11275 National Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 473-7688

Since finding Hiko years ago, I've gone once or twice every week. Oh – and I’m 100% Japanese by ethnicity. What does that tell you?

First of all, for those of you who've never been here, they serve traditional nigiri only. Omakase only at the bar. 4 dishes min per person. No verbal cell phone usage in the restaurant. Prepare for Chef Shinji to HALT the restaurant if you make/answer a call. If you persist, one of the Murata clan will throw you out.

Here's the tale of the tape for the real foodies that want details: (Then again, this might possibly be Nigiri 101 for those of you still reviewing Japanese restaurants based on “your feelings”/“the experience” & don’t actually know dick about sushi)

WASABI:
The first thing that you’ll notice on the geta (the wooden tray in front of you upon which sushi is served) is REAL, grated Japanese wasabi root. It’s lightly sea green-tinted, sweet, milky, & with a light heat, (selling for ~$15 per 4”root) unlike the cheap, dark green playdoh-looking, flaming horseradish substitute that’s normally dumped onto idiot patrons at lower quality restaurants. For the unaware, real wasabi is not meant to be mixed with shoyu (soy sauce) but to be gingerly placed on top of your sushi & consumed directly. (Please note: Ginger is not a dish - it’s a palate cleanser. So try to restrain yourself & not hork down 5 servings of the stuff, huh?)

RICE:
All sushi restaurants have a “recipe” for their sushi rice which helps provide character to a chef’s servings. This is one of the reasons why many sushi restaurants prohibit ordering rice in a bowl: They often simply don’t have any rice other than the sushi pot & that’s not ‘pure table rice’. (This may be a revelation to those of you who have tried making your own sushi but noticed it “didn’t taste right”.) Some chefs add beer or sake, most add vinegar, maybe a little sugar & some other magical ingredients. With regard to Hiko, without going into the details of what I believe their rice preparation contains (since it’s generally a house secret) the rice is served hot, loosely packed & a very well-balanced complement to the fish.

SAKE:
They have a reasonably good sake list here with about 10 high quality brews. I'd recommend the Jozen Mizonogotoshi - a Junmai Ginjoshu, (Premium Pure Rice Sake) which is smooth and floral with hints of strawberry. Or if you prefer very dry sake, you can't beat Shichiken - another Junmai Ginjoshu. Both are excellent pairings with all of what is served from the sushi bar and will at the very least demonstrate that you know something about sake to the chef.

SUSHI:
Chef Shinji is a traditionalist and is very serious about the speed & quality of the fish he serves. Most dishes are served 2 pieces each except for items like hand rolls.

• Baby Tuna Sashimi in Ponzu & Sesame – A good fresh appetizer of sorts to settle hungry stomachs. Large and well balanced, this dish has a the purpose of filling up customers with good fish and sating people’s hunger a little to allow them to appreciate the other nigiri.
• Yellowtail – Melt in mouth soft indicating good freshness, selection & cut; subtle taste especially pairs well with rice accents
• Toro – Was soft, well textured but not quite as flavorful as some other top tier places; best with wasabi atop to bring out the fattiness
• Red Snapper with Yuzu & Rock salt – One of the specially prepared dishes at Hiko; very well balanced with salt
• Albacore in Ponzu – Another melt in mouth soft dish
• Mackerel – Lightly seared in Ponzu; a preparation of Aji I had not had before varying the textures of fish served… very nice.
• Blue Crab Roll – Larger, deliciously fresh, pure & sweet and LACKING IN MAYONNAISE unlike certain other Tustin-based restaurants (Yes, Sushi Wasabi – I’m talking to you, you posers.)
• Lobster Roll – A large, unique serving for the Westside. Specialty roll for Hiko. A little sweeter than blue crab.
• Sea Urchin – Hands down, the best uni in Los Angeles. Always firm, sweet, creamy and brightly orange. Nuff said.
• Salmon Roe – Again, hands down the best Ikura in Los Angeles. Plump, taut, delightfully salty and fresh.

(Normally, I would score every dish based on a 5 pt scale but there’s no point. Everything served was basically a 5.)

EXTRAS:
A tasty albacore won ton amuse bouche dipping in ponzu is oddly served toward the end of the meal as well as a complimentary after dinner palette cleanser of two skinless Japanese apple slices which as always cold and sweet.

CONCLUSION:
Expect a $50-$60 bill for unextended omakase but there’s no question that this meal is ‘Best of LA’ quality. And there’s very few restaurants that offer this quality for this value in LA. So if you’re a foodie, and like me, you could give a damn whether or not the Barbie twins are eating down the bar from you with Hugh Hefner (ala Koi… yecch) this should be a destination restaurant for you.

5-Stars.

---------------
WHY SHOULD YOU BE ON GOOD TERMS WITH THE SUSHI CHEF?
The reason you need to make sure you’re on good terms with any sushi chef is very simple: Not all sushi dishes are served equally.

One of the 2 primary dimensions of good sushi are the SELECTION and the CUT. The selection is the area of the fish that is served while the cut is the manner & size in which the fish is cut. Both of these elements are completely under the chef’s control. If the chef likes you – big surprise – your serving is going to be larger, sweeter, softer, and tastier than the next guy’s.

And the disparity is DRAMATIC. It can be the difference between a 3-Star & a 5-Star experience. My wife and I may walk in, bow, and get seated at the bar. We might quietly say hello to chef, and he’ll serve us Yellowtail belly, cut long and thin. For other servings he might break out the fresh Ikura/Salmon Roe and the brand new Uni for the day.

The retard that walks in for the first time, loudly plops herself down barking things at the chef and shouting at her dinner-mate might find herself getting tougher lateral, less fatty cuts of the same fish I was just served. She might get a dish with Chutoro-quality tuna, a lesser grade of fish. And she might discover her crab roll is not quite as fresh, sweet, or pronounced as mine… because she got served the blue crab from the back of the tray, which is likely older.

Get the picture?

A NOTE ON CERTAIN OTHER REVIEWS:
My reviews are virtually always about food quality. Except in extreme cases, I can give a damn about ambiance, price, and even service so you're obviously going to see a disparity between this review and... oh... I dunno. The moron that downgrades a restaurant based on their petulant whining about how they don't like the attitude of the chef… or they don't like the restaurant rules about omakase at the sushi bar. Folks - are you eating or are you planning a gotdamned wedding? Sit down, shut up, or go to Todai.

I was at Hiko on their first week of opening. To the ludicrous Yelper that said that the food quality has "dwindled"... you're so f-cking wrong it's positively criminal.  My god, you should have your Yelp account revoked because I live near here and IT HASN'T CHANGED AT ALL. Perhaps you've just become ridiculously jaded. I mean, 3-stars… what exactly are you comparing this to? In fact, here's a challenge if you've got the chops:

"Name a sushi restaurant that's undeniably better than Hiko."

Sure there's places that rate: But indisputably better? HELL NO. There are so few weak spots in a Hiko sushi meal, that it's frankly easy to lose sight of how extraordinary this restaurant is... from sushi freshness, to skill, to sake selection, to the availability of fish, to all the ancillary elements that make the meal great... very little is left to criticize.

San Francisco's annual sake celebration returns on October 23 to a new venue at Galleria Design Center. The line-up this year features 327 labels, including 118 not available in the United States, as well as gold and silver award winners from the 2008 U.S. National Sake Appraisal.

