Regular guests even bring gifts for the chef. The way warm rice is caressed and formed into an elongated disk with the palm of one hand and the index finger of the other. Creators Sebastian. The dinner omakase starts with six courses of otsumami (little snacks), which lean more Californian than Japanese, such as green salad with fig and truffle and clam chowder, before leading into a set of more traditional sushi items. Oops. Lunchtime is a bargain compared to dinner, where prices can grow up well over $200 for the top-tier omakase. Freshness and quality: 10 The menu ranges from spicy tuna rolls to fried calamari and chicken kara-age and also includes several choices for omakase based on which chef is actually preparing it; you pay more if the head chef makes it. But most of all, its a solid entry point to quality sushi designed by legendary chef Kazunori Nozawa, from tender ponzu-laced albacore to melt-in-your-mouth chutoro over Nozawas famous warm rice. With somewhere around 15 courses, including miso soup and dessert, this $65 set meal in Redondo Beach lets you indulge in high-end sushi without completely breaking the bank. There are many excellent omakases in Los Angeles, but none deliver as much excellence, fun and value as this Michelin-starred sushi counter hidden in the back of Sugarfish Beverly Hills. Its a matter of taste but also respect. A post shared by Sushi Tama (@sushitama_la). The menu ranges from spicy tuna rolls to fried calamari and chicken kara agi and also includes several choices for omakase based on which chef is actually preparing it; you pay more if the head chef makes it. The pricing certainly reflects thisthough we'd skip their nontraditional omakase featuring foie gras and caviar starting $200but Brothers is still well worth the splurge for la carte sushi and sashimi. The pace should be leisurely, neither rushed nor slow. Timing and grace: 5 The quake appeared on the center's earthquake map saying it occurred at 8:32 a.m. off the coast of southern Alaska. Youll be in good hands if you dine at Soichi in San Diegos University Heights neighborhood. 11 Excellent Places to Eat While Shopping at Arcadias Santa Anita Mall. The menu focuses exclusively on omakase. 10 Best Sushi Bars (Not the Americanized Stuff) by a Japanese American Rorys Place is the Perfect One-Night Escape from L.A. Pricing: 5-pc sets start as low as $5.99 for shime saba (marinated mackerel), $7.99 fresh hamachi (yellow tail), $9.99 fresh blue fin akami (lean) tuna $12.99, or you can get a multi-piece deluxe set for about $17.99. Far more people come here for the poke rolls and tempura lobster rolls than for the omakase, but the balance seems to be shifting. Its a welcome phrase in any city, especially Los Angeles. This spot offers omakase for $125 per person, and sushi a la carte. No a la carte. Guy Fieri's Stagecoach Smokehouse & Cooking Demos 2023: Indio This intimate seven-seat kaiseki restaurant helmed by chef-owner Brandon Hayato Go is one of the most coveted reservations in town, and with good reason. Follow Resy too, while youre at it. Chef Ei Hiroyoshi, formerly of Sasabune in Beverly Hills, has landed as the head chef of Hamasaku and so far the affable sushi master has brought a renewed focus on what makes LA sushi special. The numerical scores that follow are based on a scale of 1 to 10. The nigiri-forward omakasethe most expensive per head in Los Angelesclimbs past 20 courses, each bite focused on incredibly high-quality fish that's been brushed with soy, lightly. With multiple omakase options from a $110 menu at lunch to a $280 menu for dinner and a nigiri-only menu for $140 this intimate omakase experience is one of the most talked-about sushi dinners in town. For some cocktails if you want to cut down on sweetness you can ask to submore, If you're a sushi lover, I HAVE to recommend asking for Omakase. COME GET SOME FOOD FROM HERE YOU WON'T REGRET IT" read more, "Just had the best Ramen and sushi ever!! The $75 wine pairing takes the omakase to the next level. If it all sounds a little personal, it is. Or, hey, a mix of it all. Incorporating a proper mix of prepared dishes from ankimo (monkfish liver) to Japanese hairy crab, the tastings might go through 20 courses of delicious bites, from slippery umami-rich kohada (gizzard shad) to seared anago (sea eel). $170 per person. Cost: Omakase starts at $45. Cost: Omakase starts at $35. Its also a joy to watch these crafted courses come together, whether sashimi or oysters. Settle into 15 pieces of terrific sushi that impress even the snobbiest of sushi-goers the varieties of fish range from familiar cuts to more obscure ones. Awarded a Michelin star within just a few months of opening, this rarefied omakase counter from chef Seigo Tamura feels like one of the top sushi restaurants to open in Los Angeles in the past few years. If you want a traditional omakase Ohshima in Orange is by far the best. The menu plays fast and loose with tradition, but you're still left dumbfounded at the end of the meal, which typically clocks in at just over two hoursa quicker meal, so to speak, in fine dining terms. "Best VALUE Omakase Sushi Course in Southern