Yama

Was very crowded and loud. Sushi itself was good. Usually get takeout. The place is tiny — well that’s basically typical for Manhattan. We got the rolls –lots of people around us were getting the zen boxes. Maybe next time!

Came here hungry after a 3 mile run for a Friday dinner. It’s a small restaurant in the basement. Glad that we only had a 10 min wait to be seated by the sushi bar. This place is definitely for good sushi, as there are 4 chefs working diligently behind the tight-​spaced bar. None of them are Japanese however. Big fresh slices of fishes are kept in the right temperature at the sushi bar’s counter. The glass gets foggy when door is open in and out. As hungry as we were, we ordered enough food for 3 people. Rolls and sushi are made firmly with thick cut pieces of fishes. Even for a beginner chopstick user, the roll and sushi pieces can be picked up without falling rice. That’s how I can tell if the chef’s skill is any good. My friend used to come here very often, and he thought the rolls were done slightly sloppier than before. We marked the order wrong, and the chef was nice to redo our order and replace some rolls with sushi. Thanks God~
Sushi:
Toro: fatty tuna. love it
Sea Urchin: yum, just melted in the mouth.
Scottish Salmon
Eel: usually save this for last as the flavor may overwhelms other raw fishes
Rolls:
Yellow Tail and Scallion: love it, pieces of scallion are definitely pleasant to the taste buds.
Spicy Tuna: thick pieces of tuna in middle with spicy sauce on top, unlike cheap chopped tuna chunks used in many other sushi places.
Salmon hand roll: if you like it less rice and get more of taste of the fish, this is perfect.
Salmon Naruto: no rice or seaweed, only fish rolled with cucumber. Very refreshing.
Think we got too much salmon, but we are done with eating raw fish for a while now. Bill came out to be $ 91. Perfect.

Place sucks. Sushi was warm and not particularly fresh. Won’t be coming back.

This review is only for their lunch quality and service.
My office is nearby so colleagues and I come here often. The prices are very reasonable, especially for the menu selections. The chirashi is a great deal; $ 17 for a huge bowl of sashimi and rice. Most of the time, I can’t even finish the rice portion, since the fish portion is so generous. Also, a colleague who is vegan is able to eat here, which is a rarity for sushi spots in general. She orders the vegetable sushi and it is literally just that.
Quality is meh, but that is to be expected for the price. It hits the spot, but definitely does not wow.

Quick delivery and that three roll + miso soup lunch special is so much for 11 $ def. getting from here again

I went to this restaurant 4 times so far. This place never fails me. Definitely 5 stars!!!

This is such a cute little place and for some reason it’s so crowded. Many people including me want to wait on line to try their sushi. The cut is really huge and pretty generous compare other Japanese Restaurant.
The service is really fast. I guess since it’s a small restaurant. But i have to say a young man server there is really cute and nice.

Pretty solid place for sushi rolls in the city. Be prepared for long wait times and staff that wants you to order quickly and leave. Rolls are decently big and filling. Really affordable for city standards.
Good for a quick bite.
This location looks a regular house from the outside, watch out for the small sign and go down to the stairs.

Old faithful never let’s me down (except for takeout). Sushi pieces are monster sized. Oily and tender. Tuna can be a little lean and firm, but never a fishy flavor. Quintessential neighborhood joint, and if it is not in your neighborhood make your way over. So cozy and prices are fair.

Pretty good sushi place in the city. The cuts are very generous and my sashimi was buttery and fresh. I got the tuna naruto roll and the sashimi set. I enjoyed both very much. I didn’t want any carbs so got all fish and it was well worth it. The price isn’t bad either, definitely coming back!

This would be five stars if the wait staff were friendlier. The appeal of Yama though is the quality of their Sashimi and Sushi. Very fresh and consistent. The Sashimi pieces are huge, about twice the size of what you would get at most places. Make sure you have reservations at peak hours. For reasonably priced quality sashimi/​sushi, you cannot find a better place in NYC. They also have some fabulous desserts, including Fried Green Tea Ice Cream Tempura, and delicious Mochi!
Definitely no frills. Some of the upholstery in the back needs to be updated.

Tasty «Very Special Lunch» Special! It comes with a California Roll, vegetable tempura, DELICIOUS fried tuna, teriyaki chicken, seaweed salad, three shamai dumplings and a bowl of miso, all for about $ 13. The only downfall is that when you leave, the tempura smell sticks on your clothes.

This spot was recommended to me by a friend. Went in for lunch yesterday. They have good lunch specials with sushi and sashimi ranging from $ 13-​$ 18. Service was very spotty and it took us a while to get a waiter over. He seemed very pissed off and was essentially throwing our dishes at us. He also liked to growl… We just laughed it off.
We both got the sashimi lunch which comes with soup or salad and rice upon request. It was a good amount of fish which tasted very fresh. They give you a nice assortment as we’ll. neither my friend or I were able to finish it all. The only part I didn’t like was they gave you a bunch of crab sticks. They were probably fake crab and should never be included on a sashimi plate.
Good spot though, especially for Union Square area. It gets busy during lunch time but I will go back.

