I RECALLED there was a lot of interest when Yo! Sushi opened in the new Union Square shopping complex. It caused quite a stir, in fact.
A few days later, I walked by and saw every seat was taken. Not only that, a row of people had formed a queue inside, hoping for a space.
Watching them was another line of people outside who had their noses pressed up against the windows. Meanwhile, I was starting a new line of onlookers behind so we could watch the line in front watching the queue inside, which was watching the diners.
Maybe it was the mesmeric effect of dozens of freshly made Japanese dishes going round Yo! Sushi’s trademark conveyor belt on the counter top, which circles diners and the open kitchen like a Scalextric track.
Now I was back and people still had their noses pressed against the window from time to time, and trade was brisk. It has caught on with the north-east public – the friendly manager told us it was a top-six Yo! Sushi restaurant in the UK.
He made us feel at home and guided us to a snug table for two alongside the moving belt to the right. To the left was an impressive view of the cavernous entrance below at the railway station end of Union Square. We were first-timers, so he sat with us to run through the drill.
Japanese food comes in many shades – from fried and battered to chilled, but presented beautifully in small packages, with something for everyone.
The menus were booklets as there were so many dishes on offer, with colour pictures and descriptions, along with colour price-codes on virtually every page which matched the colour code on the revolving dishes.
Hot dishes were cooked to order and all we had to do was press a button on the table, which lit a small lamp and brought a waitress to our side. When a hot dish was ready, a chef would simply hand it across.
There were other things to play around with, too: two dispensers so we could top up with still or fizzy water. It was £1 for the first one and then free. It was a similar arrangement with delicious mugs of green tea at £1.50 for the first one.
My wife immediately handed me the kiddies’ chopsticks, which are stuck together at one end as a safety precaution. The belt was part of the fun as we reached out to take whatever took our fancy.
With some dishes, it was tricky as the sushi could look quite similar. By the time we cross-checked an approaching dish with the picture and colour code in the menu, it had gone past and was half-a-mile down sushi street. The great thing was that it usually came around again, and we soon got the knack of it.
On our first foray, my wife grabbed what she thought were chicken strips on salad, which we shared. As we munched, we agreed this was an unusual Japanese-style chicken, until we checked the menu – and discovered it was tofu.
My wife was more assured now and asked casually: “Have you seen the chef’s hairy prawns?”
I tried not to look as he was standing just a few feet to the side of me, but you couldn’t miss them: a mountain of silver-grey prawns were before him which he was wrapping with hair-like strands of kadaifi pastry and dressing with wasabi mayonnaise. Now I could see why they were called “hairy prawns” on the menu.
The dishes reminded us of Spanish tapas – small and snack-like. They were intricate and exotic, with intense tastes, but generally easy on the palate.
I started with a bowl of spicy seafood udon soup with prawns, salmon and squid, and Asian vegetables and noodles. It was a generous portion and quite fiery, which I liked. My wife was tucking into crayfish with rocket and chilli, and the crunchy tofu I mentioned earlier, followed by a spicy chicken salad with ginger and garlic which had been at the centre of the tofu mix-up.
A pair of eye-catching seaweed rolls were next. These crisp cones had a rice filling and were stuffed with delicate soft-shell crab for me and crispy duck for my wife, with a sprinkling of pickle, chilli, cucumber and spring onion.
From the sushi selection, I landed a salmon dragon roll of rice and seaweed cubes crammed with crabstick, avocado, mayonnaise, Japanese chilli and a salmon topping, while my wife chose cucumber maki with sesame seeds.
It was a warm selection next, with miso black cod (pan-fried Alaskan cod in a miso sauce), chicken katsu curry (chicken with rice, a mild curry sauce and Japanese pickle) and prawn katsu (crispy fried prawns in Japanese breadcrumbs and a fruity sauce).
A waitress finally made up our minds over puddings by confiding that the staff favourites were small dorayaki pancakes with custard filling and raspberry sauce.
We stared sheepishly at the remains of our 13 dishes but, as we kept trying to reassure ourselves, they were small and dainty.
Totting up the bill was easy as a waitress simply counted our colour-coded plastic dishes, ranging from £1.70 to £5 each. Our bill was just less than £50.
I don’t know about the land of the rising sun; we felt like creatures from the land of the rising tum.
Yo! Sushi, Union Square, Aberdeen. Telephone 01224 432830. www.yosushi.com