Yamazato

Sublime treats in a down to earth styled setting. I ate lunch here twice and both times, it was true treat. Although the sushi and sashimi is truly excuisite, they really make their mark in the other japanese dishes. Anyone looking for a good selection of everything, I would recommend the Bentobox, perhaps supplemented with an extra small dish if you’re a big eater. The service is impecabble and unexpectadly casual (as they are all dressed in traditional kimono’s). Out of all the dishes, I think the omlettes were the most excuisite. Having been to Japan, I think Yamazato is one of the few places that provides a true Japanese fine dining experiance. If seated correctly, you almost forget that you are in Amsterdam. A truly fantastic experiance!

Amazing brunch/​lunch. Highest quality sushi I experienced in all of the Netherlands in the span of a half decade. Huge windows, and you are surrounded by coy ponds. Not inexpensive but perfect for a long weekend day meal. Great wine list. The michelin star is deserved. Very nice hotel as well.

Highly overrated experience. We had the 50 euro set lunch which was very ordinary — same standard I would say as a cheap sushi train in Japan.
While the dishes were beautifully presented, the compliments stop there. The courses came out unbearably slow. Something like 30 minutes before the first course and 20 spacing from then on. The fish quality was good, but not great. The servings were small.
When the sushi came out, It was served on cold rice? What??? Michelin Japanese food on cold rice? The result was very underwhelming and the temperatures of the fish vs rice dynamic was ruined.
Definitely not Michelin standard.

A little bit ashamed to admit that I was craving for Japanese meal in Amsterdam, apparently can’t deny that I’m still Asian after all. Well, went to this place, somehow it wasn’t too difficult to get a reservation.
Opted for the tasting menu and everything were delicious, sashimi was fresh, steak was tasty and dessert, in particular, was memorable.

Yamazato has been a special retreat for me and my sister for decades. when visiting my native Netherlands, we always spoil ourselves with lunch or dinner.
The ambiance and service are exquisite, simultanously modestly and proudly japanese. One can enjoy a high level of attention in a representative interior of luxury wood elements and wall-​to-​wall carpet, with several of the long walls with floor-​to-​ceilings offering a broad view of the ornamental japanese garden with a pond outside.
The food, varying from well-​known sushi (of an unparalelled quality), to kaiseki dining, and a myriad of a la carte menu options in between, are all made of high quality ingredients. The menues are composed in such a way the subtle taste sequences leave you and your tastebuds in awe. If one so wishes, the food can be supplemented by a wide selection of excellent wines and/​or sake. Do you like sparkling wine, make sure to try the sakura champagne cocktail with a hint of cherry liquor. And the green tea icecream with fresh fruit for desert, results in you leaving totally fulfilled savouring the whole experience.

Given they hype and Michelin star we were very underwhelmed– this is NOT even close to the best Japanese restaurant in Europe. Make no mistake: The quality of the fish is quite good but does not rival Michelin star sushi in London or New York. We might have had a horrible waitress but the service was shocking for its reputation. She didnt know what a quail egg was and said they didn’t carry them– until the people next to us had them on their dish and we pointed them out to her. We had to fill our own glasses of water as they stayed empty for quite a while. Finally– we had 8pm reservations and at 9:15 we were told the kitchen is closing in 15 minutes. Just not up to snuff with a Michelin star. If you don’t have michelin expectations you will not be disappointed.

Really great food. We had the seasonal 8 course Kaiseki dinner (every month its different). Every course was great. Lot of attention and great care in preparation. It’s our favorite Japanese restaurant. We always go here to celebrate some occasions.

YAMAZATO, PLEASE TAKE MY MONEY!
Came here for my birthday dinner with my husband I stepped into a Japanese-​Zen-​food-​haven. I had Kaiseki (traditional Japanese multi-​course dinner) and it was super filling. The most memorable dish we had was the lobster sashimi that was inside a ice bubble that you had to break with a gavel to get to. Oh, and I also had the best eel of my life here! Every course in our Kaiseki was super well thought out — pleasing to the eye and delicious. And the end of the meal, they surprised me with a birthday dessert :) The service was great and the female servers wore really cute traditional kimonos. Yamazato is a place to go to if you want a taste of Japanese culture (no pun intended). Definitely see why it has a Michelin star.