Now in its sixth year, The Joy of Sake is the largest sake tasting held outside Japan and provides a rare chance to sample outstanding sakes in peak condition. Sake appetizers will be served by Ame, Betelnut, Delica rf-1, Hana, Hime, Kirala, Kyo-ya, Live Sushi Bar, Memphis Minnie's Barbeque, Namu, Ozumo, Sanraku, Sushi Ran, Yoshi's and Yuzu.

Tickets are $75 ($85 at the door) and can be ordered at www.joyofsake.com or by calling the Joy of Sake hotline at (888) 799-7242.

The Joy of Sake San Francisco Ticket Store
View map | View as web page

The 2008 Sushi and Sake Festival is being held on Saturday, June 14 at the beautiful Seawalk Village at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA.

Festival hours are 10AM - 8PM. The event features music, food,  sushi making demonstrations, sake and beer tasting, tea ceremony, sumo demonstration, taiko and much more!

Event information:
http://www.queenmaryfestivals.com/sushi.html

Tickets need to be purchased from:
https://www.ticketleap.com/Member/event.aspx?event_id=EAFA439F-A4C4-4FD3-9DC3-79F17C4183E

<taken from Urban Daddy - April 8, 2008>

Ready Maid
Japanese Maid Cafe in Culver City

What this city has been missing, clearly, is a Japanese cafe filled with waitresses done up in maid uniforms.

Here to address the baffling oversight: Royal/T, previewing this weekend in Culver City.

LA's first real cosplay (yes, that's short for "costume play") cafe to our knowledge, Royal/T is modeled after the menus (and hemlines) of Tokyo's Akihabara district, with concrete floors, walls of glass and the occasional incongruous chandelier that make it all feel like a contemporary Asian art gallery gone wild—which it is. The cafe melts into an adjoining shop and gallery currently featuring the rather demanding new exhibit "Just Love Me." But your attention will be focused on the Japanese comfort food as interpreted for California diners—think shrimp and avocado salads, flank steak sandwiches and green tea mousse cakes—and delivered by the maid serving you for the duration of your stay.

The cafe debuts in conjunction with the inaugural Los Angeles Art Weekend, so you should expect an elite opening crowd of patrons like yourself who appreciate the subtle nuances of...a black dress and a white apron.

Sometimes life really is as simple as black and white.

Royal/T, 8910 Washington Blvd (W. of National), Culver City, 310-559-6300; RSVP for preview party Apr 12, 8-10pm at rsvp at fyaworld dot com

The Balboa Bay Club & Resort (BBC&R) will once again host its memorable Fifth Annual international celebration of food and wine. This event will be held over Memorial Day Weekend - Friday evening, May 23^rd through Sunday evening, May 25^th, 2008 in Newport Beach, CA.

• Afternoon Sake’ & Sushi 2:30PM  $80*
  Sake Sommelier Louis de Santos, M.S. will lead guests through an education on the new world of hot and cold Sake pairings. Chef Abe of Bluefin fame (Crystal Cove) will be the sushi Chef.
  
  Saturday, May 24th, 2008
  Please Call (949) 630- 4146 To Book Reservations For These Events.

MORE INFO:
http://www.hitimewine.net/balboa_bay_club.asp

On April 11 from 5:00PM - 7:00PM there will be a sake tasting for $10.00 at the Winehouse.  John Gaunter of Sake-World.com and the toji (brewmaster) from Rihaku will be on hand.

From 7:30PM-9:30PM, there will also be a dinner and seminar with John.  The cost will be $95.00.  (Payment in advance will be needed for dinner)

Winehouse
2311 Cotner Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90064
800-626-9463

Little Tokyo Service Center presents its Sake & Food Tasting and Awards Gala on May 22, 2008, at the Petersen Automotive Museum, 6060 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles. The awards ceremony will honor Chef Akira Hirose of Maison Akira for his community involvement.

The event will feature a wide variety of sake, dozens of food stations hosted by some of LA’s top restaurants, a private viewing of La Vida Lowrider: Cruising the City of Angels, a silent auction and more.

The 2008 event is expected to attract a crowd of 800, many of which will be young professionals.  In addition, LTSC’s annual supporters, community leaders, corporate representatives, local elected officials and many others will attend.

Little Tokyo Service Center presents
"LA VIDA SAKE"
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Petersen Automotive Museum
(Wilshire & Fairfax)
6pm - 7pm, VIP
7pm - 10pm, General Admission

Ticket Prices
$60 General Admission, $100 VIP Limited Availability

Sponsorships available from $1,000 Bronze Level to $25,000 Title Level. For more information visit www.LTSC.org/sake or call Jennifer at 213-473-1615.

(Personal Note:  I'm posting this event because it's for a good cause, however please take it for what it's worth:  "Las Video Sake" is a fundraiser first and foremost and by no means a 'traditional' tasting for folks that truly appreciate sake.  The sake available last year wasn't particularly fantastic, and the event was rather 'unusual' at best so if you attend, take it with a grain of salt:  It's an opportunity to give to the community in a big well attended social atmosphere - nothing more.)

Coffield Appiah's sake-pairing dinner's menu's been set.

1st Course

• Warm Bay Scallop Salad
• Baby Spinach, Shaved Fennel
• Blood Orange Dressing

2nd Course

• Pan Seared Halibut Filet
• Steamed Broccolini, Ginger Carrot Sauce

3rd Course

• Mirin-Glazed Duck Breast
• Savory Bread Pudding
• Pear, Walnuts, and Leeks

4th Course

• Sake Marinated Rib Eye
• Napa Cabbage Salad with Jicama and Daikon Sprouts

Dessert

• Green Apple-Glazed Almond Tart

Coffield Appiah's Sake Dinner feat. John Gaunter @ The Winehouse

• WHEN:  Friday, April 11, 2008 7:30PM
• WHERE:  The Winehouse - 2311 Cotner Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064 (http://www.winehouse.com)
• COST:  The dinner is $90/person with food prepared by the chef of "Upstairs 2", the gourmet tapas restaurant that sits right atop the Winehouse. 
• REGISTER:  Call 310 479 3731 or 800 626 WINE to register. 
• MORE INFO:  For more details, check out the previous post on this event:
  http://sake101.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!C8CABC1957F2050E!540.entry

Marina Ota contacted me about a new web site they've put up to allow folks in the US to purchase sake at extremely reasonable prices.  Some of you may know Marina as the purveyor of one of my favorite sake distribution sites, http://www.sake.nu.

Those of you with little experience in buying sake probably don't know that while it is a truism throughout most of Japan that the better the quality of a sake, the more expensive it is.  This applies to universally across Japan and pricing is relatively the same.

<rant>

Ah, but don't let that stop certain folks from trying to mark up the price to kingdom come just to stuff their margins with the cash of the unknowing.

Y'see, there's a few WELL KNOWN and HIGHLY ADVERTISED sites that seem to be utterly committed to giving everyone in America the stiffest of shafts when it comes to pricing their sake. 

Folks - Just because you don't speak Japanese doesn't mean you should get screwed with overpriced sake.  Nor does it mean that just because you're bilingual you should have license to screw everyone else over with ludicrous margins - and you know who you are.  Yeah, if you're in the restaurant biz, you're providing a service and I expect crazy margins to be slathered all over your menu, but if your an online store?  Oh for god's sake - give me a break. 

For example:  Sometime, take a look at the price of Yaegaki Mu.  It's Junmai Daiginjo-shu that's fairly mass produced.  Not exactly the best sake in the world for certain but it's better than most anything produced in America, and it's relatively cheap at $15-$20/bottle at your local Marukai Supermarket.  Now check out the prices at your online store and compare that to what you can get just walking into a Japanese grocery store.  Crazy 'eh?

