Inside YUU Japanese Food Hall Ventura & Round1 at Pacific View Mall

Isaiah Sano, a Rio Mesa High alum, now oversees a ramen counter whose broth starts with sardines from a fishing town in Japan. In a Ventura County Star opening report, Sano said the restaurant, Ramen Tonjinchi, comes from Himi, a town known for its fishing industry. He added that he doesn't get tired of eating it. The same report says the managers of each restaurant spent about three and a half months at the original locations in Japan, learning the food and how to train staff.

That counter sits in the former Sears at Pacific View Mall. On October 10, 2026, the space reopened as Round1 Bowling & Arcade and YUU Japanese Food Hall, the first YUU in the United States. If your picture of the east end of Main Street is still Target, Macy's and the old food court, the most unusual dining room in Ventura has opened somewhere you probably weren't looking.

Why the First U.S. YUU Landed on East Main Street

Hirotoshi Takahashi, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Round One Entertainment, told the Ventura County Star through a translator that Ventura got the first location because the space was available, the landlord was supportive and the timing worked out.

He said the 14 eateries were chosen to bring authentic Japanese flavors to the U.S., and he described the kind of restaurant he meant:

"There's so many restaurants in Japan that people line up for hours to eat but they haven't franchised, not even within Japan."

Tomomi Hiroishi, Round One's director of food hall planning, made the same point at the October 9 media preview. Each of the 14 restaurants represents a specific region of Japan, and in his words they are "very famous within their local area, but most of them have never been outside of either that town or city." So the food hall is built from places that mostly have one home location, and Ventura is the first U.S. city to get them as a group. Round1's YUU page already lists North County Mall in Escondido as coming soon, so the head start won't last forever.

The Ground Floor, Counter by Counter

The food hall takes up the ground floor. Round1's location page lists the entrance as a lower-level interior entrance, so you walk in from inside the mall. Here are the 14 counters, grouped by what you'd come for, based on Round1's YUU listings:

The ramen row is the clearest example of the regional idea. Three counters, three different broth traditions: rich pork tonkotsu at TOBUTA, Tonjinchi's clear sardine broth, and Himawari's Sapporo-style miso. On a typical Ventura menu, "ramen" is one item. Here it's a side-by-side comparison you can make in one visit.

The fried-and-grilled group works the same way, since kushiage, karaage, yakitori and tonkatsu are four separate specialties with four separate kitchens. Osaka Iggy's takoyaki and Okonomiyaki Hana's savory pancakes are the street foods Ventura Breeze highlighted when the project was announced in March. The YUU brand promotes 28 Japanese restaurants overall, and Ventura's hall has 14 of them.

Upstairs, and What Changed Since March

Bowling, arcade games and karaoke are on the second floor. The finished venue differs from what was announced in a few ways, and they affect how you'd plan a night.

The March 9, 2026 Ventura Breeze announcement described twelve lanes, professional-grade billiards, private karaoke rooms and an arcade with American and exclusive Japanese games, all in more than 55,000 square feet. At opening, a manager trainee told the Star there are 14 lanes, and they use string pins. Round1 opened its first U.S. location in the City of Industry in 2010, and the Star reported that the Ventura center is similar to it apart from slightly fewer lanes and the string pins. Crane games and some arcade games are imported from Japan. Billiards, though, are listed on the Ventura location page as not available "at this time." Ventura also isn't one of the Round1 centers with Spo-Cha. The location page sends you to six other centers for that.

Round1 posts rate cards for Ventura. The pages show no year, so treat these as posted rates that can change:

• Lanes by the hour: $34.25 before 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, $39.50 after 4 p.m., $45 during peak Friday and Saturday periods, and $43 on Sunday and holiday evenings
• By the game: $8.75 per person in early weekday hours, up to $10.75 at peak Friday and Saturday hours
• Shoes: $5.25 per person
• Karaoke, priced per room per hour: Monday through Thursday, rooms run $16 to $65.50 before 4 p.m. and $20.50 to $87.25 after 4 p.m., depending on group size, from 1 to 3 people up to 16 to 30

The 4 p.m. line is the one to plan around. An hour on a lane jumps from $34.25 to $39.50 Monday through Thursday afternoons, and the biggest karaoke rooms go from $65.50 to $87.25. Karaoke is charged per room, and the rate depends on which size band your group falls in. Round1 says Japanese songs are available in every karaoke room.

A Food Hall That Stays Open Until 2 a.m.

The hours change how the building fits into the week. Round1 and YUU are open 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. every day, and the Star reports last orders for food and alcohol at 1 a.m.

That's a 16-hour window. A weekday lunch of udon or onigiri and a midnight bowl of tonkotsu after a late movie or a shift both fall inside it. And because the bowling is priced by time of day, the hall works well before a game. Eat downstairs, then head up after 4 p.m. on a weeknight, when lanes are still cheaper than the Friday and Saturday peak.

New Owners Inherit a Different Mall

Two weeks before Round1 opened, the mall changed hands. The Real Deal reported on September 25, 2026 that a joint venture of Pacific Retail Capital Partners and Conversant Capital bought Pacific View Mall at 3301 East Main Street for an undisclosed price. Pacific Retail took over leasing and operations right away.

The same report describes a two-level, 884,000-square-foot property that opened in 1964 and was last renovated in 2017. Its tenants include Target, Macy's, JCPenney, Trader Joe's and 24 Hour Fitness, with restaurants including Wood Ranch, Red Robin and California Pizza Kitchen, plus an 11-stall food court. That sets up a simple count. The mall's original food court has 11 stalls. The old Sears now holds 14 restaurant counters, each with a hometown in Japan.

The Real Deal also noted that the property still has room for repositioning, and Conversant principal Tobias Milligan pointed to future upside. Back in March, mall general manager Leisha Pomare told Ventura Breeze that Round1 reflected a focus on making Pacific View an "experience-first destination." The Real Deal's report doesn't name any specific plans from the new owners for the rest of the property.

Jodi pays attention to how places like the old Sears change the way people use their part of town, and that shapes how she talks about Ventura's east end with clients. If you're curious what new uses on East Main Street could mean for the homes around Pacific View, Jodi Sells the Coast is happy to talk it through over a bowl of ramen downstairs. Let's Connect.