Era el primer sitio con Estrella Michelín al que iba y, sumado al hecho de que tampoco había estado nunca en un Hotel Okura (tipo Mandarín, pero orientales), tenía unas ganas/​expectativas enormes. Se cumplieron al 90%. El sitio es PRECIOSO, una especie de caja de madera y cristal, súper luminoso, con vistas a un jardín japonés de los de verdad (poco parece que estás en Amsterdam en ese momento!). Las mesas están bastante separadas y tienen como módulos, por lo que nunca compartes «espacio» con más de una mesa o dos. Eso es estupendo para la privacidad, si tienes una cena más íntima.
Pedimos menú degustación vegetariano, con nueve platos y algunas verduras asiáticas que no se encuentran en Europa. Todos súper bien cocinados y los camareros nos explicaron perfectamente en qué consistía cada plato y algunas curiosidades de los mismos, por lo que todo perfecto en ese sentido. Nos arrepentimos después de no haber pedido otro menú con pescado, ya que en el vegetariano al final las verduras se repetían bastante, pero fue curiosísimo probar por primera vez un sushi 100% vegetariano! Todos los caldos a base de verduras también riquísimos. Para beber (y no incrementar aún más la cuenta) pedimos el sake más barato (35 € por botella), que era bastante suave y afrutado (perfecto para mí que normalmente no me gusta nada el sake!).
El servicio (camareras con kimono y camareros en traje) fue estupendo desde el minuto 1, pero es cierto que entre los primeros platos tardaron bastante (cosa que no esperas en un restaurante de ese nivel, y es algo frustrante) y al final nuestra cena se prolongó tanto que parecía una boda, y salimos de allí a las doce (entrando a las ocho!).
A pesar de todo, 100% recomendable. Es lo más parecido a sentirte en Japón en Europa.

I have had diner in the seating area about five, maybe six times the last 15 years and every time it was a unique and wonderful experience. This time it was better than ever. I think this was probably one of the best diner experiences I ever had. Seriously, this is the European temple of Japanese cuisine.
We chose Fukinagashi, the Chef’s Seasonal Recommendation menu May 2015 (see pictures), which is the flagship. I had made that choice a few times in the past and never regretted it. This time the accent was a bit more on flavour combinations and a bit less on nouvelle cuisine techniques. The ingredients were speaking more for themselves, so no more molecular experiments, just insanely tasty dishes. I am not going to comment on each one of them, they were all good. Definitely Michelin-​star level. Compared to Dutch Michelin Star fish restaurants, the experience here is a little bit less formal and posh, with a nicer mix of clients, nationailites and ages. Don’t believe the negative reviews from people here that ordered only a few pieces of sushi and then think they can have an informed opinion about the best Japanese resaturant in Europe — please note it is the only one with a Michelin Star.
The over all quantites of this menu together are a bit too high for my taste, I should have cut down on trying to eat every last bit of each course, but hey, it is amazing food. We stayed in the hotel so I was not worried about that and we had a wonderful experience. The staff was very attentive and helpful, accomodating our wish to have slightly faster service in order not to spend 4 hours at the table with our 11 year old daughter. So we clocked at 2.5 hours with 3 courses for our daughter, all were happy and my daughter liked the dishes. The menu suggestions for her were good.
I had my diner with warm sake (house brand), but got a different one the 2^nd order that was more tasty. I forgot to ask which one it was. We finished with a classic desert that was executed flawlessly, and green tea.

The sushi was good but nothing speculator. It is overpriced for the service it provides. It was my first time at this restaurant and the sushi chef was not that friendly and the service was slow. At one point, I had no food to eat and my drink was empty. I ended up staring at the sushi chef to see how long it would take for him to give me eye contact. Overall, it was an average restaurant. I probably will not return.