</rant>

Well, the nice thing about Marina's joints is that they're generally affordable, fair, and reasonable.  Her new site is Sake House USA at http://www.sakehouseusa.com.  Check it out.

Coffield Appiah, the sake buyer for the Winehouse, is orchestrating another Sake-paired dinner at the store in West Los Angeles.  For those of you familiar with the Winehouse's sake tastings, it's usually a full gourmet dinner with sake pairings masterfully selected for each course.

What makes Coffield's events interesting however is that he usually has the actual BREWERS of the sake on hand at the dinner flown in from Japan - no joke.  And I'm not talking about Ozeki or ShoChikuBai or Gekkeikan.  These are actual 'Jizake' or microbrewers from Japan that produce extremely high quality, highly refined sake.  Some produce fewer than 10,000 bottles a year.  And the representatives present are usually, very high level individuals:  The last dinner had the Vice President & heir-apparent to the sakagura Presidency of one manufacturer.  (He represented a sake so good that I imported a $220 bottle through Coffield on the spot that night.)

Anyway, on April 11th (it usually starts at 7:30PM) Coffield's doing something special:  He's bringing John Gauntner to the Winehouse to talk about sake.  John's become rather famous for being one of the largest proponents of Japanese sake in America. 

An author of several English-language books on sake (a rarity for certain) John has spoken at most of the world's largest sake-related events.  (It doesn't hurt John's popularity that there's a complete dearth of English-speaking sake specialists and connoisseurs in the world.)  He runs the rather popular Sake-World web site at http://www.sake-world.com along with a very good monthly newsletter.

But back to the event itself:  You'll also get to meet Coffield who's a genuinely nice guy and a hilarious host at times.  Coffield tells me that he's going to do something special and orchestrate a full  tasting of sorts PRIOR to the Sake-Paired Dinner.  It'll go for $10/person to sample the different sakes.  I think if I heard him right, they're going to start this EARLY... as in at 5:00PM to let people settle in until 7:00PM for dinner so get there early.

Lord knows, people are gonna be bubbly as all hell by then, so you won't wanna miss this gig for certain.  It'll be completely focused on sake with several brewer representatives, John Gauntner speaking, full glass tastings, as well as a paired dinner after everything.

Oh yeah - and it'll be on a FRIDAY so you can feel free to get blitzed out of your mind and not worry about work the next day.  <grin>

BTW:  The dinner is $90/person with food prepared by the chef of "Upstairs 2", the gourmet tapas restaurant that sits right atop the Winehouse.  Call 310 479 3731 or 800 626 WINE to register.  I'll see you there.

Hilarious.  My wife and I are watching G4TV's Attack of the Show and coincidentally, Sushi Chef Phillip Yi apparently got Attack of the Show's Joel Gourdin interviewing Gina Holden from the new series Flash Gordon in his restaurant, Sushi Central, and even has them making their own sushi.

Man, the media & entertainment industry continues to all be about "who you know"...

The net-net of my review of Sushi Central (3500 Overland Ave. #100, Los Angeles, CA 90034, (310) 202-6866) is that its got good sushi at reasonable prices, but offers several rarities that you don't often get anywhere else: 

• a very friendly, familial, almost "Cheers-where-everyone-knows-your-name"-like atmosphere created by the mom & pop owners
• "take out" for the same sushi you order in the restaurant for your own parties - also offering catering
• cooked dishes from beef ribs to gyoza to miso soup
• the opportunity to bring in your own sake and save a ton of cash in the process while not being confined to the lousy sake selection that most restaurants have.

Simply put, this is a very different restaurant - in a very good way.  Completely lacking in the strict discipline that generally pervades most my-way-or-the-highway dictatorial traditional sushi bars, this is the Japanese version of a warm, inviting hometown bar where you can come in and be served  by the same people that own the restaurant... only without the alcohol.

Don't get me wrong:  The sushi while good won't immediately compel you to dump Hiko. Mori, or Sasabune as favorite places to binge on sushi, but it won't break your bank like the others will either especially if you bring your own sake.  People that have matured their tastes beyond the traditional, "If it's not costing me $100/meal, it can't be good sushi" will find this to be a very warm and welcome homestead for most frequent sushi visits.  I would almost go so far as to compare it to a smaller, sushi-focused version of Yabu.

Sushi Central:  Come for the sushi, stay for the company.

DETAILED REVIEW
A weird thing happened tonight.  On a complete whim, I went to a sushi restaurant that I'd heard about not more than a few hours ago and it turned out to be... well... completely different from what I'd expected.

While perusing Yuji Matsumoto's site, http://www.learnaboutsake.com/, I read that he'd done a sake & food pairing a month or so ago at a sushi restaurant that frankly I'd never even heard of.  It was a little outfit called "Sushi Central":  Not exactly the kind of restaurant name you expect from a 24 carat diamond in the rough, if you know what I mean.

But whatever.  If they're serving a variety of new sake pairings along with their dishes, how bad can they be, right?

HOLE IN THE WALL?  WELL, KINDA.
We arrived at the intersection of Palms & Overland to discover that yes, they were in fact in a strip mall like most good sushi restaurants around here, but something was odd.  It looked like a fast food restaurant, and the sushi bar itself didn't look like it could hold more than 4 people.  If you look at the photo to the right, you can see the bar itself.  This is the whole bar.  That's it.  The entire thing.

Just then, my wife decided to announce to me as I'm parking the car that "she'd read that they specialized in catering more than anything and less so on sit down meals."  Uh yeah.  Good timing, sweetheart.

NO SAKE?
So as we walked in, we noticed that the decor was... different.  There were authentic Japanese clay bowls, cups, along with rather different sake bottles lining a large shelf - not your typical crappy Ozeki or Gekkeikan 1.8L bottles mind you but bottles that I hadn't seen before or some that were just flat out rare.  A good sign right?

We noticed that there was no one to seat us.  After waiting at the door for a minute or so, we concluded that the joint was, "seat yourself".  Again, a little different but whatever.  We ambled our way to the bar and gestured for permission to sit.

Well, this night went from low expectations to basically no expectations.  As we sat down, one of the workers explained to me after I'd asked, that there was no sake served at the restaurant.  They didn't have a liquor license but we were free to bring in our own sake.  Yeah.  Now they tell us.

Okay... when in Rome dot dot dot.  So I was handed a menu and it looked, well, average.  The sushi list wasn't terribly extensive but it had most of the right things.  Noticeably missing was Toro and when I asked for Mirugai or Amaebi, I was told that they "were out".  Needless to say this wasn't going very well.  But it was a vacation and I had a night to burn so whatever.

SO WHEN DOES IT GET DELIGHTFUL?
Yeah, I'm getting to that.  So as I ordered, we started looking around and saw some rather... odd curiosities.  The chef, a fellow that goes by Phillip, was rather talkative and friendly.  Seated next to us was a gentleman that started chatting us up as well.  I looked around and noticed that behind the sushi bar, a lady was working on preparing the fish along side Phillip.

Now, at the risk of sounding sexist, women generally aren't sushi chefs.  It's a fact - not an opinion and people in this industry know that you just don't see it.  It's simply a cultural thing.  Ultimately, sushi preparation is an all boy's club and the only place I've seen a female sushi chef at a well trafficked restaurant is at Hama in Venice and... well... as liberal as you might find that, the joint just isn't very good so that's not much of a ringing endorsement.

But there she was, quietly slicing fish.  And she was Caucasian of all things.  Hair in a pony tail under a chef's cap.

