Yuki Izakaya

The service is effective and the food great for quite an affordable price. A great place to go if you find yourself in Frenchmen and want some delicious food.
Maybe the music too loud but good quality.
The environment artsy… We liked it very much

The BF and I were looking for a change from the mound of fried food we’d consumed all weekend so we decided to check out the ramen at this restaurant. I noticed another reviewer mentioning that they were out of pork belly. Well. Looks like they’re still out. Sad thing is we went in early in the night. Very disappointed.

This WORST experience among all of restaurants in NOLA!!! So slow and so messy. We order octupus balls, no balls; grilled beef tongue, sorry nope; tofu? Sorry we do not have neither. What is the worst part is after we order Ramen for 40 minutes, they told us we out of eggs! It is the restaurant that you basically can only eat what they ask you to eat, not you want to eat. BTW, the actual layout of the restaurant is SO different from the images they uploaded. Do not get cheated again by this restaurant.

The staff was generally nice. They had a DJ the night I went and played music perfect for dancing (and there were people dancing). It’s a narrow bar, but there is an upstairs. The eclectic Japanese decorations are worth going into the bar. I love the overhead screen the use to play old Japanese movies – one of the most creative decoration I’ve ever seen at a bar.
We only ordered Ozeki nigori sake here, so I can’t tell you how the other drinks or food are. However, the cloudy sake was on the sweeter side and finishes smooth.
Stop by this place if you’re on Frenchmen street.

The Food was good I had the curry fries and fried shrimp but the customer service was terrible. .. ..

This place was the perfect spot to eat while in New Orleans for work. The service was fast and friendly and was able to accommodate to our larger group size. The beef tongue was unreal and so tender which is not how a lot of places serve it. We also had lots and lots of salmon belly which was superb. The seaweed salad tasted super fresh and perfectly seasoned. And lets not forget the delicious tuna. I definitely recommend going here for some really good Japanese food.

I feel like I generally like most places with izakaya in the name. We stumbled upon this bar/​restaurant and we stayed here the longest. Great environment and pretty decent food. I loved the yellow tail I got. My husband got the ramen and it was just okay. Very limited seating for the restaurant and interesting wall art for the bathrooms.

This place is amazing! Do not get thrown off by the graffiti all over the walls and the divey atmosphere. This place is great if you love authentic cuisines.
Make no mistake they do not offer Sushi Rolls– walk out the door and yes it’s .50 extra if band is there so come early. They also add .25 extra for to-​go food.
This is an izakaya, traditional meals mainly in small plates. They do offer noodle dishes which we did not try. Think yummy Asian tap pas.
Here are our top favorite:
Fried octopus legs-​like calamari, nice and salty
Tokayaki– a ball shaped snack filled with octopus, melted in our mouths.
Dumplings– great choice here.
Sashimi –we got the salmon sashimi (raw pieces of heaven)
Miso soup — (they offer it nice and thick the way I like it)
To drink we had Sochu-it’s basically rice wine that you drink like saki only smoother.
Overall it was a fabulious night. It was a group of 4 of us, we would order 1 plate each and shared until we got full. I think we had 3 – 4 small plates per person total and paid about $ 50 per person. It wasn’t cheap but Izakaya’s offer fresh food, meals you won’t find elsewhere and a great experience.

I cannot believe all these great reviews. This place was a joke. Not sure if I came on an «off» night but my experience was not great.
I came to Yuki for the ramen. After I ordered the server told me that they were out of the pork belly that came in the ramen. I was disappointed but I rolled with it and just ordered the ramen without it. I also ordered some takoyaki.
The takoyaki came out first. Now, I’ve had takoyaki at a few dozen restaurants around the country and this by far was the absolute worst! What came out was a soupy plate of mush balls. Even though it looked terrible I proceeded to try it. Big mistake. It’s as if the takoyaki were microwaved. They weren’t crisp on the outside and soft on the inside as they should have been. Instead, they were complete mush filled blobs filled with super firm, barely chewable octopus. In addition, they were swimming in a sea of sauce. Needless to say I promptly returned them.
Next, I received a sad looking bowl ramen with seaweed, green onions and hard boiled egg. Let me say that this was a very expensive cup o noodles. That’s pretty much what it tasted like.
When I received the bill I was quite surprised that I was charged full price for the ramen since one of the main (and most expensive) ingredients was omitted. I brought it to the attention of the server and she said that it would be the same price because they gave me an extra egg. My question to her was «what extra egg? I didn’t get an extra egg».
After going back and forth with the server, she was eventually able to get her manager to give us $ 2.00 off.
Again, maybe I came on an «off» night but I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone.

My friend ordered grilled eel. He could not even eat it because there were too much bones in there. We were really disappointed with this meal.
The only star I give it to them is for the ramens.