I haven’t been here in a million years. The basement restaurant in Washington Irving’s landmarked townhouse hasn’t changed. It looks a little dated but the food is as reliable as ever. We came close to closing time but we felt they still took the time to give us their full attention.
The gyoza was average with a filling that tasted, for lack of a better description, a little mushy and stale. It was edible and better than some but I’ve had better. My bento was good with flavorful pieces of well done beef teriyaki. If the pieces were not overcooked, then it would have been excellent as it was pretty darn tasty. The shrimp and vegetable tempura consisted of 4 pieces of shrimp and string beans. Nothing wrong with string beans and I actually enjoyed them and wished I could have had a bowl of them with a beer but there could have been a carrot or broccoli to make it more veggie like. The tempura was light and maybe because I didn’t eat them right away, the oily mouth feel afterwards albeit slight made me only eat 2 pieces. I did like the fried shumai and 4 pieces of sushi. You get a lot for $ 20! The chirashi was excellent though and the single factor to make us come back. Yama has changed and hearing Cantonese makes me wonder what happened to the restaurant’s namesake who was the sushi master?!

I came here for lunch for two when we were looking for a quick lunch.
It’s very small seating — probably seats about 15 – 20 people maximum — so we were elbow to elbow with the people next to us.
The menu is pretty simple — appetizers, some sushi, some combos, some special rolls (but nothing really popped out to me) — so we ordered the Sushi Zen combo, which is a great deal. It’s a salmon scallion roll (6 pcs), half a tuna roll (3 pcs), half an avocado cucumber roll (3 pcs), assorted sushi (ebi, tuna, salmon, yellowtail and one other — I forgot), and two pieces each of assorted sashimi (salmon, tuna, yellowtail). You get a choice of a side salad or soup.
For $ 15, it’s very filling and the sushi is pretty fresh. I might actually come back just for this combo!
Service isn’t great because it is slightly packed, but they do listen to you and whenever asked, they do provide whatever you need.
Green tea is offered for free.

Living just steps from Yama, I passed it every day on the way to Union Square and other Westward locales. I passed the location two or three months before trying it, not because I didn’t notice it, but because of sheer laziness, cost, and the number of options available. When my wife and I finally tried Yama, it was an epiphany. I love the cellar-​type feel of Yama. The service is good, or has been in all my experience there.
I recommend the sushi and sashimi. I swear by the charashi — the best, most fresh options from the bar. The rolls are good but not my favorite. Superb location downtown, off the 4÷5÷6 and near NYU and the Bowery, adjacent to the East Village. Irving Place is really an under-​appreciated little street that has resisted some development, though that’s definitely not going to remain the status quo. So visit the beautiful street, grab some coffee, do some stuff, then go to Yama.
Recommended!

Yama is one of my favorite sushi places. I’ve been eating here for… well, let’s just say a really long time. Very little has changed in all these years which is one of the reasons I love it.
There’s no fuss with décor or fancy service. I actually prefer the simple Japanese décor and cozy space. Feels more authentic than their younger location on 49^th St.
The sushi is good quality and tastes fresh. IMO, better than most sushi places I’ve been to. As a sushi lover, I’m a fan of the big, long pieces of nigiri sushi. Sure, the fish is cut a little thinner in more recent years as costs have risen, but that’s the case for anything. Even so, the prices are reasonable for the quality and portion.
While sushi is what I go for, I also enjoy some of their appetizers. Hamachi kama is one of my favorites… meaty, succulent yellowtail collar with salt. I could almost just have that and some rice for my meal… almost.
I’m going all out with 5 stars because I’ve never had a bad experience, the food is always good, and I just like going here.

I decided to finally break my habit of going to the same sushi restaurants in Manhattan and chose Yama for a sushi date with a friend.
This place is hidden below ground level — look for the small wooden sign and few steps leading you to the entrance. Once inside, I was a little off-​putted by the red carpeting as carpets in restaurants seems strange to me, but I was not disappointed otherwise!
Many of the sushi rolls are large in size. Very large, so be mindful when you’re ordering. The fish is extremely fresh, and the mango roll was my favorite. There is definitely more reasonably priced sushi elsewhere in the city, but the quality of sushi we had couldn’t be beat.
Consider making a reservation before coming as Yama is a smaller, popular restaurant.

Got a huge plate of sushi and rolls sigh a couple of my friends and everything was lovely! The rolls were huge and the sushi was also cut pretty generously.

Totally not expecting to find such a cozy and delicious sushi place around Union Square!
A friend too me here during the week day, we came around 8pm and didn’t have to wait at all and we sat at the sushi bar. We ordered Miso Soup, Yellowtail Carpaccio, Sashimi without Shellfish, several special roll and individual pieces of sushi and Chilean Seabass. All the sushi and sashimi were absolutely delicious! They were super fresh and there were so much more fish than rice in the roll and sushi.
The only disappointment was the Chilean Seabass, it was dry and stiff, normally the Miso Glazed Chilean Seabass is very tender and should milt in your mouth, but what we got was not tasty and it was not tender at all. It was the only cooked dish we got, I think I will just stick with sushi and sashimi when I come next time.
The service were friendly and food came pretty fast as well. Nothing else to complain.
I am really happy to have found Yama and will come back here for sure.