The two most common comments - the sushi/sashimi is amazing, but the service SUCKS! True. Well, sometimes you just work with the hand you're dealt, which is what I do. IMO, best sushi buffet in boston in terms of quality. It's a bit annoying as you have to order it and as such, it can take some time to get everything. However, I believe this helps keep the food more fresh. Some tips for you grouchy Grinches that can't deal with the service, but can't stay away from the food either: 1) As soon as you sit down, attack that damn paper. Figure out what you want, while being realistic about finishing what you want. That is, if you only have 4 people, and are ordering 20 rolls as a preemptive strike, expect a nice, long discussion with the waiter doubting your ability to store that much rice in your belleh. Focus on the items you really will eat a lot of (salmon sashimi!) and if they doubt you, be firm and tell them you WILL eat it all as it's your favorite damn dish. 2) As soon as your first order is taken, start attacking that damn paper again. Figure out what you guys want for round 2, and then flag a waiter/waitress down as soon as everything you ordered from your first round arrives. That way you won't be waiting too long. 3) Be friendly and sociable. We joked with the waiters and waitresses, and received decent service (albeit a bit slow but that's a given here). At the very least, they weren't rude or anything. And when they want to confirm what you ordered, it isn't necessarily a slap in the face that you can't finish everything, but just to make sure you know what you are ordering. For example, we ordered 18 salmon sashimi, thinking each order was 1 (like the sushi option above). However, each order is 2 for sashimi - that would have been 36 slices of salmon sashimi. read more

Yamato Restaurant - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

Went for Friday lunch (ordered from the dinner menu $29) and there were 6 other parties inside. Social distancing was enforced. Styrofoam plates, disposable chopsticks, but glassware for water... The sushi is just as I remembered it though the fried rice was not as amazing. All the sashimi from salmon, tuna, mackerel, white tuna, were great. The squid really depends on the chef since our first order was tender and amazing, while the second order was clearly cut differently which rendered it chewy and slimy. Yamato will always be a go to and it doesn't break the bank! read more

Yamato Restaurant - eel and avocado shrimp tempura nd eel on top - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

Went before the dinner rush on a Saturday, it was really dead around 5:30ish. Sushi wasn't too bad, this place used to be good but seems throughout the years it's quality has declined. For example, the beef in the fried rice tasted old and tough. Food did come out too fast and they got our orders of sushi wrong a few times. read more

Not the best food but so so... Nothing special. If you are a big eater, this place might be the one for you. If you want to eat some good sushi dinner, I rather recommend you to find somewhere else. read more

YES. I love Yamato. I have a problem. I need a support group. Unlike Minado(which is a most excellent experience in its own right), Yamato's sushi is made to order. You sit down and then have 90 minutes(no chess-style timers, but that would be cool) to order as much food as you want. This means gyoza, miso soup, seaweed salad, tempura, katsu, makimono, and sushi. The caveat: they will charge you double if you leave food behind. PS- the handrolls are amazing. I can't even finish this review because I want to go back right no-- The only thing to be wary of is the angry guy. He gets pissed when you order a ton and actually finish it, causing them to lose money on you. Whatever. It's so good. I once ate 3 sweet potato rolls and didn't look back. $20 for lunch including tip. So good. read more

Yamato Restaurant - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

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3 stars? Wtf? Yamato is a gem. It is one of my favorite restaurants in Boston. All you can eat sushi that is great quality. What more can you ask for? Oh... You can ask for apps too? Those come unlimited with the sushi! I have had countless memories here throughout high school, college and beyond. It's worth the go (but I warn you to show up with an empty stomach) read more

Yamato Restaurant - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

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We were here for the sushi buffet. Sushi was decent but customer service was not good. When we walked in, the host was not there. The waitress saw us standing there for a while, she came walked us over to a table. It took our sever a while to come get our order paper. Then we waited like 20-30 minutes for our sushi to come. All servers have no smiles. They never check in while we waited so long. After a while into eating I found a piece of hair in my sushi. I know is not mine cause it was rolled in with the rice on the sushi. I told the sever that there is a hair in the sushi. She said " oh sorry". Then I just asked for my check. I paid and we left. We will never return to this place again. read more

Yamato Restaurant - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

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Best sushi deal EVER!!! Always fresh. Always on point with whatever the order is... can't validate anywhere else for price/quality!