Waited for 20 minutes for a server to acknowledge us while we watched her socialize with the table next to us and bring them several rounds of drinks and food. We were then only acknowledged by her because we flagged her down, only to have her disappear again for another 10 minutes. Presumably to get more drinks for the social table.
Upon flagging another waitress down she informed us that the kitchen closed in 5 minutes. I’m really glad I waited for 45 minutes to eat at a highly recommended restaurant and then got snubbed.

I really wish I could «love» Yuki Izakaya. I was really excited when I found Yuki in Unilocal,reading review and looking at their menu. But unfortunately, while there are some definitely enjoyable part of our dining experience, the food just failed to deliver. So let’s back up a bit…
We got in around 9 PM on a week night. The place was hopping with live jazz music and an almost full bar and dining area. However, we were still able to be seated right away in a little two top. Awesome! We sat down and ordered a couple of drinks. I opted for a lychee sake martini (very delicious) and my husband a beer. We wanted to try their ramen, unfortunately it was sold out. Oh well.
We did ordered several other dishes to try though. The dried grilled squid, the chicken karaage, beef tongue, and octopus balls. We were hoping to spend a few hours there, enjoying live music, sip drinks and having great Japanese bar food. Well, after getting the four dishes, we decided it’s just not meant to be. While the drink I ordered was good, none of the dishes was up to par. For one, majority of the dishes came out lukewarm to room temperature cold. The grilled squid was rubbery and tasteless. The karaage and octopus balls were gummy. The beef tongue was very bland too. It’s like someone forgot to season any of the food we ordered.
Now, the overall experience was still pretty good. We really did enjoy the music. The service was friendly (though a bit slow due to how busy they are). We were just really disappointed by the food. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t expect fine dining here. I totally get the vibe they are going for and thought it was great. But we expected that hot, smoky (grill) and bold flavors that come with Japanese izakaya. We just did not get any of it.

We wanted a break from all the gumbo and oysters so decided to go for Japanese for the night after seeing the good reviews on Unilocal.I’ve been quite spoiled by awesome Japanese food in New York, so perhaps that’s why this restaurant was just average in comparison. Since the food here is tapas-​style, definitely plan for at least 2 dishes per person. The service was also quite slow, so try to order everything in the beginning.
Vegetarian gyoza — Pretty lackluster dish overall. The dumplings were dry, and the edamame and corn filling was not my favorite.
Sautéed mushrooms — A little on the salty side but very flavorful!
Salmon sashimi — This was a very generous portion of salmon. Though the quality wasn’t exactly melt-​in-​your-​mouth amazing, it was a good amount of fish for the price.
Kitsune udon (no meat, just fried tofu) — The broth was an interesting soy sauce /​fishy miso taste.
Chashu ramen ($ 13) vs Ramen ($ 9) — They’re essentially the same; the chashu one has more pork while the regular ramen has an extra egg. The noodles were very tasty, but they honestly tasted more like wonton soup, not so much the rich, fatty, hearty pork broth that I was craving.
Grilled yellowtail neck — Pretty tasty, nice and salty with a dash of lime, would recommend!
The vibe here is very tavern-​y. You will likely be squeezed on the side, at the bar, or sharing a table. It’s great for a night out but not super family friendly. My family was certainly freaked out by the array of waving cats at the bar.
Also our server automatically added 18% gratuity to our party of 4 — not highly appreciated considering the service was quite slow.

Saturday, 1:00 AM.
Quickie:
+ Ramen quality
+ Broth quality
+ Service
+ Menu variety
— Cleanliness
— Slow turnaround
+ Unique, lively vibe
And then???
Late night grub, gotta get it once in awhile.
**********
Stuffed my face in:
1. Kimchi ramen with extra noodles
+ Nice flavor profile: spiced fermented cabbage functioned well as a layer.
+ Ramen was firm and had a nice texture.
Constructive comments:
*Do you compost?
*Source ingredients

Yuki is a tavern. It is not a restaurant. If you treat it like a tavern rather than your favorite place to dine, you’ll be satisfied; however, if you come expecting prompt service on food you’re going to have a bad time.
Now that that’s out of the way let’s talk food. Yuki is the most «authentic» Japanese dining experience that I’ve ever had. I say authentic, but what I mean is that it’s unique. I’ve never seen most of the dishes on Yuki’s menu anywhere else. Their Ramen is my favorite in New Orleans. I would absolutely recommend the Chashu Ramen, Curry Ramen, and Kimchi Ramen. Each offers a rich flavor with fantastic depth. The Ramen is also very filling. I have never left Yuki with any space left in my stomach.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the atmosphere at Yuki. The interior is a jazzy, funky, assortment of Japanese art and décor all barely lit. Also, Yuki is likely the luckiest place to be in New Orleans given that they have at least 50 of those golden lucky cats waving at your from above the bar. The atmosphere isn’t just visual. Yuki is on Frenchmen street and like most Frenchmen street locations you can nearly always find a band playing. My favorite is an older gentlemen who plays the accordion and sings. It’s just beautiful and it matches the vibe so well.
Overall, Yuki is absolutely an experience that any local or visitor should have, but if you come on a Friday or Saturday night you’re going to have a hard time finding a seat or getting food as it turns almost purely into a bar at that point. But if you get the food, enjoy because you won’t find much better!

