Yamato Japanese Restaurant

Came for lunch, the Teppenyaki was very good, the chef was fun and entertaining. The prices were incredibly reasonable. I didn’t have sushi, but others did and said it was fantastic as well. Would come back for sure.

It was good, had some tuna & salmon sashimi along with some sushi and tempera, really liked the tuna quality.

A decent lunch spot in Yorkville; neither cheap nor expensive. Not too loud/​not too quiet. The fish is fresh, presentation good, service quick, table turn around fast. There are some unique creations on the menu. If you’re not sure of what you want, there are lunch sized sushi/​sashimi samplers.
Beside the nigiri/​sashimi/​maki menu, there is a robust udon /​soba menu with plenty of options and next to that, teppanyaki entrees that are cooked at the table.
Overall, a great little quick sit down lunch spot in Yorkville. If Yorkville is not your preferred destination, there are other Yamato/​Fune restaurants around Toronto.

I’ll give them this — no one can say that they are understaffed. Very helpful and attentive servers. I suspect that the first one wanted to be sure that he understood my allergies because he sent a second one to verify them, which was much appreciated. The teppanyaki may not be as exciting a show as at other places, but the food is just as tasty and the portions are huge. Prices are within the range for this type of establishment and are almost reasonable in this neighbourhood. The teppanyaki dinners range from $ 22 for vegetable up to $ 45 for lobster. The online menu has other teppanyaki options including individual dishes, but they weren’t on the menu that we were shown. Had they been, we would have picked one of the individuals ones over the full dinner.
The five-​piece sushi sampler was quite good ($ 11). Mixed shrimp and veggie tempura was crispy and light, although the tempura mushroom was a bit of a miss.
Hot towels to start the meal are a nice touch. The décor is a bit dated. Seating options are the sushi bar, regular tables and teppanyaki tables. The resto is located in Yorkville — one block west of Bay and 1.5 blocks north of Bloor. It’s downstairs on the west side of the street.

If I weren’t so tired from driving all day for work, I wouldn’t have my meal here tonight. I’ve been here for many years and recognize most of their regulars are white families in the area or who shops here. I usually don’t care but today I really felt like i wasn’t getting the same service being one of the few Asian patrons out of the white patrons. Service here is usually good regardless but eating alone I really noticed the difference.
My go to noodle and spider roll is still good as always. They did forget my noodles after I devoured ohitashi (nothing memorable). Sad to see the service isn’t consistent as it used to be.

This is another restaurant that I frequent on a consistent basis in Toronto, especially for Japanese food.
I always go for the Teppanyaki at Yamato, because eating it such a fun dining experience. The menu mainly consists of a meat, coupled with some vegetables and fried rice. The chefs are extremely fun and do all sorts of tricks with the cooking utensils: I’m talking about knife flips, onion pyramids and lots and lots of fun flames.
This place definitely lighted up the bit of a pyromaniac in me.
The quality of food is excellent, but I would say it is more on the oily and overly-​saucy side. Every time I dine here I make sure to emphasize that I want to close-​to-​none or minimal sauce. Another downside of this restaurant is that it takes a while to serve, especially if you have to wait for other tables before the Teppanyaki chef starts cooking, so I would not recommend coming here if you are in a rush for time.
I really enjoy their take on the miso soup. It’s a bit more tofu-​based than regular miso soups.
The price is on the steep side, but this really is expected of any quality Japanese restaurant (especially knife-​flipping restaurants, I would imagine they spend a lot of money on insurance for the chefs…).
I asked the chef where he learned his skills one time, and he facetiously answered «University in Toronto». «U of T?! «, I exclaimed.
«Nah, University of Youtube»
I’ll give you 5 stars just for your humour, thanks for making the dining experience so fun.

Great food and an amazing chef! He definitely made the experience for everyone at the table.

Enjoyed an early dinner, 7 pm, for four people. Made a reservation and although it wasn’t that busy when we arrived it was crowded at 09:30 when we left.
Had a traditional teppanyaki dinner. Started with sushi which was extremely fresh and yummy. The wait staff, especially our hostess was extremely attentive and we all left commenting amongst ourselves how wonderful the evening was.
Will definitely return.

