YOLO Lounge

Strange atmosphere. Average sushi.
Don’t take your kids. They’ll give you the boot at 7.

The coolest place in town. Seriously.

A similar bad birthday party experience.
I came here last year, December, for a birthday party and got sidetracked to write this review. It dawned on me to write this when my business associates wanted meet here for a quick happy hour. Reservations for the birthday party were made 2 months in advanced for a party of 16. When we arrived, the place was kind of dead and they made the guests wait for 20 minutes to set up the party table. EVEN though the reservations were made in advanced! They ended up seating us in the separate room where they normally have their dance party or whatever.
The waiter seemed okay at first. He took our drink orders, left, came back 15 min. later with incomplete drinks. Then another 15 min. goes by and he finally takes our food orders. 30 minutes goes by… half of us receives our food. But the birthday girl never received her food order!!! She ordered a hamburger. I don’t know if they had to go kill a cow or what, but she waited an HOUR and still no burger! We flagged down the waiter and asked him where it was and he went to check, 10 minutes later he came back and said… he never placed the damn order for the burger. However, one couple had ordered two entrees and never received it either and we asked where their food was.
Unfortunately, the couple ended up leaving and told the birthday girl and other guests to share the food when it does arrive. The food never arrived. We asked our waiter what happened to that couple’s food. He said. «Oh, we ate it, since your friends left.» WHAT??? I told our waiter to refund that couple’s money back and to this day, YOLO never refunded their money, even though they called many times after that evening.
So now we’re here. Today. I ended up telling my business associates that I couldn’t make it, because my other friends and I had such a terrible experience there last year. in December.

Wow what great sushi, but terribly slow service.
We stopped in here just after 7pm for a late-​ish dinner knowing that this place was also a lounge we gave it a shot. It was tool late for us to sit in the dining area because we had a minor with us, even though it says ON THE DOOR that minors are allowed after 7pm for the purpose of consuming food, but the bartender let us sit in the lounge and order.
Now I have to admit, I was a little put off by this, I mean there were only couches and coffee tables in this area. It seemed weird to serve us a full dinner with only a coffee table. Nevertheless we ordered. The place was pretty empty, we were the only people in the lounge area and in the dining/​bar side there might have been 3 tables.
We ordered 3 rolls and a dinner entrée, all three rolls came at the same time but the waitress said that the entrée was being plated and would be out in a minute. That minute turned into 15 minutes and we were all done with the rolls by the time the entrée showed up. We ordered 2 more rolls and ended up waiting even longer this time.
This would be a 5 star review if we had been treated like paying customers that came in to order dinner and we had received our food in a timely manner because the food was AMAZING! The Dragon Roll, Rose City Roll, and the Stop Drop N’ Roll were hands down some of the best sushi rolls I have ever had. Those are a MUST!

I’m not terribly certain of the attraction-​apparently a lot of people love this place but my experience left me convinced I’d never return.
I took some friends with me to YOLO Lounge to attend a birthday celebration. At first I was impressed, it’s a beautiful bar and we had the whole space upstairs to ourselves. The experience was downhill from there. After about 25 minutes the waiter finally came to take orders. He was as neutral as possible, no flavor, no fun. He took orders for the 7 of us who were already there and sighed here and there in between answering food menu questions. He returned with drinks about 10 – 15 minutes later and spun around before anyone could make a food order. Huh?
Once we were all nearly finished with our drinks, so, hmm… nearly an HOUR into our sit down here, he came back and took orders. The only way I can describe his demeanor is… avoidant. It kind of felt like ordering was an inconvenience. Odd, but okay, we ordered more drinks.
Finally when he brought the food, the orders were incomplete. He said he’d «check on them». He also said he was going to bring a fresh round.
He didn’t do EITHER.
45 minutes later we had to hunt him down downstairs to ask for our checks in person. It was awkward also when we mentioned all the things to be sure to not to charge us for since he never brought them. He made a comment about how it’s «busy» and «whatever». For the first time in my life I tipped nothing. Maybe this particular hire was a bust but it certainly left a bad taste in my mouth.

Drinks and bar staff great! The low black tables in the dark??? I walked into one and have a permanent dent in my shin!!!
Huge bruise and seriously they need to fix that!!! Low and black, not good for right off the dance floor!

Horrible. The entire experience was incredibly terrible, our waiter had absolutely zero knowledge about a single item on the menu, it was ridiculous. Even the bartender was clueless. The food was well below average, the only thing worth eating were the fries– but who wants fries at a Japanese restaurant? Pathetic. The music was so loud we could barely hear each other, and on a Wednesday night! We tried several dishes, all-​in-​all, I’d say this place will have to make some leaps and bounds, and fast, or they’ll be shutting their does for good.

Ok So you Have to make sure there is a HOT Event going On, other wise Fridays is SLOW!!! for the Most Part. Saturdays depends. But Most Recently They have been Good nights. Love the Dim lighting, Décor and well People are more Classy, (not always) and an older Crowd, a Good Mix. Anyway Come check it out Sometime!

I had bigger expectations for YOLO when I read about them last summer on eater… and maybe that’s why I was a bit disappointed? When we walked in, I expected a restraunt area, this is more like a club, it’s decorated cool for a club, but with the extensive menu, I thought there would be a restraunt area… we were seated across from the bar at a small table. The service was good, the food good… but not what I had in mind I guess. I thought there would be more sushi here, but kind of a mix from Asian tacos to shrimp cocktail and fries. We came, we experienced, we left… we won’t be back.
Sorry YOLO… you only live once!

