The Lincoln Log

It’s strange to see Yama Sushi on the corner of Holloway and Ashton street, the rest of the block is filled with mostly barber shops and hair salons. With such a strange location, a quick glance at the restaurant appears to deceive, but with a closer look through the windows, you’re drawn in to the restaurant’s atmosphere.

Owner Jeffrey Li breaks tradition by having larger windows and brighter lights than most other Japanese restaurants. There are large American-style chairs, set with heavily designed Japanese dinnerware. He wants to combine American taste with Japanese tradition. It’s been his goal to open his own restaurant since high school, he’s worked in 12 different restaurants over the past six years to get this far.

Upon walking into his little restaurant, which opened June of this year, a relaxing feeling is drawn over you as a server dressed in a colorful, simple yet lovely Japanese outfit shows you to your table. While looking over the menu and sipping on warm tea, a overwhelming feeling is drawn by the long menu. There is such a large variety of food to choose from at an affordable price, such as an assortment of sushi, meats and noodles. It took a while to finally settle on what my friends and I wanted to order.

As we waited for our food, a server brought out complementary cups of Miso soup. I felt lost and couldn’t help but to wonder where my spoon was. My friend eventually told me that we were supposed to sip it. I found it strange to sip seaweed and tofu, but decided to go for it; the soup went down smoothly and was delicious.

The first order to arrive was the Sake Tempura Rolls (six for $ 4.50) and Philadelphia Rolls (six for $3.95), served on a pretty blue and white fish shaped plate and garnished with sprigs of parsley. The names seem strange, but the sushi delicious. The Philadelphia Rolls have salmon with just the right proportion of cream cheese.

Next to come were the Unagi and Spider Temaki hand rolls($2.95 each), brought out in a wooden holder. In my eyes, they resembled two ice cream cones made of seaweed. Li says, “part of my interest [is] to introduce something they’ve probably never seen before.” I loved the shape of the sushi, but the the taste of the BBQ eel and avocado in the Unagi roll and Fried soft shell crab of the Spider roll was even better.

The last dish to arrive was the Happy Dinner Box. ( $10.95) At a bargain of a price, the box allows eaters to choose three items from a special menus, and is served along with the choice of either rice or noodles and a small salad. On this day we had the California Rolls (six pieces), Tempura mix, and Chicken Katsu. The California rolls weren’t much different from most other places, but the Tempura and Katsu were far more superior. Unlike other Japanese restaurants, they weren’t greasy and they both had perfectly balanced dipping sauces. As Li puts it, ”We try to test [the food] ourselves [and] what we make before we serve it to our customers. It’s common sense, you have to know the taste.”

He is content with the business he’s recieved so far.

“We’re doing pretty good,” Li said. “It’s more than what we expected,...even if I pick-up here I’m not expanding.”

He explains that by owning a smaller restaurant he’s able to maintain the quality, taste, and presentation of his food. With that said, who’s up for some more sushi?