July 29, 2004

Sushi Factory adds affordable, creative flavor to the neighborhood

By Lorraine Gabbert
Staff Writer

At the new Sushi Factory, colorful dragons dance, Godzilla reigns supreme, and the Golden Gate Bridge spans its majestic arches across china plates. These tantalizing morsels are a mere sampling of the sushi co-owners Ken Lu and Helen Wu provide, several which are Lu’s original creations.

With a unique approach to attract customers, Sushi Factory offers All You Can Eat Sushi, at an inexpensive cost. “Sushi is expensive,” notes Lu. “Most people like it, but can’t spend that much money, so we did something revolutionary. We offer high quality sushi and Japanese food at affordable prices.” Besides sushi and sashimi, they also serve kitchen food like chicken, beef, and salmon teriyaki; tonkatsu; and vegetable and shrimp tempura.

Wu likes working in the restaurant. “It’s a good way to express myself, and a great way to make people happy,” she says. “I meet different people every day. It’s fun talking with them and seeing their satisfaction with the food.”

Wu, who has been involved in the restaurant business for over 10 years, originally worked with Lu in his Fresno location. Last year, they started looking for a site in San Jose. “We wanted the right location,” contends Wu. “We almost gave up looking for a place—nothing seemed right—and then we were lucky. We saw an ad in the newspaper that Jasmine Alley was selling restaurant equipment, and it turned out that the restaurant was also for sale. We came to take a look, and fell in love with it. The décor is beautiful. After much searching, suddenly the opportunity was here!”

Seventeen years ago, Lu started washing dishes in a Japanese restaurant. After two days, he became a kitchen helper. Three months later he was kitchen chef, followed by kitchen head chef, sushi bar helper, sushi bar chef, and then manager. He found he had a talent for the restaurant business and really enjoyed it, and so a mere three years later, he opened his first Japanese restaurant. Over the years, Lu has owned five different Japanese restaurants, mostly around the Bay Area.

“Ken and I both have a lot of experience in the restaurant business,” observes Wu. “He’s had 16 years of experience making sushi, and has owned sushi restaurants before. He is like the chef and I’m like the management. We make a good combination. We decided to do All You Can Eat Sushi, which no one else in the Bay Area does like we do. Special sushi like our Dragon Roll is really expensive elsewhere, but here it’s included.”

“With sushi, it looks beautiful and entices people to eat it,” expresses Lu, who delights in chatting with the customers, as well as creating unique dishes “I make a lot of our own special sauces, including my recipes for white tuna, red snapper, Unagi eel, and teriyaki sauce. We also have a great kitchen menu.” Lunch specials start at $4.50 and are served with salad, soup and rice. Bento Boxes are $9.95. “It not only looks good, it’s very tasty,” he says. “Every customer is satisfied.”

At Sushi Factory, All You Can Eat Sushi, is currently $11.95 for lunch Monday through Friday, and $17.95 for dinner and weekends.

“People love this idea,” enthuses Lu. “They come again and again.” In a few months, Sushi Factory may modify their introductory prices, but for now, they hope it will aid them in attracting new customers. “We offer the best quality at an affordable price so they can come here more often,” he asserts. “One repeat customer enjoyed his sushi so much, that he brought six Japanese businessmen here and they too liked the sushi. We’re happy.”

One of Lu’s specialties, the Godzilla Roll is very popular with their clients. “Inside is yellow tail,” he reveals. “We deep fry it a little bit, and add spicy Unagi sauce and scallions. It’s sweet and spicy; crunchy outside, and tender inside. People love it!”

He is also proud of his S.E.X. on the Mountain, which consists of Shrimp, Eel, and something eXtra (scallops). “It looks like a mountain with a tree (parsley) on top,” explains Lu. “Our Dragon Roll (which includes tempura shrimp, eel, crab, and avocado) looks like a dragon, and the Spider Roll (softshell crab and vegetable) looks like a spider.

That’s how you catch people’s eye and make them want to try it. The idea for the Taxi Roll came from a driver who came regularly. One day I wasn’t there and they didn’t know the name of his favorite dish, so he asked me to put something on the menu that he’d recognize, and we came up with Taxi Roll. The Golden Gate is grilled salmon skill in the shape of a bridge with fish eggs on top. Every dish looks beautiful and our sushi chefs have many years of experience.”

Customers Ed and Winnie Chim enjoy the Bento Boxes, which offer a choice of two out of nine entries, including chicken, beef or salmon teriyaki and shrimp or vegetable tempura or sashimi served with soup, salad and rice. “I like the salmon teriyaki,” shares Winnie. “Since it’s my favorite, I always order it.” Ed prefers the Tonkatsu, a fried breaded pork cutlet. “It’s a reasonable price and tastes pretty good, which is why we come back,” he comments.

The All You Can Eat Sushi affords customers Guilherme Saueressig and Carolina Brochado an opportunity to try sushi they’ve never tried before as well as old favorites. “It’s very good and healthy,” remarks Brochado.

For Si-Yao Xiao, the California Roll is her favorite, while her mother, Song Gao, likes the Sashimi. They come for the good price, good taste, and good service. “The presentation is very creative,” adds Xiao.

In the future, Lu is looking to attract additional customers and expand their sushi bar. However, he is satisfied with the customer turnout so far. “People like our concept,” he remarks. “With a new restaurant comes new ideas and new people.”

“We want everybody to know that we have great food, great service, a great location, and a beautiful restaurant,” he affirms, “Plus, it’s not only the food and the price that are attractive. The issue is how good are you? We opened last month, and have seen people come back six and ten times already. They really enjoy our food.”

Sushi Factory is located at 4632 Meridian Avenue, at the corner of Meridian and Branham, in the Lunardi’s Supermarket shopping center. They can be reached at (408) 723-2598.

—Photos by Lorraine Gabbert