Yama Izakaya

Yama Izakaya is a great bar with great food and great people. I love to find myself there on the weekends with friends. The authentic Asian menu is amazing and hard to find anywhere else in Charlotte. They also have a small sushi menu and incredible ramen. Try to pork ramen. Try the chicken wings. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

Awesome experience… The drinks have been great, the sushi was very fresh and they even allowed us to customize our rolls. The salmon looks delicious and we will definitely be back!

I’m a fan of the PORK BELLY SLIDERS! I keep thinking about them all the time. They literally melt in your mouth. The salmon sushi is great too. I hated the teriyaki chicken, but the teriyaki steak! Amazing. Prices are a bit too much for me too.

Came here with some friends, late on a Friday night. We started off with a few small plates. Takoyaki (Octopus Balls), Squid Legs, and Edamame. The Octopus Balls looked good, but I personally didn’t enjoy the taste or texture. Squid legs were seasoned pretty well and were tasty. For my main entrée, I ordered Chicken Katsu, its crispy fried dark meat, with a side of rice and some dipping sauce. Food was too dry for me to enjoy it. We finished off with some Mochi ice cream which was really satisfying. Willing to try this place again.

I am so glad that I tried this place! The service was wonderful and the menu selection was impressive. Lots of popular Japanese pub dishes. All the food I had was delicious and I will be coming back to try more!

Really enjoyed my first experience here. Restaurant interior is quite nice, subtle, and casual. Quality of our food was up to standards considering the prices they were charging $$. Short wait for our food. Appealing and simple food presentation. Wait staff wasn’t bad, but wouldn’t say the greatest. Osaka roll was so tasty! Majority of the time (almost always) my boyfriend refuses to eat anything raw, but he actually opened up to the Osaka roll and loved it! Overall, I really enjoyed the Osaka roll, crunchy roll, fried squid tentacles, and spicy miso!

Spicy miso Ramen is one of my favorites. I love how they open so I can get great food late night. All of the yakitori is good, the pork belly bun is amazing. If you’re into raw sushi, the jalapeño hamachi (yellowtail) is delicious with the ponzu sauce that they have with it. Always great service and management. This place definitely opened up a new world to me for Ramen.

While I said «I doubt I will be returning» on 11÷3÷2014, due to unforeseen circumstances (it was 10pm on a Wednesday, Soul’s wait was an hour, and everything else was closed), I came back.
Such a mistake. My experience was even less impressive this time around, and I think I can safely this is my least favorite restaurant in Charlotte based on a satisfaction to price ratio. I didn’t give it a 1-​star rating because nothing out of the ordinary or egregious happened, nor did I get food poisoning… but, I just do NOT like this place.
Overpriced? check.
Mediocre food? check.
Ridiculously small portions? check.
Incompetent service? check (but not for lack of effort, to be fair).
Overpriced? check, check. I say this twice because I cannot reiterate how small the plates are, and how unsatisfying everything was.
This time around, BF and I shared: monkfish liver, pork belly buns, tonkatsu ramen, and chicken katsu. Everything was bad — too salty, too fishy, too sweet, too bland, too mushy — you name it, whatever the dish was supposed to be, it wasn’t. I’m getting mad all over again thinking about how much money I spent on that meal, and how little pleasure I derived from it. NEVER AGAIN. And this time, I mean it.

Great ramen! I have to go back to try the tapas again. The ramen is plenty to fill you up. Being Japanese I can assure you this place has great ramen!

It was a Saturday night, no wait, we got sat right away. The atmosphere was cool and chic. The staff was very friendly and helpful with the menu. Our server was knowledgeable and gave good suggestions. The food came out promptly. Everything was of good quality and delicious. The pan seared pork dumplings were the best I’ve had in a long time. The sauce that comes with them was sooooo good. I also tried the octopus for the first time. It was good (if you like oysters). It had a spicy wasabi taste to it. The Ramen was wonderful!!! I got the spicy miso broth. Great place to try!

Very nice place in noda uptown charlotte. Good food. Very clean. Limited menu on Sundays and weekdays.
Ramen dishes seem very popular here.
1. Grilled squid was good. $ 11
2. Pork belly was also good. Good with rice. $ 7
3. Chicken kasu was very good. $ 14 Crispy outside. Used dark and white meat which brings more flavor. Loved it.
$ 2.50 for a very small side order of rice.
Hum…
4. Chicken kasu and rice is a little bit over priced but overall a nice place to visit.

