Yokoz Sushi Bar & Islander Grill

The end of an era Yokoz was great when they first opened but totally dropped the ball in to the early 2000’s you cant run a sushi restaurant sponsored by Sisco !!
the atmosphere went from great to Shot out. did any of the purchasers head down to the docks and get the freshest yellowfin ever? don’t think so.
sorry it ended this way.

I have recently come to discover that Yokoz has closed its doors.
My family and I spent about a year and a half away from both singing on Karaōke-​Wednesdays due to our busy schedules and important life priorities like studying for nursing exams, as well as saving money.
It is quite unfortunate however that some relationships that were made between management and vendor (Ricky-​Z Entertainment) fell by the wayside. I do not like to place blame on the demise of this restaurant or choose sides. However, I do wish to point out that fantastic memories were made here. My family and I were able to reconnect with old friends and continue to do so because of the existence of Yokoz and Karaōke-Wednesday’s. I celebrated a birthday here and enjoyed the atmosphere and food.
It is however, hurtful and disappointing, when you contact the owner to express your regrets and they blatantly ignore you. Friendships are indeed temporary and are apparently conditional based upon the exchange of money. So, ultimately, while experiencing the family atmosphere in your restaurant (which I sincerely felt) ends, I can only draw conclusions from actions.
I wish you continued luck and return of your health Robert.

Terrible terrible terrible! Went because of a groupon now deal and wanted somewhere new to eat.
Right from the get-​go, they were horrible. First, half the restaurant was blocked off. The sushi chef said «can’t sit on that side, spiders over there». Yuck!
Then, we waited for a table to be separated into two since it was just three of us. The sushi chef asked one of the servers to do that. We waited by the table, standing up. A server had a friend come in and recognize her, and they chatted for a good 5 minutes! My husband said, forget it, I’ll separate the table.
Sat down, no menu delivered to us until
10 minutes after sitting! When we asked for one, the server blamed it on another server instead of apologizing.
When we finally ordered food, it took 45 minutes! The food was already kind of cold. Then when we asked for more sauce and dressing for the food that we ordered, two different servers brought us three different dressings and sauces. Apparently they dont know their menu well enough to know what sauces go with particular entrees and salads.
Lastly, the server kept talking to my son as if we have been there before, and we NEVER have. She said «wow! You finished your food this time. Last time you didn’t». I was like… This is sooo strange! Obvi, don’t know your customers well. Lol
Needless to say, we will never eat here again. Food wasn’t all the great, and service wasn’t any better.
P. S. They said they couldn’t «allow» me to substitute my salad for a miso soup! Ugh… It’s not that hard!

First of all this is in response to Yokoz that sent me a message about my experience and the dates and times I was there. With all your respect Yokoz rep. I think I know better than you what type of service I received and at what time. As for the 1^st review yea I was excited that I had came across such a huge deal! $ 1 for $ 10 worth of food? Who wouldn’t be? But like I stated Yokoz did not honor it and I ended up paying full price which was cool even though I had called to make sure it would be valid. So to whom ever contacted me I did eat in your establishment the first time. I have nothing else to add to this review… I personally and my family will never visit Yokoz again but I’m sure that you won’t lose any business over a simple honest review from a real customer that has nothing to gain or lose but just letting fellow Unilocalers know that 1bad visit is ok but 2? Best of luck Yokoz.
P. s. I wonder if Yokoz had enough time to send everyone who left a them a not so nice review?
Gotta love America and freedom of speech ;)

