When in doubt, pick Japanese food! My friends and family are usually indecisive when it comes to selecting a place to dine at. My back up is almost always a Japanese restaurant. I remember coming to Yokozuna a long time ago when I was a little girl and have never been back until late last year. Recently, they underwent renovation and the interior is a lot nicer! The food quality is still superb and Yokozuna will always be one of my favorite Japanese restaurant in Edmonton.
On my most recent outing, a friend and I wanted to be as diverse as possible upon selecting what to eat. So we ordered a variety of things from opposite ends of the menu. I wanted to see how well rounded Yokozuna was in terms of food preparation.
We started off with one of my favorite Japanese small eats/snacks: Takoyaki! When I visit the night markets in Richmond, this is one of the things I honestly cannot pass up on! The takoyaki here was well presented, and the hot steam coming out from the takoyaki warped, twisted and shriveled up the fish flakes. There is something strangely wonderful about watching the fish flakes twist and dance when it comes in contact with heat.... Anyways, the takoyaki had a nice crispy outside with the soft chewy center. Perfect consistency and well cooked inside, out, except there was one problem. Where did the octopus or squid disappear to? The octopus filling was so minimal and so small, I thought we ordered plain Takoyaki.
The next thing we ordered was beef udon. The soup was miso based which is very interesting to me. Among the other places I have ordered udon from, this was the first time I had udon served in miso soup. It was very delicious, and the sweet teriyaki beef served on top was delectable, soft but a little chewy. The udon noodles were al dente, just the way I like it.
Look at the thickness of the sashimi!
Sashimi time! We ordered our go to favorite, salmon sashimi as well as the special sashimi of the night, amberjack (kanpachi). The salmon was a little disappointing. It was not as firm as expected, and it was a little warm, as if it has been sitting outside at room temperature all day. On the plus side, there was no fishy taste at all. I was so excited to try the amberjack sashimi! I have tried a lot of different sashimi such as yellowtail, red snapper and eel but this was my first time trying kanpachi. After tasting it for the first time....this is my new favorite sashimi! I really do love the texture, it was extremely firm and was similar in texture to yellowtail (hamachi). I encourage everyone to give it a shot at least once! It is extremely pricey though (3 pcs of kanpachi for $12), so it will not be something I will be ordering every single time.
Following the sashimi were the rolls. I love experimenting with sushi rolls at every Japanese restaurant I have dined at because each restaurant offers their own unique and special house rolls. Yokozuna offered a variety of unique combinations of filling to go along with the unique names (Naruto maki, oompa loompa, avo avo roll). We were intrigued by the black dragon roll and the Yokozuna aburi roll.
The black dragon roll consisted of tobiko, scallop and was topped with unagi (eel) in a teriyaki sauce. I thought the combinations of scallop and eel came together nicely, and the sweet teriyaki sauce completed the flavours.
The Yokozuna aburi roll is very very unique. I mean the roll itself consists of 8 different ingredients! It looked like a hot mess with the onion scattered all over the top and the lemon slices randomly dangling from each piece. Did I mention there is lettuce in this roll too? It consisted of tempura crumbs, avocado, lettuce, masago, topped with onions, thin lemon slices and seared salmon. The roll was just really confusing.. My palette was confused with the different amounts of textures and with what I was suppose to be tasting (the avocado overpowered everything).
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On a separate visit, I decided to take my mom out for lunch and she really wanted to eat Japanese food. So I decided to take her to Yokozuna for lunch! We both ordered the bento: I ordered the beef ($13.50) and she ordered the sushi and sashimi bento ($14.50). The bento is served with the traditional, miso soup, salad, tempura, rice and sushi or sashimi.
The bento is such a great deal for the quality you are receiving! Not to mention it was very filling. The tempura was very crispy and not overly greasy, the sashimi was fresh and the beef was decent in flavour.
Yokozuna is a great south side Japanese restaurant that serves good quality food. If you are looking for an authentic Japanese food experience I do recommend to restaurant to satisfy your cravings. Yokozuna can be expensive (but is no more than places such as Mikado, Japonais Bistro or Kobe), but the quality you receive in return is a fair trade.
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