me not really want to give them my business anymore.
NOT A GOOD PLACE FOR KIDS…

Yoko’s wasn’t fooling anyone before and wisely dropped the express from their name. Like others have mentioned, service here can be slow, which should be expected considering that the staff is really old. The food here is solid, old-​school, Japanese fare. Expect a variety of rice bowls, noodle dishes and tempura on the menu. I am a big fan of their katsudon, a rice bowl toped with pork, onions, and eggs. I’ve also had the unagi-​don, which is okay, but couldn’t help but compare it negatively to the version offered at Domo. The staff is super sweet, just slow — so bring a friend or something to read. Also, service is more prompt when you sit near the cash register.

Where can you find Japanese home style meals? At Yoko’s!
I adore Yoko’s because they serve delicious traditional Japanese dishes. The restaurant is literally run by a grandma and grandpa and this can cause one issue, the food service can be slow. I have to emphasize that the food is totally WORTH THE WAIT. I know it can be frustrating, but if you consider what you’re getting and who’s making it, it’s justified.
One of my favorite dishes is the chicken katsu curry. Japanese curry is not like Indian or Thai curry. It’s not spicy, but it’s quite delicious and the meats they use (chicken or pork) are prepared in a delicious batter and fried.
Other dishes I like include Zaru-​soba and Zaru-​Udon, which are cold noodles that are great for summertime. They also make very good tempura vegetables, so if you’re into that you’ll like what they have.
The last thing I want to bring up, is this is nothing like sushi restaurant. I know most people equate Japanese food with sushi, but there really is so much more. This is a great place to expand an understanding of Japanese food by learning what sorts of dishes Japanese people grow up on. These are the regular dishes that Japanese would enjoy at home and now you can too. I highly recommend getting dishes other than sushi rolls if you dine here.

Ok first, this is grandma cooking your lunch and grandpa’s and grandma’s serving your food. You’ll need some time to eat lunch here, so if you have the time it’s worth the wait. And by wait I mean 20 – 40 min before food appears depending on how busy it is. With this in mind, it is my favorite place to have Japanese food for lunch and dine there weekly.
This is traditional regular people Japanese food, some of the things your mouther would have made you growing up. Ochuzuke, Salmon/​Saba Shio (salty fish), Zaru-​Soba and Zaru-​Udon (cold noodles great for summer).
What they are really known for here are their donburi (rice bowls). While these are really good the other more unfamiliar dishes are good and no one seems to talk about. I particularly like their tempura because of the batter and what they fry. Besides the typical tempura shrimp, they often will have tempura onions, asparagus, broccoli, kabocha (Japanese pumpkin), sweet potato, zucchini etc. I enjoy this with an order of Zaru-​Udon, perfect combo.
One thing also to try is their homemade tsukemonno (pickled veggies). Their tsukemono reminds me of the one’s my mother made. These can vary daily but sometimes include cucumber, gobo, radish, cabbage, carrots etc.
The chicken katsu curry is also very good. This is a Japanese style curry, very different than Thai and Indian curries. No coconut in this curry. And the curry covers their katsu which can be chicken or pork.
I highly recommend, but please be patient with the service time. And try something new, you may like it. It’s also often crowded on Saturday, many of the shoppers from next door at Pacific Mercantile often eat lunch here.
PS. If you are a baseball fan, you will often spot visiting baseball players eating there for lunch, particularly the Japanese and Korean players. Kaz Matsui was there often but has since been traded from the Rockies.

