Yamakase

There's lots of reviews of the food and ambience so check them out. My experience is more personal since my friend is actually buddies with Yamasan Sensei. He's got technics and secret suppliers close to his chest and is honest about his creations, whether they are tried and true dishes or experiments he wanted to bring from the lab.
We all shared some amazing Sake together as well.
Understand, this is going to be expensive. For the reviewers who were shocked by the price (usually female Asian chick influencers) you need to pay so bring a bag. Even close friends of the owner have to pay and his prices are expensive. Definitely do not come here if you're an influencer hoping to snag a free meal or discount.

Food is always delicious and plentiful, chef is super friendly and welcoming! Service is excellent, and water and drinks keep flowing without hesitation. Ambiance is quiet and peaceful, you can engage with the chef and your party very easily.

I have been here a few times, and every time I have an amazing and enjoyable experience with my friends and guests. I would highly recommend coming here, as the chef will tell you what each ingredient is and where it comes from.

Chef Yama is amazing, one of the friendliest and nicest chefs to speak with!

So delicious! Glad this place opened so close to me I can't wait to come back. I ordered the yellowtail, blue crab and spider roll hand roll. So good. Loved sitting at the bar the staff was so attentive. The green tea was great too!

This is the first time I've been to the new store since Yama San closed during covid. The menu is a little different from pre covid and during the time where he did private house parities. But what hasn't changed is the quality of food he serves and the amount of food. Everything is as always, super fresh and out of this world good! If you love black truffles, caviar, and uni, this is your place!

We always love the BYOB and also love sharing drinks with Yama San and conversing with him. He is an exceptional host and their service is incredible. Here is never a time our drinks are empty, whether it be tea, water, alcohol, etc. But make sure you don't fill up on too much liquid or you won't be able to finish all the delectable food!

There is no walk ins here as Yama San has to order everything in advance. It is a prefixed omakase. In regards to seating, there are two huge booths and seats at the bar. Make sure to call and reserve ahead of time. You won't regret it.

I had the unfortunate opportunity to come back here again. Invited by and treated to this meal by a friend. Almost seven years since my last review. Didn't get sick this time :) But my tastes have change and now have more experience with fine dining. This is not fine dinning.
What am I missing here?? Why do people like this place? I don't think the chef knows how to prepare food.
There are lots of expensive ingredients being used here. Doesn't mean you will have a good time eating it.
As you're sitting in the restaurant, guests will rave about how everything is so good.... And you will be thinking to yourself.. am I being filmed!? Is everyone in on a joke that I don't know about..
Skip this place.. go anywhere else.

So, we had a celeb sighting here.
This place has probably the freshest sushi I've had in a while. I admire that the chef allows for the ingredients to speak for itself and let's the fish shine. There are sushi places that add a lot of different sauces etc to enhance the fish, but this place really is all about the fish in it's natural state. We sat at the counter, which I feel is the best seat in the house, for a sushi restaurant, and found everyone pleasant, friendly, and welcoming. I"d definitely come back again for the natural sushi style.

Oh Yamakase probably started our journey of omakase and chef choice binges about 7-8 years ago. It was definitely eye opening to eat all the decadent food. He is obviously known for being super generous with his portion of truffles. I felt as if he was raining truffles on our toast.
We had a 6-7 years hiatus of eating here and recently decided to try it again. The price was definitely way higher - about $100 per person higher making the bill $1300 for 3 people including tax and gratuity. At least it was BYOB. We did have a lot of fun looking over what people drank at his restaurant since he keeps the high price bottles as decoration.

The food was a little less heavy then I remembered it - which is a good thing. I remember i was not able to finish the meal before. Our favorite dish was the "raining" truffles toast which was similar to how we had it 7 years ago. I'm happy he kept this dish. The truffles he used was likely the black winter truffle which was super earthy and not heavy at all which was great.

The unagi was another great dish. My hubby is super sensitive to the fishy taste of cooked unagi and this grilled unagi was the first one we've had that did not have this fishy aftertaste. Also grilled to perfection with a little crunchy texture.

I love the intermission of the truffle flavor plum and cheese toast with almonds. It had a very light sweetness and a great way to clear the plate for the next savory dish.

My least favorite dish was the tuna. I really did not enjoy the heavy and salty miso sauce which overpowered the tuna.
I usually would enjoy crab but the crab that night did not taste super fresh as I would expect from this type of establishment. It didn't taste bad but it felt as if the crab was left in the refrigerator a few days before serving to us.

Another hit was the plum at the end. Super delicious and refreshing. The sad part was we only got one tiny plum for dessert. I was surprised that we didn't really get a full dessert. At this price, we should be getting 2-3 desserts!

Yamakase moved to this new location and it looked a bit run down. He has the counter tables plus two diner like table setting. We sat on the table and was very close to the bathroom and pretty much can smell some of the cleaning agent use to clean the toilet. That was not the most appetizing.

I felt overall the meal was good but not enough to justify $350 per person. I thought his meals at $250 per person was way more worth it and now price went up but food quality did not. Still good but not that good given all the missing stuff that comes with a great dining experience or a great meal in general.

Delicious course meal! Definitely a perfect place for a special occasion. Nice service, and nice decor with a lot of wine bottles.

