Out to Lunch: Restaurant Yamaguchi

I felt very encouraged when I walked into Restaurant Yamaguchi this week at lunchtime. The restaurant was full, unlike any other restaurant I've been to in the last six months. My friend and I actually had to wait a few minutes for a table. And it was packed, primarily, with actual Japanese people, which I took to be a promising sign.

Certainly they weren't there for the décor. The restaurant was fairly narrow and had perhaps 15 tables, as well as a sushi bar that seats six. The place had a slight air of tiredness — the carpet could use replacing, the tables and chairs were somewhat outdated, and the restroom (so my friend tells me) was so cramped that there was barely enough room to stand. But these small complaints in no way interfered with the pleasure of the good food that was soon to come.

If we weren't waiting for a table for a few minutes, we might have missed something very important — the small cardboard sign by the entrance that said "Lunch Special - $10 - sushi assortment." The special wasn't mentioned in the menus that we were handed as we were seated, or by the waitress who served us. After we were seated, the waitress brought warm damp washcloths for us to freshen up with — a nice touch!

The lunch menu includes soups, salads and appetizers ranging in price from $1.25 for Miso Soup to $8.50 for Negima-Yaki (slices of beef rolled up and stuffed with scallions and served with teriyaki sauce). There are plenty of choices for those who want to order their dishes a la carte. A better bet, however, are the Sushi and Sashimi choices or the Luncheon choices. There are 10 different Sushi and Sashimi options, all served with a choice of soup (Miso or clear broth) and a salad. Prices range from $7.50 for the Inari (vinegared rice stuffed in a wrapper of fried bean curd) to $19.50 for the deluxe combination Sushi and Sashimi plate. The Luncheon choices include some standards such as Tempura ($12), Beef Teriyaki ($14.50) and Sukiyaki ($16), as well as nine other choices, most in the $12 range. Also offered is Tendon (battered shrimp and vegetables over rice), Katsudon (breaded, fried, pork cutlet over rice), and Unadon (broiled eel on rice).

We started our meal with green tea and an order of Gyoza (pan fried pork dumplings). The $5 appetizer included five modest-sized dumplings, soft and flavorful with a paper-thin wrapper of dough that were served with a flavorful soy-based dipping sauce.

For my lunch, I opted for probably the least healthy item on the menu — the Japanese equivalent of fish and chips, fried chicken, and all those other delicious breaded-fried foods that Americans love so much — Tempura. The Tempura normally includes shrimp and vegetables, but I opted for an all-vegetable version. My lunch included a flavorful, but not overly salty Miso soup, and a salad. The salad was pretty much entirely Iceberg lettuce decorated with some shredded carrot and cabbage, which seems to be standard for Japanese restaurants. It was saved from pale blandness by the delicious ginger dressing served on the side. "If I had a straw, I would have sucked up all the dressing," remarked my dining companion after she was done with her salad.

The Tempura arrived in a plastic basket-like dish, accompanied by a small mound of shredded ginger. In my experience, there are two kinds of Tempura in the world: the kind that is oozing oil, has a thick coating of batter, and makes you feel like running to Weight Watchers as soon as you are done, and the kind that has a light airy golden breading, little excess oil, and makes you feel … if not virtuous, then at least not guilty. This Tempura was of the latter variety. The breading was delicate and the vegetables inside well cooked. Among the vegetables were zucchini, green pepper, carrots, sweet potato, and a few vegetables I didn't recognize (I believe they were Asian root vegetables).

My dining companion ordered the $10 special advertised at the door. It turned out to be the absolute best lunch deal in the restaurant, and possibly the best deal in all of town. For her $10, she was served first the salad with the ginger dressing, and then a large bowl of some type of udon (noodle) soup. Next came a beautifully arranged sushi combination plate, accompanied by two small bowls — one containing three or four chunks of assorted fruit, and a second bowl containing some squares of brown-grey objects in a brown-grey sauce.

The sushi plate included tuna, salmon and white fish on vinegared rice, a few rolls, two Inari (rice balls wrapped in a thin fried bean-curd wrapper and served cold), and an unusual-looking rectangular omelet on rice. The fish was very fresh and tender, and my companion couldn't stop raving about the rice that provided the base for the sushi. Light and flavorful, it provided the perfect counterpart to the dense slabs of fish. We liked the Inari as well.

All in all, the sushi plate was a big hit, and a great value. The little cup of fruit that came with it was a nice touch. The same, unfortunately, could not be said for the cup with the unidentified objects in the brown-grey sauce. The chunks were served cold and were uniformly drab-looking, and all tasted the same — strongly fishy. We were able to identify one chunk as tuna, and one as some sort of root vegetable, but we were stumped by a gelatinous yet rubbery spotted brownish cube that neither of us had the nerve to try. (Yes, I know — what kind of food writer am I?) Even after dissecting it and examining it at great length inside and out we were still at a total loss as to what it was. When asked, the waitress said that it was made from the starch from an Asian root vegetable. Perhaps.

All in all, however, Yamaguchi has perhaps the most authentic Japanese food in town (as evidenced by the high proportion of authentic Japanese eating there), and is definitely worth a visit. Be sure to check the $10 lunch special as you walk in, and be prepared to wait a few minutes for a table on a busy day. It would work as a business lunch with a sushi-loving colleague. We were in and out in about an hour. The meal, including green tea, an appetizer, lunch, tax and tip was $35 for two.