Yoi

Yoi is convenient for Richmond residents, located on Clement but a bit out of the way for other city dwellers. Unlike a lot of Richmond restaurants, Yoi has a updated interior and is not divey.
They have two menus– offering sushi or ramen. I had the Garlic Ramen and highly recommend it. For this specific dish the broth is served separate from the noodles for dipping. It was a very generous portion and quite flavorful.
The service was great and we used our surprise Unilocal discount earned from checking in! I will definitely be back to try out Yoi’s other ramen dishes.

Good service and food. I went on a friday night and they were not too busy. Food was good and I enjoyed it!

Consistently good food. I’ve been coming here since they opened a couple years ago. I haven’t tried everything on their menu, but what I’ve had had been good.
Tonkatsu ramen: chewer noodles than some other places, but I like them. The egg is always perfectly soft boiled, pork is tender and broth is very rich and flavorful. I always get this one since it’s just so good, but people I’ve eaten with liked the other varieties.
Rainbow roll: real crab inside, you can tell it’s high quality, they never put shrimp on it, and every piece of raw fish I’ve had has always been great.
Fish not chips: lots of flavor, great sauce, nice textures
The kale dish is good (I just wish it were bigger)
.everything else was good too
The folks that own it are super nice, they’re always there and only seem to get 1 day off a week, so go support your neighborhood ramen shop! Service has always been great.

Weird seeing some of the bad reviews. We’ve been going here since they opened –almost two years!- and we’ve always had good food and service. And it seems like all the other diners are enjoying the food, at least when we’re there.
Maybe we’re not foodie/​snobby enough, but the we always find the food to be fresh and tasty, and the specials to different than most sushi places. Maybe not sushi for the purist –no, they wouldn’t have this kind of sushi in Japan– but delicious.
Some of our favorites: the beet salad, the garlic kale, the buttercup roll, the garlic miso soup with mushrooms, the tea– smoked egg ramen, and the veggie ramen. And we’ve rarely been disappointed with the chalkboard specials. (the non-​purist stuff.)
Give it a chance.

The Richmond and sushi just don’t go together.
Had the garlic Ramen and a crab avocado roll.
Ramen was flavorless and very disappointing for $ 10.
The sushi was basic and crappy as well. Kind of steep at $ 12 a roll too. The staff is very nice though.

I like this place. It was really good. After a spontaneous bus exit, we came across this cute little ramen/​sushi bar. We had some edamame and some garlicky kale and shared a bowl of vegetable ramen. It was really great and the service was awesome. Our server was very sweet and constantly asked how we were doing, and refilled our water. I am glad that we came here and will come back the next time we are around outer Richmond

We discovered decent but un-​amazing food on our recent visit to Yoi. Several sushi rolls– OK– saucy with flavor. Ramen– mediocre, not bad, but something was ‘off’. Chicken fingers for my daughter– ok, she wasn’t too into them and she usually dominates any chicken. Gyoza– very tasty. Finally, kalbi short-​rib beef skewer — ok, but not amazing. We entered hungry, left content, and nothing was ‘bad’. Prices were reasonable, and service was fine. I’ll possibly return, not for ramen, but I prefer other Japanese cuisine in this neighborhood.

The worst meal I have ever had in San Francisco.
We ordered buta kakuni, fingers, age dashi tofu, sashimi, cod, and other dishes I try not to remember.
Cooked fish were over cooked, raw fish didn’t taste fresh. Age dashi tofu was bland. Most of the stuff was gross. Needless to say, I will never be back.
When I complained about the buta kakuni being too dry, someone came out and asked if he could bring me more sauce. Dude, your pork doesn’t taste good, sauce won’t fix anything. He didn’t even apologize or anything. He just said that other people like it. Great, other people like pork belly that’s dry, I don’t really care. Did you hear what I just said? We’re talking about my experience, not other people’s experience. I really did not appreciate his attitude. It was the 3 of us eating, we ordered nearly everything on the menu and tried (unfortunately) a heck of a lot. The ramen may have been the least poorly done.
I do not recommend this place for any of their dishes. The service crew needs more training. That’s all for now, I haven’t written a review, but felt compelled to share this one, so that others don’t make the same mistake.

The food at yoi is quite mediocre. We got two ramen, one garlic miso which was a bit flavorless and the spicy ramen was way too spicy to enjoy the taste of ramen. We also got the pork cheeks and it was more fat than meat. It was really sad. He prices are not overly pricey but the food definitely needs an upgrade. I don’t think I’ll be coming back anytime soon. Oh yea we got the spicy tuna roll, which was so savory that you don’t even notice the tuna. Sad face since I had such high hopes for this place but it was quite a disappointing experience
The only reason it gets a 2 star is the service.