I love their food. I always have a good experience when eat there.

When I came in with a friend, we weren’t greeted or served within a timely manner. (Yes, I have high expectations and a stick up my ass.) Décor was actually pretty good, atmosphere was awesome until a party came in. I did not take that into consideration for the rating as people go out to have fun. I just figured since the place was near empty we would be placed away from a reserved table.
I understand messy tables when it’s busy but there were 3 tables that were not cleaned off (near us) and it just really irked me that the servers were just chatting. They did clean it up half way through our dinner because people started to come.
Maybe I was in a bad mood?
To be fair, they had some pretty fresh sushi/​sashimi. so maybe this is more of a rant towards the servers =]

I fondly remember the Invasion Café, the previous denizen of this space. I am glad to see that Yolo kept much of the layout and décor, but found ways to bring a little class back to the atmosphere.
My Happy Hour repast with two friends was well-​attended by a professional waiter who excused himself to get a pad of paper when he understood the breadth of our ordering — a good sign, I always say.
The Happy Hour prices were reasonable and the food itself was yummy. I scored some lovely lettuce wraps, while my friends munched on some well-​presented sushi and such.
I am proud to give this place a five star rating.

My friends and I went there for happy hour and we had the sushi sample platter, the spicy chicken wings, and the pad thai. Sushi was good, the chicken wings were alright, the pad thai was A NO GO. i’ve heard lots of good things about their sushi though.
Other than that, good drinks, good atmosphere.

Unlike a previous reviewer who said that the Happy Hour is pricey, I think that it is a tremendous deal. One of the few in Portland that is actually worth it. Speaking from personal experience, $ 5 gets you a giant roll of sushi or 3 delicious pulled pork sliders or 2 large beef or chicken tacos. I’m personally looking forward to going back and trying their other items.
The food was delicious and very flavorful. I would highly recommend the pulled pork sliders. The atmosphere is very chic and cool, and a good place to go if you’re interested in a night out on the town.
Also a great place to go if you like pretty Asian girls, and who doesn’t?

I have been eating at YOLO Lounge since before it officially opened. Amazing food and staff with honestly some of the BEST offerings I have found in Portland! I am absolutely addicted to the Mongolian Beef as well as the YOLO sushi roll.
I also love the «Rat Pack» vibe the restaurant has it’s both suave and sophisticated but still laid back enough for the Portlanders to feel comfortable. The owners and staff have definitely made this a place to come and enjoy!
This is the place to come on a Friday or Saturday too see and be seen without that want too be LA vibe or the «douchery» you see at many spots downtown.
I highly recommend YOLO to everyone…

The window dressing on the outside does not do it justice on the inside. It’s cool once you find it and walk in to it. Black/​white colors with copper mahogany with fun chandeliers and that huge mural made out of wood above the bar. artsy stuff.
On to the sushi. we ordered quite a few items which did not disappoint. We got their yolo roll (dungeness crab) and their ahi tower which was quite pretty — white rice on bottom, followed by fresh avocado, and finally topped with plenty of ahi. Also ordered the dragon roll and caterpillar roll. Every one of their items were fresh as well as a good healthy portion. So much that we actually had to get a to go box. They dressed up the sushi with wonderful presentation.
They don’t just have sushi by the way, for those folks that like other options. There is calamari, chicken wings, steak even on their menu.
The bartender was easy going and the food came out without a hitch.
We did not have room but the bartender suggested we try their deep fried ice cream next time around. And I am counting on that.

I want this place to LIVE so bad. This is currently my favorite restaurant in Portland. I’ve been here maybe 5 times or so now and they have gone out of their way to not only make sure my belly is happy but so is my mood and wallet too. ( Unilocalers get 20% off) I think it’s a little dead in here now because it’s new and doesn’t look interesting from the outside. But come inside my friend, come inside! They’ve completely gutted and re-​designed the place with a modern look. tons of space. Ridiculously comfortable atmosphere. And the food! The Food! So freaking good. Try the tacos. No lie. Ask for the «spicy» sauce. They’ll be open for lunch soon and I’ll be needing to buy bigger pants.

Whenever I try out a new place in Portland I have that little voice in the back of my head wondering… is this place going to make it? I hate getting attached to places only to have them close. That being said they have completely renovated this space to a beautiful New York loft style complete with modern lines and contemporary art. Everything is done in black and white and there is an upstairs area that allows you to spy on everyone below. I found seating easily and the wait staff were friendly and accommodating.
This place is very trendy looking and the menu reflects this with small sushi plates, tapas plates, burgers and an interesting drink list. Everything I tried was good and I was happy that I could get a strong affordable well drink.
I hope this place sticks around for a while.

Trendy pub to have drinks with friends and actually have a conversation and hear each other.

Slick, clean lines. It was «soft» open night, but everything went very smooth. The waitstaff were very friendly. The drinks were very good. Didn’t get a chance to try out the food, but price seems decent and the selection not bad.
It’s quite spacious with lots of loft space for the watchers above. The furnitures were modern and my friends loved the chandliers. If you want to stand out, wear something other than black; because the entire décor is simply that.