Yay! We are on vacation in sushi heaven (Los Angeles), and we finally get to eat some proper sushi again. Almost two year since we last were here, and we have had a lot of crap sushi in the mean time.
Our first pick was Nishi-Ya in Glendale and it has been around for two years (since 2007) the sushi chef (Kenji-san) told us. He has been working as a chef for over twenty years, starting his career in Tokyo, Japan. It is an Omakase ONLY place, which is the reason why we wanted to go there. Yum!
>> Continue reading ‘Nishi-Ya - Glendale, Los Angeles’
Special guest review: (Drrrrrrrumrrrrrrrrrroll) Allison from Sushiday.com!!!!!
A couple of days ago I met an old friend of mine for sushi. I have known her since elementary school, (we were best friends back in the day) so we like to get together when I am back at home or when she is out where I am now and gossip about old times. So I was back home, and after much discussion and indecision about where to have dinner, we decided to go to Gu Gu Sushi & Roll in Hermosa Beach. She had been there a few times, but this was the first time I have been to Gu Gu Sushi.
>> Continue reading ‘Gu Gu Sushi & Roll - Hermosa Beach, LA’
Mmmmm. Sushi in LA is just fabulous! This summer I spent a month there, and one of my goals was trying out as many sushi places as I could. We ended up eating a lot of sushi…
I did go for known favorites, though. I read up in advance on sushi websites like citysearch and chowhound.com to avoid having too much mediocre or just plain bad sushi.
The funny thing was that I went to LA thinking I was mostly into fusion and modern sushi restaurants, while I actually turned out to be quite a traditionalist… Super famous restaurants like “The Hump” did not even make it to my top 5 list… But that might be a different story. More on that later. Well. Here is my list.
>> Continue reading ‘My top five sushi restaurants in Los Angeles’
Apparently Mikado broke new ground when it opened its doors in 1963 as the first Japanese restaurant to serve The Valley. We honor traditions, so we thought we would get a great good old fashion sushi experience coming here, but nope. Not so. At all. I think it was our worst night so far. They were just rude and loud. It was our last night in LA for now too, so it was very disappointing to end with having sushi here.
It is quite a nice sushi bar and restaurant, located inside the Best Western Mikado Hotel. There seems to be others who have had better experience than what we got. That is why we wanted to try it out. But I would never go back.
The Hump seems to be quite famous as a sushi bar in LA. I have come across it on “best of” lists and in many of the food magazines that I have read, so we wanted to go there.
They have amazingly fresh sushi and sashimi and other Japanese delicacies and the restaurant is located over looking the Santa Monica Airport runway. Just while we were there, people came flying in, literally, parked their airplane, went for dinner and went flying off. It was that kind of place. A great place to take your date. If you can afford it…
Sushi Gen just a couple of days ago, and now this!? Ahh. I feel so lucky. Asanebo has a reputation for being sort of a hidden gem. I read in another review that the owner has been trained by the more famous Matsuhisa - so I was eager to see what this strip mall restaurant was all about, and wow - were we blown away!
Across the street from the Coronet Theater on La Cienega, there is a sushibar called Mubee. We were actually going to see Eddie Izzard at that theater! Unfortunately he did not do his “Cake or Death“-skit that this websites name was inspired by, but he still was incredibly funny. I love that guy. Well - food. So Mubee was just there, and it happened to be a very pleasant surprise!
I read about this place before I went there, it was one of the favorites of a sushi magazine editor. He should know his sushi, and I am a follower… 
The restaurant is located in a Little Tokyo strip mall, and the sushi bar has like 8 chefs working and yelling “goodbye” and “thank you” when you enter or leave, a bit scary for me going by myself that day. Since I did come by myself, it was not that har do get a seat at the sushi bar, but if you are in a group and want to sit at a table at lunch time, you’ll have to compete with a lot of people. They were waiting in lines outside! Impressive and very Japanese. A good sign for a great place!
>> Continue reading ‘Sushi Gen (鮨元) - Little Tokyo, Los Angeles’
Sen Nari Sushi is located close to several Japanese car companies headquarters in Gardena, LA. Proper Japanese businessmen needs a good place to get their proper Japanese food, and I have heard that this is their preferred choice in this neighborhood. We went there on a Sunday, and it was full of people waiting in line for sitting at the sushi bar.
>> Continue reading ‘Sen Nari Sushi (千成鮨) - Gardena, Los Angeles’
We had a hard time to decide which sushi bar we should visit in Little Tokyo, and ended up at the Frying Fish. This turned out to be a guru-guru (kaiten) sushi place, with a really old looking and noisy system. From the belt you had to help yourself with wasabi and ginger, which was a great benefit for me, since I practically eat more ginger than sushi… (addicted and weird - according to my boyfriend). They were a bit cheap on the fish that actually were being served on the belt, hardly any fish came around. A lot of salads and edamame, but the fish were few and far between.
>> Continue reading ‘Frying Fish - Little Tokyo, Los Angeles’
Ike Sushi is not easy to find, and if you do find it, it is everything but inviting. It hides in this strip mall just on Hollywood Boulevard and we hardly dared to enter, but when we did, we felt almost like we were back in Japan. It is not a fancy restaurant, it feels very much family run place and they smile and laugh at you when you try to order things like tempura maki, rainbow roll and fancy sushi…
“Only Japanese sushi is served here” they reply and you kind of feel glad and a bit embarrassed at the same time.
Katsu-ya has a reputation. They apparently also have a following. It is so popular that you have to book in advance to get straight in. We waited for an hour. This is usually not a problem, because it just makes you that more hungry, and you can also treat yourself with watching the head sushi chefs do their wonders behind the sushi bar. We finally got our table and got ourselves ready for some good and tasty fish… But.
There is a chain of sushi restaurants called Kabuki in California. They have restaurants in Burbank, Pasadena, Hollywood, Huntington Beach to mention a few. They say on their menu that they have the best sushi in town, so that did get our hopes up. We went there for lunch, and tried out just a few things from their quite extensive menu.
A’Float Sushi is a guru guru sushi place in one of my favorite places in LA, Old Pasadena. We walked by here for lunch, and it was packed. I can understand why. The food is cheap and quite good, and it is a lot of fun!
>> Continue reading ‘A’Float Sushi - Old Pasadena, Los Angeles’
Downtown LA in Little Tokyo/Japan Town you find a Japanese supermarket called Marukai. We went there to go shopping, but stopped by their sushi ya on the third floor for some lunch. It supposedly is one of the best in town, and they have received a lot of sushi awards (Winner - 2005 Sushi Pioneer Award, Best sushi - 2005 Best of Citysearch, Best sushi - 2006 Downtown news) according to their business card. We sat down in the bar and let the chef treat us with what he thought would suit us.
>> Continue reading ‘Sushi Go 55 - Little Tokyo, Los Angeles’
Follow Sushi or Death on twitter
