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
The new president, Ed Morales, was introduced and he 
The artist rendition for the 2025 
Even moreso in real life! See the slot in the front hill? That is where the "Spotter" sits and can view what is in front of the float. The Spotter speaks to the driver via a headset and has a set of brakes there at the front, in case an emergency type of stopping is necessary.
Kiwanis International has the theme "Being Together" and is going to be even more beautiful when covered in natural materials and flowers. The slot for the Spotter to view is at the top of the honeycomb
The Service organization of Oddfellows and Rebekahs has their 2025 entry depicted 
Here it is in real life! so vibrant and, again, cute. You can see the rectangular slot in front. The Driver, who only follows the 'Rose Colored Line' on the street is situated near the middle of the float.
The drawing of the 2025 
This beauty is surreal and so detailed; everyone (on either side of the parade route) will see something different.
The 2025 entry for the Luthern Hour Ministries and 
There will be 'stained glass' windows on the church, all created with natural materials. This float will be magnificent with it's theme "Behold! Jesus the Savior is Born". The Petal Pushers volunteers assist with decorating about eight floats during decorating days.
The Fraternal Service Organization of Elks will have another float in the 2025 Rose Parade.
"Cherished Memories" is the theme. Remember that all floats must 'fit' down the parade route, so the Elk at the back of the float must be able to collapse down to the maximum allowable size.
Shriners Children's 2025 float will feature a working waterfall!
So far, in it's basic stages, I can see that the two parrots will be lifted up to go down the parade route, then lowered as it gets to the tight spots along the route. 
I have not seen any drawings for the City of Alhambra entry, but it was also tested on July 13. 
A cortadito ($3.39) was a nice alternative to coffee. The espresso with sweetened condensed milk really hit the spot. 
A new beverage is an iced passion fruit, yuzu pear lemonade ($5.45) and we just had to try it. Topped with edible violas and mint, this was a very pleasant, not overly sweet treat.
A peach target ($4.55) and a matcha raspberry eclair ($3.90) were our choices to try later that day. Wonderful crust and pastry and fruit and cream. Very nice indulgences.
A walnut-raisin batard ($4.65) is a must purchase item. Crisp crust, an almost sourdough base and walnuts and raisins; a perfect snack or breakfast.
Two cheese rolls ($1.19 each). were enjoyed in the car on the way home. Crisp and flaky and sugar topped with a whipped cream cheese filling. Another perfect item.
We ordered Torrejas (Cuban French Toast) ($9.15), a wonderful breakfast item, especially with the cream cheese and fresh fruit.
Instead of an eggy sandwich, we shared a lechon sandwich ($8.69) Roasted pork, so tender and topped with pickled onions, served on fresh, pressed bread that was spread with a wonderful house made chimichurri sauce. This satisfied the cravings I had for about half a year.
The tacos were served on blue corn tortillas, that were very dry, tough, and really didn't add anything to the dish. Likewise the sweet chili sauce provided. 
thru nicely. I believe the the version from Soup du Jour (funny, I thought I did a post on the place, but I guess not?) is better both in texture and flavor.
This is what I unpacked at home. There was also two small containers, one with extra "shoyu", with very little shoyu flavor for that version of poke, I ended up not using it as it would have watered down the flavor even more. And the second, when I first looked at it, I asked myself "what the heck is Mul Kimchi doing here? This ain't a KFC place". Then I opened it and the fragrance hit me. I cracked up; it was haupia! A nice little touch.
The fish was decently, not overly coated, the quality, while not as good as HFS was fine. Not too salty, a decent version of Shoyu Poke.
The bread looked like a rolled French Baguette. It was quite crusty, though a bit more dense then what I'd call a typical banh mi. The jalapenos were really mild. There was a thin sliver of cucumber….though I must say that cucumbers are MIA in many banh mi's these days. There was a good ration of pickled veggies to mayo to pork.
The tater tots were nicely fried, crisp, not hard, and the interior slightly creamy. 
As I took my bag of peanut brittle and the fried garlic to the register; the guy in front of me bought a $170 worth of bottled sodas! I asked the friendly cashier about this and she told me "it's totally normal"! Whoa!
This was a huge, but interesting dish. The menu said pork rinds, but this was fried chunks of pork. Man, it was quite porky and full of flavor, but really hard and chewy, like chunks of fried jerky. Make sure your teeth are in good shape if you order this. We enjoyed the yuca. While the exterior was crisp, the interior just melted in your mouth, the texture was amazing! I don't think they do the usual "boil and fry" here. I'd gladly get the yuca again!
