Yamato

DON’T TRY TO GO WITH A GROUP.
After calling 2 weeks in advance to make a reservation we were told they could not accommodate our group. When I spoke to the manager her only response was «this is how Japanese steakhouse’s operate, too bad» the lack of professional demeanor and respect in a service industry is truly disappointing. I will never give this restaurant my custom again.

We’ve enjoyed eating here on several occasions. It has all the staples — white sauce, appetizer shrimp, and more. And it ends with free sherbert.

Good service, food is tasty but nothing spectacular. Fairly typical hibachi fare. A little pricey for what you get.

We have been going to the sushi bar here for years. The food and service have been excellent until last night. Their credit card machine went down and they fell to pieces. They overcharged us on the happy hour prices, didn’t include part of our order, failed to bring our soup before the meal, and our waitress completely ignored us. I understand how difficult it is dealing with a computer outage, but there’s no excuse for not explaining that right away, charging my card the wrong amount, or the time it took to possibly sort it out. Very disappointing. The four stars reflect my experiences over the last 12 years. One sushi chef was apologetic, but with all the choices available in MB it will be difficult to choose Yamato again. I would suggest they focus on customer service.

The girl at front on April 6 at 7:46 made a pregnant couple wait since 7 until 8 and took a party of 10 before all of us who had reservations at 7:45 and before. Get RID of the young girl!!!

Tourist trap. Chefs are hired then trained. Don’t be thinking they are Japanese. [Our chef tonight is from a Spanish speaking country (I won’t say which because he was fine. But he doesn’t speak Japanese. Not even «sionara.»)]
Jokes from various chefs are not particularly funny. Chefs not incredibly skilled or entertaining. Food is bland bland bland. They give enough food (MOSTLY RICE) for a person to eat 2 – 3 meals from. But will charge you an extra $ 6 if you want to share it. The pink sauce is good. Makes the rice enjoyable. The «miso» soup tastes like plastic. Bleh. Won’t be returning.
There was a spice container the chef poured on the rice. I was going to ask him for more on my rice. It was a red container. (Fooled me!) I said, «what’s in there?» And before he could answer (though I had clearly directed my question to the chef), the server butt in and said, «it’s just salt and pepper.»
I am not even sure she knew what I was asking him. And I just dropped it. Whatever. Bland food. Bland bland bland.

Great food, chief only cooked didn’t engage with us, forgot birthday when noted twice, manager response was no help.
So disappointed. We went to celebrate my sons birthday, all 8 of us. when I made reservations I made sure to tell them it was my sons birthday. When we arrived the host said who’s birthday? I showed them my son. Food was great! But dropping a couple bills for what we received wasn’t good. Not a good show! He just cooked made 2 jokes and that was it. He was new but it was an expensive dinner with no birthday anything, not a good show, and the manager response was ill talk to them. no help.
I had no problem paying what we did, but all the other shows around us were great and funny. Manager didn’t care when I spoke to her. Make sure to ask for one of the Chiefs mentioned in these reviews.

Excellent food, great entertainment, and good service!!!
Food was prepared to perfection and entertainment by the chef was top notch.
My children had a great time!!!

This has always been one of our favorite spots to come. After tonight I’ll be hard pressed to return as the service was just horrendous. A few minutes after my husband received his overcooked salmon, the waitress came and brought to go containers. My daughter was also still eating. She did not even bother to ask if anyone was finished. Then as he continued to eat dinner she brought dessert and the check. As we sat eating dessert she turned off the table light. It’s the Saturday after Christmas. The restaurant was half full. No one waiting to come in.

Good Japanese food. Service was great and the cook was very entertaining. Had NY Strip and it was very tender. A good piece of meat. My date had sushi and she said it was good too. Everybody at our table had a good time.

Good service and good food. Not as good as Miyabi (smaller portions and less flavor) but definitely worth checking out if you’re at Broadway on the Beach.
Get reservations the day before as well because they do not take reservations the day of.

