Yazaemon11CONTRIBUTED BY JULIA
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Yazaemon is a relatively new restaurant that opened up about 4 months ago. I was lucky enough to end up here after a night of driving around desperately looking for food. My husband and I (with the kids of course) had stopped at a couple of our favorite places, finding out that they were either packed to the hilt or closed. So we decided to try a new place and were happy with our meal.

Yazaemon serves a variety of food including sushi, yakitori, and stir-fry dishes. The first time we went we had the caterpillar roll (eel and sweet egg omelette wrapped in rice and avocado slices), the rainbow roll, and a California roll. Their California roll actually contains tuna and avocado which is completely different from what I’m used to but was still very good. We’ve also had chicken yakitori, soumen champuru, and tofu champuru. The soumen has a nice light flavor to it. I’m not as fond of the tofu but it’s a hit with my youngest…he can eat the whole dish all by himself.

When eating sushi I tend to stick mostly to tuna, salmon, and yellowtail. There is a lot of tuna on the menu and a variety of other fish although I don’t remember seeing yellowtail. I have had the fatty salmon sushi which was delicious and cost about 260 yen. I’ve also had the tuna with rice bowl for 800 yen. I was expecting just the traditional tuna sashimi over sushi rice. It turned out to be slices of raw tuna with a barely cooked egg marinating in a soy sauce mixture. From what I gathered from the sign language you’re supposed to mix it up and then eat it with the steamed rice it that comes on the side. Towards the end it got a little salty for my taste but overall I liked it and it was a nice change of pace.

The last time we went the bill came out to 3500 yen for edamame, chicken yakitori, tofu champuru, soumen champuru, fatty salmon sushi, the tuna rice bowl, and a pork dish. I consider that quite reasonable for dinner for the four of us.

The staff is super-friendly here with one of the chefs even playing peek-a-boo with my kids from afar. And they remembered us from our first visit…not sure if it was for good or bad behavior but stuff like that makes us feel special.

Besides the food and friendliness of the staff there’s something else about this place that really appeals to me. They have these lovely Japanese lanterns in the tatami mat seating area that emit a soft glow and with it a serene atmosphere. Or perhaps it’s just because the kids like the food so much that both times we’ve managed to have a relatively peaceful meal here. Either way, we’ll be back for more.

HOURS:

5:00 PM – 1:00 AM Tuesday-Thursday & Sundays

5:00 PM – 2:00 AM Friday & Saturday

Closed Mondays

PHONE NUMBER:  098-936-7727

Address: 368 Sunabe, Chatan

Google Maps Coordinates: 26.330970401254437, 127.75082470251004

Located directly across from Kadena Gate 1 in the same parking lot as Family Mart, US Autosales, and GI Bill Pay

8 COMMENTS

  1. My husband and I were the only customers in the restaurant and it was very slow service. We ordered a salmon roll and a spicy tuna roll and both came out with crab in them (which was not on the menu) and my husband is allergic so we had them remake the rolls without crab. We were charged for the sushi they took back even though we did not eat it. It ended up costing $60 for 2 sushi rolls and 2 appetizers. Very disappointing!

  2. Family and I were hungry, so when we saw the variety listed in front of the restaurant we were excited to try it. The exterior looked nice and the entire look even nicer. However, the food was not as good. The english menu had very minimal selections. We were a little disappointed. Their ONLY selection for yakitori was good, and their yakisoba was not bad either, but my husband had to force the grill salmon and dragon roll down. Very great presentation, but that was the extent of it.

    They didn’t serve water until we asked for it, very prompt service, and they bussed the tables pretty quick too. We had leftovers and it costed us 50Y for a togo box.

    We had very mixed feelings about this joint until at the end of our meal we went up to the cashier and noticed an additional 600Y to our tab. When I asked him why we were over charged he told us it was for table service…. wish we would have known!

    I don’t think our family will be going back.

  3. We went to Yazaemon last Friday night and you’ll hear no complaints from this family. I loved the lighting in this place so much that I wanted to grab one of the big lantern ball lights, bring it home and then redecorate my home around it. Our servers were super and all of the employees seemed very attentive. My daughter mentioned this morning that she wanted to go back to the fish place (her nickname for this restaurant because of the big fish on the sign) because the lady who served us was so funny and nice.