Standard AYCE sushi joint. Prices are as follows: Lunch for Adults: Mon-Fri : $16.99 Sat, Sun, Holidays: $18.99 Dinner for Adults: Sun-Thurs: $24.99 Fri, Sat, Holidays: $26.99 As you can see, the lunch prices are markedly cheaper and that's because several items are only included in the dinner service. However, I personally feel as though the additional cost for the additional dinner-only items is not worth it. Keep in mind that cash payments receive a discount of $1 per person so that your already cheap sushi gets cheaper. I'd say this location is better than Yamato II located in Copley and after Takusan closed down, this is my place for when I need a sushi fix. Be smart about the frequency of your ordering and ask for another set of order sheets while you're on the remnants of your current platter. By the way, get the seaweed salad. read more

Love this place. Great value for AYCE, the spicy tuna hand roll is my favorite. Then menu has lots of good options. I always recommend this restaurant to anyone who likes sushi. I think I like this location better than the back bay one - it's not as busy and more comfortable read more

So, you can either order a la carte off their menu, or you can order All You Can Eat (AYCE) style off their two check slip menus. However, there are a few items that are saved for Dinner Only such as the desserts, Sashimi, Sushi Combo, Katsu, and Fried Rice, while the Special Rolls are available for an extra $1 apiece at any time. I was a touch disappointed, since I had hoped to end our lunch with a bit of something sweet, but instead of ordering dessert a la carte, I figured I'd save my valuable stomach real estate for more of the all you can eat items. One thing I realized from this trip was that if you are hungry, order a mix of items. We received the seaweed salad first... then a plate of dumplings... then the cold tofu...(you get the idea)... then the first large plate of sushi items... followed by a second smaller plate of maki rolls... but in the meantime (before the sushi arrived), we were hungry, so we used our 2nd set of check off menus and marked off a few more items and passed that on to the waitress. Everything was okay, nothing super-duper, but I'd come again. And based on my piece of eel sushi, at least they don't stick the eel on top of an oversized lump of rice. To earn a 4th star, the food would need to arrive at the table quicker though. That's the downfall of a menu based AYCE vs the buffet style. Sunday - Thursday: Lunch $14.99 Dinner $19.99 (for adults) Friday & Saturday: Lunch $14.99 Dinner $21.99 *** 2/2013 *** So, it seems the prices have gone up since my review. Sunday - Thursday: Lunch $15.99 Dinner $21.99 Friday & Saturday: Lunch $15.99 Dinner $23.99 *** 5/2014 *** Sunday - Thursday: Lunch $16.99 Dinner $22.99 Friday & Saturday: Lunch $16.99 Dinner $24.99 (3pm cut off time for lunch) read more

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All you can eat (per person) prices: Lunchtime (before 3p) = 16.99 / Dinner = 24.99. ($1 off per person if you pay with cash). SO WORTH IT. I came here with a group of friends, having made a reservation the night before. I would recommend doing this, because this place can get packed during prime lunch hours. Of course, we came in ravenous. We went through about 3 rounds-- my favorite was the spicy salmon roll. The fish in general was tender, fresh, and juicy-- the rice to fish ratio was also balanced even as the rounds progressed. Waters were filled very frequently, and the food was delivered in a timely manner, enough time for you to digest in between rounds. I definitely recommend this place if you want to come for some quality and affordable sushi. with friendly service. One thing to note is that for lunch, the sashimi does not come with the all you can eat buffet, nor does the green tea ice cream (but you can order that as a side). read more

Besides Yamato being very close to my apartment, I just really like this place as the quality of the food is quite decent. Service is fairly good and the food is served promptly. read more

Yamato Restaurant - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

Sushi is solid - service is hot steamy poo poo. Had one glass of water for 24 volcano rolls

Fabulous establishment!! The food was good for what you are paying and the food comes out quickly on the earlier side for lunch. You can order as many times as you want, only downside is that you pay double for the food you don't finish. They have a good ratio of filling to rice for the sushi ( a lot of places put lots of rice to fill you up). I wish I could have spent more time here but you are hurried on after 2 hours. A word of advice is don't get the fried rice because you won't have much room left for other things. Oh and another positive is the serving are large :) I will 101% be coming back so enjoyable!! read more

