HAL YAMASHITA Napa in Napa

Excellent Japanese fusion dishes. Top notch ingredients. Although I prefer traditional sushi, this is a great Japanese restaurant in the area.Service is good for that busy Labor Day evening with limited staff.All raw fishes we had were excellent. Best ikura I had outside Japan.Tempura was just ok. It’s in the set. Otherwise I wouldn’t order.If I go again, I will order raw fish dishes only. I feel that’s what they do best.

A staff member recommended this restaurant while wine tasting at Joseph Phelps. You should know it is a good food when a local person recommends a place to eat. To start off, the ambiance is amazing. However, the food was even better. The quality of the ingredients is something I never tried before. Everything was so unique and superb. I do not write reviews, but I had to write one for this place because it was good. All the reviews that said that food took some time make me think, what company are you in when you cant entertain conversation for a couple of hours while waiting on the food? The owner also introduced herself to us. What an incredible lady! Next time you are in, please do yourself a favor, see if she is working, and hear her story. Definitely, well be back just for this restaurant.

Held hostage by Sushi. 3 hours. Thats how long it took for the UME course meal, curry bowl and tuna nigiri to come out. 3 hours. Arrived at 6, waited and waited, I would say, 1 part of the course every 30mins or so. Curry and Nigiri about 1:45 hours after arriving.I had high hopes it would be a perfect end of the day. The wifes Bday, I have the 2 kids with us, the place had only one table with guest to serve...it was 6pm, what could go wrong...I would be home by 8pm, kids in bed...late movie with wine...voila!I also took into account that the one table they were serving, there was a family with 2 kids the same kids age and my kids behave well.So here it is for you to make this review useful. They took their dear time, with no sense of urgency to get people their order. When we left their was 9 tables to serve, nobody served their meal in a proper time. Maybe the chefs were lacking, with timing or maybe they didnt care...there was an older gentleman chef washing dishing at one point in the 2:45 hour mark of the meal.The UME course wasnt worth the $. The bento box looked like it belonged on a economy class airplane flight. It was about 3.5x3.5 square with fish cuts that seemed like scrappy.The best part was the robata grilled cod at the end.You are better off paying for Nigiris at the $14-$25+...they would be better cuts.The Curry Bowl had 3 pieces of Waygu beef. I counted. Kiddo ate it, but spicy. As a curry loving person, this was more Indian sweet style curry vs. Japanese curry. Disappointed none-the-less.After the 3rd hour and it was time to leave, the original family that was there...their table was still a mess and never cleaned. And the next table that came in after us, received their first course in the 3rd hour. Thats trouble.For all the good reviews, maybe it was just a bad day for them? Id try it again, but if I have to wait that long again, something is wrong. Spent near $200, fair pricing for high end sushi and atmosphere. It just throws out the feel good experience and I am very patient. Maybe if I was on business and had 3 bottles of sake, 3 hours would have been fine.It was so late and the kids fell asleep in the car, wifes birthday cake was cut for breakfast the next day. Happy birthday to her.PS: The nice waiter felt bad and offered free grilled edamame.

What can I say? Being a total foodie, going to Hal Yamashita’s downtown Napa Restaurant is like a pilgrimage...The Wagyu & Chawana Mushi prepared by Chef Demetrio and the Sushi prepared by Chef Takuya was – EXCEPTIONAL. Im happy to report this restaurant lives up to the chefs name and the ambiance was so special.I was greeted by Michiyo who made sure our evening and every plate that came out was perfect. Michiyo and our server Ziva were kind enough to explain the entire menu to us before we ordered and made sure each dish that came out was top notch.Ive never eaten a dish with, basically, a putty knife tool, but the Uni- Maki and Black Cod were literally the best things I believe Ive ever eaten. Trust me – BOTH are a MUST have order.We had some beautiful Hamachi and toro that literally melted like butter in our mouth and the Wagyu was an out of this world treat.We paired each of the courses with wine and sparkling and I look forward to some of their winemaker dinners that are coming up!An incredible evening …..can’t wait to go back.

There were three of us for a 6:30 reservation on a Saturday night. The place was virtually empty when we arrived and full when we left. To set expectations, there are limited kitchen staff and service staff, so dont come when in a hurry. Service was good and they were clearly working hard. The kitchen delivered a little slow, but with great quality. The grilled edamame is a nice twist on a classic.I had not seen grilled edamame before. We selected the Little Gems Salad (really a spin on Caesar) and the green salad, Chefs Choice Fish Carpaccio and some Nigiri to start. Mains were the limited availability Himachi Kama (got the last one!), Black Cod and the Tokyo style Spicy curry and rice. Everything was delicious and beautifully plated for the most part. The collar was grilled perfectly with nicely crispy and slightly charred skin. The Black cod was a beautiful plating and the curry was deeply flavorful, richand delicious.

This hands down is one of the best sushi spots in Napa. Me and my bestie enjoyed a lovely meal with one of their specialty cocktails which was delicious. Our server (my apologies I don’t remember her name) was so hospitable and delivered a wonderful experience. They brought out the food in perfect succession after each food item we ordered was finished. From the truffle edamame, to the karaage chicken, to the delicious and fresh sushi rolls and lastly some of the best Japanese curry I’ve ever tasted. Overall, I give this place 5 stars! Definitely recommend!

