Yayoi, located at 403 University Ave., is a teishoku-style Japanese restaurant. Teishoku means "meal set" and typically includes items like rice, miso soup, a main dish, side dish and pickled vegetables. (See this Yelp photo.)
For example, there’s the nasa miso and saba teishoku ($18.50) with eggplant, pork belly and vegetables in a miso sauce, served with grilled mackerel; or the teppan beef teishoku ($19.50) — steak in a sweet onion shoyu-based sauce, served with rice, miso soup and other accompaniments. There are also seafood dishes (including sashimi), hot pots, udon and other items. View the full menu here.
Yayoi serves kinme-mai rice, is a type of Japanese rice which is refined using a “new milling method and is said to be a white rice with all the benefits of brown rice,” the restaurant’s website reads.
Perhaps in a nod to its new home, the Palo Alto Yayoi apparently has tablets on which you can place your order from the comfort of your own table, per Yelp.
Yayoi operates under the umbrella of Plenus, a larger food company that manages restaurants in Thailand, Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere and also produces rice and other foods, according to the company's website. There are more than 270 Yayoi locations in Japan, plus franchises in Thailand, Singapore and Australia.
The space at 403 University was previously occupied by O Sushi, which suddenly closed in April 2015.
Yayoi is open daily for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and for dinner from 5-9 p.m.
