A Thanksgiving meal is plentiful. It’s satisfying, filling and finger-licking good.

But it’s not pretty — with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, peas and pie all smashed together in a mound that will take up every available spot in your stomach. The meal is even less pretty when it’s served as leftovers.

Right about now — the day after Thanksgiving — you want something that discourages the glutton in you, something light, something that’s not brown, something that’s pretty and downright inspirational.

Ebisu, a Japanese restaurant that was opened by Tomoko Tsukamoto, who is from Japan and lives in Bangor, a month ago on Union Street, has just the right combination of those qualities. The sushi bar displays decorative cuts of pink, white and yellow fish. The decor of the adjacent dining room is warm, quiet and delicate — white paper lanterns, sparse furniture with neat table settings, Japanese prints on the walls and elegant flower arrangements in the center aisle, dainty music from one direction, a video of sumo wrestlers from another. The only thing missing is the sound of water trickling down from a mountain stream.

But the real treat at Ebisu is the food, which is deliciously fresh and subtle. Local diners have been flocking to Ebisu (pronounced AH-bee-soo, it’s the word for the Japanese god of good business). They want to sample the sushi (sticky rice sandwiches which are rolled around or topped with a variety of fish and vegetables) and to choose from a dozen dinner specials in the tempura, teriyaki and sukiyaki styles of Japanese food. The appetizer list is an overwhelming lineup including pork dumplings, fried tofu, fish cakes, shrimp or crabmeat with seaweed marinated in vinegar, and octopus balls.

The menu has more than 50 items, which would be impossible to taste all in one evening no matter how large your group. The prices range from $1.50 for miso soup (a fermented liquid made from malt, salt and mashed soybeans) to $18.50 for sashimi (thinly sliced raw fish).

The sushi deluxe dinner ($18.50) gives the broadest sampling of this Japanese style of hors d’oeuvres, with strips of salmon, marinated eel and shark on a tiny bed of rice. Bright orange-pink fish eggs and dabs of tuna are wrapped in rice and seaweed, then dipped in soy sauce for the perfect mix of flavors from the sea and from the land, which every Japanese meal is said to include. A tiny shaving of ginger cleans the palate between each bite.

From the dinner menu, the sukiyaki ($18.50) is a velvety smooth treat of carrots, mushrooms, bean curd, beef, bundles of Japanese vermicelli, leeks, spinach, and other vegetables served in a mini black cauldron. The tempura ($16.75) is lightly fried seafoods and vegetables that are crunchy and nearly sugary sweet before being quickly dipped in a bowl of soy sauce. Both dinner specials come with a green salad topped with a ginger dressing, a bowl of miso or vegetable-and-egg-drop soup. With dinner, a three-tiered box of side dishes is served. The first layer reveals a potato salad, marinated bamboo shoots, and a seafood salad. The second layer is udon, hot noodles in a clear broth. The third layer is the japonica rice topped with a hint of sesame and a sprinkle of pink powder made from fish meal.

The presentation of the food is nearly as delicious as the food itself. Using carts, the waiters (dressed in loose Japanese pants and robe-tops) bring carefully arranged food served on pottery, stoneware plates and lacquered plastic containers decorated with reds, golds, blacks and silvers. You may get a steaming hot towel to wipe your hands before eating, and forget about silverware. At Ebisu, you’ll eat with chopsticks. (Remember: The secret here is to move only the chopstick on top, rather than to try to move both chop sticks at once.) You can pick up your soup bowl and happily slurp. And you may even drop a morsel here and there on the bamboo place mat. But that’s OK. Practice will make it easier, and the chefs at the restaurant won’t expect you to do it all smoothly the first time. Practice will perfect your skills, and don’t hestitate to practice your question-asking skills either.

As exotic as it might seem, the basic formula at Ebisu is not too different from any regional cuisine. Soup, salad, entrees with side dishes and a cup of tea or your favorite Japanese beer or sake when it’s all done. It’s not too far removed from a Down East lobster supper — except the seafood isn’t cooked and there aren’t any hammers and bibs. You may think that the portions are too small, and if that’s the case, you are missing the holistic eating experience at Ebisu. Adjust your perspective. Japanese food is an experience for the eye and the palate. Take in the aromas. Swirl those nutty fish eggs around in your mouth. Take the kids even (lots of people are) and laugh with them while you bumble your way through a first night with chopsticks. If you’re experienced at this cuisine, you’ll be glad for an authentic taste of some of your favorite foods.

There’s an old Japanese proverb that says “Mochi was mochi-ya e” — if you want rice cakes, go to a rice-cake shop. Ebisu lets you do that — right here in Bangor.