Yokozuna Restaurant

Let me preface my review by first saying that the owners tried really hard to provide a warm and welcoming environment for their patrons. And while I felt welcome, there were a handful of simple improvements that the restaurant could have taken that might have made our dining experience so much more enjoyable.
I can’t say much about the decorations, but having windows would really brighten up your restaurant and improve your ambiance.
For those of you who come to the middle of a desert thinking you will be readily be able to find fresh, high quality sashimi, think again. I am refraining from saying it is impossible, but the sashimi options offered by yokozuna were lacking. We had one order of salmon sashimi, of which the presentation severely needed work. The texture was rubbery and it was not fresh. My recommendation? If you really want fish, stick with the baked rolls (caveat, none of the party ordered any rolls).
In addition to the sashimi, a handful of our party members ordered the lunch combination item, teriyaki. The meat was in my opinion overcooked and the teriyaki sauce came out to be cloudy, which is an indication that the meat was boiled in a soy sauce soup. A simple fix for the dish would be to season your meat with salt and pepper, quickly sear it (whole, not diced mind you), and finish by topping it with teriyaki sauce (not cooking it in the sauce). Serve the meat whole. It improves the presentation and gives the dish a more elegant feeling. The teriyaki sauce did not taste like teriyaki. If the owners happen to read my review, a simple yet delicious recipe for teriyaki is equal parts of low sodium soy sauce and mirin, half part of sake (or any rice wine is fine), and a 3 tablespoons of sugar for each ½ cup of soy sauce. Boil to reduce.
The included salad was bland and tasted of simply sesame oil. Consider adding balsamic vinegar or rice vinegar to add some bite to the dressing (don’t forget the salt).
The tempura was more like a panko coating. While the execution of frying the items was great, the batter was too thick and under-​seasoned. Either add seasoning to the batter or salt the items immediately after pulling them from the deep fryer. Consider including other items such as broccoli, green beans, snap peas, and other green vegetables to provide color to your dish.
The lumpia, while deliciously crunchy, did not taste like lumpia to me. My only caveat to this is I’m used to vietnamese egg rolls and store-​bought frozen lumpia, but this did not taste filipino to me. As far as the kano goes, they were delicious, but don’t add cinnamon to it. It covers up the hint of jackfruit and drowns out the bananas.
My final note is that this restaurant is not recommended for large groups. From the time the first person was served to the last person served, approximately 20 – 30 minutes had elapsed. Imagine the awkwardness of watching everyone eat while you encourage them to not worry about being courteous or having to struggle to slowly pick at your dish while waiting for others to even get their dishes, 10, 15, or even 20 minutes later. Consider re-​thinking the order in which you cook your dishes. Longer dishes such as apartida should be started first so when the shorter dishes are done, the longer dishes are also complete and the entire party can be served at once.

Couldn’t have been worse. Just horrible!!! We were hoping for so much more. We really miss the former owner from Okinawa. The tea was NOT green tea as stated and was served lukewarm in a dented brass pot in plastic cups. The miso soup was cold and tasteless and made with a mix. The pork lumpia was made with breakfast sausage and egg roll wrappers. It just kept getting worse!!! The sushi hand rolls on menu were unavailable so we ordered spicy tuna roll and dragon roll. The rice was old and stiff and inedible. We asked for seared yellowtail sushi and they pan fried it and put it on rice. Ridiculous. The entire meal was a disaster. We paid $ 52 for an untouched lunch. The male owner would not stop talking long enough for us to order and led the conversation with his personal political opinions. We left, ate nothing, wasted money and went to Aki Sushi in Yucca Valley. Dont waste any time or money here. The inside now matches the unsightly exterior. Would someone please open a good Japanese sushi restaurant in the high desert!!!

Came here with a large group of friends. Only one person liked their food, and it didnt even taste like filipino arpartida. Sushi was waaaaaay over priced and majorly small portions. The udon tasted like it used store bought chicken stock. The dessert was the only redeemong factor.

