5776 Frantz Rd.
Dublin, OH 43016
614.889.1275
website
While most cities have a lot of “Asian Fusion” restaurants – which basically offer the a few dishes from each country most familiar to American audiences, Columbus has a larger concentration of Japanese people than its neighboring cities. Yoshi’s dives deeply into Japanese cuisine, not only with a wide variety of sushi, sashimi and fish, noodles and yakitori and Japanese style apps. It’s not a big restaurant but definitely makes up for that in variety.
There’s a huge variety of dishes on the menu there. Some of the things to try:
- Yakitori set: Quite a few skewered meats, including chicken skin, chicken hearts and of course chicken meat.
- Rainbow Roll: A simple roll wrapped in tuna, salmon, shrimp, white fish and avocado. Simple.
- Volcano Roll: Crab, scallop and cheese top this baked roll with more fish egg shaved katsuo, scallion, spicy mayo, and eel sauce. Complex!
- Buckeye Roll: Spicy tuna roll topped with extra salmon, red onion, scallion, fish egg, spicy mayo and best, like the other dishes, if you dunk it in a little soy sauce.
- Eel roll: Just a big cut of eel served on a palette of rice, nigiri style. The eel is a bit dry, but not uncommon in this style of preparation.
- Sashimi: These cuts are basic but that’s all you need! Fresh salmon and yellowfin. Fresh all around.
- Shu mai: Pork shu mai is typically thought of as a Chinese dim sum dish, but a variant of it exists in Japanese cuisine too. This is a thicker one that has shrimp as an ingredient.
- Agedashi Tofu: A softer tofu lightly fried and served piping hot in a sweet sauce. Pull the tofu from it quickly so you don’t lose the crispiness.
- Mackerel: A simple cut of fish served with a sweet hoisin-like sauce. The fish itself is a little on the dry end but that’s not uncommon in this style of preparation.
The restaurant might be tiny, but it’s not to be underestimated! There’s plenty of space at the bar if you need it, but if you’re looking for a larger group of people, I suggest calling ahead and making use of the private room in the back — there’s just not a huge amount of space inside the restaurant. Service is superb.
Prices aren’t too bad considering the rarity of the dishes and how hard it is to source some of these ingredients. On the overall, you’ll want to get the sushi first and some of these other things will be best for the more experienced Japanese food lover. Yoshi’s is just great.
Recommendations
- Sushi is what people come here for, but there are lots of small plates and appetizers.
- Small groups are best here, it’s not a large restaurant.
- There’s a good list of sake and beers here too.
Another Food Critic 