REVIEW: Tasty dishes offer more than just sushi at new Yo! restaurant in Swindon Designer Outlet

Yo! arrived in the retail destination last month and has already proven popular with customers of all ages. It was busy when a friend and I arrived but there was plenty of space and everyone was served quickly.

I’d been to a different branch once before five years ago to sample Japanese cuisine before flying off to its homeland. Things have changed since then - gone is the old system of picking dishes off the conveyor belt and totting up prices based on the plates’ colours afterwards.

Now you scan a code on the table with your phone to see the menu, pick what you want, create an account, pay, and wait for it to be sent along the conveyor.

A traffic light system lets you know which food and drinks are yours to take. It works well, though our light decided to put on a disco show in-between courses, going purple-orange and showing off all three colours at once.

A paper menu is available for those without phones or if the Wi-Fi’s playing up - and you can ask for cutlery if the chopsticks defeat you.

Customers were served quickly and often stayed no longer than half an hour

Another big change is the name itself - no ‘Sushi’ after Yo! - possibly to highlight to fussy eaters like me that there’s more on offer than little platters of raw fish, an assumption that had put me off going.

Friendly and attentive staff found us a seat after we booked ahead, then served up tap water while we browsed the menu and the decor.

Standard selections like Coke and lemonade were absent and we didn’t fancy coffees or cocktails, so I tried a refreshing kiwi, lime and mint soft drink (£3.85) while my friend went for an apple and rhubarb juice (£2.55).

Our first picks were a delicious chicken katsu curry with sticky rice (£6.60) and some sweet and spicy Korean fried chicken (£5.95).

Korean fried chicken and a standard chicken katsu curry

Next came a chicken curry ramen (£6.85) for me with a grilled cheese chicken katsu roll (£4.50) and Yo! fries (£3.70) for the plus-one.

Since it would be remiss of us not to try any seafood while we were here, I added the restaurant’s signature three-piece Yo! sushi roll with salmon, avocado and mayo rolled in orange masago (£4.45) while my pal tried takoyaki (£5.15).

Octopus in balls of batter is an acquired taste and not one he had - and I forgot to warn him they’d be very hot inside - the fries and sriracha sauce were nothing special (but noone comes to a Japanese place for the fries anyway) but he enjoyed the katsu roll.

Meanwhile, I liked the Yo! rolls well enough but didn’t finish them as I was greedily slurping up the flavourful ramen which came in a bowl that looked deceptively small but had generous amounts of chicken and noodles.

Grilled cheese chicken katsu roll, takoyaki (octopus balls), Yo! fries, and chicken curry ramen

I eyed up other options I would have tried if I’d been more adventurous, like the spicy seafood ramen with prawns, salmon, squid, veg and kimchi (£7.30) or the mega £25 For the Love of Sushi combo which includes two miso soups, edamame, avocado maki, two salmon nigiri, a six-piece calorinia roll, an eight piece spicy dynamite roll, and salmon ponzu salsa.

A grilled cheese chicken katsu roll, Yo! fries with sriracha, and the Yo! folls with salmon and avocado

We settled for a heavenly strawberry cheesecake mochi and a chewy chocolate mochi (both £3.85), which are bite-sized doughy sweet treats that finished the meal off nicely.

It was a pricey hour but you could easily scarf down a tasty and filling meal in 20 minutes with half of what we ordered - and I’ll definitely be coming back again.

Some of the decor inside the Designer Outlet's Japanese restaurant