Oh how the mighty have fallen. I remember back in the day when I was a wee little boy, full of wonderment, and always excited to go to Yoshino’s. It’s almost a landmark in Fresno, a restaurant that’s been in Fresno for as long as I remember, when Japanese food embodied all that was exotic and mystic to Fresnans. It was a time when the Japanese Gardens and a handful of Japanese restaurants–all of which were big budget productions that served sushi, teppanyaki, and dine-in–were the only exposure the city had to the land of Nippon. Now, it’s been years since sushi was first introduced to the valley, and years since sushi has taken off in Fresno. But when I say sushi in Fresno, I don’t mean nigiri and sashimi–sushi in Fresno is all about the craziest rolls that people can come up with: filled with cream cheese and tempura, topped with avocado, tuna or salmon sashimi, or mayonnaise-y spicy who-knows-what. In a sense, sushi in Fresno is a bastardized version of traditional sushi that has been created to palates that don’t appreciate the subtlety of real Japanese cuisine but would still like the “healthy benefits of sushi.”
I have to admit, I had expectations when I went to Yoshino in Riverpark, something I guess I should have known better not to have, especially when dining out in Fresno. It’s best to prepare for the worst but hope for the best when going out to many of the restaurants here. The Yoshino in Riverpark specializes in only sushi, and have a conveyor belt for lots of ooh-ing and ahh-ing when you see your desired dishes coming up and hope that someone else doesn’t grab it before you. When we arrived, the sushi bar was all filled, but it was a nice day, so we decided to sit outside on the patio for an intense people-watching-filled dinner. Upon seeing the conveyor belt after stepping in, I was horrified to see the dishes that they served at this establishment. It wasn’t just the over-the-top-unhealthy-disguised-as-healthy-monstrosities that I’ve become accustomed to seeing in Fresno, it was the dishes of fried calamari and what looked like orange chicken that I saw meandering along the belt. What kind of sushi bar has fried food rolling around with sushi? According to my logic, hot food + cold food on the same conveyor = lukewarm soggy hot food and lukewarm cold food after a bit of mixing. I’m just glad none of my food ended up lukewarm on arrival.
After looking through the menu, I realized that much has changed since I last ate at Yoshino. I guess that in order to compete with all the other Korean-owned and operated sushi joints that serve this version of “Americanized” sushi, they had to adapt their own menu to the tastes of customers around here. Most of the menu was occupied by themed rolls with CRAZY~!~!! names inspired by states and random proper nouns. I went against peer pressure and ordered more traditional variations of sushi, a couple orders of nigiri and a unagi roll. On a side note, I don’t know if they’re trying to impress customers and give an air of authenticity by listing nigiri sushi with their Japanese names, but I doubt that any of the waiters there would understand if I ordered hotate and amaebi. In fact, that’s what happened.
On to raw fish! I ordered hotate (scallop), hamachi (yellowtail), sake (salmon), amaebi (sweet shrimp), and an unagi (eel) roll. I was impressed that the amaebii actually came out with the fried heads. I’ve seen it served that way in Los Angeles, but never had the opportunity to try it there. Therefore, I really couldn’t comment on how well it was made, just that they actually came out with fried heads, which I ate. Mmm…shrimp brains and shrimp poop.
The hotate was soft and gooey, and didn’t really have the seafood-y taste that comes with unfresh seafood. I was satisfied because I wasn’t eating old seafood. The same goes for the sake and the hamachi, which did not taste unfresh, but not really fresh either. It really made no lasting impression on me, and wouldn’t really come on the list of things that I randomly crave. The same can be said for the unagi roll.
BUT, if there was one thing that tipped the scale from this sushi being meh to sushi being a sacrilegious bastard child that should be locked away never to see sunlight, it would be the fact that the nigiri was made without the traditional dab of wasabi underneath the sashimi. The way sushi works with its condiments, soy sauce and wasabi, is that normally wasabi is only mixed with soy sauce when eating sashimi, and not with nigiri because it should already have wasabi. Nigiri should only require a dab of soy sauce to enjoy the fish and rice. I’ve never had nigiri sushi without wasabi, and I don’t think I ever will again. I don’t ever see myself going for sushi at Yoshino, or Fresno for that matter. I can do without mediocre sushi made with mediocre sushi rice; even with high gas prices, I would still drive to LA for traditional and well-made sushi.
Yoshino 7776 North Blackstone Avenue Fresno, CA (559) 432-4244
