Nakama Japanese Steakhouse - (412) 381-6000

• Voted Best Sushi in Pittsburgh
• Private party room
• Free VIP program

If you want to go somewhere so crowded you can't move and so loud you can't talk go to Nakama! The food, and service here is below average. This is simply a trendy place to "be seen" at. Little toyko bistro down the street has much better food, the service is excellent and you can actually enjoy your meal there!

I went to Nakama for lunch because I keep hearing that everything was so good. In short, shoddy service and horrible food is all I can say. But that's not fair - you the reader should know how bad it was in detail. Too bad I didn't take photographs!!! First the tea came, the tea pot was missing it cast iron lid so the waitress thought to put a tepan sauce dish on top!!! WTF? Maybe she was just not too smart. However, the appearance was not the only thing that was horrible, the tea was just horrible too. It was supposedly green tea but it tasted like the paper tea bag. Unbelievable!!! We should have left then... We ordered four kinds of sushi, albacore, spicy tuna rolls, scallop rolls, and their spider roll (softshell crab). The rice for all the sushi had a funk to it, and I don't mean good music type of funk, it was noticeably bad. Further the rice was not prepared properly, it fell apart while eating it. It just didn't hold together right. The sushi, while served promptly, was vile. The albacore sushi was the first thing I tried and it was dry, over-sized and the fish fell apart while eating. It would have been better in presentation and eat-ability if it was four small instead of two huge portions. The spicy tuna rolls were bombastic in a very bad way. The flavor was not properly mixed and was uneven as well being blah at one moment and overpowering the next. They make up the spicy tuna mixture in bulk, which is not uncommon, but I had the unusual "pleasure" of watching as a ham-fisted so-called "sushi chef" brutally squirted mayo and spice on huge slabs of tuna and recklessly mixing it together in a huge trough. The scallop roll was next and did not have too bad a flavor, but the problem was it was too big to properly eat in one bite and furthermore the nori (seaweed) was all soggy and would not easily tear when biting so it fell apart. The scallop roll should have been made immediately after ordering and the nori shouldn't have been soggy. It looks like they had a lot of the open rolls made up in advance and it went soggy. Further the roll should have been actually four rolls instead of two oversized ones. The hotate was actually strange in that it was in mayo and cut up, perhaps this was how they infused their spice. FINALLY, the spider roll. The spider roll is supposed to be a soft-shell crab and vegetables. It tasted like they used KFC inside. In fact if they had used KFC it probably would have tasted better!!! It was nothing short of disgusting. The KRAB fake crab was predominate and very dry. I am not sure if any real crab was involved, if it was it probably wished it wasn't. The fried portion was oily and overcooked. For this they charged $9.99!!! To be honest, I found nothing redeeming at all about my experience at Nakama. The sushi chefs were had no proper training they must have been fry cooks they put out there because the real sushi chefs quit or something. I pointed out each of these problems to the sushi-master and he looked like it was the first someone had every said anything!!! He reassured me that those were the sushi chefs, and that was not reassuring at all. The food was truly disgusting for the price. I would not have complained if I had purchased some supermarket sushi, but this is a restaurant that people say is good. The only way their food would be good is if a person was so drunk that they could not see, taste or smell. I chose to pay so that I would not be bought off and could have the privilege of writing this scathing review in good conscience. BEWARE - wherever you go for Japanese food, DO NOT go to Nakama!!!

I love the food here and is a cool place to be. Good service and usually has hot people in the evening.

Not for me. Don't buy the hype. It's overpriced, it's dirty, and they definintely do give coupons for good reviews; I've seen it.

Server stole two credit cards, didn't even feel bad. Manager did nothing and still charged the meals on the cards even though there were no signatures! Super disappointing for a place that's supposed to be award-winning. Go at your own risk, but I'd rather have sushi or hibachi somewhere else.