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AyCE!! Oh yeah. Arrived 30 minutes to closing time and I was contemplating on whether or not to go for it. I did. They advised to mark everything at once on the slip to be ordered because of the short time span I had. The sashimi was sooo fresh and just melts in your mouth. Maybe it was a good batch! We ordered a ton of food, udon soup, sashimi, hand rolls, maki rolls, dumplings, fried rice and some; 1. Because it was about to close and 2. We were starving so ended up ordering more than what we can finish. So as you know, there are signs that say if you don't finish what you ordered, you have to pay extra. We had a small dish of fried rice and 2 hand rolls left. Our waitress came and look at it and then walked a bit back and forth. When we asked for the check, she looked and point at the left over and ask us if we can finish. I said no and then she hinted us that we will have to pay. That's fine, we ask how much... she went to the front desk and came back and said, "$7?? Is that ok??..." I was like ugh.. did you just randomly set that price? And asking me if it's OK. ;D i didn't know I had a choice. I don't mind it's not a big deal but was curious. Anyone pay the same amount for left over? Is it a set price?? Other than that, food quality isn't bad for all you can eat. Good service. read more

I love Yamatos - they're not the best sushi in the world, but all-you-can-eat sushi at a pretty good price. Made to order - awesome! Minus a star for the super judgey waitstaff. I'm at an all you-you-can-eat sushi place - of course I'm going to stuff my mouth full of rice and fish like nobody's business. It got kind of annoying to constantly have to answer "are you sure?" "remember, you must eat everything or we charge" after every single order. I swear they move slower so you can't put in as many orders. The appetizers are included in the all you can eat menu, and are all pretty good, but if you're getting the most bang for your buck definitely stick to the sushi. Fried ice cream for dessert! read more

Yamato Restaurant - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

This review should have been three stars but because of their surcharge on things that most restaurants wouldn't charge for (tea and spicy mayo...spicy mayo?!? are you serious?!?) on top of their bad sushi, two stars it is. My boyfriend and I both had an extreme sushi craving. We decided to go all out and feast at a buffet. Service was incredibly fast and our servers were always a hand-wave away. However, their sushi was nowhere close to good. The rice that they use is straight up Chinese white rice without any vinegar or other ingredients that sushi chefs add to make sushi rice. On top of that, they stack up on rice in your sushi so that you get full faster. To put things into perspective, for every piece of nigiri I ate, I split the rice into 3 portions to make my own nigiri with the sashimi we ordered. The only upside to our meal was the salmon sashimi which was of decent quality. Our bill came out to $36 with tax and tip...way overpriced for some inauthentic sushi. read more

Yamato Restaurant - Only thing worth getting: salmon sashimi - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

Definitely won't return ever. Food has bad quality, services were terrible, that's why I paid roughly 12 percent for the tips (lunch). OK, HERE is the part. They still charged me 18 percent no matter what I wrote on the bill. Everyone should be aware of this. And I'm actively seeking a lawyer to sue the restaurant, or at least I'm contacting my bank to decline the transaction. read more

I ordered sushi from this restaurant on Sunday August 25. Less than six hours after I ate the sushi I came down with the most awful, watery diarrhea I've ever had in my life. Now it's 7 days later and I'm laying in the ER with an IV getting blood cultures and stool cultures done because the doctors think I have a parasite.. AVOID AT ALL COSTS! It's not worth a $5000 ER BILL!!! read more

There are days that I crave all-you-can-eat sushi so bad. And Yamato is always there for me when I do. I've been here around 6 times and have not had any bad experiences. Service is not great but food is great! I've also been to Yamato 2 in Copley which takes longer to get food and the sushi somehow doesn't taste as good. I go to weekday lunch the most because it's the cheapest and I don't ~need~ sashimi or the specialty rolls to be happy. Walked out the door paying $21-22 total after tax and tip. Not bad! I personally think their sushi is good quality. A sushi snob might know better about "sushi grade" but I can say that it is yummy and not too expensive so I have no complaints. Favorites for lunch are caterpillar roll, dragon roll, spicy tuna, and eel avocado. I also always get seaweed salad and crab rangoon. The hand rolls have too much rice for me. read more

Yamato Restaurant - Bottom left to bottom right: spicy tuna hand roll, rainbow, caterpillar, dragon roll. Top right is eel avo & tuna avo. Yummy! - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

Food is very bad quality and service is very rude. Don't recommend for anyone to come here

The buffet is definitely worth the $28 if you're able to eat up to 4 or 5 rounds of food in two hours! Loads of fun when you're with a relatively large group of friends. Other than that, the food really isn't the best Japanese food you could find -- the a la cart menu in my opinion isn't that worth it (more options than the buffet menu which is a plus, but not worth the money for just a regular Japanese meal). read more

Yamato Restaurant - Our first round of food! - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

I will never be eating here again I got food poisoned so badly. was standing over the toilet all day, the sushi was not good and sadly extremely unsafe. I will try and give it a second chance but I don't know if I can recover read more

