Now, as much as I love sushi, I have to admit that when I found out there were plans to open a Yo!Sushi in York I was not a happy bunny. It wasn’t because I’d suddenly gone off the stuff, but the planning notice was stuck up on a building on Church Street; and that building just happens to be next door to where I live. We fretted about the possible stench of rancid fish wafting up to us from the courtyard bins that we share with the back of the building, we suffered all summer with incessant drilling and overheard conversations from builders, but now the time is finally here and the noise has gone. The fish smell isn’t there either (though the bins are stacking up...).
My friend and I decided to hit the newly opened
restaurant at peak time on a Saturday afternoon. Having been open just three
days, it was clear that the staff were in a bit of a tizzy coping with the
queue that ran out of the door; despite this, they seated us within five
minutes. The atmosphere was buzzing – excited sushi fans, lots of students and
young families hanging out after a morning shopping. While the layout of most
Yo!Sushi restaurants is very open-plan and centred around the chefs, this place
was different. The area by the door was a block of diner-style booths separated
by the conveyor belt. The bar area, towards the back of the restaurant where we
sat had less light and felt more claustrophobic as a result. For some reason,
the kitchen was jammed into one corner and looked so cramped and sweaty we
decided we’d rather not have the novelty of seeing our food prepared. Seeing
one guy dip his finger in the sauce twice didn’t help…
We got a little hungry while we waited for our hot
orders and snaffled some tasty tuna sashimi, California rolls and my favourite,
tender slices of aubergine sprinkled with soy sauce, vinegar and spring onions.
Though the chefs were very busy, the majority of what passed us on the belt
didn’t seem to have much variation. We saw the same row of about seven bowls of
fruit go past until one of our hot orders, the chicken gyoza finally arrived.
Nice and crispy with a tangy dipping sauce, the fried dumplings were filled
with a ginger and chicken mixture that tasted all the better because it was
piping hot.
Though we had ordered three hot dishes at peak time,
it was around an hour until they’d all arrived. This would have been fine but
what annoyed us was that literally every time we stopped eating to watch the
food, about five different waitresses came up to ask us if we were ok.
Obviously, there was a big queue out of the door and they wanted to serve as
many people as possible. But as we sat there, over the course of about an hour
and a half, we must have been asked if we needed anything at least seven times.
It got to the point where we were sick of having to tell them that we were
waiting for our order, or that we were choosing what to eat next.
The dishes we ate at the start of the meal turned
out to be the best. The avocado maki, California rolls, aubergine slices…all
delicious. Without the wait, I think the hot dishes would have tasted a little
better, though the vegetable tempura wasn’t worth bothering with; too greasy
and with a really tasteless dipping sauce. The prawn katsu was good; crispy
breaded prawns drizzled with a curry sauce. But you couldn’t taste the curry.
Maybe that was the problem all along; everything looked amazing but didn’t
actually taste of much. There are an amazing range of flavours out there in
Japanese cooking but we didn’t taste many of them.
As there were no weekend deals online, our meal was
£20 a head, which is pretty expensive for a student budget. But there are ways
around that. As well as “Blue Mondays”, Yo! also have a student discount
service that you can sign up to online. Subscribing to their Facebook feed often
yields great vouchers or special offers too.
For a more authentic experience however, I would
definitely recommend Fu Do on Walmgate or Oshibi on Goodramgate, where the
flavours are crisp and delicate. For novelty value, Yo!Sushi will probably do
very well in York. When you go into any Yo! restaurant, getting swept up in the
glamour makes it feels like the real deal. Going on the right day and at the
right time would certainly make the experience a better one but I can’t help
thinking that this chain has lost its passion for really good food.
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