Yutori, a Japanese market in Palo Alto that opened earlier this year serving konbini-style grab-and-go dishes, cafe bites and deli meals, just kicked off an ambitious new dinner service.
“We thought about different ways to bring things from Japan that people love,” says Lily Peng, one of the shop owners and managing partners.
The menu comes from executive chef Jerome Ito, the Japanese American chef behind other local concepts including Go Fish Poke Bar and Taro San Noodle Bar. Bringing Yutori to life has been a passion project for Peng, Ito, his wife, Linh Tran-Ito, and their fourth partner, Adam Nguyen, according to Peng.
The restaurant’s menu is expected to shift with the seasons and source its ingredients from local farms. For instance, the greens in the mizuna salad come from Hikari Farms, an organic farm in Watsonville.
The menu is described on the restaurant’s website as “Japanese cuisine through a California lens,” offering Japanese flavors with a twist. You’ll find Nikkei ceviche ($32), inspired by the Japanese diaspora in Peru, for instance, served with black sesame, kombucha oil and seaweed; maitake mushroom pasta ($38); and a whole roasted branzino lettuce wrap (market price) served with a shiso salsa verde, rayu chili oil and dashi apple slaw.
With a full bar, cocktails are also a highlight of the dinner service, Peng says. Curated by bar director Francisco Carranza, who’s previously worked at Pacific Cocktail Haven and Viridian, cocktails include creative blends like the Ume Chuhai ($18) with shochu, ume, elderflower and tonic, and Yuki’s Tokyo Bayside ($18) featuring sake, chamomile vodka, lychee, grapefruit, kabosu and soda. On the zero-proof side, the Bitter Yakult Fizz ($16) blends Yakult with Martini NA Aperitivo Floreale, mango, orgeat, cream and soda.
Yutori, a Japanese food market and restaurant in Palo Alto, has just kicked off the soft opening for its dinner service. Look for dishes like Nikkei ceviche, bone-in tonkatsu and maitake mushroom pasta as examples of the restaurant’s Japan-meets-California culinary vision. (Courtesy of Ed Carlo Garcia)
The restaurant also has a sake sommelier, Charles Choung, who has curated exclusive and rare sake selections, with picks like the limited Heiwa Shuzo “Kid” ($36/glass, $150/bottle) and Kuromatsu Senjo ($22/glass, $95/bottle). A lengthy list of Japanese whisky options is also available.
The team at Yutori is also planning to launch a brunch service, which is likely to kick off sometime in the spring, according to Peng.
Yutori is also home to a spacious, well-landscaped outdoor dining area — and a sizable parking lot for visitors.
Reservations are available via OpenTable, and about 12 bar seats (with full menu access) are open to walk-ins.
Details: Open 5:30-10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and 5:30-9:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 3375 El Camino Real, Palo Alto; yutori-pa.com.
Dining and Cooking