This place is great, amazing food the staff is so welcoming. For living in Yucca this place is definitely a diamond in the rough!

The adobo was too salty, fried rice tasted bad, and the soup tasted like sewage water, lumpia and toron (banana roll) were undercook. The only good thing about this place is that the owner was very accomodating and loves to talk to customers. Aside from that, I don’t recommend it to those who is craving for a good Japanese or Filipino cuisine.

We were coming back fro Joshua tree national park late at night and decided to give this place a try.
I was craving some chicken, quinoa, seaweed salad and all the unusual dishes. They did not have such an order, but when I made that request to our server Naomi and Leo (whom I didn’t know were the store owners) she made a special mix combined just for me.
They were very accommodating, ran the business like a family style place. Food was pretty good. I definitely enjoyed eating here

As a family took my grandson here for his 15^th birthday. What a wonderful treat… he was in heaven with his crunchy salmon roll and his Adobo chicken… absolutely delicious! We had two other delicious rolls and a fabulous Filipino dish. Can I say the homemade miso soup was the best I ever had! And the tempura was not only delicious but beautiful to look at! The owners were extremely attentive to detail and so personable! Loved the booths with high backs gave an intimate and cozy feel ! We certainly will keep coming back!!!

This is a great way to please to eat. The food was amazing the service was great and answered all of my questions. The price was good and it tasted amazing and I don’t like vegetable but they do it were I ate a lot of them. You have to try this place if you are in the area.

Took some friends to lunch. Restaurant has multi rooms and back room the best. Owner host and wife cook. Leo the husband was very friendly and explained many Philippine dishes we were not familiar with. Service not fast, but food tasty. Good value

I’ll start off by saying I didn’t give 2 stars because of the service here. The owners (who also are the servers) are amazing and very sweet. I also love that it’s veteran owned. We ordered tempura, a salmon roll and lumpia. The tempura was incredibly oily and didn’t come with the normal broth which I personally love. The salmon roll was literally only salmon, a little tiny bit of cream cheese and rice. The lumpia was actually very good. All in all, idk if I would come back.

Oh where do I start??? We havent been here in at least 10 years, and it is remodeled inside and under new ownership so we decided to give it a shot. It also states that is is veteran owned and operated so i wanted to try and support a local vet business. What a huge mistake. This place is worse than one star. Nothing traditional or fusion about this hole. Watched a table across from us a party of four all have their food dropped off in 5 – 10 minute intervals while we waited. By the time the last guy got his food the rest of the table was finished. When it came to us, our kids got their food and we sat and waited another 15 – 20 minutes for ours. Over 40 minutes sitting before we ever got food, while my iced tea sat empty on the table the entire time. When i made a comment to the waiter (possibly owner as well) about how pathetic the wait was, he just made excuses for their inadequacies. He actually tried to compare the restaurant to McDonalds by telling us everything is made from scratch and they dont do that like McDonalds does. WTF? Lmfao. We arent at a fast food joint, are we? It gets even worse. The food is absolute $h!t. Dont worry… pictures will be attached. I got a 3 item combo… lumpia, teriyaki beef, and tempura. The tempura batter was by far the worst i have ever had in my life. No light fluffy but crispy texture. Its almost like they made a beer batter and added some panko and completely overcooked it in month old fryer oil. The beef teriyaki smelled like a can of wet dog food. So much so that i couldnt even try it. The lumpia… oh my god what a tragedy. Burned up little bite sized rolls with a dab of unknown, unflavored ground meat in the middle. I didnt even bother to taste the white rice as the rest of the plate was so disgusting. My kids food was a joke as well… a small traditional white rice bowl like in any asian restaurant for a side of rice with about 2 tablespoons of chicken on top. The female server who disappeared after we placed our order looked like one of the local transients off of the streets that they threw a button down shirt on and hoped she could work. Guess they second guessed that maneuver when we didnt see her again. As I was trying to tell the waiter how bad it was he would not even let me get a word in… all he wanted to tell me was how successful they are doing here and how his parents had two successful japanese restaurants… whatever bro. Did I mention that there were only 4 tables seated in the whole place at 8pm on a Friday night holiday weekend and I overheard one of the ladies tell a customer how busy it was. My wife and i literally had a bite or 2 of our plates, which he did not charge us for, but i still paid $ 25 for the kids bowls which they picked the meat out of and ate the rice, a hot tea, and an iced tea… pathetic. DO NOT GO HERE EVER! Do not let the flags and the Veteran stuff fool you outside. The owner may have been a patriot at some point in time, but the food is terrorism on japanese and filipino cuisine.

