Yatai Sushi Express

Just tried Yatai for the first time & it was soooooooooo good! Some of the best sushi I’ve had in awhile! I will DEFINITELY be coming back for more!
What I had:
— Salmon Nigiri
— Unagi Nigiri
— Albacore Nigiri

Even for AYCE, this was pretty bad. I am so unhappy I am sitting at the bar writing this while our food is still coming, which I usually refrain from doing even for good reviews, because I don’t want to be rude.
I wanted to run the second I saw the «chinky» font (to be more accurate it was «nippy» font, as it was imitating a combination of katakana and kanji), but the DH had wanted to try this place. My fault for letting him pick this time, lol.
It’s several dollars cheaper than other AYCE in the area, but they nickel and dime you by charging you extra (instead of limiting the number of orders you can get) for special items like oysters, and even after paying more for them, you are only limited to ordering 2 orders of uni. Also, they limit you to 1 order of unagi and don’t allow you to pay extra for more (unless you want to pay full-​price, I guess), *and* they messed our order up by putting eel sauce on it mere minutes after confirming with us that we didn’t want eel sauce (we also wrote «no eel sauce please» clearly on the paper next to our eel order). I usually am the last person to begrudge paying a couple dollars for an a la carte menu despite getting AYCE just because I feel like it and can afford it, $ 4 additional on top of $ 21.99 for an order of uni when a la carte is $ 7 feels like a ripoff.
I will say, though, that they apologized and replaced our eel even though my husband had gone ahead and eaten one of the unagi already, and let us keep the other wrong eel, and gave us two new fresh un-​sauced nigiri. This is the only reason they get two stars and not one (that and the fact that it wasn’t as awful as Indian Express… Then again, *nothing* is as bad as Indian Express was… Although I’ve never had the pleasure of going to Amy’s Baking Company, lol!)
Every roll had imitation crab in it. Even the spicy tuna hand roll tasted like it had that insidious junk in it.
The tempura batter was not crunchy all the way through. I didn’t mind because I’m a weird person who likes my fries a little oil-​sodden, but my husband, who almost *never* complains when it comes to food, complained that the inside was mushy.
The flavor of the nigiri were nothing to write home about either, even ones that are usually favorites like salmon, escolar, and yellowtail toro. Mostly bland, some a little fishy. The saba (mackerel) was mushier than canned tuna. And they covered everything in sriracha, ponzu, masago, and green onions. It has been my observation that the more crap they pile on (besides the small amount of sauce or garnish that is traditional for certain types of nigiri), the less fresh the fish; they use this filler material to mask fishiness and mushiness.
Service was not great. They never came by to check on us, only to clear my plates while I had my back turned and take my napkin but never give me a new one. They also never refilled my water but refilled my husband’s twice [racism? («Asians, racist against other Asians?», you might scoff, but a lot of Asians are prejudiced against other types of Asians)].
Speaking of racism, for those of you who care (racist ;)), I think they were speaking Korean (basing this entirely on having seen exactly 3 Korean films, but I’m good at languages). I just know it wasn’t Japanese or any dialect of Chinese that I’m familiar with. This doesn’t personally bother me, as there are Korean-​Japanese just like there are Korean-​Americans, but some people think it speaks to authenticity (though I would personally rather eat sushi prepared by a Korean who studied sushi chefery in Japan than a CIA-​trained Japanese-​American who’d never set foot in Japan). IDK if they are Korean-​Japanese-​Americans or what.
Also. Not their fault (unless it’s one of the staff’s kids), but… Shrieking. Child. All. Evening. Please, if your child is doing this, take them outside. Take them home if you can. Little kids shouldn’t be forced to sit in a restaurant for long periods, especially late at night. They get tired very easily, and up through their teen years, need twice as much sleep as adults.
Finally, they blew my eardrums out with their birthday karaōke performance by one of their sushi chefs, who thought it was okay to wail off-​key into the microphone when it was cranked to 11… More than once. And hold it for several seconds.
The first and only time we did not get our money’s worth at AYCE, and we will usually eat our weight in sushi even if it’s bad. I just did not want to eat any more of it.

Sitting here at the bar, I’m glad I didn’t order «All u can eat»…
The place is clean and friendly, but for $ 21.99 plus a drink and tax, you are getting 80% rice, 10% imitation crab meat, and a sliver of any fish u might have ordered !!!
I ordered Ala Cart, Orange Roll ($ 7.99) hoping to get more fish, and still got all rice and very little salmon…
PASS…not coming here again…