Went to Yokoz for the first time in 4 years. The Teriyaki Chicken and Salad with Miso Dressing is better than I remember. On the other hand my sister and neice werent as pleased with the food. She ordered the huli huli chicken, white rice, and potatoe salad. She thought the huli huli tasted like teriyaki sauce and the potatoe salad was runny. Native to Hawaii we grew up around Ernie Morgado style huli huli chicken NOT baked chicken with bottled huli huli sauce. For those who want an authentic piece of huli huli chicken try this:
The recipe is enough for about three chickens, split in half. You can use chicken pieces if that’s what you have. Marinate your chicken for at least a half-​hour.
¹⁄₃ cup ketchup
¹⁄₃ cup soy sauce
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup honey
¼ cup sherry
1 – 2 Tbsp. sesame oil
1−2-more pieces ginger root, crushed
3 cloves garlic, crushed
Worchestershire sauce to taste
Sriracha or Asian chili paste (or red pepper flakes) to taste
Squeeze a lemon in if you’ve got one
Brush the chicken with the remaining marinade while cooking over a grill. And don’t forget to huli the chicken.
Now back to the review, the waitress was outstanding she was polite and proffessional. On the other hand the wait time was ridiculous. We waited 45 minutes to get our food. Several inidividuals who came in after us had been served before and were almost done with their meal by the time we got our food. Would I come back? Maybe. Would I order take out? Yes!!! I am in love with the teriyaki chicken and miso dressing. If this is your first time going order the teriyaki bento you wont be disappointed.

We decided to come here because of the deal on Groupon.
The ambiance was dark and empty. No offense but when we came in, the place had a weird smell to it too, I don’t know if it was the food or the place itself. So I became REALLY skeptical.
The waiter greeted us and we sat down wherever we wanted, took our order.
My boyfriend tried the chicken kelaguen in the bento box. I had the chicken yakisoba. We both didn’t expect the food to be good, but it was.
I would only come back here if I had another Groupon deal.

I use to go here all the time and loved it. Unfortunately after being away for 6 years and a new ownership (I’m assuming) it just isn’t the same.
I ordered my favorite of sesame chicken and it was completely burnt. The place didn’t look well kept. The plus side to this is, the people working there were very friendly and treated the customers well. Sad to see such a great place fail :(

WOW I am seriously speechless at your response to my review
First off, I often post pictures of the menu and inside of an establishment from the second I walk in to document my experience. I wait until I get home to write my review, as Unilocal does not allow posts from mobile devices. I have no idea what you mean by «true intentions». My «true intentions» were to document my experience I did with pictures and my initial review.
Now, on to your YouTube channel… First off, I dot NOT want to follow you and I am not going to waste any more time trying to find some creep’s hidden-​camera video of me eating. That is DIGESTING and somehow seems illegal… you really secretly video patrons and post it to YouTube? Does that mean you do that for children under 18 years of age as well? Do you post those videos? or do you just watch them in private?
While I ate there, I was in a very big hurry. I came in and out as quickly as possible and I was very nice to your employees. I was not confrontational. I did not have the time or the patience to express my true views of your restaurant to minimum wage employes who probably have no control over the quality of fish you order. It really wasn’t their issue. Their service, on the other hand, was their responsibility. Again, I was not in the confrontational mood when I ate there.
Perhaps if you had a secret video in my car you would have gotten my true feelings on your restaurant. WAIT you did get them ON MY Unilocal REVIEW!

Wow I am so surprised that this place has such low ratings! I admit, I haven’t been since the name change, but when I lived at home in SD, this was a place my family and I went to often. I used to grab teriyaki chicken to go on the regular after school. I LOVED this place. I guess i’ll have to go back next time i’m home and see if it really has changed.
Update to come…

Our first trip to Yokoz, we were a little skeptical due to the lack of patrons in the restaurant. Much to our surprise the food was really good, lots of flavor and the proportions were plenty. I had the Chamorro combo, the ribs were tender and the chicken keleguen was very good. My wife had the Kalua pig with the red rice, the rice was fantastic, but the KP was a little on the dry side. Our first experience with Yokoz left us wondering why there weren’t more people enjoying such great food?
One week later, we had decided that we wanted to go back to Yokoz again due to the fact that it was sooo good the first time. We had figured that a place like this needs the support of the local people to stay alive. So i decide to have the chomorro combo again, and found it to be almost like having a completely different meal. i was given one rib that was the end of rib cage which had no meat on it what so ever. The flavor was good, but the rib was meatless. The Keleguen was dry and had very little lemon flavor to it. My wife had decided to get the BBQ rib with the red rice that she had liked so much from the first time. She got the same end of the rib cage single rib, and they were out of the red rice.
The people at Yokoz seem very nice and showed us that they care about their patrons, but if the consistency of the meals is not there, it is tough to bring your customers back. We love the flavor of the food for the most part, but consistency is everything.

