In yet another night that I was made to eat sushi, I was brought to Yamato Restaurant in Westwood. Catering to the college crowd, their sushi is always half off, which is great, except that it makes you wonder why they wouldn’t simply print prices that are low. Is it some way to confuse people into ordering more or to make them think they are there at a special half off time? Either way, it is weird, but good for the wallet. When I arrived, some food had already been ordered, which was slightly bothersome, but I decided to roll with it (pun!).
This starter was the tuna tartar over crispy rice and wasn’t half bad. The softness of the raw tuna met with a nice crunch on the rice and was a pretty good way to start out the meal. Since I had to get the obligatory sushi, I got the crunchy roll. This had some shrimp, crab and avocado in it and was covered in some sort of crunchy tempura-esque mix. It was actually pretty good for sushi and a great way to go for an unvegan since it was completely devoid of cucumbers. Luckily, though, this place wasn’t simply dedicated to sushi and also had some robata, also known as Japanese grilled food. I ordered a set of chicken meat balls from this robata menu and they were really good. The sauce on them was great and the balls themselves were nice and juicy.
And that was it. The end of my meal. And from the looks of it, everything tasted really good, right? So you may be wondering why this is entitled “A Sad Ending at Yamato Restaurant.” If you are, then I will reveal something to you, and as a fair warning, if you like this restaurant and want to return, you may not want to read below. Ready?
As I was walking out, I saw a cockroach on the ground crawling around. That’s it. It wasn’t even in the kitchen, but seeing something like that in the waiting area really made me squeamish. It also made all the sushi that had tasted pretty good start rolling around uncomfortably in my stomach. If this cockroach was out here, how many could be there without my knowledge? Hopefully none, but who knows?!
Sorry, Yamato. You may have made some pretty good sushi and your restaurant may have an A, but once I see a cockroach in a restaurant, I never go back.
