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Sushi Yama Restaurant Review *3-23-07 After a change in management there, I was invited to re-review Sushi Yama. Although they were unaware of the date of my visit, they did a fine job on the evening when Lauren and I were there and the review (definitely out-of-date now) posted below resulted. However, at least according to local resident A.S., Sushi Yama is apparently not the same place. Here is part of what a recent e-mail stated:
A single e-mail may not be grounds to shutter the place, but the brief description above is definitely reason to at least reconsider a planned visit. I'm not sure how to alter the Latin phrase to cover sushi, but apparently when it comes to Sushi Yama, it would seem that caveat emptor just may apply...
Back in March of '03, Lauren and I visited a little sushi place in St. Charles called Sushi King. Recently, I received a tip that the place was under new ownership – it seems that so many places are nowadays – and that perhaps I should check it out once again. Lauren and I both have developed a fondness for Japanese food in general and sushi in specific, and so it seemed like a good idea to give it a look-see – especially after a long and frustrating day. Perhaps some hot sake would shake out the cobwebs and send some relaxing vibes through these tired bones… It was about 7:00 on a mid-week night and, stepping through the door (and, by the way, the obnoxious strobe light in the entryway is now gone…), things seemed pretty much the same as I had remembered them. The physical plant was the same as far as I could tell – which was fine – I thought nothing negative about the previous layout. However, had I remembered the tatami rooms at the front of the restaurant, I would have made a reservation; they looked so inviting and intimate for an evening’s meal. Next time…
We were greeted cordially and escorted to a table for two. The tables were all clean and polished – the place had an austere, yet comfortable feel to it. We were immediately approached and asked if we would care for something to drink. Breaking our normal “routine”, we requested a large carafe of hot sake and began to look at the menu and at the sushi offerings. As in most sushi restaurants, the sushi/sashimi choices were many and choosing was difficult. We weren’t what you might call ravenous, but we were very hungry. What we decided to do was to get two sashimi items, and then order several things from the menu – probably from the appetizer list. We chose a House Roll ($4 – like a California Roll but with smoked salmon, cucumber, avocado, masago and shrimp) and two pieces of Halibut ($6) sashimi. Both were melt-in-your-mouth tender, fresh and tasty. The sake was starting to tame the jangled nerves as we sipped our steaming Miso Soup and selected two items from the appetizer portion of the menu: Tuna Dip ($7 – small, almost julienne pieces of chopped Ahi Tuna in a spicy caviar sauce and served on a crisp chip) and Calamari Tempura ($6 – eight giant rings of tender calamari, fried in an extremely light but crispy tempura batter and served with a mildly spicy dipping sauce). The Tuna Dip was incredibly good (could’ve made a meal out of it!), as was the Calamari. We then decided to have dinner instead of more ap’s – so much for our diets… Lauren chose the Bento Box ($17 – salmon steak, shrimp and vegetable tempura, a California roll and rice) and I chose the Chicken Teriyaki ($12 – two chicken breasts cut into 8 small pieces atop a bed of sautéed onions and served on a sizzling platter with a large portion of steamed rice). Both dinners were served hot and the timing of their delivery was very good. The tempura batter was – as it was on our previous visit – extremely light and crunchy, there were two giant shrimp and plenty of veggies, and the portion size of the dinner was more than ample. My chicken was a tad dry (as was Lauren’s salmon) but not overly so, and the flavors were very good; the portion size of my dinner was also more than ample. In fact, by this time, both Lauren and I were sated to the max and asked to have the remaining portions of our dinners boxed to take home.
Over all, the evening was relaxing and very enjoyable. My preference would be to lower the lighting levels just a bit to achieve a bit more ambience… other than that, Sushi Yama is a place that you would definitely want to put on your list of places to try. The prices are extremely reasonable (they have come down since our last visit) and the experience was a pleasant one. A gentleman who seemed as if he were probably an owner was present on our visit; he was very cordial, accommodating and concerned with things being “right”. This was a welcome relief when compared to some owners who, when present, obviously are oblivious to what is happening and couldn’t seem to care less. I was surprised at the relatively small number of diners we aw that evening, even though it was a week night. Sushi Yama has many of the same things that were present on our last visit. But more importantly, the service is still good, the food great, and the value excellent. In general, the 3 ½ Zin rating is not carved in stone… and could easily go to 4 Zins. I do believe that if you like Japanese food in general and sushi in specific, you really can’t go wrong at Sushi Yama.
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