Ramen is OK though on the stronger-​flavored side. I’ve been there twice, and each time at the end of my meal I felt like I could drink up all water on the earth. It’s just too salty.
That said, there’s no other acceptable ramen restaurants within the walking distance of my apt, so I’ll still come by often :-/

I was pretty surprised that I never notice this little place in the neighborhood for the longest time!!! The outside doesn’t look too attractive, full glass window and you can see interior of the restaurant.
I came here at the random time, 4pm Saturday, and the place is empty. The menu was pretty self explanatory and I the waiter was very nice. Here’s my order list and feed back:
Garlic ramen + butter corn: SO GOOD! The ramen is like fried noodles and the soup cakes on the side. You could tell that the soup is homemade instead so fake mixed soup. The egg on the ramen is very well cooked and the taste of the whole ramen bowl is just very nicely putted together.
White Tuna Toro 2pcs: great taste of fish and rice are favored well. Yet the slice of fish is a bit thin and not too fresh.
Salmon 2pcs: not fresh, thin slice. Very cheap like the tuna tho, it was $ 6 for two pieces nigiri.
Overall I’d recommend to try their RAMEN!!! And maybe pick a better time where there’s more people so they will have fresh fish.

Updating this review to a 2.5 star review.
Initially I thought this place was great, but after several months and several additional visits my hubby and I realized that while some dishes are great, their ramen simply is too inconsistently made to make this a place for dependable good ramen. And since ramen is so important to us, though we still like some of their tasty apps, we simply just couldn’t justify coming back. It’s all very unfortunate, but it’s true.
For neighborhood ramen, we go to Men Oh now further down on Geary.

This place was alright. My friend and I ended up here after we realized Daigo and Shimo (both sushi places a block away from yoi) were both closed for Christmas break. Our server was nice enough, but a little slow and didn’t come around to our table often enough. The prices were decent, just slightly higher than what I usually see at sushi places.
The two rolls that I tried were both pretty good. The spicy tuna roll was lightly fried and had mango in the middle, which was both unique and good. It could’ve used a little more tuna tho. The buttercup roll was also good, had a good tang and flavor to it.
I wouldn’t recommend the ramen, tho. I had the spicy garlic ramen. The noodles were too hard, and there wasn’t enough pork. The spiciness also overpowered any garlic that was in it. The spoon they gave you to eat with also made it tough and was a little ridiculous.

Boy friend and I were craving ramen in the Richmond district. Found this place on Unilocal with 15% off during check in. Score right?
I’m guessing this is a husband and wife place. Wife was the waiter and mostly on the cell the whole time. Their son was pacing around the place making hissing sound with what I believe a medicine bottle in his hand. Kind of weird.
We got the garlic ramen with butter corn. Let’s say, when we got the food, we were soooo confused. I got a bowl of soup and a plate of noodles and corn. The waiter asked if this was our first time and we said yes. Chief recommends to take a bite of the noodle and then a slip of the soup. By the time I was half way done, my food was getting cold. It was a weird experience going back and forth from my soup to my noodles. I can taste the flavor but this is not a typically ramen place. I got to speak with the husband and he said garlic ramen is sautéed. Chief special.
Price was $ 9 for garlic noodles plus $ 2 for butter corn
I would come back but try the soup version ramen next time.

The next day, after a late night of drinking, I typically crave soup. Since I didn’t have soup for lunch, I decided to grab ramen for dinner. It was a quiet Friday night and I easily grabbed a seat. Make sure to check into Unilocal for 15% off. I saved almost $ 5 with my check in.
*Tonkotsu ramen, spicy ($ 11), add Butter corn (+$ 2), Teriyaki pork belly (+$ 4), Sauteed mushroom (+$ 2)
Yes, I got a $ 19 bowl of ramen! Most of the time, I can’t help but add a bunch of toppings since I love meat and veggies. The broth for the ramen was flavorful. I liked that it wasn’t super rich since I like my broth soupy. The bowl normally comes with ½ a cage free tea smoked egg, sauteed bamboo shoots, one slice of bbq pork loin chashu, wakame and green scallions. So if you want more than a slice of meat, I’d add more chashu or the pork belly. If you like your ramen with a little spice, make sure to tell them you want it spicy!
*Yoi’s clam: hand picked manila clam sauteed in garlic ginger sauce, served on a sizzling hot teppan ($ 12)
This takes a while to come out, so be prepared to wait. I had already gotten and finished my ramen, so I figured they forgot about my clams. It turns out they didn’t. It just takes a while. Like over 30 mins? The clams were tender and the sauce was garlicky. Make sure to wilt the scallions in the sauce and eat them with the clams. Yum!
A nice quiet ramen shop in Outer Richmond. I love ramen soup and toppings, so this definitely hit the spot!

