Yume-Ya

One of the places that I've been wanting to try out for a while now is Yume-Ya, in Sunnyvale. Serving up izakaya and sushi, my sister and I set out to explore this new restaurant. Stepping in, I was pleasantly surprised to see Suga-san (previously of Tokie's in Foster City) running the sushi bar.

Located at the corner of a strip mall in Sunnyvale next to a shoe store, Yume-Ya from the outside looks like any another hole in the wall Japanese restaurant. Once you step inside, all questioning disappears as you are greeted by the staff, and seated at one of the many tables. A white board next to the cashier station lists the daily specials. Some specials are only listed in Japanese, while others have English next to them.

One of the daily specials was the Pumpkin Croquette, a crispy panko-encrusted croquette filled with a warm and flavorful pumpkin filling. It was a good change from the standard potato croquettes, and set us up for the rest of our small dishes. The fried oysters were exceptionally good, reminding me of the fresh deep-fried oysters my mother would occasionally serve us at home. To counterbalance these fried goods, we ordered the eggplant, which was served cold with a tart agedashi sauce, and shrimp stuffed mushrooms. The Shrimp Stuffed Mushrooms were large Shitake mushrooms stuffed with shrimp paste, cooked, and then placed in a very light broth.

Our chicken yakitori (grilled chicken served on skewers) arrived next, which were grilled to perfection, followed by our small selection of nigiri sushi, which were the Kani (crab) and probably some of the freshest uni I've had in weeks.

We ordered one more item, Fishcake with Grilled Cheese. If you've ever had a grilled cheese sandwich before, replace the bread with Kamaboko (fishcake) and a little nori (seaweed), and the Fishcake with Grilled Cheese is what you get. I found it to be a comforting fusion food, having eaten a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches and kamaboko growing up, but never combining the two.

Yume-ya's main menu is very extensive, and with so many choices, it's easy to set up your own custom meal. There's plenty of meat on the menu for those that don't like seafood, as well as items for vegetarians, and I was quite happy with the variety of the seafood on the menu. It's very likely that I could eat here every day for a week and not have the same item twice.

For those who find the item menu choices to be too numerous, they also have dinner sets available.

Flickr: Yume-Ya