During the Cherry Blossom festival, whose food court was inexplicably serving mostly spam and chicken teriyaki, my boyfriend and I snuck over to Yoko’s in an attempt to find ourselves some real (or at least closer to real) Japanese food.
We weren’t so hopeful when we saw that the place was empty and that there were signs on the outside of the restaurant proclaiming that the Cherry Blossom Festival specials included — Teriyaki Chicken! (Not that there’s anything wrong with teriyaki chicken, you understand, but we wanted something off the regular Japanese food radar, since it was a culture festival and everything.) But it was the only Japanese place open and around, so we went in, inwardly sighing.
I have no problem admitting we were wrong, wrong, wrong to judge this place based on its Cherry Blossom specials. They had way more than that on the menu. I ordered a tempura udon bowl, which was not the best I’d ever had, but definitely hot and tasty, with shrimp that snapped between my teeth with freshness. The bowl came with a very confusing limp salad with tasteless dressing, which I chose to ignore instead of consume.
My boyfriend, however, chose to order the Maguro Don bowl, which absolutely delighted our server from the moment the words came out his mouth. She must have been serving nothing but chicken teriyaki all day, because she was tickled pink! «Oh, this is the best dish!» she kept repeating as she moved backwards to the kitchen «You will like it! I’m so glad you order this!»
Well, she wasn’t lying. This was the first time either of us had had maguro don and since then, we’ve had it probably 10 more times and have learned to make it ourselves at home. All because of this one experience. The fish was deep pink and practically translucent and tasted as though someone had just taken it out of the ocean and chopped its head off five minutes ago. The rice was somehow both sticky and slippery with avocado at the same time, and the seaweed wrapped itself around everything so each bite was infused with the sea.
I have to average my tempura and his maguro, in addition to the bizarre salad, and, oh, I ordered some ‘green tea’ and I spilled it all over my white skirt. My skirt did not turn green. I thought that was odd. I mean, it was great news for my skirt, but shouldn’t green tea be green? I don’t know. It didn’t taste like green tea either.
But whatever! Go here, and don’t order any drinks… don’t eat your salad… don’t pay attention to their specials. Just order the maguro don, and your eating habits will forever be changed.

I read Unilocal reviews and went here for lunch yesterday. I anticipated service being slow but so many reviewers said the food was worth it so I gave it a try.
I ordered the tuna sashimi appetizer. 9 bucks for five pieces of not– so –great sashimi. It was served on a sad and dismal plate. The seaweed salad had just a sliver of seaweed. The bulk of the portions was regular salad. I would not pay five bucks for this anywhere. I also had the unagi roll which broke apart on the plate. The agedashi tofu was best part of meal– it was delicious.
I would not come here again and order the sushi or appetizers. It looks like their strength is the rice and udon bowls. Although the servers were nice– it was a torturous wait that I would not want to relive again.

Stopped in during the Cherry Blossom Festival. We didn’t look at the hours sign and were seated. After being told they’d be closing in five minutes we started to get up feeling a bit rude but they insisted we order keeping the place open for us. There was a special menu for the festival and I do not remember the name of my dish but it was tuna, avocado, wasabi, and the best seasonings over rice. I am still dreaming about it. We also had the iced green tea which was the traditional powdered matcha. This is found in many authentic places and apparently a shock to some people who are used to a brewed green tea served over ice.
I am looking forward to going back.

Atmosphere was standard for any place with «express» in the name. I do squirm a bit in my seat seeing Raid and Raisin Bran when I glance toward the back of house, but whatever. Service and food came at a different pace than the name suggests, but I’m not usually in a hurry.
My iced green tea was just weird, maybe powdered green tea with a dash of Tang. Sorry, not my cup of, um, nevermind. Great onigiri, though I think their menu called it something else. If this was served anywhere near my house, I’d grab two daily.
My yakisoba looked sad and tasted like it was recooked from earlier. My friend’s cold soba appeared and was reported to be enjoyable, leaving me largely unsatisfied and a bit jealous. He always gets more noodles than me.
Cheaper than most places around, but not necessarily better or faster.

Because everything is prepared to order, things can take a while here. The food is Japanese-​american and similar to what would be prepared in a JA household. The one square block named Sakura Square where Yoko’s resides is what remains of what was once a thriving community of Japanese-​Americans that grouped together after WW II and being in internment out west. There used to be probably close to 20 JA owned businesses is this area that have since been reduced to maybe half a dozen. You’ll find a mix now of FOB japanese and the remaining JA and their children frequenting Yoko’s besides others that might wander in.
The food is good but the wait can be agonizing. They definitely could use some more help here as both George and Yoko are getting on in years. I really like the Saba Shio here and the Tempura Udon too. Portions aren’t huge but are satisfying. This is a taste of what Denver japanese food was like pre exodus and passing of the Nissei and now older Sansei too. More cooler than vogue.