Craving some Islander food I went to my resources
. Despite of all the negative reviews Tupac and I decided to visit Yokoz Sushi Bar & Grill.
When we first walked in we were seated quickly by Candace. She seemed nice but a little quiet. Without hesitation I was looking around the facility for anything good or bad to say. I thought it was a nice chill environment. I did notice that a table was dirty with some rice but by the end of our meal Candace wiped down tables and cleaned it up. Great Job! (BTW I got Candace’s name from the bill we got)
I ordered the Hawaiian Combo: Kalua Pig, Huli Huli Chicken, 2 Scoop rice and Mac Salad and Tupac had the Huli Huli Chicken plate. Okay, coming from Hawaii I thought Huli Huli Chicken is the turn turn chicken you would buy on the Westside of the Island in Waianae that’s cook over kiawe wood with Hawaiian salt, paprika etc etc. Tupac warned me and said «this is not like the huli huli chicken from Hawaii». Then I realized it was glazed with huli huli sauce. But I was not disappointed at all.
We waited for about 10 – 15 minutes for our food which was fine. It gave us time to chit chat and listen to some music they had playing. Great to know that there is Karaōke on Wednesday’s. We definitely need to check it out. Hmm maybe Yokoz can sponsor a Unilocal ELITE event there. As Candace served our plates I first tasted the kalua pig. I smiled and nodded my head in satisfaction. After tasting everything on my plate I knew that I was content and continued to eat. The huli huli was soft, moist and tasty. It reminded me of the Hawaii BBQ style of chicken that’s grilled.
**Note to the Chef on Sunday** Superb! I was really satisfied and the food had a lot of taste. Normally Kalua Pig is a hit and miss as some restaurants has too much liquid smoke.
Overall my experience was a pleasant one and I will definitely return as much as I can. As Tupac and I existed a gentleman sitting on the table mentioned to us that they will be serving a Seafood Father’s Day Brunch. I can’t remember the price but I know it was economical. I do however wish they had signs or flyer’s posted but they didn’t.
«Yokoz» I am a picky eater but you have made my top list in San Diego. I will continue to recommend your place.

This place always takes me back!
I used to be a dishwasher here waay back in the day and pretty much ate islander food on the reg. I fell in love with it. I coule eat kelaguen for days. I think I have a problem (don’t judge me)
I haven’t been here in years (pre name/​ownership change) and was in the ol hood, so decided to drop in. I got what I always get, which is the Chammoro combo, since I can never make up my mind between the ribs and kelaguen. It tastes exactly how I remembered, full of flavor. Add to that some spicy fenadine sauce and a few beers and it’s time to do work, son! I tend to drown my kelaguen in spicy fenadine sauce, which, *ahem* kinda burns on the way out, but, it’s a small price to pay because it is so damn tasty.
The only gripe I would have is that they first axed the shrimp kelaguen off the menu, which was like black tar heroin for me. That stuff was crazy addicting. When that was gone I switched to beef kelaguen, which was like crack rock to me. Then, unbeknownst to me, the beef kelaguen was off the menu. A part of me died inside. *unicorn tear*
and sorry for the hardcore drug references, I was simply trying to paint a picture in your heads. I don’t do drugs. I get high on baby hugs, m*therf*cker!
Unfortunately, there are not many Islander dining options in the greater North park area, so I try and jump in Yokoz every now and then for my fix!

