Sushi Yama

I had a similar experience with pervious review. My little bother, boyfriend, and I went into an near empty Sushi Yama. At the waitress’s suggestion, we ordered the «Trust Me» special as it would be cheaper, so we got the small «Trust Me,» and she was going to throw in the miso soup and tea for free. After a long wait, we got the boat full of sushi that was as fresh as the you can get in Spokane. Charlie came out to talk to use, and told use about each roll. I was definitely shocked when our billed showed up — $ 125 before tip. Turns out they gave use the medium «Trust Me,» when we thought we got the small. The «Trust Me» is up to Charlie, he decides the sushi, therefore, dictating the price of the «Trust Me»
Overall the sushi was good, but they are PRICY, and I feel blindsided by the waitress, claiming that the «Trust Me» was a value when it really wasn’t.

By far some of the freshest sushi you can get in Spokane. Our group of four ordered the boat and trusted Charlie with everything else. When it arrived we were amazed at the size, quantity, flavor, and freshness. Its hard to beat when Charlie goes to the coast every week for fresh fish. Charlie was an excellent host along with his wife and we cant wait to go back!

I have been here a couple of times with mixed results. Last time might be my last as we let the proprietor Charlie order for us. While the sea urchin was fresh and tasted good there is no way I would have paid $ 30 for it. The bill came to over $ 100 and we didn’t even have any drinks. Time to patronize some other sushi test some other sushi restaurants.

IF YOU ARE A SUSHI-​GOER:
The rice is dry, very salty and tastes old.
They don’t fill the sushi rolls with enough fish, it’s mostly rice. It had so much rice I had to pick off the excess from around the roll. The salt was excessive!
Everything tasted old and dry, including the fish.
If you are a sushi-​goer, don’t come here.

This is the only sushi restaurant in eastern Washington for flawless sushi. Nothing comes close, there isn’t a comparison. I’ve eaten at all of them. To balance that Charlie and his wife (who are amazing) will use a strong Japanese accent to suggest «Charlie’s pick». That is an Amazing meal that can cost about $ 50 a head after tip. There is no way to know this until the bill comes. Why is it so much, because Charlie aside from being a legit and amazing Japanese sushi chef also drives to the Seattle markets twice a week to pick up fresh fish. The other guys in town get it shipped and use yesterday’s tuna to make spicy tuna. So best sushi in eastern wa, but come with money or a plan for ordering wisely.
I feel like wth the odd downtown location they should aim to Lower prices a bit and kick up marketing. But this belongs on foodnetwork more than any other Spokane joint aside maybe sante (not that we don’t have some other gems. Wild dawgs, nudo, Manito tap, etc).

Friday night 6:00 PM
No one else in the restaurant the entire time.
That’s now understandable.
At the waitress’s suggestion we ordered the «Trust Me» special. We would save money she said…
The «boat» arrived with 45ish sushi. Mostly good.
The bill arrived with a completely arbitrary $ 117 amount. No warning, no cost on the menu or signage… I usually spend $ 3 – 4 for four pieces of sushi. This was practically triple price!
It’s a wonder they haven’t been arrested.
We’ll never be back — trust me!

The owner was sooo nice, you can tell he loves his restaurant. Food was good too, but super pricey!

I really wanted to like this place because my brother-​in-​law had raved about the food and Charlie. We decided to give it a try on a Sunday at 1pm, when we pulled in we noticed the parking lot was completely empty. Bad sign. My husband was still convinced we should give it benefit of the doubt. Charlie was coming around the back side of the restaurant. He had a pretty cold flat affect and just seemed like he was in a rotten mood. The only reason I knew it was Charlie was because of all the pictures framed on the wall with him and his customers. However the Charlie that we met today did not appear anything like the happy personable owner/​chef in the pictures. Yet another bad sign. Despite it being a completely empty restaurant, he barked at me when I tried to pick a table and he ushered us to the back corner. I felt rushed as he kept coming back every 2 mins to see if we had decided what we wanted to order. Absolutely no other workers in the restaurant, because how could he afford to pay employees when there are no customers (and from other reviews sounds like he treated them like dirt). I ordered spicy tofu stew with seafood, when it came out it consisted of a handful of tiny baby shrimp, a couple of canned sliced mushrooms, and almost an entire half of an onion (sliced). I was thoroughly disappointed, don’t call it seafood when there is 8 bay shrimp! The flavor was bland also. My husband beef bulgogi was okay, probably the only decent thing we ordered. The Korean side dishes (ban chan) were disgusting, the radish tasted rotten, the Napa cabbage tasted carbonated. We also ordered sushi just to see how fresh it was because we had heard he drives all the way to Seattle to ensure the best quality. The salmon was fishy and pale, to be honest, I’ve had better raw salmon at Sushi Maru in the Riverpark Square which is saying something. The scallop crab roll had the tiniest pieces of scallop and the avocado was old and browning. I can’t say I’m really surprised because when you have an empty restaurant midday on a weekend, how can you possibly afford to have the freshest sushi when you have no customers. Not sure what happened here, I’m baffled really because this place had some great reviews but it seems that recently the reviews have been unfavorable and from what I can tell this place is going downhill fast. I would never go back here and I wouldn’t even be tempted to try the Airway Heights location. Bad food, poor service and just horrible experience all around.