My roommate and I have been wanting to try this place ever since it opened. We had the chance the other day. I ordered the miso gandara which is black cod with a honey ginger miso, onion, and cherry tomatoes on a sizzling teppan plate. I got steamed rice on the side for an extra $ 2. The honey ginger miso had a good balance of savory and sweet, especially with the onion still grilling on the pan. It went well with the cod and didn’t overpower the fish.
I also had the iced green tea, which was so refreshing. It also had a good balance of sweetness.
It’s definitely not the average Japanese restaurant. They have items that wouldn’t normally be on a standard menu, like waffle-​battered chicken. I’d like to come back and try their other dishes, and some of their sushi.

Yoi seems to have OK ramen, in fact the Tonkatsu ramen was rich and porky, and the noodles nice and chewy, but their miso black cod was the worst I’ve ever had. How could you possibly mess up miso black cod? I thought it was impossible until I had their overcooked, fishy, and obviously not fresh black cod last night.
Their ramen was OK, but definitely not up to Orenchi, Santouka, or Ramen Dojo. I might have given them 3.5 or 4 stars for the ramen alone, but the botched miso black cod really ruined it for me.

I always wanted to try this place and since my bestie was in town we decided to give this place a try.
The ambiance is super casual. I usually like wooden tables and the feel of Asian influence on interiors and Yoi definitely had that which automatically made me have high expectations of the food.
I was definitely surprised… in a bad way. First there was only one server which was highly problematic although he was friendly. secondly, the Yuzu Hamachi should be called Yuzu Cucumber with splash of hamachi because there was so little hamachi that the other ingredients were overwhelming what the highlight of the dish should be which is the fish.
The chicken Karaage was super good. The right crisp, perfect amount of seasoning and the saltiness went very well with the sweetness of ye dipping sauce.
The ramen… I wouldn’t come here to eat ramen. I wasn’t happy with the noodles or the broth– very mediocre.
I got rolls to go which were ok… I wouldn’t come here again.

Nice yummy food, good place to get ramen. Their sushi selection was ok, a bit lacking, but that’s ok, we went here for ramen not for sushi. So the ramen, it was good, delicious. I ordered the spicy garlic miso and it was yummy and flavorful, just like i wanted. Maybe a bit too spicy for me but next time i think ill just get one of the other ramens, the nonspicy ones.
We also ordered teriyaki nori and those were so yummy and crunchy. They were presented stacked up like a house of cards. Very cool.
Tea was delicious too and just kept coming. Overall — nice place for ramen. I would come here again.

Friend’s birthday brought us here for dinner. Coming here at 5:45 on a recent Saturday, we found street parking a block away. The dining room is nicely decorated, following the now popular modern designs of other new ramen spots in the City. Hip club music played in the background. After some strategizing, here’s what we ordered:
Appetizers (shared)
1. Chicken kaarage (
) — fried well but batter on the heavier side.
2. Chicken tenders (
) — not too filling and liked the honey mustard dipping sauce.
3. Sweet potato fries (
) — okay but didn’t stand out. In a blind test, would have thought these were just regular fries. Used tenders dipping sauce to liven up.
4. Spicy tuna roll (
) — hard to do wrong as flavor was right.
5. Dragon roll (
) — decent version and nice that they gave extra garnishes.
Entrée
6. Spicy garlic ramen add corn (
) — noodles were pretty much al dente and meat tender. Soup was spicy, a bit too much for some in our party, and one dimensional flavor wise for me. Being a soup guy. I didn’t finish mine.
We were offered the high top community table in back, but, having a child in our group, the left wall table worked better for us. Service was pretty good as water glasses were filled and empty dishes cleared relatively quickly.
There is a pretty wide variance in the reviews, low ones questioning the authenticity of the cuisine and high ones for liking the cooking style or flavors. With the sprouting of many new high end Japanese restaurants, you cannot compare the food here to their offerings. As a neighborhood spot, they serve decent food, but nothing I’d crave to have.