Yama Sushi -- The Secret Is Less Sauce

The Spicy Girl roll

Less is more -- at least at Yama Sushi, which has broken into my top sushi restaurants by making me plan my next trip before I have even paid the dinner bill.

The Ellicott City restaurant takes on the "big roll" style of Sushi Sono and Sushi King, and they're pulling it off.  The Yama chefs have their own style, their own flavor combinations.  Their own way of pulling off a style that calls for multiple ingredients, sauces and generally enough pizazz to be worth $12-20 per roll.

Less sauce.  More spicy options.  Those were the realizations from our last dinner at Yama Sushi.  Take the "Spicy Girl" roll -- tuna and avocado inside a roll wrapped with steamed shrimp and a kimchee sauce.  Just dabs of sauce, but it brightens the entire dish.

The Sweet Mango roll

All three restaurants serve terrific rolls.  The Yama Sushi touch is lighter than Sushi King, where the sauces are all thick and where they dominate some rolls, even some of my favorites.  Yama's rolls are a bit smaller.  The sauces range from thick to watery.  Many rolls are powered by "pepper tuna" or the kimchee sauce or even jalapeno.  You could pick a dozen rolls with no spiciness at all, but it's clear that the Yama chefs have fun with heat.

They're also really creative.  The "Sweet Mango" roll mixed tempura shrimp, mango and a sweet chili sauce.  The roll is actually wrapped in thin-sliced fruit.  They're always playing with exotic wrappers like pink soy paper, and they have more specials than I have seen elsewhere.  Check the board because some sound as good too good to miss.