California." Review of Ohshima Japanese cuisine 46 photos Ohshima Japanese cuisine 1956 N Tustin St, Orange, CA 92865-3950 +1 714-998-0098 Website Improve this listing Ranked #73 of 483 Restaurants in Orange 32 Reviews Cuisines: Sushi, Japanese Dining options: Reservations Chuck S Los Angeles, California Once in, however, service is doting and quite charming. The staff is friendly and doting but nowhere near the level of grace as Q or Tsujita. The omakase service is $85 for 9 to 11 dishes plus ice cream. The phrase dont judge a book by its cover applies well to Kenbey, which opened without much fanfare in a Silver Lake strip mall last year. Tomoko Imade Dyen is a Los Angeles-based Japanese food ambassador, consultant, and culinary event producer. Shunji is a michelin starred restaurant that offers both a seasonal omakase and I believe a sushi only omakase. The result is a refined-yet-relaxed omakase that's perfectly suited to southern California. I am bringing my family and friends to this hidden gem!! newsletter, 21418 Ventura Blvd, Woodland Hills, CA 91364, 13447 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423, 3133 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039, 609 La Cienega Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069, 116 N Robertson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048, 123 Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka St #307, Los Angeles, CA 90012, 1911 Westwood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025, 1320 E 7th St #126, Los Angeles, CA 90021, A post shared by Hayato (@hayatorestaurant), 1300 Highland Ave #107, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266. Freshness and quality: 10 The Stagecoach Country Music Festival brings out some of the genre's best . Freshness and quality: 10 Inside, youll find a stylish pale wood interior with mood lighting at night, as well as a small outdoor patio. The sub-$40 lunch special comes with nine pieces of nigiri, a cut roll, miso soup, and a few small bites. Sushi Tama map Beverly Hills If only the variety here matched that of Shunka, Tsujita or Ohshima. We serve ever changing seasonal Omakase using high quality fishes. As someone who eats a lot of sushi, I always appreciate a restaurant that serves more than the usual salmon, tuna, halibut, shrimp, scallop and sea urchin. 18 Springtime Getaway Restaurants to Try in the LA Mountains, The 13 Hottest Cocktail Spots in Los Angeles, 19 Showstopping Breakfast Burritos in Los Angeles, The best chef-selected tasting menus of sashimi and nigiri. Momoyama. Trust us, then, with this list of the citys finest omakase, which includes a mix of more traditional and newfangled offerings, along with a guide to what to expect at kaiseki and kappo restaurants. Miami is becoming a outrageous omakase city, with wide-ranging options from Faena Miami Beach's El Secreto Omakase to Michelin-starred Azabu Miami Beach's The Den to an outpost of Phillip. Sugarfish might have made loosely packed warm rice a citywide phenomenon, but this L.A. omakase classic with locations in West L.A., Beverly Hills and Glendale first popularized warm rice sushi back in the '90sand still delivers the same quality and no-frills ambience today. No rolls. The Omakase " more Outdoor seating Delivery Takeout 9. While dinner will cost a pretty penny, lunch is a worthy splurge for those working in the area. Its all in the name at Ootoro Sushi, where chefs slice thick cuts of fatty tuna for nigiri and donburi and the kitchen serves luxurious dishes made with lobster, certified Kobe beef and other kinds of premium seafood (including a king crab-topped uni cream pasta). We feel like were inviting people into our home, Raechel said, a feeling bolstered by the fact that Soichi himself worked with partners to paint and build many parts of the restaurant. 7. The price to see Onodera in action is equally sky-high. Extraordinary in every detail. They offer a choice of omakase menus, but no a la carte. The staff is friendly and doting but nowhere near the level of grace at Q or Tsujita. A post shared by Mtran (@dramswithtran) on Jul 11, 2019 at 5:33pm PDT, The Essential Los Angeles Sushi Restaurants, 2017 Edition. With numerous locations across Southern California, Sugarfish remains one of the most reliable sushi restaurants in Los Angeles with various fixed-price and takeout nigiri packages that cater to everyone. Website / Address: 16601 S Western Ave, Gardena, California 90247, USA 22 Essential San Gabriel Valley Restaurants, 2022 Edition. Okuda is an enthusiastic proponent of dry-aging his raw fish (you can see it in progress in the refrigerators lining the hallway), which concentrates its umami flavors. SUGARFISH By Sushi Nozawa 4.1 (1430 reviews) Japanese Sushi Bars $$$ Please enter a valid email and try again. Norfolk Southern said it has already spent about $55 million to dig up and remove nearly 34,000 tons of contaminated soil and trucked away another 13.2 million gallons of tainted water. LA's . Please enter a valid email and try again. By submitting your email, you agree to our, 14 Essential Omakase Feasts in Los Angeles, Sign up for the Hayakawa . Soy sauce is discouraged