All I ordered at Yamazato was sushi; I did not try any of the cooked dishes. I offer that as a disclaimer because maybe the cooked dishes are knock-​your-​socks-​off amazing. The sushi was up to par with good to very-​good restaurants I’ve eaten at elsewhere in the world. (It actually reminded me the most of good restaurants in Tokyo, because of the service which seemed authentic to the level of attentiveness I’ve experienced in Japan at similar places.) But it was not «must-​try,» especially for that price, and I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in the meal given the fact that Yamazato has earned a Michelin Star, and given the hefty price. I wonder whether the rumor about Michelin giving stars to Japanese restaurants too lightly is true. Perhaps not in Amsterdam (I didn’t have much time to explore), but in other major cities, better sushi can be had for a better price. Very good, but not truly great, and this place’s reputation suggested greatness.

I bookmarked this Japanese restaurant and finally got a chance to try it out.
We were promptly seated, and the staff quickly took care of our wet coats.
I expected it to be a small restaurant but it is rather large, at least 50+ seating.
We ordered 2 tasting menus which consisted of amuse bouches, fish shoup, sashimi, grilled seabass, fried oyster, «sukinabe» beef and vegetables cooked over a portable stove, steamed rice and some ice cream and macarons for dessert. I asked to substitute the fried oyster for something else and the waitress acknowledged my request.
Everything was good but it was way too much food. We had to skip the rice course and we got the cookies wrapped to go. Also the grilled seabass was overcooked and dry.
It is a good restaurant for Japanese food but I have had a better experience in Paris at ‘Okuda’.

This is another one of those restaurants where I just can’t figure out how it received a Michelin star. I have to wonder if the Michelin inspectors in the Netherlands simply aren’t familiar with Japanese cuisine.
I ordered the seasonal set menu for lunch and had the following reactions:
A finely chopped «salad» consisting of iceberg lettuce and a cherry tomato cut in half reminded me of something one would get at a cheap Japanese restaurant. All it was missing was the standard orange-​colored dressing.
Where I had raw fish in either sushi or sashimi, quite a few of the cuts didn’t seem amazing with a couple that were stringy and chewy.
The chef was quite heavy-​handed in applying teriyaki sauce to the main of beef. The beef was described as «filet» but it seemed no better than a sirloin or not very high-​quality ribeye.
The miso was very salty but redeemed somewhat by the variety of ingredients. It was also provided without a spoon.
The dessert that included vanilla ice cream was fine. The ice cream had a very smooth texture, and the vanilla was like a French vanilla and had a hint of butterscotch or butter pecan.
There are better and cheaper lunch specials out there. My lunch at Bord’Eau the next day was far more enjoyable while also being cheaper.

The service was excellent. The food was more than decent but not totally out of this world. But for the price I did have higher expectation. Maybe it is because I am from NY and frequent Nobu regularly. And have even ventured into Brushtroke for a foodie adventure. So my comparison is to NY sushi, please bear that in mind.
I did feel their sushi was way too thick. Their 5 kinds of seaweed salad ws good but I did wish they actually mixed the dressing instead of serve it on the side. Very hard to get an even coating of dressing by pouring or dipping. Miso soup and the noodle soup were both good.
And they couldn’t provide a yellowtail in ponzu appetizer. They didn’t do well with improvisation. That also bothered me. In most japanese restaurants, swapping a fish for serving the same way wouldn’t have derailed the waitstaff. The waitress was a bit flustered by the request. LOVED their shrimp tempura rolls, btw.
Overall, I would go again if I was craving sushi but would stick to the menu and probably not order the seaweed salad.

This was likely the most boring, most overprice japanese food I have ever had. I don’t know what one has to do to get one Michelin star but they also just lost all their credibility. Spend 200 euro for food that barely tasted like fish (despite having a significant amount of fish in it). It all looked nice and great and service was wonderful but the flavors? Bland, boring, lame, you pick the term. For 50 – 60 euro this would have been ok, but not for 200 euro. Just to be clear: I eat a lot of sushi and I have been in many fantastic sushi restaurants around the world. All I can say about this one: Stay away!