I came to this Yamato expecting it to be similar to the Yamato in Boston. Not only is the food not as good but the service was just that much worse. It took a while for us to be seat even though it wasn't even busy. Then after we got seated, it took a while for the waiter to even come over with our water and when he did come over to us, he barely even talked and more so just gestured. As we were finishing up, he tipped over a cup of water and spilled it everywhere and did not even apologize. Just did a poor job of cleaning it up and left us our check. Needless to say, we won't be going back FOOD: 2/10 SERVICE: 1/10 RECOMMENDATION: If you have to choose between AYCE at this place or just order sushi from a regular place, choose the regular place. read more

Hours are listed wrong online and we were turned away on a Friday night. They close at 10:00PM, rather than 11:00PM as was listed as of 09/15/2023 read more

They used to be eh in the past, but now it's shitty as hell They have the worst service, the table was still greasy. The fish was definitely not fresh. They asked me back from the street after I left because my tip was less than 15% like i have to do it. read more

We didn't make a reservation because we were told we couldn't make a reservation. Showed up and were told it was an hour wait. "But there are empty tables" we say. "Those are reserved. ‍ Normally I wouldn't post a review for a place I didn't eat at but they were so rude about the whole thing that I'd recommend just avoiding. read more

Are all-you-can-eat sushi spots ever THAT good? Can't say so for myself. According to a friend, this place is a classic Greater Boston area weekend hit for college kids, but only once or twice a semester. Service is meh, and the food is definitely mass produced. I will say that I don't treat myself to sushi that often, so this did the job at satisfying a craving, but pretty much every side dish I had lacked seasoning and flavor (minus the Donkatsu, which has a good crunch to it and is actually palatable with the paired sweet red sauce). Pro tip: lick your plates clean because apparently they will not hesitate to charge you extra when it comes to leftovers. read more

Yamato Restaurant - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

Yamato's has hands-down the best sushi that I've experienced outside of Japan. Even though it's all you can eat, Yamato's serves excellent sashimi. Sometimes, if business is good, the salmon can come out slightly frozen, and the squid is not always the best quality, but otherwise, this is some serious quality stuff. The mackerel is always delicious and although I don't eat tuna, my friends say the tuna is pretty top-notch as well. The rolls never fail to impress either. Particular favorites are the shrimp tempura roll and spicy salmon rolls. There is a huge assortment of options, and you can order every single one of them (provided you can eat all of it). The all you can eat menu comes with all you can eat entree and appetizer as well. The miso soup is pretty spot on and my friends and I always get 3-4 orders of edamame as well. Dessert is also all you can eat, with classic green tea/red bean flavors as well as vanilla and fried vanilla ice creams. The lactose intolerant can pick up fried banana or fried lotus as well. DISCLAIMER: This review was written by a starving college student that does not value service, only quantity * quality of food. (a.k.a. their service sucks, but if you're starving, Yamato's is soooo good.) read more

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This place is absolutely disgusting. Sashimi was frozen and cut in blocks. Gave us mackerel that looked like food they would feed penguins at the zoo. All the rolls were so bad honestly everything was just terrible. Pretty sure the sushi chefs aren't even Japanese. Terrible service and terrible food. Had to try smashing up the rolls and hiding them so they didn't charge us extra for not finishing their gross food. I feel disgusting after eating at this place do not go here. read more

Great place to come if you want to stuff yourself with sushi!! Be wary though because you have to pay for what you don't finish wasting. Came here with a group of 12 with a reservation and the service was great. All the food came out super fast. Definitely not the best sushi but nonetheless still tasty! Sushi is very dense with a lot of rice and fish. Definitely a place with great vibes and a great place to eat at with friends. Will most likely be coming back again! read more

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Easily the worst sushi in town. Hotspot for students who don't know better and want to get in on the all you can eat (which at 30 dollars each, is not worth it) which serves the college appetite well. The place looks like it hasn't been renovated since 1975, and the sushi comes out warm. Your gamble. read more

Horrible experience！Broken dumplings, the waiter split even split water on the table and my coat. And she looked at me unfriendly when I ask her to take away the trash which is her duty. read more

Yamato Restaurant - Broken dumplings decreases my appetite - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

