Yabu Restaurant, Los Angeles, California Restaurant Details

Food:

Best cold buckwheat soba, Ever!
Delicious fresh soft tofu.

Food:

Really nice traditional presentation of the sushi. The Yellowtail sashimi actually melts in your mouth.

Food:

It looks very unassuming from the outside; it definitely doesn't call attention to itself with any flash or gimmicks. I was introduced to this place by a friend and I'll be forever grateful! I was in the area buying a mattress from nearby Mattress Pros and we decided to grab some dinner here. We were there pretty early in the evening so we didn't have to wait getting seated at the bar, but it's a small place and probably fills up fast. We got their homemade tofu appetizer, braised pork appetizer (INCREDIBLY tender--my favorite of the night) an assortment of nigiri sushi, and soba noodle soup. Everything was super-fresh and delicious; I thoroughly enjoyed everything I ate and pretty much cleaned my plate. OK, I was very hungry going in, but still, it was excellent. I can't wait to go back!

Food:

The reviews are right, the soba is good here but the sushi is probably the thing to get!!! It's soo fresh and melts in your mouth!

What I Ordered
- Yabu Soba Combination: Hot/Cold Soba with Tempura and 5 pieces of Sushi

I opted for the cold Soba. The Soba was good but the dipping sauce lacked flavor. I've had cold Soba before and I've only been to 1 place that actually had good tasting dipping sauce (Sanuki No Sato in Gardena). The Tempura was light and good but wasn't anything too crazy or amazing. It came with 2 shrimps, 1 yam, and 1 seaweed? (unsure what it was..it looked and tasted like seaweed) tempura.

The 5 pieces of Sushi were sooo good!!! It came with albacore, salmon, yellowtail, tuna, and a sweet shrimp. The sushi rice was perfectly seasoned as well. This was the best part of my meal!

Food:

My girlfriend, my friend who recently moved to Santa Monica, and I were looking for sushi for days, but never managed to work it into our schedule. We had a flight out of LAX at 11pm, and tried to one last time to grab some good fish. We looked up this place, saw it had a good combo of pricing and quality, and showed up. The place is small, with some tables along the walls surrounding a half-circle sushi bar area. We ordered some peices of nigiri, sashimi, a roll, and fried oysters just to get something in our stomachs. What we got was a quick service of one of the best small sushi meals I've ever had. The eel roll was great, but the fried oysters were fantastic with a fresh tartar sauce. The halibut nigiri was right on, and the bluefin tuna was melt-in-your mouth. However, the real star was the amberjack, which is apparently true japanese yellowtail of premium quality. It was nothing short of spectacular. Smooth, tender, and sweet, with a lingering buttery finish. It was the sushi you give people who say they don't like sushi. We unfortunately ate in a rush due to the flight, but I loved everything about this place: quaint, simply decorated, no pretention (I gave it a great decor review because I like the minimalist approach, some people may disagree though), great service, and perfect food. Highly recommended.