By: Matt Murch
Yama Zakura, or “Mountain Flowers”, is an Asian fusion of Thai and Japanese food in Northborough. Owner Anna Bouphavichith, won the 2010 People’s Choice Award in Worcester for Best Asian Chef. Bouphavichith is constantly greeting guests like friends, and remembers returning customers. This previously tight quartered restaurant underwent expansion last year, and doubled its size. This formal restaurant is the perfect place for a night out, with table seating or a sushi bar.

Waitresses offer hot towels before asking about drinks. The menu offers a good variety of dishes, from steak tips to mouthwatering sushi to curry. Although the seared tuna steak was disappointing, lacking flavor and served with little sauce, upon bringing this concern to the waitress’s attention, more was soon brought out. The steak tips were also a letdown because they were dry.

However, the restaurant’s sushi is phenomenal, especially the famous Lobster Bomb. The perfect meal at Yama Zakura would start with their Yama Nachos as an appetizer, moving then to a sushi platter, which always includes the Lobster Bomb with two or three other types of sushi. The always appetizing main dish would be their Coco Noodle dish, which is a coconut curry dish with noodles. For dessert, Yama Zakura offers a truly delectable chocolate molten cake, but this takes 30 minutes to be ready, so it must be ordered with time to spare. They also have fried bananas and ice cream which are just as good.

The service is not as good as the food, which takes quite a while to be ready. The waitresses do not visit the table frequently. However, Bouphavichith is always roaming the floor, and customers can ask her for help if the waitress is not available.

The decor of the newly renovated restaurant is appealing. The sushi bar has two rows of seating with a television to watch the big game. One wall is dominated by a specials wall, which looks good and makes it easy to see the specials. The lighting of the restaurant is a bit dim.

Overall the restaurant is four out of five stars, losing points for service and the few dishes that are not up to par with the sushi.

For hours of operation, visit www.yamazakurasushi.com, or call (508) 393-4187.

Yama Zakura is located at 369 W Main St # 3 Northborough, MA 01532.