Yo! Sushi

This is not sushi as a Japanese would know it, or someone who lived in Japan for over a decade (me) would know it. It is heavy on maki rolls, which are mostly rice, and the choice of fish sushi is very limited. Rice of course being very cheap to buy makes this a good business model, as around 80% of the volume of food on offer is simply that: rice. Flavoured rice. This is not sushi. Service is ok. Pleasant enough environment.

Yo Sushi — Making It perfectly acceptable for you to sit at a buffet, alone, since 1997.
For those who are new to the world of Sushi it’s pretty simple — Sit. Take. Eat. Pay. The plates are even coloured coordinated — Six colours, six prices. From £1.90 to £5.00. Leave your plates at your side and they’ll be totalled up at the end.
Now if like me you don’t like fishy-​fish don’t rule out Yo Sushi just yet. There are still a range of dishes available that won’t make you think of ‘Finding Nemo’
My favourites:
Inari Pockets —
Sweet Soy Bean Curd Pocket with Rice.
Duck Gyoza —
Duck Dumplings, Hoisin Sauce.
Chicken Gyoza —
Chicken Dumplings with Soy and Vinegar Sauce.
Chicken Katsu —
Chicken Katsu, Rice, Mild Curry Sauce and Red Ginger.
Each of the above contain less than 120 calories!
*Tip: Visit on a Monday and enjoy almost ALL dishes for just £2.50.

I was in the city centre and had a MASSIVE Japanese food craving. But unfortunately, I was in a dilemma:
1) My partner didn’t want to walk 25 minutes to Tenkaichi.
2) I’m quite a seasoned Japanese food lover.
I was stuck deciding between Mt. Fuji or Yo! Sushi. Mt Fuji’s menu seemed like a complete disaster in the making, with sweet and sour everything (please, stop with the sweet and sour epidemic it’s making me ill!), so I decided that Yo! Sushi was going to be my best bet. Needless to say, walking in and noticing that the chefs were well, not Asian, I didn’t have my hopes too high.
Atmosphere:
Impressive and really cute. They have colourful décor, with an awesome sushi-​conveyor belt rotating around. You press a buzzer on your table to ask for the waitress, which was something that I thought was very neat.
Customer Service:
Not bad. Our waitress was friendly, albeit she seemed a little bit awkward and nervous, but that’s forgivable considering that she was very attentive and explained how the restaurant worked very well.
Food:
When other people are calling this place overpriced, they’re not joking. I had read the Unilocal reviews and I only wish that I took their advice seriously. I’m a tiny Asian girl with a small appetite and after spending over £30 with my partner (who ate just as much as me), I was still unbelievably hungry.
The thing is, they’re SNEAKILY overpriced. For instance, I ordered the Chicken Katsu Curry, which set me back around £5 which I thought was a fair deal. When it came out, it was so unbelievably tiny I had never had a main of that side. It looked less than a child gets from the kids menu.
I’m not exaggerating folks, REALLY small. The same size as those sushi plates on the conveyor belts to give you an idea. Don’t get me wrong, the curry wasn’t bad at all. The curry sauce was a tad bit watery and they overloaded it with pickled ginger, but given my expectations of the chefs in regards to their culinary mastery, I was pleasantly surprised. The taste of the food itself would probably be a solid 3 stars. But the portion sizes are the most corner-​cutting I’ve ever seen in my life. How in the world can they ever possibly expect that to be filling? The answer is: they don’t. They want you to spend more.
So after forking out over £15 a head and still having a grumbling stomach, I walked out and went straight to get a burger since I was still hungry.

Lovely place, calm and relaxing atmosphere. Chefs make my food how i like it (more spice). Only downfall is you have to keep on top of what you ordering as the prices are a little steep. But they do have offers on through the week, like Blue Mondays for example.

I must admit that I’m a sushi novice and Yo! Sushi is the only sushi restaurant I’ve ever been to so that may mean that I have a different opinion to those with more experience of sushi restairants but Yo! Sushi makes me happy. It’s a happy place to be, the colours are bright, the food is fun and the service (having a call button on your table) just adds to the sense of fun.
I recently went with three other people on a Monday night when the Blue Mondays promotion was running, every plate from the belt is priced at £2.40, bargain! I managed to get my fill and only spent £13. We only had to wait ten minutes to be seated but I take it being so busy as a good thing, this also meant that the belt was constantly being refreshed which can only be a good thing when it comes to sushi.
My friends and I are already planning our next trip, I need my next fix of Pumpkin Korroke!

