I was quite pleasantly surprised by the Sushi Rolls, since this is an item that many Japanese restaurants do not get quite right. These were the creative types of rolls that combined flavors in a way that I thought made the whole greater than the parts. I was not necessarily overwhelmed by how good the seafood was, but it was one of many good ingredients used in the rolls.

Salad and miso soup

The Salad served before the main meal was not the most impressive Japanese salad I have tried. This was served with ordinary green lettuce, but the biggest disappointment was the dressing. I do not suppose many people are looking for a great salad when they come to a Japanese steak house, but I did think the dressing could have had a much more interesting flavor.

The main course provides a choice of meats or seafood, but no vegetarian dinners are available. My first experience at Yamato was with the Salmon, which was the Atlantic variety. I thought it was rather ordinary even by Oklahoma standards, but I could not say it was something I would not order again.

Sesame chicken

An order of Sesame Chicken turned out to be better than the salmon, but in a way it was more disappointing. This could have been a really great dish, but by the time the chef finished adding several sauces to it, I thought it had "many flavors, yet no flavor." It reminded me of P.F. Chang's or Pei Wei, in which they throw in so many ingredients it no longer tastes Oriental to me. Added to this was the fact that it did not have sesame seeds, so I do not know why it was called "sesame chicken" (if it was because of the sauce, it was sesame mixed with a lot of other sauces that did not have a distinctive sesame flavor to me). The vegetables and fried rice added enough to the chicken, though, that it still turned out to be a good dish. Also I thought the quality of the chicken was very good (I would say better than the salmon I tried on my first visit).

Several pieces of shrimp are added to all dinners, so this gives a greater variety to the food. This was something I was not expecting, and I do not remember seing at other teppan grill restaurants.

The restaurant provides both a ginger sauce and hot mustard for dipping or flavoring the food, and this is pretty standard practice for Japanese steak houses. I thought the ginger sauce, though, was not as good as most of the ones I have tried at other restaurants.

The high point of the restaurant was the Fried Rice cooked on the grill with vegetables and enough flavoring to make this one of the best I have tried. Equally important was the texture, that had the right amount of moistness so that it was not too dry or too sticky.

Yamato does not serve hot tea, and on at least one occasion I went to the restaurant but decided not to eat there because of this fact. Green tea was available on my first visit, but the restaurant probably decided not enough patrons wanted to order it.