Yamato: Japanese Dining

At Yamato Japanese Dining, expect top quality traditional Japanese cuisine and fantastic service. This hidden gem is tucked away in the Tollcross area, a skip from the Cameo and nearing Fountain Park and Lothian Road. Yamato aims to give locals and tourists the best offerings of Japanese cookery in Edinburgh, hosting traditional charm and flare, and does it to an impeccably high standard.

As you walk into Yamato, you are greeted with a friendly smile, and a warm hello. The ambiance is very chill and the lighting and décor makes you feel like you’ve just stepped into a vortex and been whisked away to Japan itself. The place is very cosy, and diners can enjoy the view of the chefs working their magic in the open plan kitchen – a real treat we always think.

With an extensive variety of dishes, served in such an intimate and refined environment, Yamato really is fine Japanese dining. The restaurant proudly serves high level A5 Wagyu beef, imported directly from Japan, and is the highest quality of the beef you can get. ‘Wagyu’ literally translates to “Japanese Cow” and is internationally renowned for its premium quality. This beef is beautifully marbled, uniquely aromatic, and succulently soft; meaning the meat melts in your mouth like no other. You can enjoy this delicious dish as a nigri (a handformed ball of rice with the tasty meat over the top) or a gunkan (a piece of “nori” seaweed wrapped around a ball of rice with the Wagyu placed inside). This is a real treat and definitely one of the highlights of the meal.

Of course sushi is the most famous Japanese dish outside of Japan and one of the most popular dishes amongst the Japanese themselves, and at Yamato, you can experience the finest sushi that Edinburgh has to offer. The grilled teriyaki salmon maki, with avocado and sesame seeds, was top notch and the salmon panko is not to be missed. The grilled tuna nigri was an enjoyable affair and was so tasty that my only wish was that it came in a bigger portion.

As a nation, it’s fair to say that we Scots love our fried food, and so it was nice to have a Japanese take on this. No I’m not talking about the Japanese equivalent of a chippie, but Yamato also specialises in the tasty art of tempura – which is the Japanese style of deep-frying seafood and vegetables in tempura batter, adding a stunning flavour and crispy texture. The assorted tempura results in a basket full of fried goods, that each tasted wonderful. Of course the king prawn was a big hitter, but the vegetables were undeniably brilliant too. The batter was light and non-greasy, which meant that the eating of such fine quality fried food felt somewhat healthy. The restaurant also has a take on fried chicken, serving small pieces of sake (more on that later) marinated chicken which has been deep fried in a light batter. This dish, Karaage, again ticked all the boxes… quite literally as it’s presented in a beautiful wooden box with accompanying banana leaf.

Other notable favourites were the seared tuna with chilli ponzu sauce. The mere thought of it makes my mouth water. Small pieces of tuna belly were lightly seared around the edges and coated with sesame seeds, served in a gold dish on a bed of cabbage and red onion. Rich flavours of the chilli ponzu sauce were remarkable to say the least and added to the fish beautifully. The chicken gyoza we had was delightful too, with a good amount of crispness and softness.

If you’re looking for something that has a bit more meat to the bone (literally) – you need to try the grilled salmon cheek. This fillet of fresh salmon comes served with the skin still on which leaves a good crisp texture on top of the soft, flaky meat. The fish was seasoned very well and would definitely be on my recommended list. If you’re keen to try something “a bit different” – the buckwheat soba noodles, although served cold, were a proper tasty creation when paired with the warm sauce that comes with it. After pouring the enjoyable nectar over the noodles, they warm up and have a stunning taste which makes you want to drink the stuff.

The food at Yamato was amongst the best I’ve ever experienced and it was a real pleasure to visit. The vast menu is fairly priced for the quality of the dishes you get, and it’s easy to share servings to get an optimum experience of trying a fair few things.

To accompany your meal, you can peruse the wine list that in itself is impressive. There’s also a selection of beers and soft drinks but the Holy Grail has to be Sake. Sake has been enjoyed in Japan for thousands of years and remains an indispensable part of Japanese life and culture to this day. Yamato offer an array of sake’s to go with your meal, and I promise you, there is something for everyone. Their Sake list alone went over two pages, and each is organised in accordance with your palette and preference. Having never tried sake, it was a good decision, I think, to ask my waiter to advise me. He explained that sake can be served hot or cold, with the warm being left to steep and aerate to get the perfect flavour. I advised that cold sounded best to me, and he recommended my newbie palette a citrus and yuzo one, which was definitely a good recommendation. The Sake went down very smoothly and accompanied my meal perfectly.

There is very little, if not nothing, that I can fault with Yamato, as this was definitely one of the best places I’ve eaten. Between the food, ambiance, service and sake, I couldn’t rate it higher.