Yosaku Japanese Restaurant (Portland, Maine)

On Saturday, Bret and I continued the birthday weekend celebrations.  After fueling up on a hearty breakfast of veggie omelettes, spiced potatoes and fruit at the Chadwick Bed and Breakfast, Bret and I headed out to Freeport to go shopping for the day.  Bret, like most men, dislikes shopping.  I, on the other hand, love it - even if it is just to browse instead of really buy!  In all of our many trips to Maine, we have never once stopped at the outlets and for my birthday, Bret treated me to a day of shopping at the Freeport outlets.  We started out at L.L. Bean and of course took a few touristy photos. 

But after that, we were down to business and Bret patiently shopped with me for about four hours and treated me to a lot of new clothes!  I seriously am a lucky gal.  We broke up our day of shopping and met our good friends Tonya and Alan (who live in Boothbay) for lunch at the Broad Arrow Tavern.  It was great to catch up with them one last time before their baby (which is due the day before Super Bowl Sunday) hopefully arrives!

By the time we got back to the bed and breakfast, Bret and I were both pooped.  We made ourselves some tea and split a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie.  And then we simply relaxed.  I caught up on some blogs and wrote a few blog posts myself, while Bret watched football and napped.  It was absolutely wonderful to have all the time in the world and nowhere to rush off to.  Eventually, we got hungry and decided to venture out for some dinner.  Since we had such a huge hearty meal the night before at Fore Street, we decided to have something lighter for dinner - sushi!  At the recommendation of the owner of the bed and breakfast, we headed out to Yosaku Japanese Restaurant.

Yosaku is a small restaurant that hosts a sushi bar, dining room, and an area with traditional Asian dining tables that require sitting on the floor.  Although Bret and I would have loved the more traditional Asian dining experience, we thought that taking off our wet dirty boots would have been too much of a hassle and we opted for the dining room.

Bret and I first started out with some Sapporo beer - a little guy for me and a tall boy for Bret.

We received two bowls of complimentary miso soup to start our meal.  It was the perfect way to warm up from the cold temperatures outside!

Bret and I started out with two appetizers.  The first was sticky broiled black cod in a glazed miso sauce.  This fish was so rich and flaky.  Bret and I both wished that we could have more of this delicious fish!

We also ordered one of our favorite dishes - agedashi tofu in a miso broth.  Typically agedashi tofu comes with a crispier texture outside and this dish was sadly lacking that.  I guess I'll just have to stick to my marinated baked tofu for a nice crispy texture.

Even though some of the warmer udon entrees were tempting, Bret and I decided to order from the sushi menu.  We ordered a bunch of different types of sashimi, including umachi (yellowtail), toro (fatty tuna), wasabi tobiko (wasabi infused flying fish roe), sake (salmon), and saba (mackerel).  The fish, particularly the salmon and fatty tuna, were so fresh that they tasted almost buttery in texture.

We also ordered lnari (sweet tofu) and quail eggs - sashimi style.  The quail eggs certainly garnered interest from our neighboring table as we ate them shooter style!

Bret and I couldn't resist ordering one roll so we opted with the Rainbow Roll to have a nice variety of seafood (shrimp, whitefish, tuna, mackerel, tobiko, tuna and avocado).

The sushi and sashimi really hit the spot.  We were happy we stuck mostly with sashimi to avoid filling up on all of the rice in a maki roll.  But we weren't stuffed enough that we didn't order dessert!  I introduced Bret to his first taste of mochi ice cream.  This dessert is simple - mochi (a doughy rice cake exterior) filled with ice cream.  We got to choose our flavors and we opted for one strawberry and one red bean paste.  This was a rare treat for me growing up so I couldn't resist ordering them.  Bret, much to his surprise, really enjoyed them!

Yosaku didn't have any fancy presentations but it was probably some of the best sushi I've had in awhile.  The fish was fresh as it is to be expected in Portland.  The service was warm and attentive.  And this meal fulfilled our sushi craving that evening.

Yosaku Japanese Restaurant is located at 1 Danforth Street, Portland, Maine.