Yuji is a difficult restaurant to write about given how much has changed. Run by a Teppenyaki chef, Yuji has always been a very reasonable and easy to book kappo restaurant that delivered good food and a fun opportunity to get a feel for the seasons. I’ve been going here ever since I moved to SF a while back and during this period, the restaurant has had a number of challenges keeping staff and in staying booked out. Yet still for a very long time, I felt like it was able to overcome that.
Recent meals have been a bigger challenge though as I think the weight of being an entirely one man show has begun to weigh on Yuji. I want to make it clear that I think the execution is still worth the very reasonable price level but that it no longer punches alongside Wakuriya/Ranzan in the value that it provided with consistent basis.
Courses were:
1. Zensai/Seasonal appetizers: Yuba and argula in white miso, aori ika in mustard miso vinegar, nasu with uni and ni-baigai/baigai nimono – these are usually solid, I hate nasu but everything else was fairly decent
2. Dobinmushi: Shirakawa dobinmushi, one of the better ones here. My favorite are the hamo and the matsutake ones they do in the summer and fall
3. Otsukuri/Assorted sashimi: Shima aji (tasted farmed but good farmed), sayori and amaebi – nothing amazing but solid tasting
4. Yakimono/Grilled Fish: Usually they do a grilled fish around here, today’s was Gindara misoyaki – I love their take on this. Basically exactly what I want misoyaki to be
5. Mushimono: Chawan is done reasonably well here, never a standout but never with any real notable flaws as well. Today’s was kegani based and solid as always
6. Rotating Meat Course: Always wagyu but the cooking style often changes – today was a shio sukiyaki, personally I prefer to eat Wagyu other ways as I’ve gotten older but this was solid with an onsen egg to dip it in and lemon mash
7. Agemono/Fried fish: This was an ayu tempura with matcha salt, I really liked this. I wasn’t able to carve out time for a visit to a kaiseki/kappo spot during ayu season so nice opportunity to make it up a bit
8. Noodles: Here’s usually a rice or a noodle dish to finish, today was hayashi chuka – thankfully they don’t use a ton of artificial seasonings and noodles so it wasn’t too bad but I’m not a huge hayashi chuka guy
9. Dessert: Almost always some sort of matcha dessert – I’ve lived them and there have been great ones but I do like the non matcha desserts they’ll do a bit more. Today was a decent matcha tiramisu
I still think you should go to Yuji, especially with how easy of a reservation it is and how much easier it is to get to vs other similar spots. As an aside I’ve actually been meaning to demote Kenzo a lot in that list of all the SF Area Japanese spots as I finally got back to it and found it dropped off precipitously. That being said, it no longer is my go to place for this style of food as I think there’s better options for a similar price if you’re willing to travel further south or if you like Chinese fine dining (also that raffle for Fu Hui Hua will be held on Feb 1st)
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Yuji is a difficult restaurant to write about given how much has changed. Run by a Teppenyaki chef, Yuji has always been a very reasonable and easy to book kappo restaurant that delivered good food and a fun opportunity to get a feel for the seasons. I’ve been going here ever since I moved to SF a while back and during this period, the restaurant has had a number of challenges keeping staff and in staying booked out. Yet still for a very long time, I felt like it was able to overcome that.
Recent meals have been a bigger challenge though as I think the weight of being an entirely one man show has begun to weigh on Yuji. I want to make it clear that I think the execution is still worth the very reasonable price level but that it no longer punches alongside Wakuriya/Ranzan in the value that it provided with consistent basis.
Courses were:
1. Zensai/Seasonal appetizers: Yuba and argula in white miso, aori ika in mustard miso vinegar, nasu with uni and ni-baigai/baigai nimono – these are usually solid, I hate nasu but everything else was fairly decent
2. Dobinmushi: Shirakawa dobinmushi, one of the better ones here. My favorite are the hamo and the matsutake ones they do in the summer and fall
3. Otsukuri/Assorted sashimi: Shima aji (tasted farmed but good farmed), sayori and amaebi – nothing amazing but solid tasting
4. Yakimono/Grilled Fish: Usually they do a grilled fish around here, today’s was Gindara misoyaki – I love their take on this. Basically exactly what I want misoyaki to be
5. Mushimono: Chawan is done reasonably well here, never a standout but never with any real notable flaws as well. Today’s was kegani based and solid as always
6. Rotating Meat Course: Always wagyu but the cooking style often changes – today was a shio sukiyaki, personally I prefer to eat Wagyu other ways as I’ve gotten older but this was solid with an onsen egg to dip it in and lemon mash
7. Agemono/Fried fish: This was an ayu tempura with matcha salt, I really liked this. I wasn’t able to carve out time for a visit to a kaiseki/kappo spot during ayu season so nice opportunity to make it up a bit
8. Noodles: Here’s usually a rice or a noodle dish to finish, today was hayashi chuka – thankfully they don’t use a ton of artificial seasonings and noodles so it wasn’t too bad but I’m not a huge hayashi chuka guy
9. Dessert: Almost always some sort of matcha dessert – I’ve lived them and there have been great ones but I do like the non matcha desserts they’ll do a bit more. Today was a decent matcha tiramisu
I still think you should go to Yuji, especially with how easy of a reservation it is and how much easier it is to get to vs other similar spots. As an aside I’ve actually been meaning to demote Kenzo a lot in that list of all the SF Area Japanese spots as I finally got back to it and found it dropped off precipitously. That being said, it no longer is my go to place for this style of food as I think there’s better options for a similar price if you’re willing to travel further south or if you like Chinese fine dining (also that raffle for Fu Hui Hua will be held on Feb 1st)