Yokohama Japanese Restaurant
980 Blanshard St.
250-384-5433
Last night, the Pacific Northwest Ballet was performing at the Royal, and the lovely SP wrangled some tickets for us. I had never been to a ballet before, so I didn’t have any expectations. A pre-show meal was on the agenda, and SP’s mother suggested Yokohama, as it is located directly across from the Royal Theatre.
It’s charming inside, with thin wall dividers in the booths that encourage positive posture( you don’t want to lean back against them). We ordered a round of tea, and a bottle of Mission Hill Pinot Blanc to start us off. The tea was served in cute little cups with a painted carp on them, and the pot held enough tea for a few re-fills. The wine was nice too.
It was busy inside, and I liked the positioning of the sushi-bar, quite central. I felt like some sushi, whereas my company went for some bento boxes. I ordered a salmon and avocado roll, and a prawn tempura roll. The bento boxes came with shabu soup, and sunomono salad, rice, tempura, and a main. Needless to say, when the meal arrived, they were quite impressive in size.
I was surprised to see in their “sushi creations” that imitation crab meat was used in almost all of them. I steered clear of those rolls, kind of put me off. The rolls I did end up ordering were good, smaller than expected, but fresh. The bento boxes seemed like a good deal, deliciously crispy tempura yams, zucchini, onions, and prawns. It isn’t the best Japanese food I’ve had but it was good.
Yokohama works well if you’re seeing a show and want to grab a bite beforehand. The staff were pleasant and quick.
The 4 times I went there I could not get the staff to attend the table, which was really bad because they were all buffet nights, which basically means that they took our money and did not deliver our food. I’m not sure why we paid. Just habit I guess. Shame they don’t have similar staff-related habits.