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!
According to the reviews, sushi and sashimi are the main draws, like Spanish mackerel topped with green onions and ponzu. I left it up to the chef to serve me, hoping that that would be in his recommendations. And it was. And it was goooooood. So were also the tuna, the yellowtail, the amazing red snapper!!!
Ahh. I just looong to go back. Yup. I have a new favorite restaurant in town - Sushi Gen!
Summary:
Fantastic! I have a new favorite sushi bar! I think I will have to come back very soon!
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| Price level: | A bit expensive, but worth it |
| Times visited: | 1 |
General information:
Street address: 422 E Second St, Los Angeles, CA 90012-4209
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 11:15am-2pm, 5:30pm-10pm, Sat 5pm-10pm
Phone number: (213) 617-0552
How did you like Sushi Gen - Little Tokyo, Los Angeles?
3 Responses to “Sushi Gen (鮨元) - Little Tokyo, Los Angeles”
- 1 Pingback on Jul 10th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
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>8 chefs working
Wow. I’ve known that place for quite long time even though I’ve never set foot in it.
And I knew that it must be one of those sushi-ya which serves really good sushi.
But didn’t know that big, 8 chefs.
My favorite place is Kiriko.
It’s a small, very quiet, family owned restaurant. Intimidation factor is zero, gentle/calm/peaceful atmosphere.
Sushi/other dishes are unique and original.
Original but very authentic and shefs serve very delicate sushi.
Not one of those chunky American style sushi, but thin shaped small sized sushi.
Rare sushi-neta are always available.
You can ask the sushi shef (the owner) or the waiter (his wife I suspect) the osusume of the day (the special of the day) for sushi and other dishes.
I would avoid odering akami(red meat fish) first which are boring and you could order them later, but rather ask something special for shiromi (white meat fish), hikarimono (shiny fish) and kai (shell fish) which you could hardly find at non-Japanese owned sushi restaurants.
I even consider his sushi something artistic. What I mean is his sushi are not just chopped fish meat on sushi rice. Visually very beautiful too. Off course, a bit pricy though, but for its quality of sushi, the price hardly matters. And it’s Japanese-owned.
You should try there on your next vist to LA.
Here is the HP of Kiriko sushi.
http://www.kirikosushi.com/
@Jun - thank you so much for that review! Will definitely go there when I go back to LA this summer! You should try Sushi Gen too!