Yosaku (Portland, Maine) - From Great to Good

Since the sushi chef left Benkay to open Yosaku years ago, it has been my favorite Sushi restaurant in Greater Portland. While they have never been successful in eliminating the hint of sewage odor at the tables by the bathroom, and while the service on the patio is painfully slow, and you can't ever get in and out for lunch in an hour during the week, I have learned ways around these difficulties. Sit at the sushi bar or at one of the two tables in the bar area (far from the bathroom odor), don't sit outside, and allow an hour and a half for lunch. Why all the concessions? Because the sushi was consistently phenomenal and that's what it is all about.

At other sushi restaurants, for example, the Maguro is often fatty (I don't order fatty tuna for a reason) and/or light in color. But not at Yosaku. The Maguro is always deep, dark, red and fresh from the sea. Almost as good as the Maguro in Tuna Harbor (San Diego). The Kampachi, Unagi and Sake are consistently fresh, as well.

I love their two and three roll lunch options, served with miso soup. It's the only sushi place in town where I can get an Una-Avo as part of the lunch special. For dinner my husband and I usually choose the Sushi dinner (was $22) which consists of your choice of two rolls (tekka and una avo for me) and 10 pieces of sushi. It comes with miso soup - so we add on one more, two additional rolls from the menu (Yosaku and Caterpillar). And while we wait we always enjoy the Shumai (shrimp dumplings) served piping hot in a bamboo steamer. Nothing could be better!

But that was then.

We first noticed the change in mid-July, stopping in for a quick bite after an evening cocktail party (where I always talk too much, eat too little and leave starving). The menu was different - they now had an array of "high end" sake on the menu. And something else was different too - oh yeah, the prices. Now my Sushi dinner was $32 instead of $22. Talk about inflation.

Whatever. It still is the best sushi around - except it wasn't. The fish was so-so. The expensive sake that I tried that night came in a square wooden box that tasted - surprisingly - like wood. Those boxes need aging; I've had sake in wooden boxes before and never tasted the wood. I mentioned it to the waiter and he said they were new boxes and would taste like wood for awhile. Hmmm. Charge more for the sake which now tastes like wood.

Well then don't have the sake. See, I learn.

So we went back. And back. And back. In fact, we've probably been a half dozen times since then. Each time paying about $20 more for dinner than we did a few months ago which would be ok except that the quality of the fish is not consistent anymore and the service is beyond bad. We finally have called it quits for awhile after our dinner this past Saturday evening. Arriving at 7:30 for my pre-half-marathon sushi dinner (a pre-race ritual), the restaurant was three-quarters full. We were seated right away (and asked to be moved because of the proximity to the bathroom and the sewage odor). Drink and dinner orders were taken promptly. But then we waited for 30+ minutes for our Shumai to arrive. And then my rolls and miso soup arrived. It wasn't until I had finished my rolls and miso soup that my husband's Tempura Udon Soup arrived. The miso soup was served in a smaller-than-usual bowl, as was the Tempura Udon. The fish was good - not great. And they were having "rice issues" (which they frequently have). The rice must be sticky in order to maintain its shape, either under the fish (for sushi) or wrapped around the fish when in roll form. Often the rice does not have enough stickiness, resulting in the soy sauce dipping bowl to be filled with rice that drops off as you try to dip.

We were less than impressed. Time to try something different. Next stop: Benkay (our old favorite) which we had written off in favor of Yosaku. I had lunch there three times last week (I love clients who love sushi!) and had consistently good experiences. Check back to see how they rate for dinner.