BISTRO
Ye’s boundless bonanza of decent food undeniably provides a big bang for your buck.
For a good start to the potentially unending feast, try the pan-fried pork gyoza. An oniontinged, sausagelike filling is showcased in fairly delicate dumplings that are appealingly crisp on one side. Another strong opener is the vegetable tempura — puffy and crisp-battered broccoli, green beans, mushrooms, potatoes, eggplant, baby corn and more.
Options also include a simple-but-flavorful avocado salad and an adequate chicken teriyaki that, rather than the expected marinated-and-grilled meat, is a stir-fry of fresh vegetables and tender sliced chicken plopped onto a sweet, dominating sauce. If choosing soups, the above-average hotand-sour outscores the mild miso.
Ye’s large special rolls are the richest source of savings in this bargain meal, so I’d focus on those. In general, they’re the kind of colorful, fusionleaning constructions with names like “Element,” “Rainbow” and “Buckeye” that arrive with sauces, fried bits and other bells and whistles that make them popular with diners not enamored with straightforward sushi. Another Ye’s special-roll bonus: Given their elaborate flourishes, you’re less likely to notice — as I did with stripped-down pieces of mackerel and red snapper nigiri — that the overabundant sushi rice is underseasoned.
Among the special rolls I tried, the holoda is a rice-on-the-outside cylinder (uramaki) filled with avocado and spicy tuna. This is tempura-battered and fried, thinly sliced and detailed with stripes of chili-accented mayo and eel sauce. The crowd-pleasing result is zippy, sweet, rich and crispy.
For something more fish-forward and less flamboyant, try the royal roll. Another fun inside-out creation, it’s a minced salmon-andtuna roll draped with yellowtail and avocado and decorated with creamy squiggles.
The rest of the lengthy menu, like the menu at Jason Ye’s other restaurant — Wild Ginger near Hilliard — is all over the Asian map. One winning entree is the fire wok ($20 with soup or salad). A gurgling-hot stone pot loaded with vegetables (zucchini, shiitake mushrooms, pea pods and more), plus plentiful seafood — this includes two lobster tails, plump scallops and shrimp — arrives awash in a rich and flavorful but unusually mild Thaistyle curry sauce. Like most items I tried here, if less than fantastic, it’s good enough to warrant more in-house diners.