Hand rolls and sakes are tasty highlights at this Toluca Lake restaurant ...Middle East

The Japanese word for hand rolls is “temaki.” And I’ve always thought of temaki as the sushi equivalent of a hot dog. Which is to say: It’s portable. It tastes as good on the go as it does sitting at a sushi bar. It’s relatively simple to make. And even more simple to eat. Depending on what’s in it, it can be messy. And it gives a lot of satisfaction for not a lot of money.

Temaki is a fun food. And as complex as the ingredients in the hand rolls at Yunomi may be, they never lose that edge of mildly silly pleasure. In a part of the city where sushi bars are as ubiquitous as taco stands in other hoods, Yunomi is a happy experience, with food that’s good (and often better than good), served in the sort of minimalist setting that’s become a signature in the fast-growing world of hand rolls — which seem to be on the verge of eclipsing sushi bars as our raw fish and rice destinations of choice.

The Toluca Lake branch of Yunomi is the San Fernando Valley outlet for a chain with shops in the Downtown Arts District, Culver City … and, soon, in Atwater Village.

As with pretty much all the hand roll destinations, there are no tables at Yunomi (3 stars; 10218 Riverside Drive, Toluca Lake; 818-747-2050; yunomihandroll.com); you sit on high stools at a bar, with the rolls made right in front of you.

The décor is soothing and minimalist, with a curious shell-like art piece built into one of the walls, which are a dark gray with what feels like a bit of reddishness underneath. There’s a sense of floating in space as you eat your rolls. It’s just you and the food — a Zen-like experience.

The menu is as minimalist as the setting, though also with bits of color here and there. Some of the hand roll houses — including KazuNori — offer hand rolls, and only hand rolls. You want a bowl of rice, good luck! But at Yunomi, there are options — and more than enough to turn the rolls into a proper meal, and not just a supper of bits and bites.

There are starters of edamame (very simple, just with sea salt), sautéed green beans with garlic soy, shishito peppers, crispy Brussels sprouts, classic cucumber sunomono salad, and a snappy seaweed salad.

If you need (want? crave?) more before you get to the rolls, there’s an appetizer selection of mixed seafood ceviche (a touch of Latino-Japanese blendo), yellowtail and serrano pepper sashimi, albacore sashimi with crunchy onions, rock shrimp tempura with spicy mayo, and the almost inevitable spicy albacore on crispy rice with less inevitable truffle soy sauce.

If you’re feeling a tad thirsty by this point, there are four teas, brewed in classic kettles in front of you; the menu notes a refill of hot water in the kettle is gratis, though I do wonder how well the green tea leaves rebrew. Still, even rebrewed tea feels more proper than a Diet Coke or a Sprite. With chopped bluefin tuna? I think not.

What’s just as proper as the tea are any of the 24 beers and 26 sakes — a surprising abundance of alcoholic beverages. With the exception of the Sapporo and the Asahi, these are beers from Japan that are rarely found on this side of the Pacific. With wonderful names: Hitachino Sunbathing Owl Golden Ale, Lucky Cat Witbier, Yoho Sorry Nippon Citrus. The sakes are dutifully described on the menu.

Not one of them is served hot. Hot sake is for tourists. I grind my molars when one of my family members insists on theirs being served hot. Feh!

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As is the hand-roll bar style, the primary way to order is one of the pre-chosen sets. In this case, a three hand-roll set, a four hand-roll set, a five hand-roll set and a six hand-roll set — which has hand rolls filled with tuna, albacore, salmon, yellowtail, scallop and shrimp tempura. The hand rolls are made in front of you, one at a time. You can also choose the hand rolls individually, though why you’d want to, I don’t know.

Except, of course, for the option of Specialty hand rolls, 10 of them, including baked eel, salmon skin, spicy shrimp and snow crab, and spicy albacore and shrimp tempura. Add on enough of the starters, the appetizers and the specials, and the simple sets can become quite a feast. Which may run contrary to the very essence of the meal.

As with most of our sushi bars, it’s a pleasure, for a change, to get up after your meal, and not feel as if you’ve just jammed down a triple smash burger with cheese and sauce, and a big pile of fries or onion rings. Your seatbelt will still fit. One of the sundry pleasures of the Japanese diet.

Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email [email protected].

Yunomi Handroll

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