I noticed that there were Christmas cards on the wall.  And holiday stockings in the window with little ornaments along the sill.  And they even had a Christmas tree with lights & decorations in the corner.  Then I looked at what appeared to be a color cartoon drawing of the two chefs in front of me and quickly surmised:  OH I SEE... THEY'RE MARRIED.  THIS IS TRULY A MOM & POP SHOP.  There really aren't that many other folks to help out because it's an actual family operation.

OBSERVATIONS AROUND SUCCESSFUL DINING
So here's the thing:  I've seen a fair amount of sushi restaurants that think that great sushi is all it takes to make a successful sushi restaurant.  Echigo and the now-defunct Sushi Tenn are good examples.  Newsflash:  They're wrong.

I think personally that a successful restaurant has at least TWO of 4 dimensions going for it.

• QUALITY
  A good meal at a sushi restaurant obviously starts with quality.  Very rarely can one be successful without knowing what the heck they're doing selecting fish and preparing sushi behind the bar.
• SERVICE
  The chef & the wait staff is generally what provides the personality of a joint.  Without banter or an inviting, welcoming attitude, a restaurant appears soulless and empty.  And dining out is a genuinely social event.
• AMBIANCE
  The patrons, the decor, the music, the energy... that's what sustains a restaurant.  Rarely does a restaurant attain much genuine ambiance at first opening.
• VARIETY
  Every sushi restaurant serves Albacore Tuna, Fatty Tuna, Yellowtail, Salmon, Crab Rolls... what gets served in addition to that is what differentiates the restaurant.  Cooked dishes?  House specialities?

Lo-and-behold, Sushi Central seems to hit on all 4 of these areas.  While not being as "strong" as some upper tier sushi restaurant when it comes to sushi quality (Hiko, Mori, Bar Hayama, etc.), the mere fact that they can be discussed in the same breath as these other places instead of being relegated to the mediocre ranks of Asakuma, Hamasaku, and Hama of Venice, should be viewed as a plus.

To be honest, I didn't take as good notes as I should have and have left off a couple dishes that I ate, but these are the dishes that I remember well:

• Ono - EXCELLENT
  I don't see Ono served very often so as soon as I saw it on the menu, I ordered it and wasn't disappointed.  Buttery and rich, the Ono was probably their best fish of the night.  Finished up the night with an extra order.
• Ankimo - GOOD
  Chopped and served as sushi, the Ankimo was fresh-tasting, firm, and flavorful, lacking in much liquification.  And while I can name a few other restaurants that serve better than we were given, I wouldn't hesitate to order this dish again in the future.
• Uni - EXCELLENT
  Okay - this was a surprise.  The Uni was fantastic.  Firm, fresh, creamy, lacking in any sort of fishy taste with just a touch of brine, the Uni tasted heavenly.  We ordered two dishes.
• Aji - GOOD
  A strangely beefy serving, the Aji was very fresh and delicious.  I'd almost throw it into the EXCELLENT category if it weren't for the fact that it wasn't as flavorful as I'd expected but that might have just been the season.
• Tamago- FAIR
  This was disappointing.  It wasn't very good at all.  Tamago should be smooth, soft, sweet and lump-free, and frankly their's wasn't.  It was SIZABLE, for certain - biggest serving of Tamago that I'd ever had which gives it the FAIR rating.  That being said, I don't think this is going to bother too many people being that ordering Tamago is not very common for many people.

Other comments:

• RICE
  The rice was somewhat hard and simply not very fresh.  This was a little upsetting in reflection because the fish was actually very good in comparison.  It doesn't seem to make sense to have marginally prepared rice used in tandem with well cut, well selected, fresh fish.
  (Incidentally, it often gets by patrons that sushi rice is NOT the same white rice that gets prepared and served in bowls.  This is often the reason that some sushi restaurants won't serve you a bowl of rice.  It's not because they don't want to buy a bowl of rice, it's because they simply don't have an 'straight white rice':  It's all been prepared especially for sushi.  Some day, I'll write something up documenting what it is that certain sushi restaurants put in their rice but I think it'd surprise you what goes into sushi rice to complement the fish.)
• NO SOY SAUCE/WASABI
  Chef Phillip basically keeps people from using soy sauce which is interesting.  He doesn't even serve Wasabi unless it's for a specific dish.  Most of the time Phillip places the Wasabi directly on the sushi, which incidentally is the way it's supposed to be eaten with sushi, (Yes Virginia, mixing wasabi into soy sauce is primarily a western practice.  In Japan, wasabi is usually placed directly on sushi) and this may rub some folks the wrong way, however if you want to eat sushi right, IMHO this is the way to go.
• TWO GUYS & A PARAKEET
  The restaurant is very minimally staffed... you get the impression that it's basically just 'two guys and a parakeet' running the operation which adds to its warm atmosphere.  This might bother some folks that are more business minded but for 'your local hometown sushi restaurant', this is just great.

IN THE END... THIS IS A VERY GOOD RESTAURANT, BUT FOR DIFFERENT REASONS
The moral of the story is that you can't let initial impressions fool you.  I would have never visited this place had we not seen it on Yuji's blog.

Overall, I can see myself visiting this restaurant weekly much in the same way we do with Yabu or Hiko or Katana or Senzaburu.  There is simply nothing better than being able to walk into a sushi restaurant with your own bottle of sake, lose the usual pretention of most upper crust Japanese restaurants, and just sit down for a good meal without breaking the bank.

That's about the best way to describe Sushi Echigo.  It's good sushi in a quiet, tall room.

Yeah, that sounds like a piss poor description, but I think that's kind of the point.  The sushi's quite good for the most part, the decor is nil in a big tall room on the second floor of a strip mall, and the service is listless and lacks any personality whatsoever.  The place is basically the rented out location of a previously failed restaurant, with white walls but otherwise virtually no changes made to it except for some really cheap furniture and a good chef.

Now, the fact that the chef is good should be no surprise:  He's formerly of Sushi Sasabune.  I remember him from several years back and he broke out on his own, in the same way that others have.  The problem is that his sushi is not quite as good as Chef Nobi, and he certainly doesn't have the same demeanor or personality that Nobi does.  I believe half of Sasabune's return customers come back because of Nobi.

The Sake
I've actually been here a couple times before and frankly, it's just not the kind of place that I'd expect a lot out of.  The first thing you notice is that the sake menu is very poor.  The best they have on the menu is Hakkaisan Junmai Ginjoshu - the rest include Kubota Senju and the stock selection of Shimeharitsuru, and Kikusui. 

The bad news was that the Hakkaisan I was served was old.  Old, old, OLD.  And yes, I called them on it.  I had them show me the bottle and sure enough, it was a 1.8L bottle with about half of it left, dated over a year and a quarter old, meaning that not only was the sake itself outdated, but it had likely been sitting in a refrigerator for at least couple weeks after being opened, making it bitter, dirty, and sour.  I had them take it away and take it off my bill.

This started me off on a very bad mood admittedly for this review.  Fortunately, things got better.

The Sushi
So what about the sushi?  Well, the first thing you always look at of course is the quality of the wasabi.  Good wasabi is an indicator of whether or not the proprietors give a damn about the experience they give you, and sure enough, the wasabi was REAL wasabi root, freshly ground, a bit sweet, and very smooth, lacking in strands or clumps from over refrigeration.

As for the dishes:

• Skipjack Sashimi - FAIR
  Surprisingly, the first dish, which by tradition is supposed to be the 'best of the house' and the restaurant's signature dish (although I've noticed that as a trend some Japanese restaurants are using their first dish as an 'appetizer' instead and as an opportunity to 'get rid of left over fish cuts' they find they commonly have left over) was lacking in taste, texture, and almost seemed a little 'day oldish'.  I looked at the chef with a cockeyed quizzical look, and within seconds he nodded knowingly and appeared to have gotten the message because things changed drammatically after that.
  
