Yabu Restaurant

I am in love with this place after coming here last night with my boyfriend! A little gem tucked away on Pico that I can honestly say is my new favorite when it comes to sushi, soba, and such.
We came here at the end of the evening, basically right before closing. Service was still a bit slow, but what was lacking in speediness was made up by the quality of the food. I mean, they make their own homemade tofu in house! Which, btw, had the consistency of Greek yogurt and a smooth, clean flavor unlike anything I’ve tasted before.
Other standout dishes:
Homemade soba noodles
Nigiri — We had mackerel, uni & ikura
Miso eggplant
I will agree with some of the other comments on here that it is a bit pricey but especially given the quality, and considering the time of day we visited, I’d say this place is excellent.
Street parking is generally available.

The udon was excellent! The sushi was great. Sweet service from the server, even though a bit slow. This is definitely a return spot in West LA. A bit pricey, probably a once a month place.

Pretty decent udons and sobas but it doesn’t compare to Torrance and Gardena places I’ve been to. The sushi was fresh, the service was painfully slow. They need to hire more staff it’s way too slow…

We came here for good Soba. They make the noodles by themselves. It’s pretty darn good. I liked it because it was very humble taste. Nothing was flashy, loud, or too strong. Everything was very modest and good, like very good homemade Japanese. It almost felt like Buddhist moderation. lol If that’s what they are aiming for, they did good job. Good relaxing atmosphere and cool waitress too. Parking sucks thou.

The sushi was high quality (better than Hide Sushi, not as good as the high-​end sushi spots), but the buckwheat noodles really stood out above the rest. All in all, a lot of really good food for under $ 35. I’ll be going back again soon.

Very good! The service was great. This is a lovely hole in the wall place and super charming. The food is very fresh.

This is a SOLID Japanese restaurant in West LA. We live next to Sawtelle so we go to Hide out of convenience. The truth is that Yabu is a far superior restaurant.
TIPS:
— Call ahead for reservations. It gets packed.
— There’s no parking other than street parking and it can get super hectic. Über/​Lyft?
— If you care about the fish, I strongly urge you to order sashimi and not sushi. I swear, they serve different fish for sashimi. Much better quality.

DON’T COME FOR THE SUSHI. It’s actually really good — but many reviewers seem disappointed by the price of it, not realizing that Yabu isn’t a sushi restaurant; they are a Japanese restaurant that specializes in soba noodles.
And on that — and other general Japanese food — they shine!
I often order a sushi roll when I come here, but if I’m in the mood for sushi, this is not my place. I come for noodles and…
— SALMON SKIN SALAD: the best I’ve had anywhere (see pic). Generous pieces of salmon skin, with a decent amount of salmon attached. I’ve never found a better salmon skin salad anywhere else!
— NASU MISO: miso glazed eggplant. If you’re a fan of eggplant, you’ll love this. Great little appetizer dish.
— SOBA NOODLES! I love Tori Toji (chicken and egg) and Curry Nanban (curry sauce, chicken, scallions). Think of Tori Toji as a Japanese version of chicken noodle soup — it’s simple, but the flavor, the mouth feel, how satisfied you feel after eating it… it’s the yumminess. Curry nanban would be more like if an Indian made chicken noodle soup. This is probably my favorite. Both are delicious.
10% off your entire bill if you pay cash!

Super Pricy,
was like 180 for 3 people,
Their Toro which was like 28 bucks wasnt even OTORO but Akami (red lean meat) which was like 5 small sashimi slices. Needless to say, I experienced better. It’s good, but i don’t know if it justifies the price tag.
Then again all we got was sushi, maybe we should have tried other items.
If money wasn’t an issue it would never be rated right?
Short Note: Good; Pricy; has their own parking which you have to pay.

My boyfriend and I decided to try Yabu for the first time tonight. They open at 6pm on the weekdays and we went right around that time.
As we arrived, parking is very difficult to find on Pico, but we got lucky and got free street parking. We walked to Yabu and were seated right away. It was our first time and wanted to try a variety of things. My boyfriend ordered the deluxe sushi set and I ordered the sashimi and tempura set. We also offer the beef tataki as an appetizer. Both sets were pretty good, but nothing out of this world. The deluxe sushi set came with many premium slices making it worth the price. It had a piece of sea urchin (uni), toro, and sweet shrimp, and 6 other pretty good pieces.
The sashimi set had 4 pieces of yellowtail, 2 salmon and blue fin tuna.
Overall the place was pretty good and a good bang for your buck. The service was great. Our waters was always filled, the constantly checked up on us and took our finished dishes. I would definitely come here again, my next visit I would like to try some of their soba.