Delicious sushi and incredible egg rolls. Loved the chef and his interactive approach to meeting his guests. Seemed slightly understaffed in a small town family-​run-​restaurant kind of way.

I have no idea how this place has 3.5 stars. And this Charlie person that everyone raves about here, I did not even find a glimpse of his shadow here.
I think if you read the below reviews, it is pretty spot it so I’m not gonna waste time ranting about it. In so many words don’t come here! I generally over-​rate places, but this place has the WORST SERVICE EVER. I felt like i was living in a nightmare. Gordon Ramsey needs to come to this place because it is indeed a KITCHEN NIGHTMARE!

We love Sushi Yama! The chef’s special is a favorite and the service is always lovely. Plus they have a great selection of other items for our kids or non-​sushi eaters. The chef usually shares something special to try and the fish is so fresh!

Notice most reviews are either one star or five stars. If you know anything about good Asian food you will not be happy with the quality of the food served here. I’m both Asian and from San Francisco, so my standard is maybe higher than most. The décor is also terrible. Dirty too. Sorry, I think the owners are fellow Korean peeps but the truth is the truth.

Horrible service and he purposely over charged us. Some how he got upset at the fact I don’t like Wasabi and ordered-​did not send back– but ordered an entirely new plate of nigiri with out it and he threw a fit. He clearly never wanted us to return and that’s just bad restsuranting

This place would be a good candidate for Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. The ship is sinking fast, and the captain has no one to blame but himself. My fiancée and I had a horrendous experience at this restaurant Friday night, and it infuriates me just thinking about everything that went awry. We’ve been here before, but after this past experience, we won’t be coming back, and I have to stress that the owner should be taking the vast majority of the responsibility.
There were maybe only three or four occupied tables before we got there, with a couple sitting at the bar. Not too busy for a Friday night, right? Very early on, before we got our waters or had our order taken, I couldn’t help but overhear the waitress profusely and repeatedly apologizing for this or that to other patrons. She seemed REALLY stressed out and agitated, and it became obvious why: her boss, Charlie, had been and continued to yell at her, in front of customers, throughout the night. He wasn’t even making any attempt at remaining calm. The manner in which he treated his employees was disrespectful, demeaning, and out of control.
We ordered two rolls and a chicken appetizer. Now, I’ve had a lot of sushi in my life, growing up in the LA-​area, and living in New York for a while. I know my expectations for Spokane need to be curtailed, but this sushi, at best, was mediocre. One of our rolls had some type of white fish on top when it was supposed to be Unagi… and I love my unagi! It was clear that the sushi didn’t taste fresh at all. I really was thinking I could’ve gone to a grocery store and purchase something fresher. At least I wouldn’t have to witness the owner repeatedly raise his voice and degrade his employees. It brought back bad memories of getting in trouble or receiving bad grades when I was a kid. Oh yeah, while on the topic of food, our chicken appetizer never came! We were still hungry after finishing our two rolls, but we just wanted to pay our bill and get out of there ASAP!
Our waitress wasn’t really good, at all, but I have nothing but compassion for her, because if I had that jerk breathing down my neck, I’m sure I’d make a lot of mistakes, too. She said it was her first day there, and supposedly also the cook in the back was also new on the job. The high staff turnover makes a lot of sense. Who would want to work for someone like Charlie? For instance, when the waitress was refilling our waters, I could hear Charlie call out to her, asking her to come to him. Literally only a two or three seconds later, as she was in the middle of pouring the second glass, he raised his voice and called out her her again because she understandably hadn’t acknowledged him yet. Totally, unreasonably impatient!
The original bill that the waitress gave me was incorrect, easily more than twice as much as it should have been. When I brought it up with Charlie, he initially gave me this look like I was trying to stiff him. When he realized that he made a mistake, he started berating the waitress, even though he’s the one who rang me up! (She just shuttled the receipt from the cash register to our table.) Trying to diffuse the situation and calm him down, I said «It’s okay, it’s okay.» but HE started yelling at ME saying «IT’S NOT OKAY! IT’S NOT OKAY!» This situation was so sad and bizarre, I thought John Quinones from «What Would You Do?» was going to come out of nowhere and interview us about how we tried to stand up for the waitress.
Charlie then told me that he had other customers who left earlier and said they weren’t coming back because of the service. With the way he treats his employees and customers, should he in any way be surprised? Ultimately, the owner is responsible for the successes and failures of a business, and it’s clear this place is trending downward.
Later, the fiancée and I brought our residual hunger to Sante Restaurant & Charcuterie where we shared a couple of small plates and a glass of wine. It was such a distinct and pleasant contrast. The ambiance was so serene and romantic! The staff was, as always, so polite and attentive. We plan on going back to Sante for a full dinner (we’ve only previously been there for brunch). Sushi Yama? No, thank you! NEVER AGAIN!