Great place to eat with good people, when u come I’m try to talk a lot of smack to the employee named jason. Emphasize on him being a twinkie (Asian on the outside white on the inside)

We made a reservation for 6 and a baby and were immediately seated. Only a couple minutes passed before we were served with drinks and the chef came right out. Our chef was great. I wish I knew his name. He kept us laughing the whole time with jokes, picked on us a good bit, and had a great sense of humor when we picked back.
The food (especially the filet mignon) is the best hibachi style meal I have ever had. I’m not a huge scallop fan, bit several in our party ordered them, and they were bigger than half dollars and very thick. In general the portions were large, and as the good places do, we received a shrimp appetizer. One of the best things was the sherbet at the end with our bill. Sweet, but very light.
I can’t wait to eat my leftovers, and really can’t wait to go back!

From reading the reviews on Unilocal,my family figured we’d give this place a go!
The food was absolutely amazing.
Our chef seemed to be an experienced one, he was very interactive and cooked the food to perfection.
I would go back again! Highly recommend!

Used to be a fun place to eat but tonight our chef would have been a better fit for a Denny’s. Nothing special. The place is tired. Needs updating.

The good: Atmosphere is open and inviting. Lots of food for your money.
The meh: Typical hibachi food. Typical hibachi chef show. (Really is anyone over the age of 10 entertained by the peeing boy squirt bottle?) Same bad puns from the chef. eggroll, butterfly. *yawn*
The bad: No menu options for my picky eater. Most other hibachis we have gone to at least have French fries. Salad was bad. It was like the bag salad from the grocery store served swimming in dressing. The «soup» was awful. The broth was slightly salty water with a single piece of scallion in it.
I might go back, but I think there are better dining options.

The chef is the only reason I’m giving two stars. He was awesome. The downfall started with the soup it was served lukewarm at best. Then it got even worse with the salad. The dressing tasted awful. Don’t get me wrong we love Yamato and eat a lot in Columbia SC. So I know for a fact they can do better. Maybe a good time to concentrate more on customer satisfaction and less about volume of people.
The other bad part is the chef that thinks he is funny by singing at the table he is lucky somebody hasn’t knocked him out for making people listen to that crap. The people smile to be nice but in reality they want you to just shut up and entertain us with your cooking skills.

I came here on Valentines day and had a good experience. The food was great and the pricing was decent for this habachi style restaurant. I did have to have someone sweep up the floor i had to sit directly over what looked like a half bowl of rice and mess spilled over. I ordered the chicken and steak which was very flavorful. I had enough for a take home bag.

The locals might hunt me down for spilling the beans, but one of the best kept secrets at Yamato’s is the excellent sushi bar that’s hiding on the other side of the bar. If the stand-​by line looks a little crazy, walk right past everyone and have a seat in this little known area. Try the beef tataki, it’s awesome!
You can’t go wrong with the hibachi, either. It’s everything you’d expect. You’ll get the ever popular onion volcano that is set on fire to everyone’s delight; followed up by the shrimp toss! Always good fun without so much as a singed eyebrow.
By the way. The portions are ha — -uge!
–Neil

It’s about the same as all the rest of the hibachi restaurants you’ll ever go to. I’ve yet to find one that really shocks/​amazes me with something new and different. However, that still does not beat the quality (and quantity!) of food you’ll get and the entertainment of the chefs. It’s always great for groups and families and a fun vacation experience.
I went outside the traditional chicken/​steak/​shrimp box and ordered the Mahi Mahi. It was good, but a little bland. My husband ordered the scallops and they were amazing. Always a good choice.
The miso soup was good, salad had nice dressing options (go with the spicy soy!) and the dessert was just enough to give you a taste of sweet to top off your palette.
Prices were reasonable and what you’d expect for a restaurant at Broadway at the Beach and in the hibachi steakhouse realm.