Hier fühlt man sich tatsächlich wie im fernen Japan, von der Einrichtung über das Personal im japanischem Kimono bis hin zum wundervollen Service. Für das Auge gibt es einen Blick auf den um das Restaurant angelegten japanischen Sen Garten. Wir wählten das Kaiseki Menü, jeder einzelne Gang war ein kulinarischer Hochgenuss, jeder Gang war sehr stimmig von den gegrillten Fisch bis hin zum Sushi. Aber nicht nur das Essen an sich war delikat, auch die Art und Weise der Darbietung war originell. Das Yamazato verdient zu Recht seinen Michelin Stern welches es seit 2002 inne hat !

I’m surprised to say I had the best Omakase of my life at Yamazato. Hands down best ever.
My ex-​boyfriend did some research before our 5-​day trip to Amsterdam (long story) and discovered the highly acclaimed Yamazato restaurant tucked away in the Okura hotel. We love sushi and always order Omakase and we were curious to see what it would be like in the Netherlands, so I called the restaurant a day in advance hoping to make a reservation. I explained to the reservationist that we wanted to do the Omakase and within 2 minutes I had secured a two-​person reservation for 20:30 the next day at the sushi bar. Already I was impressed. This would never happen in NYC.
As we pulled up to the hotel in our taxi, we couldn’t help but notice what an eyesore Hotel Okura is. We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. When we walked into Yamazato, all of the female waitresses were wearing kimonos, which I’ve never seen before and thought was unique, but I was under impressed with the décor (was this really a Michelin star restaurant?!) and already feeling a little skeptical about what we were about to experience.
There was only one other couple seated at the sushi bar and two sushi chefs. We were given hot hand towels and a sake menu and ordered one of the lower-​priced bottles, Horin 3000, which ended up being a superb pairing. They didn’t waste our time showing us a sushi menu since they impressively already knew we wanted the Omakase, which was nice. We were pleasantly surprised when our sushi chef asked us if we wanted to start with sashimi or sushi (we didn’t know we could have both!), so we decided to start with sashimi. Our sushi chef proceeded to grate fresh wasabi root for us, which was a good sign that the restaurant wasn’t about to ruin high quality fish with fake wasabi typically served at Japanese restaurants.
For the sashimi portion of the omakase, I recall being served the following: three pieces of sea bream, which we never had before and thoroughly enjoyed, followed by three pieces of toro (absolutely divine, melted like butter in your mouth), three pieces of hamachi (very high quality, buttery and delicious), three pieces of tuna (very fresh but not extraordinary), and three pieces of Scottish salmon (fatty and delicious).
After the sashimi, we were served a scallop lightly torced and folded in a sheet of seaweed, which was very tasty and served as a nice transition to the nigiri part of the meal.
For the nigiri part of the meal, I’m fairly certain our sushi chef used freshly grated wasabi root in his preparation. From what I remember, we were each served the following: turbot (with a radish, chile garnish; succulent, wonderful flavor complex), horse mackerel (typically not my favorite but very fresh and flavorful), squid serrated with lemon juice and salt (magnificent flavor, buttery, wonderful texture), and tuna belly (what you would expect: rich, fatty and mouth watering).
When it was over, we re-​ordered some of our favorites (when in Rome, right?!). Our receipt indicates these included the following: toro, maguro (tuna), turbot (appears on our receipt as Hirame), amaebi (sweet shrimp, a personal favorite), aji (mackerel, my ex’s favorite), ika (squid) and unagi (eel). I don’t recall re-​ordering the maguro or unagi but we were three bottles of sake deep at this point so I’m sure they were delicious.
During the course of the meal, my ex ordered a few items off the food menu to try: the seaweed salad, beef carpaccio Japanese style, and miso soup. All of it was fine but subpar to the sushi/​sashimi. I won’t bother with the food menu when I return.
In all, we got a great deal of very high quality fish and we felt the omakase was very reasonably priced at 45 euros per person. We greatly appreciated the care and thoughtfulness our sushi chef put in to each bite he served us. The service was attentive and thoughtful and we left feeling very happy. Not to mention, this meal easily could have cost us twice the price in New York. I’m certain I will be back and look forward to when that day arrives.