Given it’s location in the heart of Cardiff city centre’s shopping centre, it will come as no surprise that this sushi bar is dramatically over-​priced and the food churned out generic and bland. Definitely worth heading off the beaten track to somewhere like Roath where a plethora of tasty, more authentic Japanese restaurants can be found.

The food was OK but a bit pricey for what it was. The main problem with this place though was that the food prep area was mucky. I was sat next to the till & it was covered in grime. You just wouldn’t find this sort of thing in say McDonalds ! Looking at this grime ruined the experience. It’s not just a matter of the experience either my wife was ill in the night !

Nice, but too expensive !!

Blech, no way. I choked down a few plates of this bad, conveyor belt sushi because I was starving and didn’t think I could walk any further to get something else.
It’s a shame, because the décor is fun and bright, and the service was attentive. I guess I should’ve know better than to try to eat pre-​cut sushi rolls and less than fresh pieces of nigiri.
Just say No.

Had great fun when we visited Yo! Sushi for the first time recently. Had no conversation from the other half as he couldn’t take his eyes off the conveyor belt (might be a good things, not sure) — not a place to take insatiably hungry men but the food was good for a chain restaurant and the service friendly and efficient. Ichiban remains the top Japanese restaurant in Cardiff but Yo! Sushi will definitely get a return visit for a snacky little meal when I’m next in St David’s II.

I was reacently in cardiff visiting a few friends who hadnt had much knowledge in japenese food but wanted to try it, so we decided on yo sushi. this is no means by far the most athentic restaurant (there where no japenese staff) but the yo sushi chain must have something right as all the food was cooked perfectly as tasted great. if you have never been here it can seem a little hard to understand the way the work but just pop in and they will explaing it all its very simple. basically there is a belt that runs along every table with various dishes on, there are 7 different colour dishes and each one has there own price ranging from £1.70 to £5.00 simply pick the dishes you want and enjoy. if you want something you cant see you simply push a button on your table and the staff where more than happy to help. at the end they come count up your dishes and drinks and give you the bill (although be warned the dishes can mount up very quickly) another tip would be to have the miso soup at only 2 pound and unlimited refil it was one of the best ive tasted. as for the rest of the boxes it ticked them all. it was clean staff where helpfull toilets had seats on ect ect. final words would recommend great food but expensive

Having first tried Yo! Sushi’s food at their Bristol (Cabot Circus) restaurant I have to say that I loved this overpriced bit of food.
As soon as I knew it was coming to Cardiff I got excited about it… but that was about it… Food doesn’t seem to beat the other branch of the chain… Tamago was frozen, Crunchy Tofu wasn’t crunchy… just a big disappointment really.
After several months I came back and I have to say that it is better, the Tamago is now served as it should (even though the Crunchy Tofu still isn’t crunchy) but the food is still expensive… I either have a big appetite or those tiny bitsy portions are made of rice shaped gold.

Right in the far corner of St David’s shopping centre, if you didn’t look hard enough, you wouldn’t even knew it existed. (although the neon lights are a bit f a give away!)
Yo sushi, makes me happy. It makes me feel all Carried Bradshaw and cosmopolitan. It makes me want to sip, not gulp my drink and call everyone darling.
Now, i’m not a massive fan of sushi and to be honest i think i like the idea of this place more than i actually like the place. (the mind boggles)
Being a valley girl where Wetherspoons is upmarket can you imagine my delight when i actually got taken here! i was so excited i could have… well, i could have pee’d myself!
Right back to it; you get a button! Yes a button to call the waiter/​waitress over, i actually miss that button at home, i keep meaning to get me a little bell!
Secondly, you get a personal water tap… the place just seems to get better and better.
Prices are incredibly good, although be warned your drinks will bump the bill up, Like everywhere though so you cant Knock Yo Sushi for that.
Also, its always really really busy, so if you do fancy putting your posh accent on, no one will really hear it! JACKPOT!

Providing shoppers with an alternative to mainstream and often generic meals, Yo Sushi is an innovative new way to eat, even by Sushi standards. Even if you’re a Sushi novice, the system is fairly self explanatory. Dishes circle the large bar on a conveyor belt, each dish fitting into one of three colour bands which relate to prices. Dishes start at prices from as low as £1.70 to as high as £5. WIth oodles of choice, there’s plenty to keep diners content.
The food itself is of a high quality. The kinds of sushi you’ll find here include ‘sashimi’, ‘maki’, salads and tempura, as well as desserts. The food is freshly prepared and tastes great. If you’re not keen on something, you can simply select something else from the conveyor belt. Beware though, given how delicious some of the dishes are, there will be a temptation to eat too much. I like it here, definitely worth a visit.

