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!

We sat at bar of course, being the one of only two couples there. It is not a very big place, but on a Friday night I am sure he would have wanted it to be a bit more crowded. A few girls left too while we were there, because he did not serve California Roll. At all. As I said - omakase ONLY. Ken and I winked at each other. We felt like we were in for a treat.

Omakase is to leave it up to the chef. I have enjoyed this on a couple of occasions and it usually is a pure delight. Here is what he served us (click on the thumbnails for larger images):

First off the for us for the evening is Boston Tuna marinated in peanut sauce. Eaten with a guilty hart, this one was a delicious start on the meal. I did think of asking the sushi chef to serve us only sustainable fish, but I did not dare to. What if that was all he had. Hm.

Yellowtail from Osaka - I have thought that this is a fish you can eat, but according to Monterey Seafood Watch, the ones that are from Japan are also endangered. Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures of it. Too hungry I guess.

 

Scallops nigiri. Yum - soft and delicous. And sustainable as far as I know! We ate it with a smile.

Spanish mackrel - fresh, smooth and one of my favorites!

Hand roll with crabmeat - a little meal in itself and I guess it also works as a filler if you see that your guests are a bit hungry.

Albacore in ponzu sauce. The fish meat was tender and the ponzu sauce not too acidic and we both loved it. Delicious.

White sea bass - a bit watery and quite tasteless. My least favorite dish of the evening.

Marinated ikura - not fond of this one either, never have been. It is just too fishy for me - but I have to say that this one was very fresh.

Bluefin Tuna (Toro) from Spain - bad conscience again, and to me it is really not worth having it. I just feel bad about myself…

Halibut and Red snapper - The halibut was meaty and buttery and the snapper was delicate tasting. I love this not very fishy tasting fish.

Big Eye Tuna and kampachi (Hawaiin Yellowtail) - Another good tasting (bad conscious) tuna dish…

Then we had to tell the sushi chef to stop, we were getting full. So now we have another experience with ordering omakase. And it was quite wonderful. The fish we were served were amazing and Kenji-san told us he himself goes to the fish market every morning to pick out the best fish for us.

The sushi chef seemed to be a nice guy, but he was lacking a bit of that engagement that makes the experience something special. It felt really hard to keep up a conversation and in a small place it then becomes a bit uncomfortable and awkward. I am a bit sad to say that the chef was the part of the experience that pulled the whole thing down a bit. Still - he served us some wonderful sushi and we left happy!

Summary:

Omakase is fun. Omakase i great! But I think it requires some effort on the chefs side too in making it a full blown experience. We loved his food, but it was a bit hard to engage the guy. This hidden little sushi bar in a strip mall in Glendale is still worth a visit though!

Overall rating:
Presentation:
Fish/rice:
Service:
Price level:	Expensive
Times visited:	1

General information:

Street address: 1712 Victory Blvd, Glendale, CA 91201
Phone number: (818) 244-2933

How did you like Nishi-Ya - Glendale, Los Angeles?

• Not at all!
• Mediocre
• Ok
• Quite good
• Delicious!

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