Spotlight On:
Yamatani Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar
As part of our ongoing series, we are interviewing people and places of interest in the area who are having a positive impact on our community.
This time, we reached out to Yamatani!
Can you tell me a little about the history of Yamatani?
Yamatani is an offspring of our first restaurant, Shogun, in Mammoth Lakes, which started operations Thanksgiving weekend of 1980. Its name came from the original Shogun TV miniseries because I thought it would be fresh in people’s minds.
Our menu consisted of traditional Japanese cuisine with miso soup, rice, tempura, teriyaki, tonkatsu, broiled salmon, and sukiyaki. Sushi and sashimi were introduced in the spring of 1986 and a sushi bar seating 12 people was constructed in the fall.
The small selection of sushi consisted of California rolls, cucumber rolls, and tuna rolls and an assortment of tuna, shrimp, octopus, and salmon nigiri. This small beginning has now blossomed in a selection of over 50 rolls and upwards of 30 kinds of nigiri depending on market availability.
Yamatani opened for business in December of 2005 with Shogun’s entire menu (with a few minor changes). We continue to add new rolls and our philosophy is to serve the highest quality fish and seafood available in today’s market. Our chefs are trained on site to do all the basic tasks, including but not limited to: making sauces (we make every sauce from scratch except the tonkatsu sauce); preparing vegetables; cooking and seasoning the rice; and making the rolls and nigiri (without machines). To this day 98% of the fish is still cut by me (Robbie)! We have a full cocktail bar, a selection of Japanese beers with Sapporo now on tap, both hot and cold sake and ramune (marble soda) for the kids.
What’s your restaurant’s concept and what makes it unique?
Our restaurant’s concept is simple: consistency. If you visited Shogun Restaurant in 1986 or 2000, and Yamatani in 2006, 2015, and today, the food tastes the same. A #2 Combination of chicken teriyaki and tempura is identical in both taste, quality, and quantity. We have strived to maintain this standard even as the cost of product has drastically increased and availability of certain items has fluctuated. What makes us unique? We’re an “Old-school” family-owned and operated restaurant, working every day for nearly 44 years.
What are your most popular sushi rolls or dishes?
Our most popular kitchen dishes are tempura, chicken teriyaki, chicken katsu, tonkatsu, and calamari. Our sukiyaki, based off my mother’s recipe, is very popular with 3rd generation Japanese Americans traveling from Southern California (people don’t make it at home as much anymore because it takes a lot of preparation).
Sushi falls into two categories: rolls and nigiri or sashimi (no rice). This also means there are two types of sushi diners. We are constantly complimented on the freshness of our fish, the size of the “cuts”, and the taste and variety of our rolls. We don’t smother everything in spicy mayo (though we also make ours in-house!) and try to let the ingredients shine.
The Robbie, Caterpillar, Crunchy, Pamela, Rainbow, Viper, and Vampire are some of our more popular rolls. We do have a selection of vegetarian rolls and try to accommodate vegan requests. And yes, there is a “secret” menu… It’s SECRET!
Do you have any recommendations for sushi beginners or those new to Japanese cuisine?
If you want to get into sushi but raw fish is a deterrent for you, I recommend starting with a Crunchy roll– it has a fully-cooked tempura shrimp, cucumber, and avocado. For those new to Japanese cuisine, I suggest starting with some appetizers, such as our tempura, gyoza (potstickers), and yakitori or kushiyaki (chicken or beef skewers with teriyaki sauce). Both our kitchen and sushi menus are extensive, and our waitstaff can guide you through the selection process.
What is the story behind your restaurant’s name?
“Yamatani” is not an actual, single word in the Japanese dictionary, but yama means “mountain” and tani, my last name, means “valley”. So here we are in the Owens Valley at the base of the Eastern Sierra Mountains… we simply put the two words together, “Yamatani”, literally meaning “mountain valley”… and the rest is history! The Yamatani logo, an orange sun and mountain with the appropriate Japanese kanji (characters) for yama and tani in the background, was designed by my cousin in Southern California.
A special thank you to Yamatani Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar for answering our questions!
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I don’t think of octopus roll in the Eastern Sierra, but I’ll bet its great. Like a lot of Eastern Sierra restaurants – there aren’t a lot of any particular type of food, but each one there is is really good!
Also: Tanner, update your “thank you” so it doesn’t say “Flo’s Diner”, last week’s profile.