October 1st, 2009 by Whitney Shae – Comments (7)
Grand Opening Monday October 5th, Yokozuna is a brand new upscale Asian eatery in downtown Tulsa. Following Elliot Nelson’s other well known restaurants: 2 and soon-to-be 3 McNellie’s Pub locations, Dilly Deli and El Guapo, this local establishment has a modern flare with fresh Asian cuisine. Located in upcoming downtown, Yokozuna has great food, a very chill atmosphere and a great wine selection. Not to mention, for currently being “in training”, the service and staff are unbelievable.
With high ceilings, this venue is perfect for this restaurant. The main room speaks for itself with a nice modern bar and huge open room for seating. The atmosphere is a great fit for any business lunch, late-night out with friends or nice dinner before a show downtown. A private dining room will soon be available with plenty of seating for small events or meetings.
We had the opportunity to try the food Wednesday night for a preview before the restaurant opens on Monday, October 4th. The food was beautifully presented and had very exotic ingredients and flavors. The menu is still changing and not set in stone, but the items that we tried were very appetizing. If you love spicy food, the hot wings with a coconut cream sauce were awesome! The Palappam Napoleon layered dessert was one of the best desserts I have had in a long time! My favorite part of the evening though, was having the chance to visit with the owner, Elliot Nelson, and the manager Matt Leland. They were so thankful for our feedback and attentiveness. I can’t wait to go back and do a full-out review!
Make sure to head downtown and give Yokozuna a try. Let us know what you think!
http://twitter.com/YokozunaTulsa
http://www.facebook.com/yokozunatulsa
http://www.myspace.com/yokozunatulsa
Here is a fun Yokozuna video we found on their MySpace Page
Tags: Asian · Bars · Dessert · Dinner · Downtown · Gourmet · Lunch · News
7 responses so far ↓
Edward Oct 9, 2009 at 4:19 pm
We went there for dinner very excited but left unhappy.
I would like to mention that we are extremely happy with the owner making downtown a better place and hope he does well with this restaurant with some changes to the menu. We were also very pleased with the wait staff, managers and the great ambiance of the restaurant.
The appetizers were very good, although $6 for 4 small pot stickers is a bit high. The sauce that was served with it should be something different in my opinion. It tasted like soy sauce with some chili paste in it. Even a sweet chili paste alone would have been better. We wanted the poo poo platter of appetizers, but they didn’t want to serve it because they didn’t have the serving dishes in yet. I said a white plate is fine, but they said no. It was kind of funny that our 2 appetizers did come on white plates. They must be really excited about their poo poo plates!
My wife had the Chicken Chili Ramen which was ok, nothing special. I had the Zongtang Beef. The beef was alright, but I expected something that tasted better. The noodles were overcooked which surprised me since they specialize in noodles. There were only 2 other people eating in the restaurant so they had plenty of time to make it right. The manager was very kind and asked if they can make another one. I didn’t take him up on it since the noodles really weren’t any different than instant noodles. Sorry, but it’s true.
Also, the manger asked us at the end of the meal what we thought, and I shared some comments which he seemed to listen and care, so I assume he will do the same with other people and make any necessary changes.
The menu has quite a few other items so I suggest other people trying it.
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shae Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
I do agree about the sauce…I think it would be better if it were sweet instead of salty. I am excited to see the changes made and think this will be a great new downtown restaurant!
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jan Oct 9, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I love Yokozunas drinks and desserts. The Palappam Napoleon dessert is to die for!
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Jim Jones Oct 9, 2009 at 4:46 pm
I am anxious to try this place. If it is like any of Elliot’s other restaurants it will be awesome!
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Mark Stenner Oct 14, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I visited during the soft opening week, and left impressed with the vision for the establishment.
I enjoyed the amazing hot wings, and the steak dish was excellent. The pork entree was also very flavorful, and cooked perfectly, as was the steak. My thoughts on the steak was that it really wasn’t very Asian, as good as it was.
It’s great to have a restaurant on the old Tsunami site. Being a wine geek I’m interested to see the wine and beer list.
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Richie @ Catering Equipment Feb 17, 2010 at 12:31 am
New places need to be given that chance and its great that people like us that take the time to go and taste and give feed back to them help with this whole process, good luck to them and I hope they have much success.
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Erica Mar 1, 2010 at 8:48 am
Their desserts are so unique. Don’t pass them up when you go!
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