Cheeseburger from a truck? Standard. Delicious sushi from a truck? A little more iffy. 

The Yatta Truck sets up shop on Jefferson, offering sushi and High Fives. They sold three that day.

Yatta Truck has recently rolled (pun intended) onto the food truck scene,  joining regulars Slice Truck and India Jones on the stretch of Jefferson between McClintock and Orchard near the USC campus. And as odd as sushi from a truck sounds, the four-month-old Yatta serves it up fresh, delicious and sometimes fried.

There are other trucks serving portable sushi, but owner/operators Jun Hua and Hiro Igarashi have gotten some serious hype surrounding their American Roll. It is a deep-fried concoction of beef and cheese, and according to Hua, the duo went through 50 prototypes to get it to taste just like Mickey D’s.

But as interesting as the American Roll is, Hua points to number six on the menu as their magnum opus, the option to create your own roll. Yatta lets you pick up various colored sticks representing different tasty ingredients, hand it to Igarashi and he whips up your creation on the spot.

“We want to add creativity to food. The great idea is giving consumers control, letting them get to know their food,” Hua says. “We really believe in our food. On our menus, we want each option to be so good that people will follow us.”

And people do, as much for the great sushi as the awesome personality of Igarashi and Hua.

“Our Garden Delight, [an all-veggie roll on the menu] isn’t our most popular, but we had one family that would follow us around everywhere we went and buy $40 of Garden Delight,” Hua explains.

This family isn’t the only fan of Yatta. Travel Channel star Andrew Zimmerman stopped by the truck this summer to film for a web series. He whipped up his own roll and also raved about Hua’s personal favorite, the Sweet Aloha Roll: fresh beef, sweet pineapple, Hawaiian barbeque sauce, all deep fried in Tempura batter. 

Four deep-fried and delicious pieces of Andrew Zimmerman's favorite, the Sweet Aloha roll are a seriously sweet bargain at under $4.

Creativity and personality are what Yatta is all about. The duo met in college and came together on the idea to break down misconceptions and make a tasty, fast-food sushi restaurant.  The truck idea came about when the two realized they didn’t have the capital to launch straight into the restaurant business.

Yatta, meaning an enthusiastic, “I did it!” in Japanese, is all about changing American misconceptions about sushi.

“People think that sushi has to be expensive and is really hard to make. Yeah, there are masters who spend decades perfecting their rice, but we think the average person doesn’t care about the difference,” Hua explains. “Sushi started out as a street food in Japan, and we’re bringing it back to that.”

Battling the stigma against raw fish from a truck is another challenge that Hua and Igarashi bash, taking turns getting up every morning at 5 a.m. to buy fresh fish for their rounds and then throwing away anything left at the end of the day.

It’s this fresh fish and a great personality that bring people to Yatta’s window. Their Poke roll, a traditional California roll topped with fresh chunks of tuna and a secret sauce, prompt a sign that “No Pokemon Have Been Harmed in the Making of this Sushi.” Previously, the duo even had an in-house ninja when one of Igarashi’s friends from Japan donned a ninja suit and followed Yatta around handing out free samples.

So, if you’re a Travel Channel novelty-food fanatic, the kind of person who orders deep-fried alligator just because it’s on the menu, then go for the cheeseburger roll. All you need is one hand and $3.50 to have a portable meal of the freshest sushi on wheels .

Reach reporter Corianda Dimes here.

Follow reporter Corianda Dimes on Twitter: @Corianda

Sign up for our weekly e-mail newsletter.