This edition of Excited about Eating takes us to Yama Izakaya, a Japanese tavern in the Midwood neighborhood of Charlotte on a rare dinner review. This small and trendy restaurant is tucked into a shopping center, so parking is not a problem.
They offer a variety of small plates, specialty dishes, and the main dish that called us, ramen. After our first experience with ramen in DC, we planned to share, so we started with a couple small plates. First up was the Gyoza, pan-​fried pork dumplings. Soft on the outside, tender and full of favor on the inside, and served with a Japanese dipping sauce that would have been great on anything. Dora here. Light, delicate, delicious!
We also tried the Fried Chicken Wings. They appeared to be like typical chicken wings until I took the first bite. The waiter told us they were seasoned with a Korean chili spice. Whatever it was, they definitely had a unique favor and were crispy and juicy. Dora here. I wish I was a fan of chicken wings because they always smell delicious! I gave these a try, but they didn’t tempt me with a second bite.
Now if you have never tasted ramen, you are missing out. Ramen is an Asian-​style soup with noodles, and we chose the Miso Ramen. Marinated Braised Pork Belly (chashu), seaweed (nori), sesame seeds, scallions, bamboo shoots (menma), seasoned egg (sometimes called a Ramen egg), corn, and colorful fish cakes. The ramen was very good and the taste of the pork and seafood rose above everything else.
Dora here. Don’t let all the names scare you. It’s just a soup with some deliciously flavorful elements. Tasty, warm, and a wonderful go-​to comfort food in winter. This photo really doesn’t do the serving size justice. It’s a HUGE bowl! We ordered extra toppings in DC, but forgot to do that this time. If you plan to share, adding extra toppings might make it a bit beefier, er… porkier. :) Oh, and the restaurant rates this «spicy.» Maybe a little kick but definitely not a forehead slicker. Go for it!
Our server might’ve scored higher if he didn’t keep pushing the Sake and spoke a little slower for us hearing-​challenged folks. And the music? Hoping that same constant beat changes before our next visit. :)
We rate this restaurant 4 forks out of 5 for a family friendly restaurant serving great food. ~Ernie & Dora Hiers, Fiction Faith & Foodies Blog

Not your typical Japanese restaurant…
Since this is a japanese restaurant that doesn’t serve mainly sushi and hibachi there are menu items that are pretty unfamiliar to a lot of people, but there are still lots of options that aren’t as exotic. You can be pretty adventurous or go pretty plain and have a delicious meal either way.
I tend to enjoy the more exotic side of the menu and stay away from things like gyoza, edamame, yellowtail with jalapeño and ponzu, tempura, tori kara-​age — fried popcorn chicken etc. (although, I have tried those dishes with friends and they are done pretty well)
What I really enjoy are dishes like their Ika Geso — a generous helping of fried squid legs served with a lemon slice, ankimo — monkfish liver steamed and served cold with ponzu and salmon roe (I would love to see an iteration of this dish with truffle, even if it has to be truffle oil for cost reasons), okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and the yakitori is really nice — I like when they do offal.
I have also had the ramen on several occasions, and it’s pretty good. It is not the best I have had, but it is the best I have had in Charlotte.
Considering that this place is called Izakaya, I’m slightly disappointed at the lack of focus on the drinks. Izakaya is supposed to have a after-​work happy hour feel — everyone goes to drink and food happens — Yama Izakaya feels a lot more like a restaurant. Beer specials and happy hour food specials could go a long way.

Yum yum yum! And I forgot to take pictures! :(
Yellowtail with citrus amd jalapeño: check
Cumin lamb: check
Gyoza: delish
Shumai: :D
Seared steak: !!!
Negi yakitori: twas fabulous!!!
Someone had a fish jaw that was so tender and moist and full of flavor with the perfect amount of char flavor, another had the eel which he loved and I would never try, two of us had delish Tontsoku and a good bottle. of sake to wash it down.
Some people really gave yama izikaya bad reviews and I cannot understand why. There was absolutely nothing not to love. Even the atmosphere and décor WINS love love love it
Can’t wait to return and introduce this gem to some friends. Worth it in so many ways.