The price was quite cheap, compare with the same fan restaurant in Beijing. also the Japanese waitress was pretty nice. Only the girl which lead us to our seat, was so so so impolite with her manner, the same ugly face treated us as she treated as same people those come from continent of China. I was very annoyed when she help her colleague order our neighbors the other Chinese poor guy, she was so inpatient interrupted their asking. And mentioned our orders several times! That’s incredible! And very very rude! Maybe she forget her behavior in Canada that she learned back her college !
The end of complain is the steak and veggies were burnt, and fried rice was not salty.
I won’t come agin as I promised to my husband!

Service: ⁴⁄₅
Food: ¹⁄₅
Location: ⁴⁄₅
Entertainment: ⁰⁄₅
Took my girlfriend here on her birthday. She never experience teppenyaki style before so I thought good dinner and a show. We order KOBE beef ($ 80); Teppenyaki Special: Chicken + Steak ($ 29); toro ($ 27) & salmon ($ 12) Sashimi; Scallop ($ 8); and YellowTail ($ 10) sushi.
Service: Servers and hostess were very courteous and friendly!
Food: We order Kobe beef; it was like about 1 inch thick, and it wasn’t the nicest cut but it was acceptable. Our Chef was Patrick, he didn’t know how to cook it, I asked for medium rare to rare, he gave us well done (WASTED good beef). Sushi and sashimi were not fresh and kind of warm.
Location: It was in YorkVille so many bars and other restaurants. Its a upscale district.
Entertainment: Patrick didn’t even give us smirk. No humor, small talks, or tricks. He dressed up like a chef but cooks like he dislike his job. Overall the bill was $ 220+ tip I am just glad that my girlfriend couldn’t compare her experience to any other teppenyaki restaurants. I cancelled the dessert and paid and left.
There was a African Chef serving some customer behind us. He was singing and joking around with the customers behind us! Wow! I only wish, I had him serving us this evening instead of boring Patrick who F-​up my Kobe Beef.
Maybe, next time I can request a chef a that can actually cook a Kobe beef steak.

Food: 3.5÷5
Service: ⁵⁄₅
Location: ⁴⁄₅
Highlight: If you’re looking for a fun show to accompany your meal, this tepanyaki-​style Japanese restaurant is a great choice. The servers were helpful, and of course chef was entertaining and a bit of a jokester too.
We started off with the sushi sampling plate as an appetizer, which had 5 pieces of nigiri sushi (shrimp, tuna, salmon, snapper, and artificial crab). At $ 11 it was on the pricier side, but it actually very tasty and piqued our appetite for the upcoming meal. Along with the appetizer we were served an onion soup with mushrooms and spring onions that was quite flavourful in comparison to the miso soups that Japanese restaurants usually serve.
The whole cooking «show» itself was only about 10 – 15 minutes, relatively short, so I’m not going to give up any «spoilers» of the routine. Just go see for yourself. The food itself was pretty good, I liked the egg fried rice and my teriyaki ribeye steak was incredibly tender, but everything else was pretty much cheap filler veggies like bean sprouts and zucchini. The chef also poured us two dipping sauces, a ginger soy/​teriyaki sauce and a wasabi mustardy type mix that my boyfriend loved.
At ~$ 15 a plate depending on what type of meat you choose, and an extra $ 5 just for a bowl of fried rice, it definitely isn’t a value meal. If you haven’t been to a tepanyaki place before, I recommend giving it a go, just for the experience. Consider bringing friends along to make a full table of 8, it seems like one of those experiences where the more really is the merrier.

Great food but you have to come for the teppanyaki. Our chef, Daren, put on an unbelievable show. Honestly, the things he pulled were so amazing I thought I was on ketamine! Fire was literally shooting out of an onion! Think about that for a second. Then think how it could be that you’re not blitzed out of your mind, cause how the hell did fire shoot out of a frickin’ onion?!
May not be a date spot.

It was my first time visiting and it was pretty amazing! I took my boyfriend there because I wanted to do something special for him for being so great (place is meh expensive). So we sat for teppanyaki, and the entertainment was pretty good, the kids in the other table loved it most. I ordered the fillet mignon, and it tasted like heaven, along with the garlicy fried rice. The portion was pretty big, I had to take some to go, and the stir fry veggies were great. Overall I would go there again.

