21 of the best sushi restaurants in Los Angeles Los Angeles Times
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The neighborhoods near Dodger Stadium are filled with long-loved dining destinations like Philippe the Original and Guisado’s, but don’t miss our guide for finding lesser-known food and drink picks, spanning artisanal sake, fresh oysters and a Cypress Park slice shop. Keep reading if you need even more dining ideas this month, including a new Korean restaurant from a Michelin-recognized team, a viral bakery in Koreatown and a soba noodle bar in Culver City. Sushi Tama opened in August 2020 with a sleek counter and impeccable nigiri using Japanese-sourced fish. Chef Hideyuki Yoshimoto worked for years in Tokyo’s Tsukiji Market before partnering with Showa Hospitality at this stylish sushi destination in a chic part of West Hollywood/Beverly Grove. This is your guide to what the best sushi city in America has to offer, from the ultimate California roll to spectacular omakase.
Andaz West Hollywood
Best of all is the option, once Onodera finishes making the last nigiri, to repeat as many sushi courses as you like—but personally, I left here full enough after the twenty-odd courses. If I had to pick just one place to spend $300 or more on sushi, I honestly still prefer Kaneyoshi, though Morihiro does offer a less expensive table omakase ($250) prepared by assistant chefs. Still, Onodera’s 40 years of experience and detail-oriented approach translate to one of the city’s finest omakase experiences, albeit not my absolute favorite.
Spectacular Sushi Destinations to Try in Los Angeles
The Joint Seafood founder Liwei Liao opened this casual handroll counter modeled after Kazunori serving high-grade fish in a parade of seaweed-wrapped creations. Liao’s market in Sherman Oaks specializes in dry-aged fish, though the offerings at Uoichiba aren’t necessarily of that style. Instead, cuts like tuna, kanpachi, steelhead trout, and blue crab salad are served with seasoned rice either a la carte or as lunch-sized omakase meals. If money is truly no object, the legendary craftwork at Morihiro Onodera’s eponymous Atwater restaurant is a gourmand’s delight. Book the bar-only omakase ($350 to $400), and you’ll enjoy a mix of kaiseki-style appetizers presented on ceramics made by the veteran chef himself and a diverse array of dry-aged and fresh fish (including a few I’ve had nowhere else).
Baptist Hospital partners with Tokyo Steak House & Sushi Bar - Beaumont Enterprise
Baptist Hospital partners with Tokyo Steak House & Sushi Bar.
Posted: Mon, 11 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Okumura Restaurant
Springtime also invites us to seize the sunlight with midday meals. Weekday lunch is a great way to shake up your work routine and to try a popular restaurant that’s typically booked for dinner — don’t miss our staff guide with some of our favorite lunch menus ranging from prix-fixe power picks to casual taco spots. Thankfully, we have Addison to guide us toward the best of the best. In possibly a first for LA, an Austin-based Japanese restaurant splashes on the West Coast as a notable sushi opening. Inspired by LA’s own Nobu and Katsuya, among others, chef Tyson Cole opens a suave and already bustling lounge in the heart of West Hollywood serving a tightly edited array of Japanese dishes. Sushi remains an important part of Uchi, and the preparations offer a thoughtful departure from classic Edo-style sushi that still preserves the restaurant’s high-quality fish.
Mondrian Los Angeles
As the most discerning, up-to-the-minute voice in all things travel, Condé Nast Traveler is the global citizen’s bible and muse, offering both inspiration and vital intel. We understand that time is the greatest luxury, which is why Condé Nast Traveler mines its network of experts and influencers so that you never waste a meal, a drink, or a hotel stay wherever you are in the world. That we have in wondrous plenty, as these 21 restaurants — a top 10 and 11 additional standouts — attest.
Best Korean Restaurants in Los Angeles
Sushiyas, minus the difficult reservations and much higher prices. Every night of service, after a brief sequence of kaiseki-style appetizers, Shunji Nakao breaks out a wood block of sliced fish, each brilliant, shining row ready to be prepared for each guest. The luxurious selection always satisfies, as does Sakurai’s ultra-refined sake selection. For $30 less, you can also experience the same menu prepared by Takahiro Miki, Nakao’s right hand, in the room next door. There are a half-dozen ways to cut a fine meal at Arcadia’s Sushi Kisen, including the extremely affordable omakase experience at the counter, where I’ve enjoyed a dinner that rivals Sushi Kaneyoshi or Morihiro for less than half the price of either.