Great little sushi bar, even though it’s part of a chain. The atmosphere is relaxed and there is no pressure to hurry up and you can just sit and take your time, chat, drink alittle, eat alittle. Great place for a date or to have a healthier alternative to normal restaurants.

There are a few decent sushi restaurants in Cardiff now, including a few good independent ones that opened way before the arrival of this big chain.
When Yo! opened in St David’s Centre, however, I went with a group of friends to see what it was like, after having eaten at various other Yo! Sushis elsewhere. This one is well laid out around a conveyor belt style sushi bar, as is Yo!‘s convention, and there was plenty of choice going around. The food was pretty good, but some dishes looked like they’d been rotating for a bit too long, and I felt like I could have found fresher elsewhere. It’s not that I expect sushi to be cheap — it’s less the price and more the overall experience that bothers me. Apparently it’s some kind of tradition for staff to shout out orders, which I hadn’t noticed at the Bristol branch, but here in Cardiff I was sat right next to the place where the sushi chefs kept shrieking out the arrival of new dishes, which was quite irritating after the first few instances. Overall, I’d much rather eat at the lovely (albeit expensive) Ichiban restaurant in Canton, where the sushi is consistently good and the staff are friendly but unobtrusive.

Yo Sushi is a quirky, tongue-​in-​cheek sushi restaurant where the emphasis is on fun. You can choose from ready made courses on the conveyor belt or order straight from the menu. They also offer a takeaway service.
For those of you who aren’t too sure about what you’re ordering then the staff are really helpful and the menu is written so that it is easy to understand.

Certainly there is a bit of a novelty factor is Yo! Sushi but as a lunchtime or afternoon treat it makes for a good time. Although the cuisine isn’t truly authentic, it is good enough to keep you coming back once the novelty of the whole «sushi bar» experience has worn off.
As you’d expect you are billed on the bowls you have at the end of your meal. There are 6 different bowl prices and if you have a decent meal with maybe a little dessert bowl you will probably be in the £10-£15 range depending on your choice of drink. Water, from the still and fizzy taps on your table, costs £1 and other drinks cost what you’d expect at a restaurant.
With Yo! Sushi you really get what you see and if a conveyor sushi bar is your thing you’ll love it and if you’ve never tried it, give it a go and, even if you don’t like it, you won’t feel cheated.

I was a loyal Zushi fan for years and got my sushi fix from there without even questioning that there might be somewhere else in town but having tried Yo! Sushi elsewhere I knew I had to give the Cardiff one a go.
There are some things I really like about Yo!
1) The little call button which makes you feel like you’re on a plane calling over an air hostess.
2) The little personal water tap.
3) The fact that it’s always busy.
My friend once advised me that you should always visit a conveyor belt sushi place when it’s busy because they will be constantly re stocking the belt and therefore the food will be fresher. So there’s a little bit of wisdom for you.
The choice of dishes is pretty good and it might not be authentic Japanese cuisine but it is tasty and satisfying.
Price wise it’s very good. My friend and I vowed to ‘spend as much as possible on sushi’ but the bill only came to £30 and we were stuffed.

After giving up fish for Lent, I was excited to realise that it was Good Friday and raced (dragging a friend behind me) to the nearest sushi outlet. Cardiff has a surprisingly sparse supply of these, apparently, and only after a long hunt did we find Yo! Sushi tucked in the back of the ultra-​new Saint David’s Shopping Centre.
I’ve never been a huge fan of sushi-​trains; they have a tendency to make you feel nauseous when going too fast, or else hungry and/​or frustrated when too slow. But if I say nothing else nice about Yo! Sushi, I will say that they got the speed of their conveyor belt bang on.
The sushi itself was good, but slightly disappointing. Although the ingredients themselves were excellent, the portions were a little mean. My personal favourite is unagi (eel), but there was a sad lack of this fish on the menu, although I’d consider it a staple. The tuna nigiri, however, was divine; simple seemed to be best.
The décor was as colourful as one might expect, although the service was unfortunately sloppy. When we turned our light on for a free top-​up of miso soup, the waiter serving us ignored it completely. Eventually a sushi-​chef did a song and dance to help us (think Dick Van Dyke with knives), and we still only got a bowl to share.
Sushi has a tendency to be horrifically over-​priced in the UK, but, baring this in mind, Yo! Sushi seemed to be fairly reasonable. It’s also worth the money for the centre show of sushi-​making. It is a fun and colourful lunch-​time activity (dinner might prove to be too expensive), but it certainly is not the best Japanese cuisine.