You know it's a quality restaurant when they offer you a discount for paying in cash. This means they have squeezed all possible money saving options from the restaurant already and focus solely on providing the best possible sushi for your value. This place is awesome for big groups of people ordering massive plates of myriad sushi and sashimi. This is the ideal meeting place for clubs at school. A few recommendations: 1 - Get a sushi counter app on your smartphone. Count the number of sushi. Hand-rolls are worth 3 pieces. See how much you eat. My friend who otherwise consumes a morsel of bread can eat a full 50 pieces cold. 2 - Consider ordering a lot of food and having to finish it (otherwise you pay extra!) in the time limit. My roommates and I went and calculated that we had 1 hour left for 30 pieces, but we were all full. Started a timer, each person ate one piece every 2 minutes. With a small rally at the end, we finished with 10 seconds to spare and had some red bean ice cream. Highly recommend. If you've been in Boston and haven't had something like this, you've missed out. read more

Yamato Restaurant - Just finished stuffing myself so this photo actually looks disgusting right now. I'll also side hook anyone who mentions Jiro to me. - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

Yamato is all-you-can-eat, so it's expensive. Is it worth it? You can stuff yourself with low quality sushi, and lots and lots of sashimi, but at the end of the day you're going to leave feeling disgusting. Some people enjoy that; I'd rather spend $25 on high quality cuts from a nice restaurant. Also you have to eat everything you order. So if you don't like something and you don't eat it, you have to pay for it. read more

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Welcome to Yamato. Land where all is forgiven in the name of $25 all-you-can-eat. Honestly, throughout the course of our dinner we just kept joking "this one is also perfectly mediocre". And that's really what you're getting here. I'm assuming you're not foolish enough to believe that you're getting high-end dining for $25 all-you-can-eat. Cuz that's the price of a roll and a half, maybe 2 rolls at a quality sushi restaurant in Boston (of which there are MANY). I'll give a quick tour: - Drinks: 3/5, a beer is a beer, but the sake tasted old - Sushi: 3/5, some rolls were decent, some fish were too fishy, and you're clearly not getting the first pick off the boat selection here - Appetizers: 4/5, the fried stuff is hard to mess up, the udon was solid, and the miso may have been a little bland - Value: 5/5, this is the reason you're here, isn't it? - Service: 5/5, I really don't know what people are raging about. Our server was perfectly polite, brought us the stuff we asked for, and didn't make us wait for any long periods of time. This was on a Wednesday night, so maybe it's worse when it's busy on weekends. read more

This place is amazing. Great sushi, great service, great decor. Some great choices in sushi as well, you will find mostly anything that you'd like here. read more

I can't believe it's taken me this long to write a review for Yamato. I went here for the first time totally by accident in the summer of 2016 because I pulled up to Maki Maki in Brighton, only to discover that it had closed. AYCE-sushi-craving still intact, I pulled up Yelp and decided to give Yamato a go. Yes, sometimes the service is slow. Yes, it's slightly annoying when the waitress questions your ability to eat all the rolls you ordered and keeps reminding you there are 6 pieces per roll (my husband can make a competition out of eating sushi, so 8 rolls between 2 people is a light snack for us). Yes, they will charge you if you don't finish your order (never had this happen to me, just a heads up). HOWEVER...given all the minor annoyances, I keep coming back because they have tons of options, for a good price -- think $17 for lunch -- and the fish is good quality from what I can discern. Having been to other made-to-order AYCE places, I've had tough, rubbery, stringy fish that was almost impossible to eat. I've never had this problem at Yamato. I regularly order sashimi and other raw rolls (tuna, yellowtail, bass) and have always been pleased with the taste, texture and quality. Plus, the price is right and dinner includes apps and desserts from the menu. Parking is a pain, it gets busy on weekends, and sometimes you may wait a while if you order more than one round of rolls, but all that being said, I think this is the best AYCE sushi in town. read more

Yamato Restaurant - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts

I have been to Yamato's a few times through the years. After Yamato II opened it was closer for me, but it was more expensive. I also prefer the OG Yamato than the second. Coming on a Friday night around 8 it wasn't packed but it wasn't empty. We got seated right away with a party of three. We ordered a lot of sashimi which they happily gave, but it was cut into smaller pieces. I had to eat two pieces of salmon sashimi at once to mimic one piece. The maki rolls were fine, but the spicy salmon maki had a bit of rice packed into it. The service was average, it wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst. The waitress did her job so nothing to really complain about, but also nothing to praise her as well. The ice cream was good but it was probably store bought ice cream, but the fried ice cream and fried bananas was awful. It was so soft and mushy and not golden and crispy like it should be. It is decently price, coming out to around 35 ish including tip and tax on a Friday night. Just make sure you eat a lot to get your moneys worth. read more

Yamato Restaurant - Salmon, Tuna, White Tuna Sashimi! - Japanese Near Me - Brighton, Massachusetts