I had one of the most incredible sushi meals of my life at Yamazato on a recent work trip to Amsterdam. We were greeted with hot towels to clean our hands with, and the service was outstanding.
Yamazato had a surprisingly thorough wine and beer list, and while I was a little confused about the menu at first (I’m not used to such fancy digs!), but I soon figured things out and ordered one of the sushi meals.
For being a super expensive restaurant I expected the portions to be super tiny, but I was impressed with how much sushi we got with our meals. The sushi melted in my mouth.
If you have some extra dough in your pocket and want some delicious Japanese, check this place out. OR If you’re poor, like me, but your boss is willing to pick up the tab, suggest this to him/​her.

Best sushi I’ve had in my life. Seriously, if you have money to burn (or someone else is paying for dinner) you HAVE to eat here. The toro just melted in my mouth — I probably could have gotten away with not chewing it.
I felt the service was a little slow, but this is the type of place you just lounge around and enjoy the sake and conversation. My American expectations left me a little disappointed in that respect, but I think it’s just the Dutch way because honestly, I felt that in just about every restaurant where I dined.
Yes, it’s expensive, but it’s worth it!

Yes very expensive but the food is very delicious. I loved every minute of being here. Experience Japanese culture at Yamazato in the Okura hotel. I have lived in Japan, so I know what true authentic Japanese restaurants should be like. I was highly impress with this restaurant. You will get a true Japanese experience here, not like the other unauthentic sushi restaurants. The experience here was more then memorable and lovely. What did I love specifically about this restaurant? My favorite was the servers dressed in beautiful kimonos, splendid food, and lovely atmosphere.

We ate here after seeing that it had a Michelin star, something we weren’t expecting for a Japanese restaurant in Amsterdam. The ambiance is excellent, and the service is very good. It’s in a gorgeous, five-​star hotel, and the attention to detail as we walked in was lovely.
We had the chef’s choice sushi, and it was something of a disappointment. If we were to do it again, we’d choose one of the non-​sushi dishes, perhaps the shabu-​shabu, which looked excellent when it was served to a neighboring table. The problem with the sushi was a combination of inconsistency and lack of originality. Compared to a good sushi restaurant in Los Angles or San Francisco, the fish choices felt uninspired. I don’t expect to get plain ebi at a starred restaurant, for example. That said, some of the fish, particularly the toro, was of excellent quality, equal to the best I’ve had.
The restaurant earns its four stars from me for ambiance, service, and food quality. It loses the fifth for lacking that bit of originality that would justify the prices.

Sehr gutes Sushi, gehobene japanische Küche, typ. jaspanische Atmosphöre. Sehr gute Getränkekarte-​kleiner Wehmutstropfen: sehr hochpreisig! Wir hatten (ohne Füllegefühl;)) pro Person Euro 150.

Wirklich eines der besten Sushi-​Restaurants, was ich in Europa jemals besucht habe. Nicht billig, aber auch nicht überteuert, denn die Speisen und Zutaten sind wirklich von höchster Qualität. Ein hohes Niveau an Kreativität zeichnet die Köche außerdem aus. Von Standard-​Sushi ist hier keine Spur. Für Freunde der japanischen Rohkost ohne Frage eines der besten Restaurants, was in Europa zu finden ist. Hier gibt es auch Sparkling-​Sake, eine sehr seltene Spezialität. Wer ihn noch nicht kennt, sollte ihn unbedingt probieren.

Bestes japanisches Restaurant in dem ich bisher gewesen bin und das in Holland. Essen ist sehr frisch, man schmeckt einfach den Unterschied. Personal sehr professionell und sehr japanisch ;). Man sollte aber mit über 100euro pro Person rechnen. Das Restaurant hat seit 2002 einen Michelinstern.