Really horrible food. The prices were outrageous. I will never go here again. Don’t waste your money.

Six years after our first date, my now husband and I returned. It has changed owners since then it seems. The inside has been updated since our last visit 5 years ago and the prices have gone up a little bit. (not surprising in 5 years) The sushi was good, the gyoza wasn’t the best I have had, but I’m not a fan of deep fried gyoza over pan fried. The Yokozuna cocktail was delicious! The service was fantastic, but the food came out a little slow. Nice quiet atmosphere, we were able to talk and enjoy the other’s company without having to shout.

Stick with the Filipino food. It was great!!! Did not try sushi as I think this is not a sushi place. Had Lumpias and Triple Crown, was very good! We will go back next time we pass through town!!! Owners are very friendly!!!

What a wonderful find! I had the teriyaki chicken and tempura. The chicken was differently cooked from anything I’ve had before. Excellent! Generous portion of perfect tempura veggies. The music was subtle, we could hear each other speak :) We were treated like royalty by the hosts and given complimentary little desserts. Hope they do well, they deserve it.

Had the wonderful opportunity to finally stop in for lunch since the establishment has re-​opened. Wonderful job.
The owners, food, ambient sounds is top chef. If you haven’t stopped in yet, you’re definitely missing out on one of yucca valley treasures.

Five pieces of sashimi for $ 8.95. The quality and portions do not reflect the price– I was expecting much more! I don’t think any of the fish was fresh but I found the quality to be slightly better than Aki Sushi. However, it was not worth the price– this is more than I would be pay for sashimi at places in LA!

I don’t even know where to begin… other than a fool who doesn’t read reviews is soon parted with $ 60 for what amounts to garbage.
While the couple that run this place make every effort to be nice and provide good service, there is something severely lacking in their perception of what passes for not only good food, but food period. This place makes Yoshinoya Beef Bowl and supermarket Sushi shine. Honestly — other than quality plum wine and decent tea everything ranged from bland to downright vile. Some of it unrecognizable.
What delusional mind has this many bad reviews and reacts by continuing to rob the unsuspecting of hard earned dollars in exchange for what most of us would throw in the trash?
Canned? Frozen? Stolen from the Stater Bros. trash bins? As a commuter, I’ve seen a lot of convenience crap and I’ve never come across such dreck. Freezer burn taste was the least of the offenses. Worse than fast food at premium prices. They should stick to karaōke, beer and wine. What is wrong with these people?

Yucca Valley has its own version of Dismal Land.
«Wasn’t that bad» is the highest accolade we can utter at this point.

So after many months of waiting the grand opening finally came we were so excited to try this place out as we drove by it on a regular basis. To sum this up don’t pass go don’t collect $ 200 go straight to Aki sushi this place is the worst restaurant I have eaten at on the hill this is even worse than Sonic. We ordered sushi and stir fried noodles and the sushi was little odd shapen chunks of fish that were cut out with what looks like a butter knife the spicy mayo was lukewarm and tasted like it had been sitting out for days we ended up leaving and going to McDonalds for dinner do yourself and you’re stomach a favor and go somewhere else.