We had a great experience here! The food was excellent and the prices were reasonable considering everything is priced for tourists in Napa. High quality sushi and very friendly wait staff. I am visiting here during the early stages of the restaurant still, they have only been open a few months. You can tell people are still finding their groove with some of the small details, but would instantly make up for any missteps or confusions. Incredibly accommodating and the restaurant has an overall great ambience. Miso soup was possibly the best Ive ever had! The sushi quality wasnt quite Michelin level Id say, but thats ok because this is a great go-to spot for a Friday night date. You arent paying Michelin prices and you still get high quality food and service nonetheless.

Went in Dec for the holiday tasting menu, $128 for 8 courses. Their normal 7course menu is $98. The additional dish in our menu was a thimble size cup of sunomo (basic vegetables & imitation crab meat). If this is the reason for the $30 upcharge it is quite upsetting since it was basically 1 bite of low cost ingredients (not even real crab meat) that I saw them pull from a deli container from the fridge.1st course: a warm savory egg custard with a gelatinized dashi broth on top, with a segment of shrimp and 3 slivers of snap or snow peas. It was quite tasty and the texture of the egg was very silken.2nd course: the offensive sunomono3rd course: 3 pieces of hamachi & a small side of boxed spring mix seasoned with ponzu and lemon zest. The carpaccio was tasty, although I could not discern any strong flavors from the fish itself but the seasoning was excellent. The salad had the same sauce drizzled over top but was underdressed.4th course: 3 pieces of tempura (shrimp, lotus and broccoli) with a fermented or savory marinated kombu and bonito(?) mincemeat-like side dish (very salty, very fishy). Tempura was mediocre, the batter was slightly heavy. The shrimp was really skinny and small, the lotus was fine, it reminded me of an undercooked hash brown, slightly crunchy and the broccoli was ok. It looked like it was dipped in mashed potatoes and then fried but I suspect it was undercooked tempura batter.5th course: miso soup with parsley topping, it had an interesting sweetness. The waitress said they add a sweetened mirin to it. The small cubes of tofu had good flavor.6th course: a small omakase sushi box with diced cucumber and tamago, about 2-2.5 small pieces each of salmon, hamachi, tuna (very thin very small), and giant fish roe. This was my least favorite dish, the topping to rice ratio was off (way too much rice). The small dices of cucumber & tamago were hard to eat, none of the fish were super flavorful and the roe was extremely fishy. The only dish I did not finish7th course: chef’s signature dish; grilled miso cod with a cheesy sauce and parmesan topping. I usually wouldn’t pair cheese and fish together, in this case the concept sort of worked and also didn’t. The cheesy sauce was mild tasting and actually quite good with the cod but the topping was wayyy too strong and pungent for the delicate flavors of the fish and I did not care for it. Overall the cod was well seasoned and cooked perfectly that it still came out as one of my favorite dishes.8th course: they served a yuzu sorbet instead (ran out of matcha). No big deal, I actually really enjoyed the yuzu sorbet, it was a very tart yuzu citrus flavored shaved ice, with a small topping of candied citrus peel. I enjoy very tart things so I liked it a lot but it may be too sour for some. It did make my tongue feel furry from all the acid.Overall thoughts: The ambience is very nice, you can tell they spent a lot of money on all of the furniture and decor. They have an open kitchen style concept that sits in the center of the restaurant. Watching the kitchen staff helped pass the long wait times. There was some miscommunication that delayed our service; overall ended up taking ~2.5hrs. The staff was friendly but overwhelmed.For 2 chef tasting menus & no drinks the total came out to be over $300. I enjoyed 4/8 courses very much (egg custard, carpaccio, cod, yuzu sorbet) the others I could take or leave. I was most disappointed by the portion sizes, I get that they’ll serve smaller portions for multiple courses, but some were downright laughable. The custard came in a teacup and the sunomo was the worse, the “cup” was smaller than a shot glass.TL;DR While the presentation and ambience was very nice, I did not find great value in the food (quality and size), I really only enjoyed half of the courses (4/8) very much, but we left debating whether or not to grab more sushi at Eikos or go to In-N-Out. It’s a nice date night spot but I’d definitely skip out on any of the holiday specials (wait for the regular priced menu) or order a la carte.

Lets start with the atmosphere. As soon as I walked in I felt open, modern. I loved the service, attention to details.Then comes the perfect drinks! fun and the options are endless. (cocktails, wine, sake which was delicious with my sushi. )We ordered Pre fix tasting course ume course, Chawan Mushi, carpaccio, tempura, miso soup, omakase sushi box, todays special fish or wagyu steak, dessert. Tempura is amazing, omakase sushi box is the best, so fresh, wagyu steak is perfect and so tender. High quality ingredients. Oh, Absolutely fantastic dessert that we had. I highly recommend this place!

Food was good but apparently over priced. You can easily get same quality food at a lower price back to Bay Area, but I guess rarity is more expensive given there aren’t many good Japanese restaurants within 30min drive.