I was stuffed to the brim when all was said and done. This was definitely partially due to the amount of drinks I consumed during the meal because not only was the tea so delicious, my own BYOB drinks were just fantastic too (started off with kombucha, then had sparkling water/beer).

TL;DR is that it's a must eat if you've got $350-375 to blow on a meal that will leave a lasting memory on you. Make sure to bring some beer.

All 18 courses:
1) Yuba, ikura, freshly grated wasabi
We open with the yuba (tofu skin) that was smooth and creamy. Pops of the ikura (salmon roe) added brine to the neutral dish and the freshly grated wasabi provided a nice sting to counter the brine. It's quite rare in the US in my experience to see real wasabi being used and you could tell this was the real deal because it was an incredibly bright green.

2) Squash, truffle, Japanese uni
Already we start to see what will be the theme for the dinner - lots of truffle and uni. A wonderful combination.

3) White truffle, Spanish almond, and persimmon sandwiched between Normandy butter
Before this, I probably only had one instance where I tasted white truffle and it tasted very light. The persimmon and Normandy butter squares were a great mix. I think the almond and truffle mostly provided some textural contrast.

4) Mantis shrimp, lobster, squid or clam?, baby peach (green)
One of my favorites in terms of novelty. The seafood was mixed with a soy based sauce, but the baby peach was the most curious thing for me. Initially, I was expecting something savory like an olive but the sweetness of it surprised me. After the meal, I found out it was a baby peach. Yama-san said the thing is expensive, about $2 per grape-sized baby peach.

5) Japanese scallop, pesto aioli, dried egg yolk
Pretty solid, tastes as you'd imagine.

6) Spoons: oyster topped with uni, 2 types of caviar, soft boiled quail egg
Yama-san's signature dish. Imagine eating a bunch of seafood with balsamic vinegar.

7) Anago with miso sauce
Seawater eel is really fluffy if you've never had it before. This creamy miso sauce just sent this dish to heaven. Another one of my favorites.

8) Steamed ice fish wrapped in leaves and with small fish plus crazy good green sauce with guts Loved this dish as well especially the sauce made from fish guts and was great with the green tea.

9) Wagyu beef curry with fried fish, cuttlefish
Upon the delivery of the mildly spicy beef curry, I immediately knew to ask one of the waitresses to pour me the nonalcoholic beer I brought, which is brewed in the classic German style. This would be great with any lager. The beer added the bitterness I needed to counter the tanginess and spice of the curry sauce. I loved this curry because it had hints of the sauce you'd use for tonkatsu.

10) Toast with frozen toro, blue crab, truffle, and uni
This one was again one of those decadent dishes to bombard you with more truffle and uni. You can do no wrong here.

11) Bluefin tuna with micro greens
Yama-san was prepping this when we entered his restaurant and since it takes some time to break down a tuna, prepare to chat it up with your neighbors or bring some semblance of patience before the meal begins so you can get some high quality tuna. Enjoy the simplicity of quality fish.

12) Negitoro with truffled parmesan, soft boiled quail egg.
This one was fantastic with the green tea. Something about a creamy and fatty fish with cheese that needs tea to cut through the fat. Quite an interesting combination I did not expect would taste as good as it sounds.

13) Hairy crab
Kegani in Japanese. Was cool to try this in the states. The meat is looser and smaller in quantity than the Dungeness crabs you'll find on the west coast.

14) Seafood ramen with spicy meat broth, crab, shrimp
Apparently made using bottled water from Japan. Crazy man. This was another dish that went well with the "beer" or sparkling water. I'd consider the spice level to be a medium.

15) Wagyu beef with mushrooms and truffle
One of my faves. Beef with mushrooms and truffle with a slightly sweet sauce is just a winner.

16) 4 piece sushi
The typical tuna, some white fish I don't remember. At this point I realized what a mistake I made not skipping breakfast.

17) 1+ hand rolls with uni, blue crab, shiso
Now, Yama-san will make you some hand rolls. Theoretically you can eat as many as you can but I could only fit 2. Most people ended up eating 1. No one attempted a 3rd. Anything with uni is a win in my book and the mix of creamy/slightly salty uni with the sweet/creamy blue crab was great with the seaweed and sushi rice. The shiso leaf was questionable, I personally didn't care too much for it.

18) Crisp peach sorbet
This was made with the baby peach that we also had earlier in the dinner. It was refreshingly light and mildly sweet. Thankfully we didn't have a heavy dessert because I think I would have not been able to hold everything down.

Oh man. Yamakase is one of those spots you save your stomach for all day until dinner, and try to eat as much as possible because chef will stuff you to the brim. Reservations are required beforehand and it may be invite only - not too sure if it still is. Alcohol is BYOB so be prepared for lots of drinking as well if you do bring it! My second visit here was a couple weeks ago and the menu was quite different but he still had his classics!

Highlights for me included the truffle frozen toro toast, the persimmon butter cake, the Japanese hairy crab, and the tofu uni dish. There were less nigiri pieces from the first time I visited and more dishes overall, and I did miss the duck ramen and wagyu which he did not serve this time around. The eel was amazing though, and of course the baby peaches at the end which are super rare!

All I can say for this spot is be prepared to leave full, and be prepared for copious amounts of truffle, uni, caviar, and more.