Sushi Yotsuba!

Being a landlocked city, Beijing isn't exactly known as a sushi mecca.  We don't have Jewel Bako or Morimoto or Sushi Yasuda, and one of the things I miss the most from home is eating at one of these places and biting into fresh, delicious morsels of fish and seafood.

But there's hope!  Mike and I went to Sushi Yotsuba last night, hailed by many as "Beijing's best sushi place."  The fish is flown in daily from Tokyo's Tsujiki Market, and this is one of the few places in Beijing where reservations are absolutely necessary.  We tried to make one last year for my birthday, but didn't call in early enough. Not this year though!  We were on a quest to have to-die-for sushi for our early V-Day celebration, and we made sure we were going to try Yotsuba!

When we stepped into the restaurant, it felt like we walked into Japan.  The restaurant was tiny, having no more than 10 or 12 seats.  To our left was the sushi bar, to our right were three little rooms, each seating small parties of 2 or 3.  I really liked the restaurant's decor - it was simple, elegant and tastefully done.  Eager to try the restaurant's different offerings, we each ordered the head chef special sushi set.

Our waitress brought out two raw conches for us to try.  Since I never ate raw conch before, I was a little nervous, but the meat turned out to be surprisingly pleasant.  Definitely very fresh.

 

Our appetizers started off with individual bowls of egg souffle and a seaweed salad.  The egg souffle was light and tasty at the same time.  I expected to see more seaweed in the seaweed salad (hmmm), but the dressing was yummy and the salad was topped with pieces of fresh salmon, yellow tail and an unidentified piece of fish (or maybe shellfish? haha), which made it refreshing.

 

After the appetizers, the waitress brought out the sushi plate.  YUMMMM...we had six pieces of hosomaki, medium fatty toro, super fatty toro, fatty salmon, yellow tail, mackeral, sweet shrimp, fish roe...oh yum oh yum, this picture is making me drool right now!  Oh and did I mention we had freshly grated wasabi accompanying the sushi? yumyumyumyumyum!!!!

  

Just when we thought dinner was over, our waitress surprised us with grilled uni (eel).  This is probably one of the biggest pieces of uni I've ever had.  When I bit into it, the uni and warm soy sauce melted in my mouth. Like everything else, it was gooodddd!!!

 

But that wasn't it!  Dinner continued with a big bowl of crab miso soup and fried shrimp heads.  By this time our stomachs were ready to explode, but everything looked so irresistible, we just had to eat.

  

Some restaurants make their miso soup really salty, but not Yotsuba.  This miso soup had a lot of character, 

and the crab was extremely fresh, with a hint of sweetness.  

  

Last dish of the night - fried shrimp heads for us to suck on.  Mike wasn't too fond of this - he hates anything mushy and the idea of sucking shrimp brains grossed him out a little, but I didn't have a problem.  Haha. 

How was Yotsuba?  I loved the presentation of the food, the atmosphere of the restaurant and the food itself.  I am a sushi snob, so it's not up there with my all-time favorite Sushi Yasuda or the little restaurants surrounding Tsujiki, but it rivals Morimoto.  Never ate at the infamous Nobu before, but Mike claims it's better than Nobu.  The price tag was a win too - Yotsuba may be one of the more expensive places in Beijing (our bill was about 900 RMB/$132 USD), but compared to its NYC rivals where you can easily drop $200 USD per person, this place is a deal in my mind!

So if you're ever craving sushi in Beijing, definitely go to Yotsuba.  It's worth the money!!!