Best Sushi Restaurants in Los Angeles
In a similar style as Nobu (and the chain’s original restaurant, Matsuhisa), Asanebo offers a selection of fusion-style seafood dishes, as well as traditional nigiri—but the right order here always leans towards the former. 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? Plenty of other cheaper places around town might riff on the legacy of Matsuhisa’s signature yellowtail jalapeño sashimi, but none of them execute new-school sushi as well as this gloriously no-frills L.A. Native who enjoyed my first set of tekka maki at Hide Sushi on Sawtelle (which is still around, by the way) and cycled through love affairs with unagi (freshwater eel), saba (mackerel) and SushiStop’s famous dynamite rolls in adolescence and college.
As with most outstanding sushi restaurants in the Valley, Okumura can be found in a sizable strip mall, tucked into a back corner. Chef Ryota Okumura previously worked at Sushi Zo before opening his namesake restaurant, where affordable sushi, sashimi and rolls are composed with the utmost care. Amberjack sushi is treated to a beautiful lime and salt crust, while creamy, custardy chawanmushi lies under tenderly placed uni and ikura. Hand rolls include a black-cod option, as well as a negitoro version where a mixture of fatty tuna and spring onion get wrapped in a crisp seaweed sheath. For a more personalized experience, take a seat at the bar and order the excellent L.A.-style omakase ($165), which makes fried shallots and ponzu sauce feel brand new again. A more affordable sushi-only omakase ($140) comes with three seasonal appetizers, 10 pieces of nigiri, a hand roll and dessert.
After opening in fits and starts since the pandemic, this Edomae-style sushi counter along Sawtelle Boulevard has reopened for dinner service with three excellent, budget-friendly set meals deserving of your attention regardless of whether you live on the Westside. Owned by the same group behind some of L.A.’s best ramen bowls, the restaurant was famous for its pre-pandemic lunch specials. The less expensive sets ($49 and $69 respectively) swap out premium ingredients like Wagyu and toro out for less pricey cuts, but you’ll still leave here feeling satisfied regardless of which set you order.
Running $140 per head, the Whole Note at Kiminobu Saito’s Valley sushi bar is an above-average sushi experience on its own, but it’s the superb wine pairings, date night ambience and attentive service that make it stand out in the city’s crowded omakase landscape. A slightly more elevated menu can also be found at the restaurant’s second location, which exclusively offers omakase from a little bleached wood hutch inside a Beverly Hills parking garage. This more minimalist offering includes miso soup, edamame, goma tofu, sashimi, a palate-cleansing sorbet, 12 pieces of nigiri and a yuzu gelato. If you’d rather order the usual spicy tuna crispy rice and a few hand rolls, the Valley location also prepares crowd-pleasing appetizers, sashimi, temaki and nigiri à la carte, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not trying the Whole (or much lighter Half) Note at least once.
Awarded a Michelin star within a few months of opening, this rarefied omakase counter from chef Seigo Tamura is one of the top sushi restaurants to open in Los Angeles in the past few years. The 20-course tastings that cost $350 per person include a proper mix of prepared dishes, such as ankimo (monkfish liver) and Japanese hairy crab, and sushi, like umami-rich kohada (gizzard shad) and seared anago (sea eel). Chef Fumio Azumi has brought a phenomenal destination-worthy sushi place to Alhambra (his partner chef Kwan-san has since departed for a new restaurant in Ohio), with $300 per person dinner menu served at the bar and a more reasonable $120 lunch on weekdays. Quality is top-tier, with two kinds of rice and all the freshest fish available. Currently operating out of sister restaurant Inaba in Torrance, Yasuhiro Hirano’s intimate sushi counter offers an ultra-premium omakase ($280) that deftly incorporates dry-aged fish and exotic ingredients like mantis shrimp and plump Japanese oysters. This is the kind of place where you can expect a crash course in the art of sushi from the chef himself, plus the appropriate tuition and fees to match.
Think strawberry XO-sauce and basil-bud olive oil over namahotate (day boat scallop) over rice. Longtime West LA chef Shunji Nakao moved his upscale omakase restaurant to Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica, with an intimate counter starting at $280 per person to sit in front of Shunji, and $250 to get one of seven seats in front of chef Takahiro Miki. Expect near-perfect quality nigiri and Nakao’s careful construction and proper balance between fish and rice at these prices.
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