Yamado Japanese Restaurant

Yamado has been my go to sushi place since 2005ish. This place pretty much set the standard for me. For example, their miso soup is free so I am outraged whenever I have to pay for miso soup at other sushi places... grrr. I always order salmon rolls and IMO, this place has the best salmon rolls. The quality sucked for a little bit (I believe there was a change in management) but it's back to the good ol' days again.

I would stay away from their half off specialty rolls (I think it's their happy hour special) because most of them are deep fried and greasy. It seems like a good deal but you are going to regret it, I swear!  Besides their sushi, they also have awesome udon. Though some of my friends have said that it's overwhelming (ie soooo much ingredients.. which I feel like what udon should be.. but whatever).

Disclaimer: I'm probably rating this a 5/5 for nostalgic/sentimental reasons.

Last Saturday, my friends and I went to Yamado as we were attracted by the dollar sushi sign. To my knowledge, I think the restaurant has the deal on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

The restaurant doesn't look that luxurious from the outside so we did not expect much. However, the atmosphere inside the restaurant was cozy.

We ordered tuna, yellow tail, salmon sushi and a summer roll.

Contrary to the size of the restaurant, the pieces of sushi were huge and well-decorated. The tuna and yellow tail were very fresh and the sushi rice was very tasty as well.

Among the friends that I brought, I brought a sushi maniac. Yamado's quality and taste was so good that it even met his taste buds and especially his wallet.

Yamado will be my go-to sushi restaurant!

I was on a week-long sushi bender and Yamado was my fourth stop.

I usually eat at off times so again I was the only customer in the place. My service was quiet and friendly and the interior of this business is quite a bit cuter than the budget strip-mall window-front next to a pawn shop and a Subway would lead you to believe. It's still not a great date environment, or anything flashy, but it's totally fine if you've got the crave for soosh.

Their menu is huge and based almost entirely on the topic at hand, which seems obvious but if you're dining with someone who isn't all about raw fish, they'll a lot fewer options here than at other Japanese restaurants. Not a bad thing, just saying it for the record.

I started with a miso soup and though it was a larger sized bowl than I'd been getting at other places, it was just fine. I was excited to cut into my plate of fishies, consisting of one tuna and one salmon nigiri, a 911 roll and a spicy tuna, but as soon as the plate was placed in front of me, I noticed something that wasn't present at the other places I'd visited that week: The fishy smell. The scent appeared as soon as the selections were placed in front of me and immediately put a damper on anything I was about to eat. It wasn't overwhelming, but it was there and it made a first impression on me that started things off on the wrong foot. After that, I wasn't sure what to expect taste-wise, but was hoping for something to the contrary of the smell... and that's exactly what I got. Somehow, it managed to be lacking almost any flavor at all, less the taste of what I'd consider over-saturated rice. It wasn't terrible by any means, but it wasn't my favorite.

It looked like they did offer some pretty great daily specials, and I'd half wished I'd taken advantage of those but I sat facing the sushi bar and the specials were posted around the corner, out of my frame of sight. One thing I did notice but didn't take advantage of were there $5 drink all-day-everyday drink specials, which looked like a pretty good deal.

I don't know that I'm rushing to go back, but I wouldn't be opposed to second try on a different day with fresher fish, perhaps during a busier hour so I could get the full and true Yamado experience that other reviewers referenced.