So a bit confusing entering (if you’re dumb like me). Walk past the stairwell being blocked by plants and you’ll see a staircase leading down to the basement entrance.
We were a bit annoyed to start because they don’t have a drinks menu so the server just tells you what they have. I felt so bad for the poor lady as she couldn’t pronounce the names of any of the wines. We got Teppenyaki and it was decent — there was a strange undertaste to the fried rice that I can’t explain, like too much umami or something.
Overall the meal was nice. Service was okay. Not my favourite Japanese spot though.

I think it’s the best sushi place in town. Never tried another grill menu but sushi and sashimi is always fresh and delicious!

They lost our reservation!!!
Went again for dinner with guests from out-​of-​town for a group of 9. After the initial snafu of somehow losing our reservation (booked two weeks ahead) we did finally get seated and they redeemed themselves. All but one ordered teppanyaki dinners (MUCH pricier at dinner… expect to pay $ 26−50pp just for food but you will be stuffed as each comes with soup, salad, rice, lots of grilled veg and a protein). The meat was tender an tasty They way I see it, you’re also paying for the show :)
Wine and beer is a reasonable markup (especially for Yorkville) and the servers are incredible… like clockwork. Overall, fun!
Food…3 stars
Service…5 stars
Ambience.4 ½ stars
Overall experience…4 stars

Food is good, but nothing amazing. I usually get the shrimp and scallop «deluxe combination» (handul of grilled seafood, smattering of carrot/​zucchini, bunch of bean sprouts and white rice, $ 18) and sometimes a sashimi sampler ($ 12) to share. If you or your children are not wowed by teppanyaki cooking (i.e. some jaunty egg tossing, a halfhearted onion volcano and the smell of oil on your clothes all day), it’s probably not worth it.
The clear onion soup is a nice change of pace from miso and always comes to the table about 3 degrees hotter than the interior of our Sun.
FUN FACT: While not one of my favourite restaurants, Yamato IS the location of one of my favourite moments in my restaurant dining history. A guy dining solo next to my group at the communal tables, while contesting a charge on his bill with the server, said: «I’m the mayor here on Foursquare!»
I kid you not! He said that! OUT LOUD! To another human being! Who as far as I could tell had no idea what he was even talking about! Oh, how we laughed and laughed. And cringed.

OK, I DO NOT LIKE Communal tables, and loud showy tepenyaki places.
This is 3 star review because I recognize that people do enjoy this, and the food at Yamato was good. Maybe this deserves a higher rating… But this is one girl’s opinion who does not like the very essence of this place.
Why was I there?
My friend chose the restaurant and I didn’t realize what it was in time to say no.
My friend and I shared the Lobster tail and steak. The lobster was lacking in flavour but the beef was tender and delicious.
The fried rice was EXTREMELY NOISILY PREPARED, but quite tasty.
The chef seemed a bit offended that my friend and I did not pause from our conversation to watch him slam food and knives around on the giant stove top in the middle of the table.
If you prefer you food to be prepared out of sight and sound, in an enclosed kitchen, and you like an intimate dining atmosphere, SKIP Yamato.
However, if you like this type of communal, interactive, dining experience, Yamato was packed – which tells me it must be good– and the service was excellent.
This might be a good place to go for an office holiday party, or a birthday party if you have multiple groups of friends who don’t know each other very well.

I was working on a Sunday which is close to Yorkville, so stopped in here to have something to eat with that special someone. First impression was not that great. Inside décor is not really on the Yorkville level and the service was extremely slow — however, we didn’t make a reservation and we were only 2 — they waited till they sat down 3 other couples and then we got started — we probably waited 35 to 40 minutes before we had a chef…
Now on the actual food level, I’d give this place a 3 out of 5 — I have had teppanyaki in Okinawa where it originates and it would make this place look like McDonalds. With that said, our chef was extremely entertaining and fun. For that reason alone I’d recommend this place for a group that wants to experience Teppanyaki for a reasonable price — you can get a terriyaki beef/​chicken for $ 28 — comparatively in Japan would pay at least 3 times that… so good value…
Anyways, would recommend it for those who want to try it and have a fun night out, however, if you were looking to the best place in town, I’d suspect Benihana would be better than here.

The portion was small for an average male considering the high prices for their food. I mean seriously, $ 170 for 4 people who weren’t even full after the lunch was totally frustrating. I have to admit the sushi and maki fish stuff was fresh and delicious but too overpriced.