MORAL OF THE STORY: If you want 5 stars, earn it without the threat of a bad review.
Hi Robert,
I appreciate your response… you guys had no CHICKEN kelaguen that morning either :) sorry it wasn’t correctly stated. I hope that clears that whole PORK and CHICKEN mix up. I wrote my review in a passionate moment of sadness and disappointment, being that I felt my food was not to my liking — actually that you had no pork and my back up dish Kelaguen, it’s like playing with my emotions ;)
And as for never having Karaōke Fridays, this was at least 10 years ago. And the most recent time I regularly went to your restaurant prior to moving to L.A. was maybe 6 years ago in 2005. I remember a waitress named Lucky — female, probably filipino. It was good then and we were there atleast 3 times a month, coming from CARLSBAD. We actually had Easter lunch with you guys in 2009 — and there was a wonderful egg hunt outside. All the kids had a lot of fun. It’s not all bad, Robert. I was simply reviewing my most recent experience.
And regarding my name, I paid cash. Are you implying I wrote my review out of thin air? Not having the basics on a Saturday morning is not something I woud make up. Think about it. I go out of my way from LOS ANGELES — to visit family in CARLSBAD — to visit your restaurant in CHULA VISTA. It’s about a 45 minute drive and I WAS really looking forward to it. And then, like out of a horror movie, the waitress announced no pork and then no kelaguen. Nooooooooo!!! The lights went off and we all heard thunder roll and the windows trembeled.
Robert, I really didn’t make that whole story up just to bring your place down :(I’m a horrible writer (see sample above). Thanks for thinking I’m that creative, though.
89 reviews and a 3 start average? It really can’t be the customers at fault here right? No hard feelings? Coming at Unilocalers after the fact is ridiculous.
Why would anyone have to complain about the bad service and bad food to GET good service and good food? That backwards way of thinking isn’t doing your restaurant justice.
Mahalo and God Bless :)

So instead of writing a new update, I’m just gonna post my message that I sent to Isa of Yokoz’s in response to his private message he sent me…
«Isa,
My review are my opinions and experience at your restaurant. I just stated in my review what your food tasted like to me, and how it „use to be“ very good at the other Yokozuna’s location in Sorrento Valley. I even said that I liked the potato salad and red rice in my review, didn’t I? And apparently, I am not the only person that thinks the same way. The reason I did not complain about the food not being good, is that usually, if I try food at „any“ restaurant, I usually do not go back to eat there, which I stated also in my review. Plain and simple. Like the other patrons that left worst reviews than mine, maybe there is something wrong with the service, food quality and preparations at your restaurant and NOT the customers that pay to have a decent meal and support small family businesses.
Again if you took any offense to my review, I do apologize. And I will re-​write a new review based on my past visits to your restaurant and the way you, „management“, handle the criticism of paying customers.
Thanks for your time,
Randy P.
Unilocal Elite ’10, ’11»
So there it is in a nut shell. You might be wondering why I took off a star. That would be for the way «management» rudely and in a very unprofessional way, responded to all the patrons that left a less than satisfactory review on his restaurant. Fix the problem with the food and I guarantee that the reviews will receive high ratings. Alohaaaaaa!
Not aloha hello, aloha good bye =)

Isa, I commend you taking an interest in your customer’s feedback. You took my commentary out of context however, I simply said, If a Pacific Islander opened a restaurant and then charged $ 17 for a rack of ribs, it would not make it authentic.
The Unilocal website is to share experiences with other consumers, not with the management. Don’t forget that. We don’t Unilocal for you, we Unilocal for us.
I had none then, and do not have currently any issues with the service, or any part of your restaurant, aside from the fact that there are 30 other restaurants in the Hawaiin BBQ genre that I would rather eat at. If I had an issue with your service I would have told you. I write reviews on Unilocal to help my fellow Unilocalers from making a mistake by visiting an establishment that simply is not up to par.
When you improve your food, worry more about your restaurant than your reviews on Unilocal,and focus on making the whole experience more valuable, I will gladly re-​visit your place of business.
At the moment: You are the 5^th best restaurant in the strip mall which you are located in. That should be your focus: be better than those other 4 restaurants and then you can come on Unilocal and act self righteous.
I wish you luck and I hope that you stay in business and take the commentary to heart on Unilocal so you may improve your customer experience. I hope that eventually you become a great restaurant.
By the way I have MANY reviews, and I am not acting on behalf of any of your competitors, in fact, I have given poor reviews for several of your competitors as well. Bad food is bad food. I complain to management when necessary, I complain on Unilocal when a restaurant isn’t good. Why would I come up to your place of business and say, «Your food tastes like crap and is too expensive.» Would that do anything but start a fight?
It seems you are trying to fix issues and protect your name. But unfortunately, you are looking like you are just biter and grasping at straws. 8? years ago I loved this place.
Go back to that style of food.