Yuki is my favorite hole in the wall on Frenchmen. It’s one of my favorite Japanese restaurants ever because it’s one of the few that I feel like I could almost be transported to an alleyway in Japan and still fit in. Never having been to Japan I can pretend this is true.
They have a ton of food variety, and they’re things you don’t find in sushi joints, which all seem to read from the same script. And vice versa; this is not sushi, so don’t come looking for rolls here (there is, however, some sashimi). It’s a pub, with Japanese pub food. They often squeeze in live music, which seems impossible given how small it is. They have a ton of drinks, including shochu, again a thing you can’t find often enough in sushi joints, and Japanese whiskeys, sake, beers, etc.
It’s not fancy, but it’s solid if you just feel like having food on Frenchmen that isn’t too heavy. There are some vegetarian options, and lots for seafood eaters. There are also accessible things for the unadventurous.

Who knew this little Japanese bar was tucked away around Frenchmen Street?! The small, cramped interior, dim lighting, DJ spinning, silent Japanese movie projected onto the wall, random Japanese wall décor, and a line-​up of Asian fortune kitties at the bar, all contribute to the spunky and intriguing character of this bar. It was the perfect place to grab some late night eats and drinks! We had the sweetest waitress who was ever so attentive and friendly, despite the busy night!
I had the lychee tini and it was delicious as it should be. The salmon sashimi was a pleasing appetizer and tasted fresh and fatty– just the way I like it. I ordered the chashu ramen with braised pork belly and egg, which had a very flavorful broth that wasn’t overly salty. The pork belly was tender and tasty. I was surprised to discover that legit ramen does exist in New Orleans! I didn’t get a chance to try their infused sake or beers, but other patrons seemed to love chugging down their sake bombs!
Give this unique Japanese bar a try the next time you find yourself wandering around Frenchmen Street. You’ll enjoy this funky-​tastic place as much as I did!

It was nice to have a space to sit down on Frenchmen street during a busy Saturday. However, the spot that we sat at wasn’t cleaned up until about two drinks in. I’m not sure why the waitress wasn’t that attentive. We had a Japanese pale ale that wasn’t that great either. The feel was cool because it was different from other places on the street but the lack of hospitality from servers will probably keep us away.

I’d spent the day travelling with only free candy from Delta airlines to sustain me so I needed something to soothe my soul and settle my stomach. I ordered the tofu ramen here and it was great — the broth wasn’t too salty and was full of flavour. Mildly spicy. Just what the doctor ordered. Very cool selection of Japanese spirits on offer here too.
I also liked the vibe of the place. I liked the animé playing on a projector over the bar. I liked the staff. I liked the ultra cool playlist. I liked the trashy décor in the bathrooms.
Recommended.

Um yes, I’m going to say it: BEST JAPANESE FOOD I’VE HAD SO FAR IN NEW ORLEANS. I have been getting really homesick and sometimes just crave Japanese food that I don’t make. Unfortunately, I hadn’t yet found a place that I felt helped ease that hunger pain. Randomly found that there was an izakaya while looking for new places to eat and knew I had to go!
The agedashi tofu was flavorful and delish, with the dashi just perfect. The wasabi pork shumai was tasty (so said my fellow diners, I was too full at that point). Curry udon base was good with perfectly cooked noodles. Best of all: the una don. Perfectly cooked unagi over rice with just the right amount of rice wine vinegar. I would go back for like 10 more serving of that if it was cooked the same way. It’s a bit pricey at $ 16 compared to what I’m used to at home, but honestly — beggars can’t be choosers and it’s the best unagi I’ve had in the city so far.
Only complaint was that I didn’t really care for the chicken karaage. Perhaps that’s personal preference, but the spicing/​breading didn’t appeal to me and I’ve never had it with either lemon or hot sauce to dip.
The French band (they charge 50 cents per item ordered in lieu of cover when a band is playing) playing the accordion while a Kurosawa filmed ran on the wall behind them is a perfect reflection of how I feel mismatched in this city. I both love it and miss home so much! Thanks Yuki for helping me to bridge that gap a small amount.
Mottomo oishii!