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Mountain View Dining Guide

Better Than Sex

Yakko Japanese Restaurant in Mountain View gives great sushi, as a boisterous cadre of patrons knows full well

By Christina Waters

Yakko is ablaze with patrons--obviously many regulars among them--all driven by sushi needs that exceed even common sense. It is pouring buckets of rain on the day we arrive, hot on the trail of steaming bowls of udon and sensuous slabs of sushi. We find both in the compact restaurant, housed near Castro Street in downtown Mountain View.

Following a tip from a colleague, we squeeze ourselves in at the front sushi bar, surrounded by a full house of tables and a long line of raised tatami rooms where shoeless devotees curl up on cushions. Huge full moons of paper lanterns hang over each tatami table, but we're happy with our eyeful of sushi action. Almost immediately one of the perpetual-motion Yakko staff begins orchestrating our meal.

Something exotic called curry udon ($6.50) beckons from the listing of daily specials. My companion is keen on spicy tuna roll ($5) and an order of barbecued Alaskan salmon sushi ($5). Along with the curried noodles, I order another special--tuna tataki ($7, okay so they're not giving this stuff away)--and a plate of gyoza ($6.50), translucent Japanese pot stickers filled with minced pork. I attempt to order miso soup, but my savvy server quickly dispels this misstep. I'm already getting a huge bowl of soup, she reminds me, taking charge of the meal. And of course she's right.

Patrons are gesturing with their chopsticks, legions of servers rush back and forth from the kitchen to tatami rooms, and by 12:45 a second sushi chef has come on board, stepping into the arena at the center of the restaurant to finesse plate after plate of glistening sashimi and gorgeously decorated specialty rolls.

We get started on tiny plates of sweet pickled gobo--a carrot-like member of the burdock family--and crunchy sour kimchee, washed down with Kirin beer ($2.50). The miso soup that my companion successfully ordered is perfect, the sweet fermented bean paste hanging like a golden cloud suspended in the salty bonita broth. But my attention is quickly diverted by an enormous green-glazed bowl of homemade udon noodles, floating in a tomatoey broth. Bits of chicken, long strands of lemon grass and scallion, and bits of carrot dot this sinus-clearing elixir, fiery hot with white pepper and the absolutely right thing to order on a rainy day.

We both like the very delicate gyoza, especially dipped into a lemon, soy and rice vinegar sauce. My tuna tataki is a seduction of diamond-shaped chunks of prime raw ahi. The fish has been seared for a millisecond and then served with a tangle of spun daikon and carrot. With it comes a sauce of puréed daikon, orange, soy and sesame seeds--it resembles a Western barbecue sauce and does terrific and unexpected things with the satiny tuna. It doesn't take long before I've fallen completely under the spell of the magnificent bowl of noodles.

I actually do not want to share with my dining companion, but I do want to try her sushi. So, as she rolls her eyes over that first impossibly tender plump noodle, I bite into the salmon sushi. Crispy rich skin, still warm from grilling, contrasts beautifully with bits of rich avocado and sticky sweet rice. The spicy tuna roll earns its name in both respects--it is explosive with heat and abundant with crimson maguro tuna.

An order of futomaki provides more textural contrast. Beloved of vegetarians, the Yakko version is an oversized sushi roll that slices up into generous and colorful rounds. Embraced by nori seaweed and sticky rice are dots of the crunchy pickled gobo--an addictive substance that I would kill to be able to make at home. Soft noodles have been packed next to the gobo, along with shiitake mushroom, cucumber and freshly cooked egg.

Presented with a huge side of hot pickled ginger, this is a minor meal unto itself for $7.50. I dip one of the pretty rolls into a marinade of wasabi-laced soy sauce and give thanks that I live on the edge of the Pacific. Actually, the sushi tastes great dipped into any one of the sauces that we've got stacked up around our increasingly messy section of the sushi bar.