• Toro - EXCELLENT
  Now, THIS was a good piece of sushi.  The toro was among the best I've had.  Sushi Sasabune & Hiko Sushi have possibly the best fatty tuna out there and this was right there. True Honmaguro Otoro, the fish required no usage of one's teeth.  A smooth well textured cut from the belly of the fish, this toro was completely flesh with a buttery yet lovely tuna filled taste.  Makes my mouth water just recalling that dish.
  
• Halibut - GOOD
  The halibut.  Good.  Nothing to write home about, but certainly well prepared and fresh.  Halibut in it of itself is a very subtle tasting fish, requiring as you all know, no soy sauce.  This could have used a dash of salt possibly but nonetheless, a good dish.
  
• Kanpachi & Bonito - GOOD
  Again good.  The bonito and kanpachi wasn't overly solid like it is served in many joints.  The bonito was tasty and flavorful with just the right cut to make it easily consumable.  Again, just good enough to make the grade.  Nothing terribly outstanding.
  
• Shima Aji - FAIR
  This got me a little disappointed.  When I originally wrote this review, Shima Aji was VERY much in season and even placed that don't specifically focus on sushi like Yabu were making incredible dishes from all the fresh Shima Aji available at the market.  Instead, I got a rather lackluster old piece of fish, hidden by a sauce to cover up the fact that the fish wasn't fresh.  Little tactics like these to cover up old fish really piss me off and I found myself involuntarily shaking my head in disappointment - although I don't think anyone saw me.
  
• Ono - EXCELLENT
  Or maybe someone did because the next dish was the Ono.  WOW.  This was one of the best nigiri I'd had in a long time.  Beefy, flavorful, and absolutely luscious, the Ono was probably their best dish.  Heck - if they could get a lot of it, I'd have made it the first dish out of the gate because this was truly a pleasure to eat and something you don't get very often outside of Hiko Sushi.
  
• Crab roll - GOOD
  A decent crab roll with real Blue Crab... none of this mayonnaise that I've been seeing sneaking into some crab rolls served in LA, but a 100% pure crab, crab roll that was filling, a little salty, and certainly tasty. 
  
• Uni - EXCELLENT
  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  A sushi restaurant that serves high quality Uni is usually on my "we'll be coming back" list.  The uni was solid, sweet, creamy, and mouth watering.  Not a bit of grain, not a tad bitter, they really locked down the uni there.  They definitely get the checkmark for that requirement to be a "good sushi restaurant".
  
• Amaebi - EXCELLENT
  Wow.  They sure put the 'ama' in Amaebi.  The sushi was sweeter than most any Amaebi I'd had.  It was top notch - so much so that I almost ordered another just to make sure it wasn't just the order I had.  They picked the right shrimp to serve as amaebi for certain.
  
• Mirugai - EXCELLENT
  Again, this was surprising.  Most mirugai is sadly tough and not very enjoyable at most restaurants, but here it was soft and well tenderized.  No tearing or gnashing necessary of my teeth - the mirugai (actually geoduck in this case) was delicious and soft. 

What can I say?  The food here is for the most part top notch, even if the ambiance sucks.  Frankly, not even a packed house could fix that though:  They need to get a maitre d' or something because the place lacks any sort of personality whatsoever.

And someone get them some sake counselling.  Have Yuji Matsumoto stop by and tell them how to sell sake while still being fiscally conservative.

It's been a while since I've posted.  Admittedly, I've been less enthusiastic about sake ever since my little 'incident' (I had to lay off all alcohol for 9 months because of some abnormalities in my liver) however I still frequent quite a few Japanese restaurants.

SakeSensei's Japanese Restaurant List
http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=DA410C7F7E038D!942

What's so special about this list?
I visit most of these restaurants on a frequent basis and I'm pretty damned picky about what I eat when it comes to sushi & Japanese food.  I haven't done reviews of all of them, but suffice it to say that if it's made this list, it's gonna be good. 

Now for the record, I wouldn't put all of them in my "top 10", after all there are 22 restaurants or so on the list, however if it's on the list, it's a place that I would and DO go back to eat at.

• For example #1:  SUSHI GEN
  This place is decent.  I've read a lot of reviews of this joint because it's ridicuously popular and for the record, it's not the Alpha & Omega of sushi like some folks will have you believe, but it's okay.  It's kind of like the new Sushi Sasabune:  Too big to be personable, dishes are mass-manufactured and often pre-prepared, a bit over-hyped overall, and a victim of its own popularity.   People that don't know any better will call it and Sushi Nozawa, "the best sushi I've ever had," which for them is probably true.  Personally, I'd go back to Sushi Gen for a business lunch but not for dinner.  It's a little pricey for what they serve, the fish isn't that judiciously or expertly cut and the sake list is just downright pathetic for a Little Tokyo Japanese restaurant.
• For example #2:  THOUSAND CRANES
  Now, this is a place that can be pricey but is worth every penny.  Thousand Cranes has one thing almost no one else has in the Los Angeles area:  An authentic Japanese tempura bar.  Chef Yamazaki serves patrons of his 12 seat tempura bar only the best ingredients fried freshly in minimal batter and maximum taste.  People that go there that complain that "the food there is not really that good," are stupid enough to actually eat at the dining tables or sit at the sushi bar and not pay heed to the fact that people rave about the tempura bar - and nothing else.  (Well, except for the sake menu which is top notch, albeit overpriced.)

How I get notified of changes to this list?
I'm going to try to be a little more attentive to this list.  If you want to RSS subscribe to it, you may do so by going to:

RSS Feed of SakeSensei's Japanese Restaurant List
http://maps.live.com/GeoCommunity.asjx?action=retrieverss&mkt=en-us&cid=DA410C7F7E038D!942

Do you know anyone that's ever won a world-reknown award?  I know a really nice guy who owns a record label that's won not one but TWO GRAMMY awards. 

TWO-TIME GRAMMY AWARD WINNER
Daniel Ho, the owner and producer for Daniel Ho Creations, is a singer, songwriter, and producer.  He's a very talented performer in his own right, but something he's done that very few people in the world has, is he's produced two GRAMMY award-winning albums on his own record label. 

"BEST HAWAIIAN MUSIC ALBUM"
The first was in 2006 when he produced "Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Vol. 1" and the album won "Best Hawaiian Music Album" in the 48th annual GRAMMY awards.  The second was in 2007 when he produced "Legends of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar" which won "Best Hawaiian Music Album" in the 49th annual GRAMMY awards.

THIRD NOMINATION IN THREE YEARS
And now he and his company's up for a THIRD award with not one, but two nominations this year.  The following two albums are nominated for GRAMMY awards in the category of "Best Hawaiian Music Album":

Treasures of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar

The first is a compilation album like the first two Grammy award winners he produced.  Featuring the talent of George Kahumoku, Jr., Ledward Kaapana, Dennis Kamakahi, Cyril Pahinui, Martin Pahinui, Owana Salazar, Keoki Kahumoku, Daniel Ho, Richard Ho‘opi‘i, Bobby Ingano, Da ‘Ukulele Boyz, and Sterling Seaton, it bears some similarity to "Legends of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar", packing even more talent on the disc than ever before while managing to articulate the soul of Hawaii Slack Key even more eloquently than before. 
[STREAM SAMPLE MUSIC 64kbps]  [DOWNLOAD 160kbps]

Hawaiiana 

The second is of a very different sort in that it's performed entirely by singer & actress Tia Carrere.  Tia performs exactly what the title reads:  Hawaiiana... some of Hawaii's most beloved music, including Aloha 'Oe & He Aloha Mele.  Her dreamily beautiful & emotional rendition of Aloha 'Oe almost compels a tear from one's eye.
[STREAM SAMPLE MUSIC 64kbps]  [DOWNLOAD 160kbps]

 

THE REQUEST FOR CONSIDERATION
So if any one reading this is a a member of NARAS or knows someone that is, might they please consider voting for one of these two albums for the GRAMMY category of "Best Hawaiian Music Album"?