MEDIOCRE.
Tiny little spot tucked away from the other sushi joints attracted me to come in. The service was just ok for me, amateur service. I felt like they just hing around not knowing what to do until an order or a bill was requested. The quality of fish was decent, had worst and had better. But the one thing that stood out to me was sanitary or should I say unsanitary.
How would you feel if you saw the sou chef (not the main chef) sneeze about 3 times and not wash his hands. I sat there starring in disgust. I considered getting up and leaving but realize he’s not the sushi chef and he won’t be preparing my food. The table who ordered before me… I feel sorry for you… Ordered soba noodles and he prepared their dishes while the sushi chef prepares my meal and the sushi chef did a fine job and preparing my meal.
FOOD.
MISO SOUP — I love it when miso soup is cloudy and flavorful. There miso is good.
SALMON SASHIMI ($ 11) — it was an item on the menu to pick one kind of fish and you get 5 pieces of it. I chose salmon. The presentation was pretty, color of fish was a nice clean orange, quality of fish was decent/​good but didn’t have that good «creamy» factor I like when eating salmon sashimi but it was still good. WHAT IS UP with the stalest wasabi??? The green triangle of wasabi on my plate could not be wasabi. It didn’t have the strong wasabi flavor… I had to use half of the wasabi to taste a inklet of wasabi. It must have been old wasabi sitting out so long it’s lost it’s flavor.
ALBACORE SUSHI ($ 6/​2pcs) — the presentation was clean but the ginger specs on top of the sushi killed it’s taste. I had to pluck it off to enjoy the sushi as the raw ginger flavor covered the entire palate shunning away from the delicate taste of the raw fish. The fish is to be the star item and not the garnishes that make the fish pretty. Leave off the ginger!!! After clearing the ginger the sushi was decent, the fish was just ok.
Until the next review…

Based on reading the reviews now, probably should have went with the soba instead of the fish.
Got the deluxe chirashi, but it wasn’t that much bigger than a regular chirashi I figure. Chirashi bowls always leave you wanting more I suppose. The server was checked out and didn’t offer too much in terms of size information. We ordered some hand rolls and regular cut rolls but all we got back were cut rolls. We didn’t bother correcting the waitress cause
¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
The whole experience was like that Waka Flocka ‘ok’ gif.
Nothing really stood about this place except the meh service; there is better sushi elsewhere. Price doesn’t really move the needle either way. This was a 2 star place for me, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

This is a solid sushi-​tempura restaurant. I ordered the sashimi and tempura dinner. It came with miso soup, salad, and tofu. The dinner was very well-​balanced. Also, the $ 7 cold sake was also very good. The salmon was very fresh and tasty. I ordered the hot soba also (not because I needed more food, but because I was tempted to try it). It was good. We were seated quickly (without reservations) at a busy dinner hour. There are tables and bar seats available. There were a variety of people– families, young professionals. The tempura was crispy. Overall, a good spot to eat.

Specializing in soba noodles, tempura, and fresh fish, this place was great for lunch.
Try: Any of the lunch specials but get soba noodles with your order. You can get udon if you like, hot or cold.
Heads up: Warm soba or udon comes served as a soup. Cold soba or udon comes served with a dipping sauce. When I ordered, I was unaware the «warm» noodles were served that way but I asked to switch them out to the cold without the broth (it was 90 degrees outside) and they did it without hesitation so I appreciated that!
Parking: not sure if there’s a lot nearby but parking gets a little tricky since it’s along a busy road. Street parking is your best bet but parking signs are mostly marked for an hour.
Come early for lunch if you can, this place gets busy!

There are so many ways to get 5 stars on Unilocal in my opinion, and the easiest way is just straight up being the best at one thing. Yabu has the best soba. 5 shiny stars for soba.
Not really sure what the secret but the noodles are just so damn good. They’re super wholesome and have a wonderful natural buckwheat flavor. GET EXTRA NOODLES IT’S WORTH IT. Pair your cold soba with something hot and fried (e.g. tempura, karaage), or pair your hot soba with something clean (sushi). Or just pair your soba with more soba. End soba rant.
The restaurant is small, traditional, and cozy. Don’t expect to get served super quickly especially if you come on a weekend – the service is a bit slow but it’s so worth it. See you soon Yabu!

