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…

We specifically asked to be seated at the sushi bar. They don’t take reservations for that, so we had to sit and wait for a little while. It was actually quite nice to sit and look at the many airplanes taking off and landing while watching the sun set.

Our masta was playful and made us feel welcome and the pretty much all the other guests where obviously someone that used to come here. It was a loud and jovial atmosphere. I guess we said something like that we wanted sashimi moriawase and omakase. What this meant - and we did not know - was that it included meeting the food we were eating… Oh no. Not ikezukuri again… Iiiik.

In Japanese cuisine, ikizukuri (生き作り, lit. “prepared alive”) is the preparation of sashimi from a living animal. First time I had this in Japan I left the restaurant. This time I am supposed to be a “sushi critic”, so I put on a brave face and tried to think of it as an old tradition…

The fish that “got it” was a scorpion fish, and they are feisty little beasts. Scorpion fishes have venomous spines along their back and fins with a grove and venom sack, so for the sushi chef it is quite dangerous to handle these. It was hard to watch him filet the fish… (I think I have to wrote some on ikezukuri later).

The presentation was really spectacular! It was maybe one of the most beautiful plates of food that I have ever seen. It looked like a piece of art. I actually did not care too much for the sashimi from our poor, not even dead fish, on our plate. It was a bit too smoky and chewy for my taste. The aji and several of the other types of fish we got I liked much better. The rolls were good, and in the end, the fish got to go over to the other side and came back to us as Miso soup. A great meal.

Summary:

Now THAT was an experience. I will never forget this place!

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

General information:

Street address: 3221 Donald Douglas Loop S, Santa Monica, CA 90405
Opening hours: Lunch: Tue-Fri 12pm-2pm, Dinner: Mon-Thu 6pm-10pm, Fri-Sat 6pm-10:30pm
Phone number:(310) 313-0977
URL: http://www.thehump.biz/

How did you like The Hump - Santa Monica, Los Angeles?

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

View Results