Okay - I've been going to Yabu for a while so this isn't exactly a new restaurant.  But I've never written anything on them so it's time.

Simply put:  Yabu is one of my favorite restaurants on the Westside.  It's a great place to go to kick back, relax and eat unpretentious yet expertly prepared food in a casual atmosphere.  It's like the kind of food my grandmother used to make in Hawaii.

PROS:

• SAKE
  It has a fair sake menu.  Shimeharitsuru, Jozen Mizunogotoshi.  Kikusui.  Nothing terribly surprising but certainly better than the typical Ozeki, Sho Chiku Bai, Gekkeikan array.
• WASABI
  Ah.  Real wasabi.  Nuff said.
• RICE
  This is well-prepared rice.  I'm tired of rice that's undercooked, overcooked, or poorly prepared without certain additives.  (FYI:  Most restaurant rice isn't cooked with just water & rice)
• TEMPURA
  This is one of the few places in Los Angeles where the tempura approaches the level of the Tempura Bar at Senzaburu/Thousand Cranes restaurant in Downtown Los Angeles.  Fantastic tempura right at the bar.
• TORO
  Very few places serve Toro and don't try to sell you a bag of goods when they do.  Yabu is honest and tells you EXACTLY what kind of Toro you're being served.  Too many Americans don't know the grades of Toro or why 'not all Toro dishes are equal'.
• SHIMA AJI
  The Japanese Shima Aji here is delicious and very well prepared with great flavor and unmatched freshness.  I've only see Shima Aji served this well in two other locations and that's at Bar Hayama & Wakasan.  Frankly, they all run in the same circles I'm sure so it's not surprising.
• FRIED OYSTERS
  Yum.  Nuff said.  Be sure to sit at the bar for the hottest, freshest dish!
• CHAWANMUSHI
  Yet another grandmother favorite.  Their chawanmushi is a just as good as at Wakasan, but a little more bountiful in the ingredient category.
• SUSHI/NOODLES
  If you go, you have to pick up the Tamago, the Uni, and the cold Soba.  I hate noodles in general but their soba is to die for.  Almost as good as Wakasan and certainly in larger portions. 

CONS:

• PARKING
  Parking sucks.  Hopefully the valets there to take your car because otherwise finding a parking space is a challenge.
• SEATING
  You need to generally make reservations.  This place is packed most of the time because it's been around for a while.
• TOO MUCH!
  The menu is huge.  You won't be able to eat everything you want to order here.  Their udon and soba is freshly made and their house dish.  The sushi is expertly prepared.  If you're sitting at the bar, you're guaranteed to get hot fried foods that are to die for.  The menu is a bottomless delight, yet it's frustrating that there's just sooooo much good stuff here.

YAY!  The Japanese Cuisine & Culture festival is back!  This is one of my favorite events annually and it's gotten bigger and bigger every year.  And unlike SOME events, this isn't some watered down, "Hey - let's stuff every random Asian culture into a single event" type of gig.  It's a "Japanese" food festival sponsored by the Japanese Restaurant Association of Southern California.  Sushi, sukiyaki, tempura, yakitori, tofu... and of course, SAKE will all be on hand for eating, tasting, and consuming.

There will be:

• Sushi preparation contests
• Sakes & beer tasting
• Uni cooking contest
• Jazz & Taiko

MORE INFO:
http://www.jrasc.com

WHEN:
Saturday, October 27th, 2007; 11:00AM - 3:00PM

WHERE:
New Otani Hotel & Garden
120 S. Los Angeles Street, LA, CA 90012

COST:
$50/person - must be purchased in advance!
Call the JRA office at (213) 687-4055

 

12th Annual LA TOFU FESTIVAL presented by the Little Tokyo Service Center
part of the 67th Annual Nisei Week Japanese Festival

"Where Tofu Meets its Perfect Match"
Saturday, August 18th 12noon-8pm
Sunday, August 19th 12noon-6pm
Little Tokyo, Downtown Los Angeles
Admission Booths on 2nd and S. San Pedro Streets
$5 General Admission
FREE for Seniors (60+) and Youth (under 12)
http://www.tofufestival.com or 213-473-3030

This year's theme is "Where Tofu Meets its Perfect Match," reflecting tofu's versatility to match with other foods to create an adventurous assortment of dishes.
Featuring:

• Delicious & imaginative soy, non-soy, organic and specialty foods served by LA's top restaurants 
• Marketplace, Health and Fitness Lane
• Singha Beer Garden
• The ever-popular Tofu Eating contest
• Wi-fi Scavenger Hunt
• Raffle Drawing with a Chance to win 2 Business Class tickets to Japan on American Airlines plus a 3-night Stay at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa and many other fabulous prizes!

Nearly 25,000 people, ranging from children, to seniors, are expected to partake in this annual outdoor community event. We hope to see you there!

I found it interesting that no one seems to have reviewed Bar Hayama yet, so I figure I'll put my two cents as to what I think of it. 

NEW LOOK FOR THE OL' SASABUNE HOUSE
So, Sugiura-san (aka Frank/"Toshi"), the owner of the Hama in Venice, has taken residence at the old building that was converted from an old Mexican restaurant in 1995 to what became known as Sushi Sasabune, on the corner of Nebraska & Sawtelle.  Marked by only a neon sign that read "Sushi", Sushi Sasabune turned from hole-in-the-wall to celebrity insider with frequent visits from Aaron Spelling's family, Peter DeLouise, and the entire cast of Los Angeles' FOX 11 News.  In 2006, Sushi Chef Nobi Kusuhara moved Sasabune to the location where it currently resides - the old Todai on Wilshire in West LA, which left the original location empty.

Enter "Toshi", famed owner of Hama in Venice.  After 9 months of renovating, the 'old mexican restaurant' looks nothing like it's original appearance.  Featuring a massive firepit in the patio, frosted glass, and a modern stylish look both indoors and outdoors, Toshi opened Bar Hayama.  With a capacity of about 86, Bar Hayama has the look & feel of today's modern Los Angeles sushi restaurant - a style made famous by folks like Innovating Dining's Michael Cardenas of Katana & Sushi Roku.

It also has the personality of a Sushi Nozawa/Sasabune with Sugiura-san's bellowing and stern authoritative commands to his chefs, but the ambiance (and potential insanity) of Koi or Hama with attractive Japanese hostesses waiting to greet you at the door.

This is a serious change up from the ol' Sasabune days and it's certainly nothing like what's historically populated the Sawtelle 'Little Tokyo' corridor before which has been mostly traditional restaurants adhering to low profile, Japanese decor and a minimization of the whole "IRASSHAIMASE!" chaos that the tourists & newbies-to-traditional-sushi have come to adore so much in Los Angeles, not unlike interactive dinner theatre.

JAPANESE FARE WORTHY OF R23
Toshi's an interesting cat.  His fare was personally served to me and several of his dishes as you can see are fairly creative.