Ramen is finally making its way to Charlotte and that makes me happy.
When I first moved to the QC in 2005 there was no ramen to be found and saying ramen got you odd looks, like you were referring to «cup o noodle» or something. I moved back to California and years later I am back in the QC again. this time finding ramen is so much easier… and this is one of the great places to get it.
Back home in California there is a place called Noodle World. nothing fancy. it’s good ramen though and you can always get in and chill with your friends. this place reminds me of it.
I love the low key atmosphere, the decent prices, good drinks and YUMTASTIC ramen and other treats. I wish I could eat here more often, if I lived closer to this side of town I think I would be in here all the time. :)
When I was in Japan, our favorite place had one counter — no tables… just a single counter with seats and men making ramen in giant pots. and it was AMAZING. ever since that night I have been a ramen fiend… so it’s comforting to know Charlotte is now a ramen city. :)
They have a lot of other great items — don’t think if you don’t like ramen that you can’t come here. They have some sushi, tempura and other small plates. You will like it, try it!
*Slurp*

Although service was slightly slow (we wondered if someone else had received our order), the ramen was amazing! My husband and I traveled to Japan in July 2015 and had authentic ramen for the first time and the ramen at Yama Isakaya is as close to authentic as I’ve found in the southeast. All three of us at Yama Isakaya had the Tonkotsu (pork bone broth) and it was fantastic. We had just come from the very rainy Belk Bowl and this was the perfect way to warm up.

This place is pretty good! I was a bit surprised though, because it wasn’t very crowded on a Friday night. I think we were 1 of 3 tables that night.
I got the miso ramen. I’m not a huge fan of ramen but even I finished the whole bowl. The pork was really tender and the broth was delicious. The only thing is– I think this place is pretty pricey for what you are given.
The service was ok. Our servers (we had 2) were kind of awkward and didn’t seem very knowledgeable when talking about the menu. I would come back here again though. I really want to try the smaller dishes.

Last night, a group of friends and I went out for my birthday dinner at Yama Izakaya. The food was alright, but definitely wasn’t worth $ 15; however, for the occasion, it was worth it.
I got the Tonkatsu, which was good, but the noodles were underdone and the broth was a little plain for my taste, but luckily there was additives that could be added.
However, the worst part of the whole night is the ridiculous service that we received. When we sat down, the waitress failed to mention to us that she could not split checks… which is fine because I figured it was like every other place that split check that someone would just pick up another person and so on and so forth.
However, this was NOT the case. Instead, they really meant they could not itemize the checks, so instead of letting people pay for what they wanted… they totaled everything (alcohol included) that everyone bought and split the check by the number of people there. Are you freaking kidding me? I wound understand this… if this place was a family eating environment, but why should I have to pay for someone’s drink or food, if my food really only cost $ 8. However, according to their «policy», they were going to charge everyone $ 25 each. Heck, we had people underage there, so why should they even have to pay for alcohol… if they can’t even buy alcohol? That point, should they even have a liquor license for selling alcohol to minors?
First, I tried to speak to the waitress about the situation, but she was not helpful at all. She tried to tell me that she explained the policy, but I assured her that she did not; otherwise, I would of sat down and gone somewhere else. Then, I later asked for some items and she rolled her eyes. Very professional.
So, I kindly go up to the manager and try to discuss the matter. However, our kind conversation didn’t stay kind because the manager was rude, incompetent, and down right unhelpful. He goes to note in a condescending tone that I and my friends have been there before and they’ve always had this policy… but, I explained to him that was not the case because if I knew the policy that I would have not chosen the place for my birthday dinner because it’s an inconvenience.
Going forward, I know now that this place is completely disrespectful and their «split itemization policy» is for their benefit, so they don’t have to work. So, if you’re looking for over price, over salted food with a side of unhelpful, rude, and disrespectful service. then Yama Izakaya is the place to go! However, if you’re smart… avoid at all cost.

We dined out here last week for my daughter’s 6^th birthday. The menu is limited but has some great options. Unfortunately there were not many gluten free options available, but I was still able to scrabble together a lovely meal with Jalapeño Hamachi and the tuna special.
My daughter ended up eating a little bit off of various plates, including my mom’s miso ramen, which looked amazing. She was bummed that they did not have Onigiri, but the strawberry mochi to finish off the birthday meal was perfect!

We went on Saturday evening for an early dinner. Got there right after 5, when they opened, so there was plenty of room and the service was great. I can’t speak to what it’s like when it’s busy.
The food was really good though! We got steamed pork buns, gyoza, and we both got Tonkotsu ramen. I’d have liked to have greater options to be able to personalize the ramen more, (thick noodles, spicy, kakuni), but the flavor of the broth was great, and seemed to develop and get deeper the further I got into my bowl, which was great.
Pork buns were terrific, gyoza was ok, and ramen was above average, but not the best I’ve ever had.
I’ll be back.