at the counter. Nestled beyond the lush courtyard of the Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica, this eight-seat sushi bar is hidden in a secluded corner of the first-floor lobby. Extraordinary in every detail. What a disappointment. Variety: 10 Freshness and quality: 10 Ranked #16 of 184 Restaurants in Covina. While most of picks will easily set you back over $100 per head, there are still a handful of high-quality andaffordable optionsaround Los Angeles(after all, its hard to beat Sushi Gen's classic sashimi lunch special). Again, the couple received the honor humbly, enough so that the San Diego Union-Tribune dubbed Soichi San Diegos most-reluctant Michelin-starred restaurant.. Service is fantastic so even if youmore, Sushi Takeda - Little Tokyo, Los Angeles Lunch Review: Saturday, 10/23/21 Nigiri Omakase: $100 Openmore, izakaya osen | silver lake, CA, | $$$ | 4/5 omakase by osen has been on my to-try list for awhile. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Cost: Omakase starts at $45. Should you be interested in Sake, a sommelier is on hand. Alaska Center Deletes Magnitude 6.2 Earthquake Posting From upscale omakase menus to enduring mom-and-pop classics, here now are 19 of Los Angeless essential sushi restaurants. James Beard Award-winning restaurant critic Brad A. Johnson has been writing about food for more than 20 years. In return, you'll receive several courses of nigiri, sashimi and small plates you'll still be thinking about weeks laterplus the bragging rights to having dined at one of the city's greats. Overview: This fast-paced sushi bar caters to both nigiri purists and fans of California rolls and tempura. Q Sushi, Los Angeles (Photo by Brad A. Johnson). Oyabun Sushi serves really good sushi rolls. The order in which the fish are served, making sense of varying textures, pungencies and delicacies. Sushi Akatora Kn Corner, a 76-seat restaurant in Buenos Aires, is the ultimate expression of acclaimed Argentine chef Narda Lepes' lifelong passion for Japanese cuisine and . Regular guests even bring gifts for the chef. Los Angeles just might be the city thats done the most in terms of introducing Americans to Japanese cuisine the first sushi restaurant in the country, Kawafuku, opened here in Little Tokyo in the early 1960s, while our namesake California Roll was invented a few years later at its competitor, Tokyo Kaikan (which also housed a second-floor disco called Tokyo A Go-Go, reportedly a favorite of Rock Hudson and Audrey Hepburn). This Little Tokyo sushi restaurant has been a cult favorite among L.A.'s diehard sushi fans for years. The intimate little shop on Adams Avenue was just named Yelps top-ranked omakase dining experience in the entire country, based on a glowing five-star rating from over 300 reviewers. Restaurant Critic. Omakase is that Japanese tradition of putting yourself in the hands of the chef, letting him (sushi remains a male-dominated industry) prepare whatever he desires. The Best New Restaurants in the World: 2023 Hot List 18507 Yorba Linda Boulevard, Yorba Linda, 714-777-6789, sushinoguchi.com Melt in your mouth delicious. While some compare omakase to a tasting menu, its origins are more pragmatic: diners had no way of knowing what their local sushi bar might be carrying on a given day, so they simply asked the chefs to serve them the best of what they had on hand. At Nozawa Bar, our aim is to serve the very best tradition-based omakase sushi meal. Cost: Omakase starts at $120; add Japanese beef, from $180 Brad dines incognito and pulls no punches. Bottom line: Ikka offers outstanding quality and variety. Best Omakase near me in Los Angeles, California. Variety: 6 The whole note omakase runs a mere $115, with a wine pairing coming in a $75 that comes with six glasses. Our newsletter hand-delivers the best bits to your inbox. Cost: Omakase starts at $80. Bring on the striped jack, the opal eye, the threadfin, the gizzard shad, the beltfish, the idiot fish . Priced at just $75 per person, the omakase from Hirofumi Gen Sakamoto offers one of the best deals in town. Overview: Tsujita opened last year in heart of L.A.s Little Osaka district on Sawtelle, offering Edomae, or Tokyo-style, omakase sushi. Have you been here before? she asks over the phone, to which I reply, No. Im sorry, then, were full tonight, she says. Overview: Open less than a year, Q was the first restaurant in Southern California to bring true Japanese fine-dining hospitality and grace to the sushi scene. A post shared by Matt Karikomi (@matt.s_electric_eye) on Mar 25, 2019 at 3:02pm PDT, The South Bays 18 Finest Japanese Restaurants, Where to Eat Sushi Omakase for Under $80 in Los Angeles, If you buy something or book a reservation from an Eater link, Vox Media may earn a commission. Dining at Soichi is an authentic experience thats typically split into two-hour seatings for about 20 people at a time. A nicely balanced experience. They way one fish is sliced a certain way yet another is carved in an entirely different direction. Its a matter of taste but also respect. And I have never heard of an omakase that includes rolls. |Freshness and quality: 10 Raechel