Yama Restaurant

Such a shame they’re closing!
Yama was a great Sushi restaurant at very affordable prices.

It’s now just this week CLOSED. Unfortunate, this was our go-​to sushi spot in our neighborhood. Best delivery sushi for sure. Yama will be missed!

LOVEEEEEEE!!!
really good service, waiters and waitresses are really nice patient classy clean-​cut looking.
food is really good and fresh. you could tell they use quality ingredients
servers are soooooo patient… theres so many ppl who give them a hard time
idk why the heck ppl would come to a place like this and take your sweet ass time to create ur own sushi wtf??? this is not a subway sandwich joint… theres a menu of more than 30 things and if u wanna customize your own sushi go buy your custom ingredients get your butt home n customize to your hearts content!!!
servers have many tables to tend to but they were still so patient and quick and courteous
the restaurant is really pretty too.

Cozy. Food not bad. But they have a serious fly problem. They were flying around me, my food, and my wine glass. I’ve never felt so popular. Except this isn’t high school. Except this isn’t a third-​world country. Except I hate flies. Take care of your fly problem and you get two more stars.

I remember back in the day, before the celebrity mega sushi joints came to town … Yama was the place to go. The lines use to go out the door and wrap around the block.
Fast forward a decade or so and now the Houston location is a faded memory. The Carmine street location is still there and bravely carries on despite the empty tables and light traffic (except for the weekends, which is decent but not exactly bustling).
I personally still like the sushi here. They still make one of my favorite rolls of all time (King of Crab) which is devilishly good. The problem is, I always freak out because since the foot traffic is so slow, I often wonder about the freshness of the fish. For the most part it was good though on one occasion I had a tuna roll that literally tasted and smelled fishy. Not great. Another time we went, I ordered a green tea ice cream dessert. It came with a side of red beans but the red bean tasted totally spoiled. Apparently it was (after the waitress checked) and they replaced it (though I still avoided eating the red beans). All that didn’t add up to a lot of good vibes.
However, I still think they do offer a pretty good early bird dinner special and the lunch specials are decent. On my most recent visit I grabbed a 10 dollar combo which had a mix of chicken teriyaki, tempura, california roll, seaweed, shumai and edamame. The portions for each were okay but as a whole it was a decent deal.
All in all I still come here for the decent specials, but it is definitely not my go to place in the city for top notch sushi (see Sasabune, Yasuda, Gari, etc). However, for nostalgia purposes this place is still fine.

It wasn’t the same as before. I like the Toro Tartar. The taste and presentation is a plus. The service is OK. However, our sushi rice seem too dry and lacking tastes. The toro and tuna sashimi were good. I like the indoor much better than the outdoor. However, they only have one restroom (M/​W) for the entire restaurant. Bad idea.

The sushi is above average (3.5), but the service was ridiculously slooooooooow. A business lunch really didn’t need to last over 2 hours. seriously. there was only one other table when I got there. Service needs to step up their game.

Fresh, cheap, inventive, and they take reservations. Doesn’t get much better than this. Was my fave NY sushi bar for years and now when I go back to visit I always try to hit up Yama. Their spicy tuna rolls are huge, delicious and covered in the best spicy mayo. Crispy shrimpy is crunchy, smooth, salty, silky and perfectly seasoned. Eel is divine. Even the cooked food (garlic asparagus) is made to order and perfect. The Carmine location also has a nice, big back garden. I like Irving less – it’s hot, has no windows, and staff isn’t friendly. But I’ll go if I’m craving good sushi and am close to Union Square. But my first choice is always Yama Carmine.

OK… this ain’t Morimoto but the food is just fine.
Had the «Zen Special Box» or something that was a «you choose» assortment of sushi, rolls, «kitchen items» and sides. Filling, fulfilling… and the price put me in a state of Zen.
The quiet and green garden seating out back makes everything taste and feel better and the service is unhurried and unobtrusive.
A sweet spot to avoid all the local hipsters and whores trying to negotiate cobblestone streets in five inch heels.

Horrible service from our waiter !! Bad bad attitude, was very rude and restless when we asked to create our own sushi. or when we asked for a plain noodles for the kid… We ended up paying him tip when we shouldn’t have!
The sushi was OK, nothing special, I had better — the inside out was too big to eat and fell apart.
The Teriyaki chicken was very dry
I was looking for a good sushi place near Union Square and went there based on the reviews in Unilocal,but I will not go there anymore!

Excellent sushi place that anybody in the area should try.
Had a wide range of food from seaweed salad to miso soup to sushi deluxe platter and it ranged from above average to top notch. (miso soup was noteworthy, which is weird b/​c I usually barely have any of it)
While I had mostly traditional (or traditional for the US anyway) pieces, I tried a wasabi roe that was almost painfully hot but very interesting. Fish was fresh and well cut. Prices were normal for the city and good considering the quality.
Will absolutely go back here again. Not quite Sushi Yasaka (on the UWS, read my review) but my favorite sushi place below 14^th!

