Yoshii - The Rocks

I was very impressed when I dined here a few years ago. The second visit, the food was OK, but I have to say it was not as excuisit as the previous one. Still above average.

We recently celebrated my husband and son's birthdays with a dinner for 6 at Yoshi's. We took the private room which meant for the oldies we could hear every word of the conversation and take our time (2.5 hours) over an exquisite dinner. So many restaurants want to rush you through dinner so they can accommodate another setting.The food was truly amazing. We had the Yoshi set menu for $140 per head. The presentation, flavour and freshness of the courses was exceptional. I think for all of us the lamb with shiitake mushroom sauce and miso was a stand out. Given it was Japanese with very low fat none of us left the restaurant feeling overly full just pleasantly replete. They gave my son a special desert to celebrate his birthday which was a nice touch.If you are looking for spectacular views this is not the place for you as it looks onto Harrington St in the city. However, if you want exceptional Japanese food at a relaxed pace where you can hear the conversation...it is perfect.

Wow! It was terrible! The minute we arrived the confused staff were unable to find our reservation (I had the email confirmation) then they told us we could sit at the sushi bar, which was empty. That was fine except we were completely ignored the whole time. We had to call staff over 15 minutes after not even being offered a wine menu (or any other menu). We ordered the 8 course degustation....It only got worse as we waited over an hour for the tofu appetiser. Another hour later was the next appetiser...then another hour 20 until the sashimi arrived - and these were all the cold dishes!!! At one point the chef had an angry conversation with one of the waitstaff and pointed at us. We thought we might get some service but instead a spoon was delivered and we joked how it could be another 20 minutes before another dish comes out. Still nothing arrived. At this stage it was 10.40pm and we were worried we would be there until the early hours of the morning if we were to wait for the remaining 5 courses - not to mention how hungry we were! We saw other diners also frustrated and not happy. We then decided to leave and watched 3 waitstaff ignore us as we tried to get their attention. Finally we had one come over and told them we would like to pay for what we had eaten and leave, as it was just taking too long. Here comes the worse part of the night yet. The waitress then started to debate with us about how much we should pay. She wanted us to pay for all the courses, even though we had only received 3 of the 8. She was incredibly rude and showed no concern for the fact we had spent over 3 hours and had not received our meal - it was now past 11pm and we were exhausted by the whole experience. It was terrible - the staff are inexperienced, with no service skills and have no concept of a good customer experience. The three dishes we had were ok but not mind blowing enough to make the extensive wait worth it. Don't go here if you expect good service and a great dining experience - there are much better Japanese restaurants in Sydney that understand customer service and deliver amazing food.

I'd really like to be tucked up in bed now coz im a little bit sleepy from the most exhausting dining experience ever but I think i really need to let people know how bad this place is. Plus, I'm too hungry to sleep.You might be sleepy too, but trust me, its well worth hanging in for. The ending is a doozy.We went to Yoshii for a special occasion tonight...but trouble started barely seconds after we walked through the door. Upon arrival we told them the name we had booked under and were greeted with some confusion from the staff as they quickly checked their lists and whispered to each other....we'd booked 3 weeks prior but mysteriously found ourselves being sat at the sushi counter. Okay, cool, we can work with that, always good to watch the sushi chef at work right? And just as well, coz we sure as hell couldn't see anyone else working, least of all the waitstaff.We waited for 20 mins before anyone came to so much ask us if we'd like a drink or show us a menu. After they managed this impressive feat, we decided to go with an 8 course degustation....and then proceeded to wait 2.5 hours to get 3 of them. Now, the food was okay, but you need to keep in mind that NONE of these 3 dishes were actually cooked. The first was a cube of tofu the size of half a matchbox and the other 2 dishes were primarily sushi/sashimi (as I said, at least 1 guy was working). Waiting 50 mins for a tiny cube of (slightly tasty) pre-made snot, and then another 50 mins for 4 pieces of sushi and then another 50 mins for some slices of fish you can see why we got a touch irritated. This was compounded by the fact that during this 2.5 hours not one member of staff stopped to ask if we wanted another glass of wine or a top up of our green tea (remember that Tea...it makes a special appearance later).So at this point we told the staff we had had enough and would like to leave (obviously we had to flag one of them down to do this). They proceeded to tell us that we had not one but TWO dishes READY TO GO! as some desperate ploy to make us stay (these dishes were nowhere to be seen strangely), plus, they now decided to inform us, one of their ovens had broken down earlier in the day (whilst im sympathetic that sometimes issues like that occur in a kitchen that would cause some trouble, could they not have mentioned this at the start of the meal so we could make an informed decision? Also, again, none of the dishes we waited over 2 hours for were cooked so...what gives?)...we politely declined and went to the front desk to see how we could settle up this extended disaster...and that's when the real fun began.After explaining to the waitress that we were unhappy, had waited 2 and half hours for 3 teeeeensy dishes and no service etc, the girl in question then launched into a campaign of cajoling, ignoring and arguing with us for 20 mins. We said that we would not pay the full price as we had not got anywhere near to the full meal, she then started to work out costs based on if we had ordered the dishes individually, a la carte, taking no account of the spoiled experience, the marathon wait, the lack of food and the completely abysmal service. She shoved calculators and menus in our face, she tried endless circular arguments with us, she couldn't quite manage to see how our experience was anything less than stellar...she even tried to charge us 10 bucks for the tea.Eventually we told her we would pay a certain figure which was approx half of what the whole experience would have cost if, y'know, they were providing an experience in the first place, but that was no good. When we handed over our card and said 'charge us XXX or we're leaving' she proceeded to refuse to return the card and actually had a physical arm wrestle with my partner over her card, refusing to give it back to her. We left and said we were going to the cops....so she followed us down the road like some midget stalker all the way to the cop station. The cops seemed to think we were being more than reasonable with what we'd offered vs what we'd received but she couldn't quite get it, telling them 'I didnt charge for the tea!' (I had to ask her to at least take that off the bill btw) and when I said 'wow, thanks for giving us the hot water on the house' she cried 'Not hot water! It's TEA!' like somehow the fact that there was some green dust mixed in showed her generosity on the back of the rest of the debacle. Anyway, eventually we gave her what we had said we thought was fair and what the police agreed was fair (although she wanted an extra 2 bucks (based again on some pig-headed calculation she was unwilling to let go)....I kid you not, the last words she said to me after I handed over the cash was 'PLUS 2 more DOLLARS!'. She didn't receive it, which I assume will burn her soul for the rest of her money grubbing, poor service providing, credit card wrasslin' days)Anyway, all over the worst dining experience we've ever had by far. DO. NOT. EAT. HERE.Book ahead, spring a little extra and go to Tetsuya's...you actually WILL get a great experience. And no arm wrestling.

Small but upmarket Japanese sushi restaurant. Delicious food. Friendly service (perhaps a little too much!) but slow service. There were only 5 people in the restaurant at lunch time (including the 3 in my party), and the whole service took over 1.5 hours! The lunch time menu we had is a set menu with your choice of a main - an upmarket bento box essentially - could not fault the quality of the food. Bit pricey.