Yoshinoya

The drive-​thru here takes forever!!! Avoid it. Your best bet is to park and order inside — trust me it will be faster.

they always seem to fricken close way earlier than their hours posted… i called before i left my pad just to make sure they were still open… the lady said drive thru closes at 12 and so i drove there around 11:30 and i pull up. the thing tells me they’re closed. UGH!

I’ve been to this particular Yoshinoyas a few times already. It’s convenient sometimes as I head to my parent’s house from the Downtown Los Angeles direction. This Lincoln Heights Yoshinoyas is not exactly the safest location, but at least it fulfills the purpose of the business which is to sell Beef Bowls.
This location compared to the other ones is newer and it sits on the busy intersection of three crossing streets. The beef and chicken is good, the vegetables served sometimes may be under cooked when the veggies are still hard, or it may also be overcooked when it’s mushy. The Shrimp and Walnut bowls are good too. Proportions are small with mini shrimps battered and fried tempura style. There’s probably six to seven shrimps per bowl, and the walnuts are almost non-​existent.
You can’t really judge or write crucial reviews for franchises, as the quantity and quality is regulated to corporate standards. So come and enjoy with no expectations.
Don’t expect great service here either. The walk in front door locks at around 10pm. The drive through however, is still open until midnight. The surrounding area is not the greatest, nor may it be the safest either. There are panhandlers, and people loitering at the bus stop that is right in front of the main entrance and the drive thru. I am quite sure these people are harmless. They may only seems intimidating visually.
At the drive through, lock your doors and roll up your windows as a precaution. The service is slow!
The gal made a mistake on my order. For my order, I used the coupons sent to me for their specials. But I was still charged for a bowl that was suppose to be free. I nicely told the person who took my order about the extra charges, but she wasn’t able to do anything about it since the manager wasn’t around. I don’t get it. Then I asked if she can do a refund on my order and start over. She said she wasn’t able to do that either. Wth? Lol. Anyhow, to make a long story short, I was charged for the extra bowl that was suppose to be free with my purchase. I didn’t argue with her either because it wasn’t worthwhile for me to do so. I got a free drink from her though. Indirectly, my drink still costed me five bucks because of her mistake. LOL.
Oh well, youngsters working to gain knowledge and experience is more important to me than complaining to her superiors where it may jeopardize her job. So it’s all good.

Today I got orange chicken and walnuts combo bowl, but for some reason the orange chicken was nothing but fried batter with no chicken inside

THIS LOCATION is terrible! The couple times I’ve gone to this particular location I haven’t even been able to order what I wanted (a chicken bowl and orange chicken). On weekdays they are supposedly open until midnight, but when I’ve gone the cooks have shut down and cleaned the grill by 11pm or so, an hour before closing! So if you go at this time it’s likely you’ll only be able to order a beef bowl (with meat that was cooked an hour ago), you can’t order anything chicken or anything besides the regular steak bowl. Talk about lazy workers! I’ve even gone around 11:30pm on weekdays and 1:30am on weekends and when I get there the drive thru and the restauraunt are completely closed, 30 mins before the official close time! If you want good customer service, and non-​lazy workers take the extra 5 – 10 mins and go to the Yoshinoya on Marengo! AVOID THIS LOCATION!

Not sure why it says it’s open at 8 a.m. on the weekends. It opens at 9 a.m. on the weekends. I had to wait around 30 minutes because I came at 8:35 a.m.
Food is great like any other Yoshinoya restaurant. Service is decent, you can’t complain.
I would say, there’s around 15 parking spaces so it won’t be hard to find parking.
The restaurant itself is clean.
A decent place to enjoy a chicken bowl. Very good chicken bowls by the way! Also great steak bowls

Drive thru takes for ever! Even if there was only one car ahead of you! It’s rediculous! It’s literally faster to park and go in to order out, which is what we do now when ever we HAVE to go to this location. Most of the time we just go to another location.

Worst drive-​thru EVER! Took them 20 minutes to get my order and anther 10 minutes to receive it! Horrible and it’s not the first time. ugh

This review is for THIS LOCATION ONLY, not Yoshinoya as a chain.
AVOID THIS YOSHINOYA AT ALL COST!
After shopping at Smart & Final, I saw Yoshinoya’s orange sign from the parking lot. Immediately I had a craving for THAT BEEF and it had to be satisfied STAT. Drove around and noticed the drive thru wasn’t ridiculously long which usually saves me from eating this unhealthy stuff. This time around there was only one car ordering so it must be a sign… the Universe wants me to have that beef! NOICE!
I went with the combo (beef and chicken) because YOLO! (Sorry for using YOLO, anyone over 25 should never have that as part of their vocabulary!)
With only one car ahead of me, it took 15 minutes to get the food!!! I was trying to stay positive and thought, «hey, at least it’ll be fresh». WRONG!!! The staff was just a bunch of retards. Actually calling the staff there retards would be offensive to RETARDS. That’s how bad they were! You know the BOTTOM OF THE BARREL fast food staff, well the staff here is BELOW that fckin barrel!
And as a cherry on top, the beef was as dry as a 90 year old vagina and the chicken was not fully cooked. I mean it was a minute or two in the microwave from avoiding salmonella but what if I didn’t have a microwave!!!
UGH, what a waste of calories!!!

Customer service was decent but the food is bag. We’ve tried it multiple times to give it a chance but no. I ordered an Angus steak bowl with steamed rice. I got a bowl of rice drenched in some kind of soy sauce. Just threw it out. Be sure to order with light sauce.

