Back for More: Sushi to Savor at Yotsuba

"Back for More” is a regular magazine column in which we revisit old favorites.

The fuwuyuan pinched a slither of pickled ginger between chopsticks, dabbed it in soy sauce and painted the dark liquid gently over the sea clam. “Lift like this,” she purred, clasping the sticky rice beneath, “and it won’t break.”

All part of the service at Yotsuba, a petite, ever-so-Japanese sushi restaurant at the north end of Xindong Lu. A handful of intimate sunken booths are partitioned by rattan blinds, or you can perch at the counter and study the surgeon-robed Japanese chefs at work. Since it opened seven years ago, Yotsuba has garnered a dual reputation for high quality and high cost. But that’s only half true. The ao-yotsuba chef’s selection (RMB 250 per person) is a bargain.

A sticky-sweet sea snail appetizer got the table talking, but all were hushed when the sushi showed up, fish glowing with pearlescent freshness (no, that’s not radiation) and laid out with an artist’s eye, from sea bream to salmon roe to three grades of tuna rising up to otoro (fatty tuna, but you can switch out this unsustainable catch). A slender grilled eel came next, resting on rice and wowing with its wonderful sauce. After the seafood comes perfectly piquant miso soup, then a chawanmushi (steamed egg custard in a teacup). Deliriously filling and fun – no wonder you’ve got to book in advance.

YOTSUBA
Tue-Sat 5-11pm. Next to Bldg 2, Xinyuan Xili Zhongjie (near Xindong Lu), Chaoyang District (6467 1837) 朝阳区新源西里中街2号楼旁(近新东路)