While putting together the "Big List" I realized how many places I'd visited had closed over years. And I also noticed how many I hadn't visited in over a decade! When I first started the blog, our offices were in Hillcrest, so places like El Cuervo and Bronx Pizza were literally a few blocks away. I last posted on those two in 2005, though I had revisited many more times before we moved locations. One of the places that I had gone to during my consulting days in the late 90's and then a couple of times after moving to San Diego was Yoshino's Japanese Restaurant. The place changed ownership in 2000, I visited a few times after that, finally doing a post in September of 2006. Crazy thing is, I hadn't visited since then! Yikes. I'm seldom in the area during the weekday lunch hour and the parking lot can be a horror story at times, on weekends I'm only in the area during the mornings.
But, after seeing that I hadn't been to Yoshino's in nearly 18 years, I decided to stop by for lunch. I have a special place in my heart for family run Japanese restaurants, places like the now closed Ichiro's, having dined at places like that "back home". So, a few weeks back, I had a Thursday off and I drove on over and found parking in the lot which is shared with all the businesses in the building and Luche Libre Taco Shop.
The interior of the place had changed a bit.
If you look at the photos from that ancient post, you'll see that the sushi bar was not yet in place.
One of the owners told me that it was built in November of 2006….a couple of months after my visit!
The young lady who served me was very kind and gracious, after hearing her chat with the only other customer in the restaurant, I deduced that she is one of the owner's daughters. Yes, this really is a family run restaurant.
Now, to be perfectly honest, I'm not into all those rolls and wasn't looking for sushi or sashimi from here. Rather, in the "old days" there used to be reasonably priced lunch specials which are still available.
I had always thought that the Sesame Style Chicken Tempura was the best item for lunch, but this was a Thursday, so it was going to be the regular Chicken Tempura on this day. And the price for the lunch specials are $12.95, these days that's kind of a bargain. After all, I had just paid $12.50 for a sandwich at Sandwich Emporium a few day previous.
Things started with some Miso Soup, which was scalding hot. I always found it interesting that they serve the miso soup with metal spoons instead of the "renge", the typical Japanese soup spoon most of us are familiar with.
This edged on the saltier side of things but was far from bland.
Soon enough my lunch arrived.
I know this wasn't the "sesame" version, but the light color was a bit of a shock. The plate included some fairly dry and chewy rice and a green salad with a standard issue wafu style dressing. The greens were fresh and crisp. The tentsuyu, tempura dipping sauce was a must have for the chicken.
The coating was light and crisp, the chicken itself was very moist and tender, a pleasant surprise since this is chicken breast. The flavor was quite mild, thus the dipping sauce is a must for adding savory-umami tones to the dish.
I was pleasantly surprised, though I think I'll come back on Wednesday to have the tempura chicken sesame style. It was hard to complain as the lunch was $12.95.
The service was friendly and warm. I certainly won't wait another 18 years to revisit. Plus, I remember Yoshino's as being quite busy, but there was only the woman who was a regular, and myself in the place for the entire meal. I used to remember when the place had lines waiting outside. I'm hoping the business is doing ok. Places like Yoshino's bring back so many memories and are neighborhood treasures.
Yoshino's Japanese Restaurant
1790 W Washington St.
San Diego, CA 92103
Current Hours:
Tues – Fri 1130am – 2pm, 5pm – 8pm
Sat – Sun 5pm – 8pm
Closed on Mondays
Now, my question for you. What were you doing back in September of 2006?
The gyoza and typical seaweed salad (never a favorite of mine) really didn't garner much attention and was quite ordinary.
The rice was cooked nicely, but it had way too much komezu (vinegar) making it extremely sour and I could barely finish half the bowl.
While this was on the chewier side in regard to Hamachi, it was a decently cut. The red jalapeno was not spicy in the least and while the overall flavor was a tad too sour, this was not bad.
I could make out the earthy-sweet truffle oil, though it was rather faint. The kanpachi was cut quite thin and really lacked flavor. Perhaps it couldn't stand up to the truffle, vinegar, and soy? I did think the corn was quite tasty, though none of the fruits went with this dish. Also, check the paper-thin slice of the radish in comparison to the fish.
I cracked up as two dropper bottles were delivered to my table: one with soy sauce and the other with ponzu. Geez, trying to be fancy? They also put plastic "wings" covering the nori on each side of the hand roll.