handles business and front-of-house operations. They offer sushi boxes for pickup from 4th street market in Santa Ana. Cost: Omakase starts at $80 Stagecoach 2023: 5 fun non-music activities to do at the festival Omakase is that Japanese tradition of putting yourself in the hands of the chef, letting him (sushi remains a male-dominated industry) prepare whatever he desires. With all this in mind, here are my favorite places in Southern California for omakase. If only the variety here matched that of Shunka, Tsujita or Ohshima. "Best VALUE Omakase Sushi Course in Southern California." Overview: Reservations here are extremely difficult to come by, and the counter is strictly omakase. To be clear: Im not talking about sushi rolls, which are largely a California invention and can be enjoyable. Overview: What this place opened last year by the creator of Sushi Roku does better than anyone else is phenomenal new-style carpaccio, such as snapper with chili sauce and leeks, or halibut with pink peppercorn and yuzu, so make sure to ask for this in the omakase. Kn Corner Buenos Aires. Brad A. Johnson is a writer and photographer specializing in food and travel. Here now, are 14 restaurants where chefs carefully select and prepare every morsel that goes onto a curated plate. Timing and grace: 10 See our, By submitting your email, you agree to our, The 19 Essential Sushi Restaurants in Los Angeles, Sign up for the Overview: Open less than a year, Q was the first restaurant in Southern California to bring true Japanese fine-dining hospitality and grace to the sushi scene. Eat here at least once per week. Chef-owner Kenji Koyama used to run Necco, a vegetable-heavy Japanese restaurant in Westwood, where he developed a following for creative dishes such as lotus root croquette and miso salmon, both of which occasionally appear in his omakase here. Riverside is the principal city in Riverside County, just 60 miles east of Los Angeles, within the "Inland Empire" region of Southern California. Chef Hide Takeda sources fish from California and Toyosu Market in Tokyo. Chefs Fumio Azumi and Kwan-san have brought a phenomenal destination-worthy sushi place to Alhambra, with a hefty $300 per person dinner menu served at the bar and a more reasonable $120 lunch on weekdays. Dj vu! The Resy Guide to Outdoor Dining in Los Angeles, L.A. is Paradise for Omakase Menus. No rolls. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Easily the best quality to value ratio around. View Website. Variety: 6 Omakase is a simple word with deep cultural meaning that translates to, I trust and respect you. Best sushi in OC and LA: Top 10 places for omakase Dont let that turn you off, thoughbuttery pieces of salmon, rich eel, plump scallop and more are just as good as the more expensive spots around town. The pork was melt in your mouth buttery and the ramen broth was so silky, literally salivating just thinking about it. The toro here is some of the best we've ever tasted, but the appetizers and rotating specials, such as dry-aged salmon flown in from New Zealand, are always worth an order, too. Timing and grace: 10 Most chefs make rolls because they have to in order to survive, but when you ask for omakase, they get to do what they really want to do, which is not make rolls. Where else can you find a deep-fried tempura "seafood stick" served in a martini glass, a flaming conch filled with bubbling hot broth and pieces of tender A5 Wagyu and juicy red onion in sweet soy? We'll definitely be back when we're craving "top shelf" sushi. and our Freshness and quality: 10 The nigiri-forward omakasethe most expensive per head in Los Angelesclimbs past 20 courses, each bite focused on incredibly high-quality fish that's been brushed with soy, lightly tempura-battered or served in a pool of ponzu. Inoues Edomae-style offerings consistently stun, as the chef blends both modern and traditional techniques in his presentations. Serving a mix of classic washoku (traditional Japanese cuisine) and more modern Tokyo-style washoku, Gos four-hour dinners involve 14 courses, each painstakingly plated and explained by Go himself. Norfolk Southern Estimates Ohio Derailment Will Cost $387M - US News The food NEVER disappoints and the prices are great for what you get! Landing a seat at this tiny Santa Ana space - OC's toughest reservation - rewards with an evening of first-rate omakase. Also, the staff is very friendly and professional, we had the best experience with our waiter Evan!!" Sushi here takes a decidedly modern turn. Freshness and quality: 10 Bottom line: Ikka offers outstanding quality and variety. Timing and grace: 6 Cost: Omakase starts at $85 Still, we thought we would be this little tiny hole in the wall, Raechel said. And that brings me to the second most important consideration: timing. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Overview: Located upstairs in South Coast Plaza, this is easily the most upscale sushi restaurant in Orange County. Every night of service, after a brief selection of kaiseki-style appetizers, Nakao breaks out a wood block of sliced fish, each brilliant, shining row ready to be prepared for each guest.