• SAKE
  I'm starting out with this because this was both an extremely pleasant surprise as well as fantastic in it's diversity.  There's no restaurant on the westside right now with the breadth & depth of sake available that Bar Hayama has.  With over 60 different & genuinely QUALITY bottles available, Toshi, a Japan-accredited sake sommelier, has created a sake menu that is without a doubt the best I've seen in a long time in Los Angeles.
  
  I asked him point blank, "As a Japanese, I visited your restaurant in Venice and the sake there was a little... ehhh..."  (The Japanese for those of you who aren't familiar with the culture, describe negative responses by soft shoeing descriptions and tailing off on sentences.  It's considered rude to say negative things outright)  He said that while he has a great appreciation for sake, when he created Hama, there just wasn't a market for it, and it just didn't make good business.
  
  This of course made instant sense:  Sake should only be kept for one year maximum, if refrigerated... otherwise it loses its distinctiveness and its original character.  A decade ago, people weren't consuming anything but low quality futsushu heated in tokkuri flasks that were hotter than the surface of the sun, and they existed only in order to get people drunk.  It didn't make sense to stock high-end jizake nihonshu being that no one at Hama would buy it and it would just go bad.  These days, with people recognizing and appreciating more fine sake, Toshi has come out with guns blazing with a menu bound to impress the average Los Angeles sake fan.
  
  He seemed disappointed with my selection of Suehiro Ken, a favorite of mine.  I realized that he probably considered Suehiro akin to Kubota these days and probably would have prefered my pick of something more eclectic like the Daishichi sakes on his menu as a demonstration of my appreciation for the selection however, let's be honest:  There's only a few restaurants that even sell Ken itself in LA proper because of it's moderate cost and it'd been a while since I'd had a bottle.  Next time, Toshi.  Next time.  I'll probably tap the Tsukasaboton Genshu, a stronger, more potent sake which I've never seen served in Los Angeles before.
  
  It should be noted that the sake was EXTREMELY fresh.  With a bottle date of May 2007, I was fairly surprised at first... but then again, the place has only been open for 2 weeks to the public so, what would you expect.  Hopefully, Toshi will keep things fresh and turn a lot of sake out.
  
In fact, I mentioned that the menu was similar to what I'd seen in high end sake restaurants in places like Las Vegas' Shibuya or Okada which prompted the two gentlemen seated next to me to nod approvingly and mutter, "Hai... Shibuya".  It turns out they were representatives for Japan Prestige, a sake brewery coalition that has a relatively large collection of sake for distribution. 

I was served something not listed on the sake menu, and it might be worth asking Toshi if he has some if you'd like to try something different.  He had the Berkeley, CA brewery of Shochikubai (don't laugh - read the rest of this paragraph before you judge) send him a bottle of something they are calling "Nama Nama" - an EXTREMELY raw, green unpasteurized brew that was essentially bottled no more than 24 hours ago.  That's right:  24 hours ago.  They don't make much more than a few hand bottled flasks of this brew and those that receive it have to serve it within 24-48 hours of receiving it because it goes bad within 4-5 days.  The taste is akin to champagne without the extreme carbonation and is very bright.   I suspect while rare, it's not very expensive either being that it's locally brewed and bottled thus incurring no import tax, and its sharp taste ultimately cloaks and overwhelms the other nuances of the sake.  Griff Frost of SakeOne in Forest Grove, OR has been trying to sell sake champagnes for a while, but Shochikubai might be onto something that might catch on in a certain niche market. 


• DISHES
  One of their signature dishes is a "macrobiotic salad", a three stage salad with red potato salad, shoyu-noodles, and a light fish that tasted like a flaky cod but I forgot what it was.  It was good and certainly a nice appetizer.  This sort of salad is common in traditional family style Japanese restaurants like Wakasan & Yabu and I could see where he wanted to serve something along those lines but yet different and acceptable to "American" tastes.  He acknowledged as much after I'd asked him but not before somewhat pooh-poohing the other restaurants... as I would expect him to. <smirk>
  
  They also served a Blue Crab cake with what tasted like a lobster sauce.  This was as good a crab cake as I've tasted however the lobster sauce was a tad too salty for the dish slightly overpowering the sweetness of the meat.  If anyone takes this dish, eat the cake straight up for maximum flavor.  The crab is delicious.
  
• SUSHI
  I went ahead and ordered a few specials including the Shima Aji and the Toro, both of which were very good.  Although the Toro has a little tsuji in it (fiber strands) it was still melt-in-your-mouth good and the serving was very large... surprisingly so.  The shima aji was good however I'd just had better at Yabu so it might have been a slightly unfair comparison.
  
  We were served a small sukemono & baby amaebi salad which was something I hadn't had before... and it was definitely excellent.  Shrimp that are ACTUALLY sweet is an amazing sign of a high quality Japanese restaurant.
  
  Of course the wasabi was fresh grated, and not bitter.  I make mention of bitterness because I've noticed a trend of chefs serving fresh grated wasabi that just plain tastes bad... and it could easily be avoided if they simply taste a little before serving it.
  
  They also served raw mitsutake beef - a sashimi style cut of beef heavy with fat and and absolute delight to consume.  My wife ordered a salmon collar while I finished my plate and we found the salmon to be a little on the dry side but decent nonetheless. The cheek of the salmon however was fantastic and frankly, that's the best part.
  
  Maguro Blue Cheese.  That's right.  Toshi served something that I found to be unique and quite good.  It was a tuna with a blue cheese and shoyu sauce that was a very good match. (Toshi was very proud of this dish of his)  The last time I had Japanese food that matched well with Blue Cheese was Tamanohikari's Kaori Ginjo - an American-importable sake that tastes great with Blue Cheese.
  
  Toshi made some comment about kanpachi being the filet mignon of fish in comparison to yellowtail being the "sirloin".  I cocked my head at that comparison and gave him a jaded, "Alright... whatever" look.  He proceeded to then serve me the best piece of kanpachi I'd ever had.  Kanpachi is generally a firmer more flavorful fish than yellowtail or other tuna, however this was unusually soft and fluffy.  I don't know exactly how to describe it except to say that I had to take back my 'look' because he was right:  This was the best fish I'd had during the meal.
  
  Two other dishes were served:  Miso cucumber & hamachi & a Scallop & cerviche dish.  To be honest, these were okay - not the spectacular dishes that the maguro and the kanpachi were, but perhaps that's an unfair comparison.
  
• SERVICE
  This is going to be the dark side of this restaurant and I wonder how things go when not being served at the sushi bar:  While the hostesses are friendly, attractive and do a great job of warming up guests, bringing them to their seats and hanging jackets, their waiters don't know what they're doing quite yet. 
  
  Even though the restaurant is still new, it's surprising to see that the waitstaff is still taking instruction from the chefs behind the bar half the time and while I don't expect much from them, these guys seem to have no autonomy:
  - The waiter only brought one glass with a 720ml bottle of sake, even though my wife was there and only brought one glass of water (for my wife) when we both asked for it.
  - They had absolutely no idea what was on the sake menu.  After I pronounced the word "KEN" three times, I relied on the "point-at-the-bottle" method of showing them what to serve.
  - The bus boys took forever to pick up any empty plates and the waiters didn't introduce any of the chefs at the bar, nor did they introduce themselves.
  ...I could go on on and on, but suffice it to say that if there's room for improvement at Bar Hayama, it's with the waitstaff.  At least they were quick to turn the check.
  
