Openings

What to Eat at Yanako, Opening Tonight on Main Street in Manayunk

Yanako's interior.
Yanako’s interior. Photo: Yanako

More than a year ago we told you that Moon Krapugthong was closing the doors on her popular Bangkok street food restaurant Mango Moon in advance of opening a more ambitious Japanese BYOB with a sushi bar. That restaurant, Yanako, opens tonight on Main Street in Manayunk. The bi-level restaurant serves a menu of traditional, “every day” Japanese dishes, and sushi, both Japanese and American variations. The space, which was created with the help of a team of architecture graduates from Philadelphia University, features an atrium with a Japanese terra cotta tile roof and green wall leading the way to the second floor. Upstairs there’s a sushi bar and Ozashiki room with floor seating. A large, copper-wrapped community table serves as a focal point in the room. The adjacent sushi bar is constructed with monkey pod wood and features unfinished edges and a natural grain pattern.

Krapugthong and her chef Haruo Ige Yanako have come up with a menu that covers the bases of popular Japanese dishes. Highlights include yakitori, shrimp and vegetable tempura, gyoza, and assorted noodle dishes. On the sushi side, there’s toro, hamachi, unagi (fresh water eel), uni and more. There are also a variety of rolls, including a selection of signature creations. The eponymous Yanako, is comprised of shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, avocado and asparagus topped with scallion. The Manayunk features king crab, cucumber and avocado, topped with broiled eel, nori, tempura crunch and eel sauce. Click here for the dinner menu, and here for the sushi menu.

Yanako, 4255 Main Street, (215) 483-1979

What to Eat at Yanako, Opening Tonight on Main Street in Manayunk