Yamato Japanese Restaurant

Our party of 5 which included a child under 5 had a great experience. We were greeted and sat immediately. The chef was very interactive and the food was perfect.

Birthday Dinner & A Show We had a large party to celebrate a birthday. Dinner was excellent. Chef Tommy delivered not only a delicious meal but a wonderful show! Our party varied in ages and everyone enjoyed the show. We had some of everything and plenty of it filet mignon, chicken, shrimp, scallops, salmon, veggies, noodles and rice. This was my first time and I very much enjoyed it and will be back. For large parties some advice Yamato will not seat you until every guest has arrived. Thank You for a wonderful dinner for our family and friends.

My server Trey was very attentive and welcoming. I celebrated my birthday here and they give you so much food that it’s worth the price. For drinks I ordered the Dragon and I enjoyed it but if you don’t like sweet/fruity drinks, I wouldn’t order it. The Ninja was much stronger and lighter.

While visiting the Gainesville area, we decided to grab lunch, hibachi style. We love our Yamato's back home and decided to see if this location was just as good. We were lucky enough to be the lunch rush. We were politely greeted by the host upon entry. Note, if your entire party isn't there, you will have to wait 🤷🏾‍♀️. We were a party of two and were sat immediately. Our waitress came right over and took our drink order. Shortly after, she came back for our entrée order. Shortly after, our chef arrived. He wasn't too keen on having to put on a show for just two people. We were slightly disappointed that we didn't get any of the bells and whistles. It was lackluster. But lucky for us, we got allll the food 😂 split between the two us. This will be our meals for the next two days...lol. The soup and ginger salad were delicious per usual 😉. As for the meats (chicken, shrimp, salmon & steak), they were cooked perfectly. Very tasty and well seasoned. Unfortunately, although they were still good, our sides (rice, noodles, and veggies) were over seasoned. They were on the salty side. We drenched them with their yummy yum, yum sauce, and called it a day...lol 🤷🏾‍♀️. Our chef moved on to his next group and guess what, they got the full experience 😯😵‍💫. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves and will continue to patronize Yamato's. If you're in the area, stop on by.

This place has really gone down hill over the years. I grew up coming to Yamato for every special event as a child. I sat at the bar for my last visit, The bartender didn't even acknowledge me, but he saw I sat down. He finished making the drink that he was working on and then sat down and got on his phone. And finally after a few minutes, he's like oh are you here for takeout. I let him know that I wanted to dine in and that I was not. It was just me so I didn't see a point at sitting at a large party table. The food is still good, but it's not as great as it used to be. When you get takeout food, the fried rice doesn't taste like fried rice that you would get when you dine in. Some of the staff they seem like they care about their job and the customers. But other staff, it seems like they could care less like the bartender that ignored me for almost half an hour. When you try to call to make it to go order, you never know if your call is gonna get answered or if you're better off going in there to place the order in person. I called three times in A row one night each one of them rang and rang with no answer. I love the food, but something's gotta change between the people they hire that don't care about anything but themselves and making sure the quality and the taste of the food as as good as it used to be.