Yama Sushi Marketplace – LA

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, famed LA chef Kazunori Nozawa (later of Sugarfish and KazuNori fame) was known to throw even celebrity patrons out of his unapologetically traditional sushi restaurant if they demanded California rolls – artificial crab, mayo, and avocado wrapped in nori paper, rice, and sesame seeds – an affront, he felt, to classic Japanese recipes and preparation. San Gabriel-based fishmonger Kenzo Yamada wasn’t as dogmatic. Having supplied premium-quality fish to restaurants (including Nobu) from his shop Yama Seafood during the same time period, Yamada decided in the early 2000s to sell California rolls, too, and developed a version that won local fame as best-of-class. After four decades of wholesaling and retailing fish, he sold the business to new owners, who preserved his recipes and expanded “Yama Sushi Marketplace” to three LA-area locations.

Less than 10 minutes away from Pasadena, The Huntington, and Asian culinary paradises such as Arcadia, Alhambra, and Rosemead, the San Gabriel store is a two-room, bodega-like store with a rear parking lot adjacent to its nondescript entrance. Though there are a few spots on the street in the “front” of the building, you’ll be better off parking in the back, where you may be able to find shade as you eat lunch or dinner in your car.

That’s right: There are no seats and no tables either in or around this place. Yama Sushi Marketplace is best understood as a sushi, sashimi, and Japanese convenience store with restaurant-caliber food yet no actual restaurant amenities. It has been this way for decades, with the promise that its sushi is “fresh hourly.” Japanese supermarkets Mitsuwa and Tokyo Central offer no such assurances.

The secrets to Yama’s California rolls were laid out in a glowing 2023 LA Times article: atypically large (~2.5-inch) diameters, plenty of better-grade imitation crab meat, and extra mayo. These details – presumably catnip for serious California roll fans – were bolstered by a claim that people actually fought at Yama’s fridges over the day’s last packages, suggesting that the local clamor for the rolls hadn’t died down after two decades.

On our visit in November 2025 during a weekend lunch hour, there were thankfully no fights, no shortage of ready-to-buy California rolls, and not even much of a line. Perhaps two dozen different nigiri and cut roll variations were spread across several chilled cases, intermingled with katsu sandwiches, Japanese puddings, and sodas. Shelves nearby held bottles of sake and imported Hello Kitty snacks. The overall vibe was less “7 Eleven in Japan” than “old CVS in Tustin” – but with a much nicer sashimi counter, sporting deep red and clean pink blocks of tuna, rich orange slices of salmon, and restaurant-sized boxes of sea urchin.