Yuba Visited 10/31/2011 3 Forks

Yuba 105 E 9th St., (between 3rd Ave & 4th Ave), New York, NY 10003

I originally had Yuba on my list because I had read about their Uni risotto dish.  Other than that, there's no real discernible reason why this was on my list of places to eat.  Aarti and I actually wanted to go to this other sushi place in the East Village but it was closed on Mondays, so we decided to give it a go.  There's nothing really special or fabulous about Yuba, it's your basic standard sushi place in the E. Village (which were are tons of in that area).

The one good thing about this place is that they actually had a lot of vegetarian options.  So if you happen to need to go to a sushi place that's veggie-friendly, I would recommend this place as a good compromise.  They even have a vegetarian combo set which yo don't really see very often.  Aarti got a miso soup ($3) to start, corn tempura ($7) and the shitaki avocado roll ($7).  Of course when it was time for me to order, you'd think I'd get the Uni risotto but it was $25 or $31 if you wanted truffles with it.  If I was splitting it with someone, I might have considered ordering it, but since I wasn't starving and Aarti couldn't share it with me, I opted to get my stand-by spicy roll set ($16).  I didn't try the misso soup but Aarti had mentioned that it was good (your standard miso) but had some tofu skin in addition to the regular blokes of tofu, which was different but tasty..  We both tried the corn tempura and it was really delicious.  They basically took a bunch of corn kernels, formed them into a patty and then very lightly battered it  and served with taro and shiso.  It tastes exactly like what it sounds like: corn and light tempura batter. Then I got my spicy roll set next and when Aarti's 1 roll didn't come it was clear that they had forgotten to place the order (I think there was some confusion over it because Aarti originally had ordered shishito peppers but they were out of it and the waitress might have just forgotten to write the roll order down too).  The roll set came with spicy tuna, salmon and yellowtail, so you standard spicy combinations.  I was a bit annoyed that it didn't come with a soup or salad (is that a new trend these days?!) but there was more than enough rolls to make up for it.  These spicy rolls were the kind that had the large chunks of fish and then covered with spicy mayo instead of the chopped and mixed version.  I prefer this large pieces of fish if the fish is fresh.  I'm not saying my rolls were bad, they were actually quite satisfying, but there wasn't anything to write home about.  If I lived around the corner or any where close to delivery, I am pretty sure I would order this combo a lot.

Next we ordered the Yuzu cheesecake ($9) for dessert.  This was pretty blah and not exciting.  It was a bit dry and crumbly which is not how I like my cheesecakes.  I prefer for them to be moist and more firm (ok that sounded kind of sexual and gross, sorry!).  We didn't even finish it and the waitress was like "You can't leave until you finish your dessert!".  All we could do was smile and say we were full.  All in all, this place was fine and could be a nice local joint if you lived nearby.  But since I don't, not sure how often I would return but I am still dying to try the Uni risotto at some point!  Total bill was $31/pp with tip and tax.

Photo Credit: Yelp