A cute husband and wife running the BEST sushi place in town! Charlie is a master with the knife! Please when you go in just «trust Charlie» and let him design your dinner!!! We always feel so healthy and happy after eating there.

A last minute decision on First Friday to have dinner with a group of friends brought us to Sushi Yama. Our group of 12 trickled in over a 20min or so time span and even though we were very clear the bills were going to be separate Chef would not take any of our sushi orders until we all ordered off the same order list. The result? Those who ordered cooked food got it quickly and were done long before the sushi arrived. And when it did it was presented on one tray resulting in us having to decipher what each of us had ordered and offload each order onto little plates. Ridiculous! The quality was underwhelming. Will not be back. Before I leave this though a shout out to Kathy our server who was cheerful quick and smart and the bright spot of the experience.

I used to be a fan of Sushi Yama. But on my recent visit on 7÷25÷14 I had terrible service. Slow and very underwhelming young waitress that kept coming back and asking us to repeat our orders. We were a table of four, the restaurant was not busy at all for a Friday night. It used to be you had to wait fora table to open up on a Friday night. That’s not the case anymore. Sadly the quality of the food and the service has gone way down.
Charlie is a very charming and engaging man. But unfortunately I won’t be going back. Again this was a bad diner experience.
All the sushi came on one serving tray. Several of the sushi looked similar. So much so that we or the waitress could not tell them apart. So we were not sure if we actually got what we ordered or not.
The special which we did not order thankfully was $ 160. Split four ways would have been approx $ 40+ tax and tip for each person. Way to much for subpar food.

Excellent service and excellent staff, but nothing was as good as the food! The «Charlie Special» sushi and sashimi boat was beyond delicious. The fish is fresh and melts in your mouth. Charlie is a great chef and an extraordinary host together with his sweet and thoughtful wife. Don’t miss this extraordinary find.

For Spokane, this place is a 4. But despite the fresh fish from Seattle, the rice… needs a lot of work.

What did I ever do to deserve this, Sushi Yama?
After reading the fabulous reviews, I went here with my brother on a Saturday night. There were three parties other than us, six people total. When reading this review keep in mind that they were not at all busy.
First we had to wait approximately 10 minutes to get water, and another 5 minutes to order. A little annoying, but not a huge deal. I ordered the unagi and the spider roll, both because they are my favorites, and because another reviewer specifically said they were good.
Ten…twenty…thirty minutes later there was no sign of our food. I’m starting to get really hungry and regretting that I didn’t order more. Fourty minutes pass, I’m starting to think that they lost our order. After fifty minutes the food finally comes! Yayyy! Or so we thought. The sushi was really bad – it’s not an exagerration to say I’ve had better sushi from Safeway. My brother actually left his Seattle roll uneaten.
Go to Sushi Maru if you want the same quality for a lot cheaper, or Sushi I if you want better quality for a little bit cheaper. DO NOT GO HERE.