I trust that everybody here has had a disaster of a meal—but it seems so compelling on paper that I might have to bite the bullet.
Did you go recently? I wonder if they’ve righted the ship.
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That was my logic - really wanted to like the place. Unfortunately it sucked in every way.
I went in mid June
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The main reason I haven’t tried it is I’m not convinced I can have a complete meal there. Like, I don’t even see rice in the pictures or on the menu, either here or on Yelp. Is this truly a riceless Japanese restaurant?
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BYOR?
Leaving the restaurant my wife said “YESS” is a NO (return)!
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Anyone gone back recently? Wondering if it’s worth a revisit.
Looks like they’re switching things up to a prefix menu. At $110 it’s hard not to revisit Baroo instead though.
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They made it onto the NYT Restaurant List which surprised me after the commentary here.
In this peaceful dining room, surrounded by a cheerful staff in all-white uniforms, it might seem as if Yess were the headquarters for an arcane Southern Californian cult. But no, this isn’t that kind of fine-dining restaurant! Junya Yamasaki’s cooking is as precise and controlled as his menu is inviting and flexible: Put together exactly the dinner you feel like eating, whether that’s a cold beer and hot, crispy katsu doused in Worcestershire sauce, or a long and luxurious sequence of mesmerizing dishes, like the rockfish with citrus ponzu and the vegetable-packed “monk’s chirashi sushi.” TEJAL RAO
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This is one of those places, @rohto, with a strong professional/civilian divide. Hearing raves from chefs and industry folk but my experience was in line with the reports on here.
I get the sense many chefs are not super price sensitive (or at least sympathetic to high cost ingredients). I’d guess some of the special stuff and comps help.
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the 110pp somehow feels more accessible to me than the old menu tho
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Warrior: Very good. Traditional Japanese at heart, but with unique, creative ideas. Excellent ingredients, on-point execution with no misses. 7.0/10.
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very much so!
When I visited we dropped a little over $400 all in for 2 people. (Included 1 bottle of wine and 1 glass of sake)
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It was a miss for us last week. Started strongish and really faltered on the mains. Overcooked rockfish, over cured black cod, over seasoned porcini (inedible and a shame 
), bluefin tartar had little flavor (they should have coursed BEFORE the sashimi supp). The anchovy escabeche was very solid as was the sashimi course.
Service is polite, but not on point.
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Went last night! highs were high but lows were low.
Grapes/Tomatoes/Artichokes - Good opener, but shiso viniagrette was WAY sour. Still enjoyable.
Sashimi - 3 cuts of tuna + Sweet Bream. VERY, very good. 50$ good? Who can say, but very good.
Tartar + Miso Eggplant - Also very good, tuna was maybe underseasoned but the eggplant was VERY assertive so it balanced out.
Rock Sole Fritter - This one was a banger, REALLY perfect crisp + delicate fish inside and a nice ponzu + raw pepper topping.
Monk’s Chirashi - Solid other than the pickled sunchokes. Offputting texture.
Fig Miso Soup - Inedible, the broth was very strange and the figs were so grilled I was picking out papery skin from my teeth for a while.
Mains
Smoked Cod + Cabbage - Cod great, cabbage even better. Romesco with it kinda tasteless
Rockfish Katsu - Delicious fish/fry. Would’ve liked a sauce or something but still great.
Dessert - Coffee kakigori was a total hit. More dates on the bottom (or maybe chopped dates so I could’ve had some in each bite?) would’ve been nice but it was still a delicious dessert.
Service - Attentive (mostly) but lots of dishes sat on the pass for a LONG time. They have a rehearsed pause before they talk that was just a little awkward. But super pleasant.
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unverified max revisits yesssss
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You know what? My favorite dishes were the chirashi and the miso soup. They weren’t the most immediately delicious. But they were unique and challenging — out of my comfort zone. Appealing the way Bjork is appealing.
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I can do challenging. But the soup just wasn’t for me. I found it inedible but I’m glad you found something to like in it! It was both the flavor of the soup and the texture of the fig skins for me. Chirashi wasn’t bad! But it did feel a bit like throwing fridge leftovers on rice. They had them sitting on the pass throughout the entire dinner then handed out periodically, so the rice was cold and the vegetables lukewarm
now it all makes sense - nothing appealing about Bjork to me and similarly nothing appealing about Yess. Ok, 2006 Dom Perignon Bjork edition was cool, but that’s it!
I should have trusted @PorkyBelly in his above review, but no, I went to check out Yess for myself, and it even worse than already low expectations.
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Yeah, well, I like Meteora too. That’s another controversial one. Great quality food that isn’t immediately appealing. I’ve long wondered whether Jordan Kahn named Verspertine after the Bjork album Vespertine.
There aren’t that many high-end non-sushi Japanese restaurants in LA. I wouldn’t encourage people to go to YESS over Hayato and N/Naka. But after that, I would say YESS and Shibumi seem like the next best options. They seem in the same league to me. And after that? Not really sure.
That one was ok.
Shibumi is a lot better than YESS.
bladdison #1 forthcoming…
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