Every year, since my daughter Sienna was 2 years old, she has requested her favorite food for her birthday meal: sushi. So, every year, we’ve brought home sushi from Yanagi in Santa Maria.
Sienna hasn’t yet graduated to the raw variety; she started with, and still loves, California rolls, made with cooked crabmeat, avocado, cucumber, seaweed, and rice.
This year, when she turned 5, I decided she was old enough to go out for a “big girl” lunch with Mommy, at Yanagi, of course.
With her eyes wide and excited when we walked in, she looked around inside the restaurant and said, “Ooo, this is pretty!”
We sat at the sushi bar so that she could watch the sushi chef work his magic.
Chef Jeff greeted us and was happy to see a little girl eagerly take a seat in front of him.
He handed both of us small bowls of Japanese cucumber and seaweed vinaigrette salad, which—to both the chef’s and my surprise—Sienna gobbled up using her chopsticks, no less.
Noticing that my daughter was having a little trouble maneuvering the sticks, Yanagi’s dining-room host quickly brought her “training” chopsticks, with a rubber band on one end, which dramatically improved her technique.
Next up, the California roll: I placed a couple of pieces on Sienna’s plate with a dish of soy sauce. She quickly devoured them, while I enjoyed my sushi of choice, yellowtail.
Jeff then handed us our family favorite: Yanagi’s Golden California Roll. A fellow sushi chef behind the bar and he actually took a few moments to watch with pride as their tiny, towheaded customer practically inhaled the rolls that he so expertly handcrafted.
The Golden California Roll is a California roll wrapped with warm tempura salmon and topped with eel sauce.
Sienna exuberantly announced, “Mommy, this is so yummy!”
Once we were stuffed with sushi, Jeff stood behind the bar with a sharp knife in one hand and an orange in another.
He rotated the orange until one long peel spiraled down. I had a feeling that Jeff wasn’t finished putting a smile on Sienna’s face.
Moments later, he graciously handed us a surprise dessert—an orange sunburst on a large white plate. Two toothpicks stood out of the bite-sized orange slices in the center of the plate, surrounded by whipped cream and drizzled in chocolate in the shape of a sun.
It was a simple, sweet finish to lunch, and another mother-daughter moment to cherish.
Children love individualized attention and it has been my experience that my daughters’ behavior is nearly ideal when they’re one-on-one with a parent. Dining out is always enjoyable when I take my children out for a special “mommy and me” lunch.
Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box when taking your kids or grandchildren out to eat.
It helps that Yanagi has a fun, family-friendly atmosphere and staff, and even has a small kids’ menu, but my children are delighted eating off of the regular menu, too.
Yanagi Sushi and Grill is located at 2431 S. Broadway, Santa Maria. The phone number is 937-8882. The website is yanagisushigrill.com. Hours are 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch and 5 to 10 p.m. for dinner, seven days a week. Yanagi also has locations in Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, and Dublin.
Sun food and wine columnist Wendy Thies Sell hopes to instill in her children the same love of food. Story ideas are welcome at wthies@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 4-11, 2013.