My wife wanted to check this spot out since it’s so close to Marukai and Blue Bottle Coffee. I’m glad we we decided to do lunch here because the food was fantastic. We ordered the following;
Egg Omelete
Fried Oysters
One Cold Soba Dish
One Hot Soba Dish
We will definitely be coming back here more often. It’s well worth the drive down from Simi Valley.
Check out the pictures I added!

It looks very unassuming from the outside; it definitely doesn’t call attention to itself with any flash or gimmicks. I was introduced to this place by a friend and I’ll be forever grateful! I was in the area buying a mattress from nearby Mattress Pros and we decided to grab some dinner here. We were there pretty early in the evening so we didn’t have to wait getting seated at the bar, but it’s a small place and probably fills up fast. We got their homemade tofu appetizer, braised pork appetizer (INCREDIBLY tender – my favorite of the night) an assortment of nigiri sushi, and soba noodle soup. Everything was super-​fresh and delicious; I thoroughly enjoyed everything I ate and pretty much cleaned my plate. OK, I was very hungry going in, but still, it was excellent. I can’t wait to go back!
STEPH JUDGEMENT: Great little traditional Japanese restaurant with awesome food.

Traditional Japanese joint for sure. When walk in it’s quiet and small. It was pretty busy for a Thursday when Austin and I went. The chefs don’t greet you like other Japanese places. Actually they didn’t say anything or smile at all.
We ordered:
Chicken karragge: little oily but tender and juicy. How I like it. The breading was light and crispy. I just didn’t like how it only came with 4 small pieces for $ 6.50.
Blue fin tuna sushi: I swear it felt like tuna toro. It was so fatty and good. Oh and fresh!
Baked crab hand roll: it’s okay. There was spicy mayo in it and crab. That’s it. Not really worth $ 8 for one.
Cold soba: DELISH. I loved it. Finally found a place that makes great tasty cold soba. There was a decent portion and the dipping sauce was flavorful.
Hot soba with mushrooms and fish cake: light and warmth of goodness! They give you lots of mushrooms but only one fish cake.
Overall I really enjoyed this place. Definitely coming back for more soba!

Came here summer 2013… wasn’t happy with my lunch then… came back tonight and wasn’t happy with dinner.
customer service was horrible. we waited forever to even get a menu or water.
soba noodles was nothing to rave about… there wasn’t any taste. Top ramen would have been better and I don’t even like top ramen. I had to ask for tempura dipping sauce. Asked for straws and got hand towels instead. Then waited for ever… and I finally had to wave down the waiter for our check.
Sushi was great… fresh. If you have to eat dinner here… stick to sushi.
Plus street parking here is horrible.
I won’t be back.

SOBA! One of my favorite Japanese dishes as a little girl, I’ve always loved eating these cold buckwheat noodles. I’d bring them to elementary school to eat for lunch often, even though some of the other kids would say that it looked like worms :(Haha. Well fast-​forward to now, and I still enjoy eating soba! After reading all of the rave reviews on Unilocal about Yabu’s soba, I had to try some for myself!
The restaurant has a small entryway, so it’s easy to miss on Pico Blvd. if you’re not looking for it! You might be able to identify the storefront by the navy blue noren (Japanese curtain) that hangs in front of the door.
Parking:
Metered street parking, but it’s free in the evenings! There is also a small lot to the left of the restaurant that you can park in for a few dollars… don’t know if they’re actually associated with Yabu or not, so park at your own risk.
Food:
— Yabu Braised Pork — This appetizer was… WOW! A big chuck of meat, yet the entire piece was tender and very flavorful! I definitely recommend ordering this!
— Ten Zaru Soba — Came with two shrimp tempura and an assortment of vegetable tempura, including sweet potato, nori (seaweed), and shishito pepper. Supposedly one out of every ten peppers is spicy, and unfortunately, I was the lucky winner. Eek, my mouth was on fire! Soba was good, but I didn’t think it was as amazing as many of the reviews said it was. Maybe I went in with my expectations too high. The noodles were pretty sticky, so I had a hard time separating them to dip in the sauce. Don’t get me wrong, though, the soba was still tasty and quite refreshing!