Sasabune – Dueling Omakases

Restaurant: Sasabune [1, 2]

Location: 12400 Wilshire Blvd Ste 150 (South Carmelina Avenue) Los Angeles, CA 90025, (310) 820-3596

Date: December 21, 2010

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Excellent as always.

 

For the second time in a week we went back to Sasabune, one of my favorite Sushi joints. I have blogged in detail about it before, but this time I have a real smorgasborg of options.

Fresh real Wasabe and pickled ginger await us on the table.

First I’ll show the $18 Lunch special.
It includes 3 pieces of sushi. Maguro (Tuna), Salmon, Hamachi (Yellowtail).

Salad and Miso soup.

A choice of bowl.  This is the Tuna bowl.

Shiro Maguro (Albacore) bowl is a different option.

The incomparable Blue crab handroll finishes (each lunch gets one).

Those that enjoyed this more minimalist option (not me, my faithful readers now that I’m a maximalist), ordered some extra sets of sushi like…

Hotatagai (scallop). These raw Japanese sea scallops with yuzu juice, salt, and green pepper are devine. The yuzu provides a delicious snap and the texture is soft and buttery.

 

Next up on the chain of gluttony is the “Normal Omakase.” This can be customized, so the depicted version has no shellfish.

Albacore shashmi to start.


And when two or more people do the Omakase they often bring multiple shashimis to share. Baby tuna sashimi.

Blue fin Toro (tuna belly) and tuna in a sweet sauce. The toro is melt in your mouth soft.

Ono and halibut in tangy sauces.

Scottish salmon and premium Japanese yellowtail. The salmon has a traditional bit of seaweed/kelp on it, and sesame seeds.

Tai (Red Snapper) and Pampano Fish.

Albacore belly and Kampachi (Amberjack). The albacore has a slightly sweet sauce.

 


Seared Butterfish in a slightly sweet soy sauce.

Yellowtail handroll. Normally the Omakase would include the blue crab handroll, but as this was no shellfish…

 

If one is feeling really out there. The Japanese Omakase — this was me.

Pan shell or razorback clam sashimi. Yuzu/pepper paste, and 10,000 year old sea salt.

Blue fin Toro (tuna belly) and tuna in a sweet sauce.

Japanese Mackerel with shiso leaf and Tai (red snapper). Both in a tangy vinegar sauce.

Oysters, dynamite on the left and raw with a little vinegar and spicy radish on the right.

Scottish salmon and premium Japanese yellowtail.

Sweet shrimp and Japanese Scallop.

Uni (Sea Urchin) and Ikura (Salmon Egg). The Uni was from Santa Barbara, and delectably sweet. The Ikura popped in the mouth — little blasts of salty/fishy (in a good way).

Orange Clam with yuzu and Giant Clam with shiso leaf. I love Shiso leaf.

Again the Blue Crab handroll.

Now that was some good sushi.

10 comments on “Sasabune – Dueling Omakases

  1. […] Food as Art: Sasabune Restaurant: Sasabune [1, 2] […]

  2. Quora says:

    What is the best sushi restaurant in Los Angeles, aside from Urasawa which is impractical for regular visits?…

    I only eat sushi on the Westside, as there is so much good fish that it isn’t worth going farther. That being said. At the top: Urwasawa (http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2010/10/30/food-as-art-urwasawa/) and Go Mart Innovative New Sushi (or at least …

  3. […] Blue fin tuna. The chef here “pre-sauces” the fish, so no soy sauce is needed. In this case it’s already been put on. I had this done a number of times in Japan, and at high end places here like Urwasawa (HERE FOR REVIEW). The tuna melted in the mouth. Sushi Sushi uses big pieces of fish and a small ball of rice too. The rice is traditional, not the warm rice favored by Sasabune (HERE FOR REVIEW). […]

  4. […] you enjoyed this, make sure to check out the previous review, or some other good sushi like Sasabune, Nobu, Matsuhisa, Takao, or the incomparable […]

  5. […] in my hood, and it’s owned by, or in some way executive chefed by, Sasabune (see my first and second reviews of that here). Sushi-Don is a kind of fast food version of it’s big brother Sasabune, where […]

  6. […] Zo is omakase only. You sit down. They bring you stuff. They charge you by the piece but don’t really tell you how much. They keep bringing you sushi. Eventually you get full and they hand you a (stiff) bill. It’s closest in style and format to Sasabune (my detailed reviews of that, with photos, HERE and HERE). […]

  7. […] (even if with unique flavors). Less traditional than Sushi Sushi, but blows away Sushi Zo and Sasabune (not that they aren’t great too on the scale of […]

  8. […] crab handroll. Overstuffed and on par with the Sasabune […]

  9. […] of the best. It has it’s own particular style, somewhere between the Osaka school types like Sasabune and the classic Sushi […]

  10. […] of my regular lunch haunts. The chef studied under Nozawa and is stylistically related to nearby Sasabune. They both follow the “warm rice” school of sushi (which I believe originates in Osaka […]

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