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Big portions for an affordable price is the goal of a new family-owned Japanese restaurant in Mountain View.
In a restaurant scene punctuated with an influx of high-end omakase, Toki Sushi is going back to basics. The expansive menu offers lunch bentos for $10.95 (takeaway bentos are just $8.95), 34 sushi rolls, udon and sukiyaki options, plentiful entree choices such as chicken teriyaki and unagi don, and complimentary cups of hot genmaicha.
Husband and wife Peng Jun “Joe” Jia and Lily Wang aren’t strangers to the Bay Area’s sushi scene. Jia, a former math and P.E. teacher, immigrated from China in 2000 and learned the art of sushi at Redwood City’s former Tokyo Star for five years. In 2007, he and a business partner opened Tokai in Foster City.
In 2009, Jia and Wang opened their first independently-owned restaurant, Old Town Sushi, in San Mateo, which continued for 15 years. During that time, the couple expanded Old Town Sushi to Newark, Redwood City and San Jose, opening a ramen spin-off in San Mateo called Old Town Ramen in 2018. Now, only Old Town Sushi in San Jose is still in business.
Toki Sushi offers a similar menu to that of Jia’s other restaurants, including his signature Volcano King Roll. The gigantic seven-hunk roll is stuffed with two pieces of tempura shrimp, cucumber and avocado and is topped with two tuna sashimi pieces, two salmon sashimi pieces, and a mountain of imitation crab meat. It’s topped with a drizzle of spicy sauce, unagi sauce and scallions ($18.95).
Throughout the years, Jia has trained a variety of sushi chefs who have gone on to open their own restaurants, said his son Tim Jia. Peng Jun Jia invented the Lion King Roll 20 years ago, according to Tim Jia. This baked roll features a California roll with salmon and in-house cheese sauce, topped with tobiko, scallions and unagi sauce ($12.95).
Located in the former spot of Momoya Sushi in Bailey Park Plaza Shopping Center, the interior of Toki Sushi was designed by Wang. The restaurant features wood-paneled walls, a nine-seat sushi bar with Japanese lanterns hanging above and booth and table seating.
Toki Sushi is in the process of getting a beer and wine license and plans to eventually offer draft beer, imported Japanese beer and sake.
For dessert, the restaurant currently just offers tempura bananas with a chocolate drizzle ($8.95), but Tim Jia said mochi ice cream is in the works.
Tim Jia said owning restaurants is his father’s longtime dream and that his family is very excited to be a part of the Mountain View community.
Toki Sushi, 570 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View; 650-887-6368, Instagram: @toki.sushimv. Open Monday to Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. and Friday to Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
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