Like a boy that needs to man the f up, this place is SO not worth my time.
Yokoz, I gave you a chance. No wait, three chances to be exact, and that was foolishly generous of me.
No woman wants to eat hard red rice, or wait 45 minutes for a new batch. Nor does she want to be told that the one thing she came for (chicken kelaguen) is all out of stock, so close to opening! Sure, you’re a family owned business, but you need to get your act together, young man!
Hey Yokoz, guess what. it’s OVER.

I remember this place being really good a couple years back… Yokuzunas!!! Popular Hawaiian restaurant that was poppin even in the day time.
I came here recently with two of my girlfriends… What happened? I remember having the kalua pork before the visit and it was delicious… now the food is blah… I wonder how long this location will last now =(
Go to L&L’s, lol

The reviews vary pretty widely here but if you don’t want to waste your time or money or health, you will heed my review and stay clear.
First, we were greeted by a friendly woman who said she would take our order when ready. She needed to be more specific and say that she would take our order at the cash register when ready. It took us about 10 minutes to figure that out — no problem, we’re haolies, our bad.
We ordered a combo plate with huli huli chicken and kahlua pork and a kalbi plate. These came out in a fairly timely manner. The chicken was burned but the pig wasn’t bad. The kalbi beef is a very fatty poor cut of meat. While slightly disappointed with those, we weren’t too upset, because we also had sushi rolls coming.
After about 45 minutes and having finished our plates, we noticed that nobody was getting sushi except for the people sitting at the sushi bar who had arrived 45 minutes after us!
We went back up to the cashier where we overheard her tell the two guys in front of us, «don’t order sushi, nobody is getting served sushi.» So then we asked if our sushi would be coming out soon and she yelled over to the one guy making sushi and he rolled his eyes at her and held up a wad of rice at her! While we realize it wasn’t her fault that they are understaffed and only have one guy making sushi, we felt that she could have at least apologized or offered to comp our drinks.
To top off the bad dining experience, the bathrooms are worse than the worst gas station bathrooms, and I am not a clean freak by any means.
This dining experience was absolutely the worst I’ve ever had and I actually left out some of the sordid details!

So, I had a two hour break from school and I decide to try something different in the area, rather than my usual Fried Chicken w/​cheese sandwich from the school’s cafeteria.
As I walked in i was greeted right away and I remained standing up for a while looking at the menu because i didn’t want to compromise myself by sitting down and then having to walk away if I wasn’t feeling the menu.
But, what the heck, I was starving, they had sushi, place was empty and it was a different spot.
I’m giving this place two stars for their service because they were awesome and I felt comfortable. And, one star for the food.
I had the Bento Box Lunch special which included a roll of California rolls, Philadelphia Rolls, House salad and Miso soup.
The salad was really bad and I only took one bite out of it. The miso soup was actually OK, not so bad. The rice was coming off easily from the rolls and it was pissing me off because by the time I was lamost done I had a side of rice on my plate and the seeweed tasted old and it was hard to chew and tare it apart with my teeth. Also, on the Philadelphia rolls it had way too much cream cheese.
Oh yeah, $ 2 for a drink but with unlimited refills which is really cool but I rarely ever finish my first drink. So what I’m trying to say, is that for myself and other that don’t ever get refills, why do I have to get charged two bucks?
The best part was taking a piss at their restroom and the customer service.

When this place first opened, I loved it. At the time, there wasn’t a whole selection of Islander grill restaurants to choose from. Dakine’s being the only other place that I knew of. Anywho, it’s been several years, since I’ve been here, so I decided to reacquaint myself.
What happened to you, Yokoz?!
First of all, let me state that the red rice and the chicken kilaguen is good. So, is their seafood saimin. The pork ribs are just okay. The chicken nuggets… err karaage. and the potato salad less than meh.
The star breakdown:
–1 star for the chicken karaage that looked like chicken nuggets bought from Costco. Karaage should NOT look like chicken nuggets!
–1 star for the order of saimin soup showing up 15 – 20 minutes, after the other orders showed up.
–1 star for the price of their food vs quality and taste. I can’t believe I paid that much for just meh tasting food.
I’m not a high maintenance eater and I’m really easy to please. But, sadly, this wasn’t one of my better eating experiences.
Sorry, Yokoz. You need to step up on your A game. The only thing that saves you from getting a 1 star was the fact that the waitstaff and the manager were friendly and attentive.