Matsuhisa Sushi Los Angeles

(By Jim)

Sometimes a trip can be a fortunate accident. This happened to us on Monday. We were in LA for a work conference for me that would be happening on Tuesday and Wednesday, and we came out early to see LA and go to a taping of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (BTW, look at the 12/9/2010 episode at the end of Lucy Liu's segment to see the backs of our heads.)

After seeing La Brea Tar Pits in the morning, we headed over to the Apple Pan for lunch. Unfortunately, after driving 30 minutes, we found it closed on Mondays. Bugger. OK, there were several sushi places we saw on the way back. So, we stop at a big one on La Cienega. And it's closed. And Barbara's getting anxious. Buggershitpisswee. But there's another place across the road that looks like sushi. Matsuhisa Sushi. OK, whatever, sounds Japanese.

I walked in, and realized that it wasn't any sushi place, it was Nobu Matsuhisa's sushi place. Damn, this will be expensive. But we get in, look at the menu, and find some things that were both a good value and incredibly tasty.

Nobu's well known for his black cod with miso sauce, but we were both in the mood for sushi, so we decided to both go with sushi-bar-style food. I know, but we were both addled.

Anyway, so we both got set meals. Barbara got the sushi plate, 8 pieces, a roll, and miso soup. I got the sashimi and tempura plate.

Miso soup

Sushi plate
(from top by line: tuna roll;
Tuna, yellowtail, salmon, squid;
halibut, mackerel, shrimp, egg omelet.)

Salad and mixed tempura (shrimp, pumpkin, onion, zucchini)

Tuna and halibut sashimi

My opinion? One, this was excellent. But to really experience the excellence of Nobu Matsuhisa, you need to order more exotic things, like the crab legs with a knob of crab meat, deep fried, that the ladies who lunch ordered next to us. They were talking about houses (For $8 Million, it's a Steal!!!) Ehh, whatever.

Also, you need to remember you're in LA. The menu is expensive. And cash is the great leveler. They don't care how you're dressed, as long as you have the cash. Barbara was worried about how she was dressed, and we might have ordered more had she been more comfortable.

Nobu was in the house, and came out to visit some of the diners, so we know he was present for quality control.

Finally, there are many places in LA with excellent sushi and cooked Japanese food. These places are usually called izakaya, and have small plates and drinks. We also visited Izakaya by Katsu-ya in Manhattan Beach and Japonica Dining in Redondo Beach. For the price, these two were better deals.

Bottom Line: Matsuhisa is excellent sushi, but you really need to get off the basic plates to get the real Matsushia experience. We'll go back, and we'll do that next time.

Kotobuki - Review

When we take friends to Kotobuki, they always ask “How on earth did you find this place?” It’s located on the second floor of a building over a high end Japanese restaurant in a quiet section of DC. Biscuit Boy actually read about in the Washington Post. Their food critic, Tom Sietsema wrote about it a few years back. He found the place by accident and raved about it. And while we don’t always agree with his reviews, this one sounded promising. Since our first visit there, it seems a lot of people have also discovered the place. It’s always busy. One trip there and you’ll know why. Great sushi and low prices.

I’d wanted to review Kotobuki for my blog for sometime but each time we’d go, we’d forget the camera. I really wanted to include pictures so I waited. And after several camera-less trips, we finally remembered it! We got what has become our usual table, right alongside the sushi bar. It’s a great place to sit and watch the sushi chefs at work. Plus they’ve added another refrigerated case right alongside the same side of the sushi bar as our table. Right there before our eyes were slices of octopus, salmon, tuna, Toro (fatty tuna), and yellow tail.

Kotobuki serves very fresh, very good sushi at $1.00 to $1.75 per piece. Rolls range from under $3.00 to $6.75 each. A great bargain for such delicious food. They also serve a traditional Japanese dish called Kamameshi. It’s a hot rice dish served with eel, chicken or vegetables. It comes out in a hot steel pot resting in a wooden box. You also get a bowl of Miso soup and a bento box with sashimi and three other small dishes of Japanese salads or veggies. It’s a very filling and soothing dish. We like it as much as we do the sushi and sometimes have trouble deciding which to get.

We started out with some hot green tea and a bowl of Ohitashi, a cold salad made from spinach or watercress that is lightly boiled, drained and served with soy sauce and bonito flakes. It was ok but I think I prefer the seaweed salad they serve over this. Biscuit Boy eschewed the cold Sake this time. For $5 you are served a small square box shaped cup set on a plate which catches any spilled sake from the cup. It comes with a tiny little bowl of salt and a teeny little wooded spoon. You place a little dab of salt on one corner of the box of the sake cup and sip the sake and the salt together. Sorta like a Japanese margarita.

From left to right: Spicy Tuna Avacado Roll, Eel Roll, Salmon,
Masago, Tobiko, White Tuna, Scallop, Flounder, Toro

We usually order one plate of sushi then get a smaller one for seconds. Gluttony be damned, this stuff is good. Our first plateful consisted of Toro (also known as Fatty Tuna), Scallop, and White Tuna for each of us; salmon for me, masago and tobiko for Biscuit Boy. Plus an eel roll and a spicy tuna avocado roll.

The Toro was spectacular! It just melted in your mouth. The scallop was silky smooth and the white tuna was rich and flavorful. My favorite roll, the spicy tuna avocado roll, is a wonderful combination of the rich creamy avocado paired with the hot spiciness of the tuna with the added flavor of sesame seeds. It all melds in your mouth and tastes wonderful. Our other roll, the eel roll, was as always, delish. The eel was warm and wrapped in sushi rice with a nice drizzle of sauce on top.

We plowed through that plate with ease and contemplated getting a second plate. I don’t know why we had to think about it, we usually always get seconds. So we got another sushi list from the waitress and got tuna, eel, yellow tail and a rainbow roll. While we waited we watched in amusement as the party next to us tried to cut a birthday cake with chopsticks. They broke one in the process and guy slicing the cake sheepishly looked over at us. I looked at him, smiled and said something about making the best of what he had to work with. By that time the sushi chef had our second plate ready and handed it to us from over the sushi bar.

Clockwise (starting at the bottom left):
Tuna, Yellowtail, Eel, Rainbow Roll

We have never gotten the rainbow roll before and probably won’t again. It wasn’t that we didn’t like it; it was just too darn big and messy. We did enjoy the yellowtail and the eel but our taste buds had been jaded by the Toro when it came to the tuna. It was good but our mouths were looking for that richness found in the toro. Note to self: get the tuna first THEN get the Toro.

And as always, we left Kotobuki full and content. And it wasn’t too painful on the wallet. We had 26 pieces of sushi, three sushi rolls and two cups of hot green tea for $48. And that included the more expensive Toro and yellowtail at $1.75 each and the rainbow roll at $6.75.

Total biscuit rating for the meal: 4 biscuits.

Kotubuki
4822 MacArthur Blvd., NW
Second Floor
Washington, DC 20007
202-625-9080