This is my favorite sushi place in the city. I go here twice a week — and I’m not one to go to restaurants often. When I am sitting at the table, buzzed off their $ 9 bottle of great Sake, and enjoying the Yama Sushi Zen or the Very Special Maki Combo, I am in heaven. The restaurant is relaxed and low-​key. During the warmer months they open their back garden.
The food is not only really good and an excellent value, but the service is attentive. Nao is super sweet, and so is this other guy who works there a lot (I forget his name).
A true gem.

The best thing about this place is the backyard garden. It goes down hill from there. I ordered the $ 18 Yama Sushi Box. The sashimi was microscopic. The rolls (1 California and 1 spicy salmon) were eh at best which isn’t the feeling you want when you are eating raw food.
My wife ordered 2 spicy tuna rolls. The tuna was actually black! When we asked the waitress about it and basically told her that it looked inedible she said she would check with the manager but indicated that we were basically stuck with it. She returned 10 minutes later with our black roll and confirmed «too bad» and claimed that its was due to the seaweed. BS!
Who gives a customer back food that they have complained about. Someone needs a customer service class (I blame the manager more than the waitress).
All in all, a horrible experience. STAY AWAY!

My all-​time favorite sushi place in Manhattan.
Fresh sushi, great rolls.
Love this place.

Per usual, Yama Carmine doesn’t disappoint. The fish and plate creativity is as fresh as it comes and the service impeccable.
You’d be a fool not to get a seat inside or in their backyard garden.

I love how fresh the sushi is here and everything is prepared to taste just as good as it looks… or look just as good as it tastes. Either way, Yama is a step up from a standard local sushi spot. The quality of the fish is better and the menu offers some pretty creative creations.

My favorite sushi restaurant in NYC!
You can tell a sushi restaurant is great by asking if they have Sea Urchin (uni) or Toro (Fatty Tuna). If the place has either of these items, then you know that all of their fish is fresh. I have asked for uni & toro at many places and have been turned down many times (even when it is listed on the menu). I guess its too expensive to keep and not many people eat it?) Who knows. All I know is Yama always has it!
I also love the fact that you get to pencil in your sushi order on the piece of paper waiting for you at the table. This leads to fewer mistakes and for me is somewhat fun.
Yama fish always tastes extremely fresh the sushi chefs are top notch. The hand rolls are perfect (not overloaded with rice and exploding with fish). The spicy tuna hand roll will make your mouth water. Also, try the scottish salmon, it is delicious.
The only downside is that the food is a little expensive. But in my opinion, you get what you pay for. I am always willing to pay for this place. It just tastes better than all of the other restaurants.
Definitely give this place a try if you are in the area.

I used to love Yama, and come here quite often. However, recently, the restaurant has had a fishy smell, so bad in fact that my family and I were there for dinner one night and left because we were worried about eating the fish.
The bento lunch boxes are pretty good, with lots of food, however I think you can find better quality fish elsewhere.
I typically judge a sushi restaurant by the tamago and the tamago here was homemade but nothing special and super thin, very much not how I prefer it.
Overall, I know I will go back because it is inevitable but I wish there was a better sushi option nearby.

This review is for Chirashi take-​out.
Come on Japanese!
I know it’s no so easy to make Chirashi into a take-​out container but it was lame. I wish I’ve taken a picture. It was nothing like Chirashi. I hope they might offer better presentation and ingredients when you eat in. Just to give an idea what Chirashi or Chirashizushi looks here.
What I got was 3 kind of fish, salmon, tuna, yellowtai (?) and egg custard over sushi rice. Nothing was screaming good but acceptable.
The best thing about this restaurant was a cute Maître d, He had an Italian gracious manner as in service that I often come cross in Italy and with Japanese kindness smile…

I’ve always passed by this place on my way to other lunch places around work but never ventured in. I did with a friend a couple of nights ago. They have a nicely lit dining room as well as a garden. Definitely plus there.
The menu was interesting — they have several specials that seem too good to be true! Take the Yama Zen set for example. It’s 14 bucks but comes with soup, sashimi, sushi, and 2 rolls.
We started off with 2 appetizers: agedashi tofu and the summer roll. Both were delicious! The tofu was nicely fried on the outside and soft and silken on the inside. The summer roll was unexpectedly good! 3 nicely sized rolls cut into 2 pieces each (great for sharing) — each was filled with a big piece of salmon, tuna or shrimp, cucumber, and asparagus, with a nice peanut sauce to finish. Great start.
The entrée was less than awesome, though. First the fish… not the freshest. The tuna was definitely frozen — not the way I like it. The presentation of the dishes were nice — my friend got the Yama Zen special and I got the chef’s special Chirashi.
The Chirashi came in a 3 layered lacquered bowl. That, however, was the most impressive portion of the dish. When I opened it up, the food was plated in a very appealing manner. The rice layer had diced fish, mushrooms, egg and asparagus on top. There were two other layers, one with a nice portion of sashimi, and the other with some shrimp tempura, seared tuna with a special sauce, and something else (I forgot).
I have to beat the fact that the fish was not the freshest. All in all, a somewhat disappointing end to a great start. I’ll go back to see what they have to offer for lunch… but for the moment, I’m probably not going back for dinner.