Sushi Yorimichi Revisited

As it looks like prices keep rising...well, everywhere it seems, I've been hard pressed to find reasonably priced places to eat. Though one may ask; "what is reasonable these days?" During one of my visits to San Diego Bakery & Cafe for a breakfast bolillo, Sushi Yorimichi caught my eye. Opened during the times of Covid in June of 2021, they replaced an old favorite of ours; Thai Papaya. It turned out that the menu featured everything from sushi to ramen to yakitori. There are a couple of initial rules that I follow; if a Japanese restaurant serves a vast variety of dishes, approach the sushi and sashimi with caution. "FOY" Junichi after his visits told me that Yorimichi does not use binchotan for yakitori, so that was off the table, but he was able to provide some recommendations. As it turned out; I thought the cuisine skewed more toward the "diner"/izakaya side of the scale, but the prices, even for back in 2021 was super affordable. And that was nearly three years ago.

It was time return and check things out.

For some reason, the tiny space looks a bit brighter, and even though it has even more "stuffs" decorating the place looks more like a little cozy neighborhood izakaya, like you'd perhaps find in the back alleys of Hiroshima.

The tables are still nicely spaced and the menu is still humongous. The "rolls" take up almost two pages of the menu; which kind of tells you how the place is skewing with regards to sushi and sashimi. I did however notice something on the "specials" menu.

How the heck can you do Tuna Tataki for twelve bucks these days; unless it's just 2-3 slices, so I ordered that.

Well guess what arrived.

 My goodness; this consisted of six slices of akami maguro! Fresh, nice texture, no off flavors, refreshing. The young lady asked me if I wanted some wasabi and grated ginger and I answered with an affirmative. This just added another layer of enjoyment. The maguro was seared nicely; the fried onions adding a nice sweet-pungent-crispness; there could have been more ponzu, but this was quite good.

I also saw Chicken Wings on the menu. You could get it with either "Spicy Sauce" or sweet soy. I decided on the sweet soy. At $6.75; I kinda expected 3 wings, but I got 5, and all "flats".

    I also loved that the wing tips were attached; I just love gnawing on them, even though the sticky-sweet sauce got all over my hands. The batter was on the crunchy side, almost lacquered, and it held up for the entre meal. The meat was moist, had no off colors or flavors. The sauce was a bit too sweet for my taste though, but still, well worth the price.

And this was lunch as I was quite satisfied. $18.75 for tuna tataki and chicken wings, go figure? There were a few other customers coming in, but all of them got these huge sushi rolls, or ramen. I mentioned the prices at Yorimichi to the Missus. So guess where we had lunch the following weekend?

Yep. The Missus enjoyed the decor!

We started with one of my favorites on my previous visits, the Kawa-Su ($5.75), chicken skin.

A bit more spice than what I'd previously had; which actually helped balance out the sour ponzu tones. I enjoyed the chewy-savory chicken skin.

The Missus wanted the Agedashi Tofu ($6.75), which I wasn't too impressed with during my earlier visits.

This was decent; the tsuyu was much lighter and not as salty, the tofu, slightly crisp from the frying, but nice and creamy inside.

Sadly, the Tuna Tataki ($12) as not as good this time around.

Mainly because of the maguro, which was much more chewy, and had a metallic-tinny tinge to it flavorwise. The slices were also much smaller.

Curious about "grilled" dishes, we ordered the Tan Shio ($7.95).

So, while well seasoned, I can actually do better in our air fryer when seasoned with smoked salt, white pepper, and togarashi. Still, this was not terrible and much better than it looked.

Last up was the Karaage ($7), which I wasn't overly impressed by the last time.

This time, it was quite good; crunchy, the meat tender and moist, and most of all, the soy sauce and other seasoning came thru nicely.

In fact, the Missus and I have talked about returning for an Happy Hour meal and getting the karaage rice bowl to share and some of our favorites. As I mentioned earlier, there are folks whom we've seen ordering the jumbo sized "rolls", which we aren't interested in, nor does the yakitori or ramen interest us. It's those "izakaya" like dishes that do. Admittedly, we're not going to forget our favorites, but in this day of crazy prices, this was a nice respite. In fact, if Yorimichi was in our neighborhood, we'd be regulars.

Sushi Yorimichi
2405 Ulric St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Sun - Thurs 11am - 830pm
Fri - Sat 11am - 930pm

Comments

[kat]

nice!

[Denver]

Dude, too funny, I was there a few days ago and was going to review that place. Been going there off and on but haven't been wow'ed by their sushi. Their designer rolls are pretty huge but for some reason, i haven't been impressed with them. Their orange roll are way too tart. Service is nice and prices are decent, especially for happy hour.

I haven't tried much of their non-sushi items so I should give those a chance. It's good to have Japanese food closeby though (and reasonably priced

[Dereck]

Did you see that the Thai Papaya folks bought TOSEL on Black Mountain? I grabbed food there last week and they told me they aren't changing the menu though..

[Kirk]

We enjoy the prices and the food here Kat!

I would stick with the apps and stuff here Denver.

Yes, I read about that Dereck. My sources told me that the kitchen/menu, etc would remain the same; so it's basically a change in ownership only. I do need to check them out, hopefully soon.

[Soo]

The soy wings sound good. Lots of tempting items on their menu.

[Kirk]

The wings were nicely priced, more crunchy, and a bit on the sweeter side Soo. Good prices though.

[Junichi]

Every time I walk by around dinner time there's a bunch of people waiting outside. Just stay clear of the tamagoyaki. It was way too salty the last two times I've gotten it. Their sushi rolls are decent for the price.

[Som Tommy]

This is a favorite stop for me! I like their rice bowls

[Kirk]

Oh man; I know that was a favorite of yours here Junichi!

Can't beat the prices ST!