  On the positive side, the chef-patron banter is quite lively.  Unless you actually know something about sake, (or are willing to suck up <grin>) don't plan on leading a discussion with Toshi - it's his bar and he'll be the one to start & end conversations.  Toshi's California Sushi Academy has placed a few of the chefs at the restaurant, all of which have genuine personalities and are great guys unto themselves with skills.  The former headchef & cuisine architect from Blowfish Sushi (on Sunset Blvd) is working at Toshi's side now at Bar Hayama after seemingly getting tired of the headaches from his previous employer.  And Toshi himself sits center stage at the bar.  Of course.

Pricewise, it's similar to most of today's high end Japanese sushi restaurants.  My wife and I left with a $250 tab with a $50 tip - a 1/3rd of the bill was sake however.  If you're looking for cheaper, you can certainly buy less pricey dishes with the same experience.

I suspect that this place is going to be reservation-only for a while as the culturally elite start pushing their way there.  The parking is valet and for those of you that remember the parking situation when the building was Sasabune, it's only going to get worse with a capacity of 86 customers.

I'll be back to at least see Suryo, one of the chefs, during the grand opening this Saturday.  If you see a short Japanese guy without a Japanese accent sitting at the far end of the table, say hi. It'll probably be me.

A Taste of Sake - July 19 (Thursday) 6-7:30 p.m.

Learn about the national drink of Japan, sake, in a lecture and tasting led by  Meher McArthur, an expert in Japanese art and culture and former curator of East Asian art at the Pacific Asia Museum.   Participants will gain insight into the history, cultural significance, production, and drinking etiquette of this delicious rice wine while sampling varieties from different regions.  Members: $50.   Non-members: $60.   Registration: 626-405-2128.

The Huntington
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
(626) 405-2100

Directions: http://www.huntington.org/Information/directions.html

The web site is at http://www.tofufestival.com... and YES, I know it says August 12-13th on the top of the site however this is for 2006... they haven't updated the header yet.

This is part of Little Tokyo's 67th Nisei Week Celebration and is presented by the Little Tokyo Service Center (213-473-3030).  They even have a MySpace site... so you know the marketing staff running this gig can't be a year over 21. <smirk> (http://myspace.com/tofufestival)

Time/Date:  Saturday, August 18th - 19th, 12 Noon to 8:00PM

Location:  2nd & San Pedro Streets in Little Tokyo

Featuring:

• Japanese food
• Beer garden
• Tofu Eating Contest
• Live Entertainment

Oh, this is a good one.

Sponsored by the U.S. Japan Relationship Fund, this is a gig that I know will be great because of the people behind it.

• Japan External Trade Organization
• Official Consulate of Japan
• Japanese Sake Brewers Association

First of all, all the players in Los Angeles sake sales, sake marketing, sake restauranteuring and sake enthusiasm will be here. 

You can virtually guarantee folks like Yuji Matsumoto from Mutual Trading Company will be there doing his sake presentation... Michael Cardenas, the head of Innovating Dining and the restaurant "Katana" will be there, the chefs of "Katsu-ya" of Ventura Boulevard will be there... Takuya Shinomura of Jizake Inc., a fixture at virtually all these events (he represents all the "The Jizake" microbrew imports) will undoubtedly be there... and it wouldn't be surprising to see several sakagura presidents there, PERSONALLY serving his own brews.

BOTTOM LINE:  It'll be a veritable who's-who of sake distribution and consumption.

To top it all off, there will be a whopping 360 different sake available for tasting.  No, that's not a typo.  360 different bottles to choose from.  If you're going to go to one event this year, this is the one to go to.

Want more?  Check this out:  The gig's at Le Meridien in Beverly Hills and will feature foods from:

• Sushi Katsu-ya
• Katana
• Sushi Roku
• Chaya
• Asakuma
• Le Meridien

Registration is $40/person which is a serious bargain.  And for the first time in my memory, you can actually buy tickets online!  (A real rarity here in Los Angeles... usually these gigs require a phone in reservation or a postal letter with a check)

INFO:  http://www.usjrf.org/index.htm

Well, unfortunately I've still had to be a little careful about how much sake I consume.  That being said, this month is a banner month for Sake Tasting:

This is always a fun time.  The Winehouse has great facilities and it's an excellent place for sake tasting.  Unfortunately, I've noticed that several of the Winehouse employees look down a bit on sake relative to their usual sales of wine and champagne (their front-of-store comments haven't been very encouraging) so I try to make sure that I advertise their sake gigs to hopefully change those opinions.  They only have these events once in blue moon.

Here's the description they give:

Tonight, we will continue down a path that takes us considerably farther east than our normal longitudes of tasting exploration.  We're headed into the fascinating world of Sake.  We'll start at the beginning with a little history, and then we'll learn about such things as Kimoto and Yamahai (brewing processes).  Tasting a variety of styles - ranging from Koshu (aged sake) to Nigori (unfiltered sake) and even sweet sake - will give us an excellent overview of this ancient, delectable form of liquid pleasure.  We'll also be discussing Sakes and food pairing with both American and Asian cuisine.  Kazu Yamazaki, Vice president of Japan Prestige Sake and Winehoue Buyer Coffield Appiah will host.  Kanpai!

So if you want to meet a fairly eclectic group of folks, (they have folks from all over LA attending this gig) then come down to the Winehouse and check out their selection and their tastings.  It's intimate & quite fun!

"Best of Current Sake"
Winehouse Tasting (310) 479-3731
7:30PM - 9:30PM, $53 per person
2311 Cotner Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90064

I've never written about this before because this isn't exactly related to Japanese food.  But it is related to Japan, and in that vein I think I should say something for a very maligned movie:

I loved "The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift".

Oh yes - I'm quite aware that it got killed by the critics.  I've even linked to the Rotten Tomatoes critics comments listing.  But really don't care.  This is was one of the few movies I've seen recently that made me involuntarily stand up and yell at the big screen, "AWHELLYEAAAH, BITCHES."

Los Angeles Daily News:
Tokyo Drift has no story and no stars. That just leaves the rides, which are shiny and loud and fast and sometimes just as computer-generated as their counterparts in Pixar's Cars.

Screw you, Daily News.  Yeah, the story was a little artificial.  And yeah, there weren't any stars.  But then again, "Seabiscuit" was frankly weak too and I didn't exactly see William H. Macy in that flick.  Yes, that's right:  I called "Seabiscuit" weak.  Down & out horse gets well and wins everything.  There.  Guess what?  I just told you the whole story.  Real frickin' deep 'eh?

New York Post:
The movie teaches us that you can flip your car down a mountain 15 times and walk away from it with two Tylenol.

Two words, NYPost:  Eat me.  All of a sudden the Post wants realism in a movie about eye-candy & street racing in a city that's known as the New York of the Far East in terms of visuals.  I guess 'da Post is all about keepin' it real, y'all.  Word to y'mutha, punk.

This isn't about plot.  It's not about the actors.  It's not even about the girls.  It's all about the visuals and the fact is, if you wanna see some really sweet drifting in city Tokyo city streets, you've got to see this movie.  I guarantee you'll find yourself goin', "WHHOOOWHEEEE... damn, that's cool!"

• Inside "The Fast & the Furious:  Tokyo Drift":  http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fast_and_the_furious_3_tokyo_drift/trailers_player.php?IGNMediaID=1481425&playerType=playlist

If you're going to check this movie out, get it on HD-DVD.  The extras are REALLY neat.  There's picture-in-picture commentary available for the movie along with a variety of "in movie" effects like a GPS monitor showing where the cars are in Tokyo, etc.