Some people have trouble strategizing for the holidays; others have difficulty planning just one day ahead. Yajima Service Station owner Kuniaki Akahane, meanwhile, is preparing for the next 100 years, and a future in food service.

It started seven years ago when the first electric vehicles started becoming a viable option to the gas-powered car’s 130-year-hold on the driving public.

Change wasn’t coming overnight, due to such hurdles as cost and the need for more, and faster, public battery-charging facilities. Even so, Yajima’s owners could read the writing on the wall and wondered what would become of their business when, one day, gasoline was no longer necessary. Looking at the gas station’s multiple “pillars of support,” they already felt a twinge of pain when rainy weather led fewer people to bring their cars to be washed. And that is just a small thing when compared with the disruptive waves of new technology.

Akahane determined that diversifying would be key to longevity, and came to the conclusion that, rain or shine, in times of hardship or plenty, people would always need food. Never mind that Yajima’s owners knew nothing about the food industry; they would learn or face a slow, steady death spiral.

They decided a lunch wagon would be most cost-effective, and gas station employee Tomoki Ito was charged with launching the Yajima-ya food truck in 2009. It didn’t go well. Udon and soba didn’t appeal to local customers. There were days when earnings were only $20 to $30. Ito kept at it, learning that simple comfort food lured the most customers, and soon his dish of chicken with mushroom gravy became a hit.

“We started selling $1,000 a day, and it got to a point where we needed more space,” Akahane said through an interpreter.

Which brings us to the reason I’m writing about a gas station. Two weeks ago the company opened the doors to its first stand-alone restaurant, Yajima-ya, across the street from its Cosmo gas station at the corner of South King and Keeaumoku streets. The restaurant is on the site of the former Hinone Mizunone restaurant and is also inspired by Suehiro Restaurant & Catering. It continues in the two restaurants’ vein of no-nonsense, local-style teishoku meals. The aim is to offer plentiful fare that leaves people full and happy.

The menu covers the full range of local teishoku favorites, such as teriyaki chicken, hamburger steak, misoyaki butterfish and shrimp tempura, geared toward those who favor the familiar.

Teishoku dinners comprise a choice of two entrees, plus miso soup, rice and pickled vegetables, for $19.50 to $30. The $19.50 Teishoku Ichi features “Selection A” options such as a compact, Japanese-style hamburger steak with demi-glace, teriyaki chicken, a thick fillet of broiled saba, salmon shioyaki, chicken katsu or the signature mushroom chicken, which is lightly breaded and layered with a thin chicken stock-based gravy and halved mushrooms. Though popular, it’s not my favorite dish here. I would prefer to see the mushrooms sliced thin and integrated with the delicate sauce to give it more of an earthy mushroom essence.

For $30, “Selection B” Teishoku San options include an assorted sashimi or ahi platter, garlic ahi, miso butterfish and rib-eye steak served one of four ways. The grilled rib-eye is perfection, unless you happen to get a fatty piece. But, the flavor is good, and I like the ponzu version best. You can also opt to have it with shoyu-wasabi sauce for dipping, prepared teriyaki style or sprinkled with garlic chips, the same way the steaklike garlic ahi is prepared. For me the $30 offerings are the best. The steak can seem like too much for one person to handle, but you can always share with friends, creating your own izakayalike experience.

In between, you can choose Teishoku Ni, one item each from Selections A and B, for $24.50.

If you’re hungering for a sushi or sashimi teishoku, an elegant chirashi bowl ($30) features ahi, uni, hamachi, squid, ebi, salmon, unagi and ikura over rice. The selections vary with availability. Basic nigiri and sushi roll combos — as in spicy tuna and Calfornia rolls, nothing fancy — run $19.50 to $21.50 with a choice of tempura, chicken karaage or teriyaki.

Teishoku plates aren’t much cheaper for lunch, with single selections running $14 for hamburger steak to $23 for chirashi if you eat in. But, on the low end, you can get a bowl of beef udon or soba for $9.50, or shrimp tempura udon or soba ($12), with two pieces of the tempura. By itself the tempura, encased in its hardened batter shell, is not particularly appealing, looking more like it’s been pressed and cooked in a mold rather than deep-fried. To-go plates also run about $9.50 to $12.

Finish day or night with desserts of vanilla or black sesame ice cream, yuzu sorbet, a dense Japanese sponge cake and, if you don’t mind the bitterness of green tea, an excellent tofu pudding with matcha syrup.

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser.

Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.