I luv yoshinoya don’t get it wrong, but this cashier name Ann has no customer service. No hello by instead nodded at me as if i live in ghetto. Managers you guys need to emphasize costomer services. People watch it for her.

I haven’t had Yoshinoya since I was probably 10 years old… and that’s a long time ago… recently I saw some coupons in the mail and decided to use them and see how much they have changed… and well like McDonalds (which has been around forever) they didn’t change much — maybe a few new items on the menu but what I tasted was exactly how I remembered it.
So I used the 2 for $ 8 bowl coupon — pretty good deal and I got the beef and veggie one — though I think next time I would get the all beef one cause I’m not fond of cabbage and they give a lot of that… and not a lot of broccoli (which I do like) so it’s more worth it for me to get just beef.
I do wish that they would give the option of brown rice instead of just having white rice. Though I also like Flame Broiler more but this reminded me of the good old days… and the coupons are good deal or else I probably wouldn’t eat here without them.
The service was pretty nice here though it was also super packed and busy cause it happens to be exactly lunch time and they were doing construction outside so I couldn’t use the drive through.
The place isn’t super clean but it’s not like crazy dirty either. They have a small parking but you can always park in the Smart and Final parking in which it is located in.

Good food, used a coupon so my mom and I ate for $ 11. Great service but, the tables need cleaning or they would’ve gotten 5 stars.

I really love the Yoshinoya chain restaurant. My usual is the beef bowl. What I don’t like its the veggies that come with the chicken bowl. They are obviously frozen, so they taste mushy to me:/
They have parking and drive thru. However I have given up on the drive thru and prefer to just go In and order it to go. Many times my order has Come out wrong or something is missing. And when you ask for extra ginger, what they give you is a joke. But if you go in and order you can pack as much ginger as your heart desires;) I love me lots of ginger, it adds flavor to my rice.
The employees can be rude and at times when they are packed it can take up to 20 min to receive 2bowls.
I’ll still come because I love the Angus and beef bowl… With lots of ginger…:)

In a nutshell: Japanese fast food in Lincoln Heights.
Yoshinoya is a chain that originated in Japan, and is apparently REALLY good in Japan. I’ve never had a problem with it here, but I’ve gotten crappy chicken pieces on occasion. However I love this place because it’s the perfect guilty pleasure for my Filipino side: meat on rice with sauce. Just like most of our cuisine!
This Yoshinoya is located next to the Smart and Final in the Five Points area of Lincoln Heights. This is a very busy intersection, so a lot of people stop by here on their breaks.
Parking ⁴⁄₅
The lot here is gated separately from the Smart and Final, and there are usually a couple spots open.
Ambience ³⁄₅
This is a fairly small franchise branch, and sometimes the place is packed.
Wait time ³⁄₅
Normally one doesn’t have to wait more than 5 minutes for their order, but sometimes during peak hours I’ve waited as long as 10 – 15. It happens. They are so understaffed here for peak hours.
Service ⁵⁄₅
As busy as this place gets, the staff are always so nice and professional. They do their best to get everything out on time, and double check orders for accuracy.
Food ³⁄₅
I usually get a large chicken bowl with cayenne, and without skin. The order speak for this would be: Large spicy chicken with no skin. I’ve learned that saying that in any other arrangement of words nets you the wrong order, or they miss something. The chicken bowl is good, and generally comes with big juicy cuts of chicken. It’s nothing to write home about, but it’s good for the fix.
Overall ³⁄₅
Nothing special, but this place is consistent and the staff are nice. Highly recommend NOT eating here all the time lest you want to gain a ton of weight in a short amount of time.

Used the drive-​thru and I must say this place situated at a very crazy intersection. The person handling my drive-​thru order was nice and friendly. Being on a busy street, it was really hard to compete with all of the car/​bus noise etc. I had to repeat my order several times and still wasn’t sure if my order was right until I pulled up at the window. They were really busy but after paying and waiting there for five minutes or more, they realized that I never got my food yet… but they were nice about it and the food was good as always so all is forgiven.

NOTORIETY: N/​A
FOOD:
Combo bowl ($ 5.89): The beef & chicken were decent but the veggies were lacking in flavor. Gonna skip out on the combo bowl and go straight w/​the beef bowl w/​o the veggies next time.
Asian BBQ Wings (4 pc $ 2.99): A tad too salty for my taste, but they were flavorful & tender.
Tilipia: I felt the fish was a bit overcooked and wasn’t as flaky as I would’ve liked. Prob wouldn’t get it again.
TIPS: Check your mail as they send coupons.

Sesame Wings– MEHH but my sisters love them
Chicken Bowl– decent. The employees are sometimes stingy and put only a few pieces in with a crap load of veggies and rice
Beef Bowl– heaven. Esp. if you ask for extra onions. I’m a happy girl.
I really appreciate the drive thru btw.
Lazy people like me are extremely grateful for it

We come here routinely every Sunday after bball and they know us. Same orders every time. Wished they didn’t do away with the BBQ plates. The udon is decent.

This place is okay, food is just like any other Yoshinoya really.
The Drive-​Thru works for me, and it is usually run by woman here, not sure what vatos locos the guy before me is talking about.
Anyhow, been here before of course, but did notice today that the combo bowl got much smaller from my last visit, not sure if it is this store or all around.
Spicy Combo Bowl Rocks!
Enjoy