by Ebony L. Morman 

When executive chef and owner Tony Yum opened YUME Ramen Sushi & Bar in South End, his vision was clear: bring a top-notch sushi restaurant to the area. Back in 2017, the neighborhood had other restaurants that specialized in Japanese cuisine, like Futa Buto and O-Ku Sushi, but Yum wanted to offer diners ingredients that they couldn’t find anywhere else with the hope that they would be open to new food adventures. 

YUME’s first location operated for 13 months in a 1,200-square-foot Matthews space. The menu included Japanese appetizers, ramen, and rice bowls; there was no sushi. Once Yum opened the restaurant’s new location in South End, he offered guests an expanded sushi menu.

“When we talk about sushi restaurants, we have a misconception,” Yum says. “There’s a stereotype that sushi restaurants will only offer sushi, nigiri, miso soup, and hibachi and that they’re fast casual or a little bit downgraded to a fast food place.” 

Yum wanted to dispel this stereotype, but he had a hunch that it might take some convincing (and educating) before Charlotte diners explored some of the items he wanted to serve. YUME’s menu includes more than 40 sushi rolls and numerous nigiri and sashimi options, but the omakase experience (chef’s choice) and menu specials are where chefs get to flex their creativity. 

Consider the whole aji, for example. It’s one of the restaurant’s most interesting menu items:  a seasonal fish that’s only available for a couple of months out of the year. Each serving of whole aji, or Japanese horse mackerel, is one pound and artfully crafted by sushi chefs. It’s a fatty fish that’s delicate and sweet. 

“It’s different, and you have to special order it,” Yum says. “We love to bring something like this to Charlotte, and we have regulars coming in, specifically looking for [the aji] special.” 

To Yum, the fact that customers are requesting such a distinct dish is evidence of how Charlotte’s restaurant scene has evolved. The city itself has become a melting pot with people from various cultures in restaurant kitchens and being served in restaurant dining rooms. Shortly after YUME opened in South End, Yum started seeing a more educated crowd in his dining room, one that enjoyed the food, he says. Now, they’re even more knowledgeable about the menu. 

“When customers look at the menu, they know like 80 percent of what’s on it,” Yum says. “When they don’t, that’s okay, because we have servers that are 100 percent trained and they answer all the questions that any customer has.”

Yum gained experience working at his father’s family-owned restaurant in California, which specialized in Chinese and Cantonese cuisine. It was open for 10 years before closing in 2017 when his father retired. Prior to working with his father, Yum had an apprenticeship at a small, Japanese restaurant where he gained the hands-on experience that inspired traditional Japanese items on the menu. The Hong Kong native and his wife, who manages operations, love to eat gyoza (pork dumplings), karaage (Japanese fried chicken nuggets), and chawanmushi (egg custard with seafood broth), so they all have a place on YUME’s menu. The couple decided to add an omakase experience when they realized they couldn’t find the style of dining in Charlotte, where they moved to from San Francisco in 2016. 

“I’m happy to see more of the omakase growing in Charlotte,” Yum says. “Everybody is more aware of the freshness and the quality.” 

Beyond the omakase experience, there’s an all-around emphasis on both freshness and quality at YUME. Yum orders fresh sea urchin from California, and it ships overnight. Though it’s an expensive process, it’s worthwhile when customers know the restaurant offers quality items that could be hard to find elsewhere, he says. 

“It’s very rewarding when customers finish the meal, walk out to the host stand and tell our staff how great of a meal they had,” Yum says. “If they enjoy it, then they’ll keep coming back and that’s exactly what we are looking for.” 

Fans of YUME now have another option to keep coming back to thanks to the restaurant’s  recent expansion. A second location in Alley 51, inside of Super G Mart in Pineville, is now open. Visitors can select from bento boxes and various grab-and-go sushi options that are made daily with the same emphasis on fresh and quality ingredients. 

“We’ve had great support already, and people are coming back and love the freshness of the fish and sashimi,” Yum says. “We even bring in bluefin belly sashimi and customers are thrilled and surprised that they can actually buy quality fish from the grab-and-go area.”

There’s also more to come. In partnership with co-owner Patrik Tong, Sizzling will make its debut right next to YUME’s current stall in Alley 51 later this summer. This collaboration will be a concept called YUME x Sizzling.

On the Sizzling side, which has yet to open, head chef Tong plans to curate offerings that will include hot dishes that are made to order such as rice and curry bowls, ramen, and popular appetizers like takoyaki (octopus hush puppies), gyoza, and karaage. 

While YUME’s second location has only been open for a few weeks, Yum loves the camaraderie he’s found inside the international market’s food court. 

“Being in the food industry, it’s hard to make friends,” Yums says. “But at Alley 51, everyone cheered up each other during the construction period and shared information when we had difficulty getting things done. Everybody opened at the same time, and we are competing but we’re not really competing with each other. We feel like this is like a neighborhood.”