a couple of his favorite japanese restaurants are inaba and otomisan.
i’m curious what he means by this, did he mention specifics? less soy? less wasabi? does le valley prefer less flavor than west la?
Ginza kung fu soy wrapped double uni, tuna, salmon yellowtail, unagi + ponzu sauce wrapped with avocado rolls kinda style.
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You forgot the heavy downpour of “eel” sauce.
Didn’t go into specifics only that they have different tastes apparently.
I actually went over the hill and dined at Shin Sushi over the weekend and had a fantastic meal. Take-san, as mentioned by others, is as friendly as they come. Loves to talk about sushi and food in general. We had a good discussion about good korean restaurants because he lives in K-town and some of the other good sushi restaurants in the LA area. A few of the highlights were the ikura, seared sea perch, and a special albacore, which almost had the consistency of toro. There was only one miss imho which was a marinaded salmon, which was mushy.
Still no wine license. He expects to have it by the end of the month, so until then, it’s water and tea only.
Our omakase ran just north of $100pp before tip so I’d say it’s still pretty good value for what you get.
Would definitely return.
After dinner, our party decided to get a cocktail somewhere, so we headed over to Woodley Proper which is just down the street. We arrived around 10:30pm on a Saturday night and the bar was completely empty. Didn’t realize they close at 11pm as they said that when they tried to stay open later into the night, there was just no customers past 11pm. I guess that’s Encino for you. We all had one unmemorable cocktail and left as they were closing up.
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- No booze yet?
- Sad about Woodley. My wife gets a facial near there once a month so we go frequently - and the food program just keeps going downhill. It really doesn’t seem to be a priority of Chef PFL. He’s way more into his multiple ventures in Santa Barbara and Scratch Bar/ Sushi Bar.
- Thanks for report.
I definitely need to check out Shin, it’s a priority visit for me.
Thing about Woodley: it’s just too ambitious of a thing for the area. Sure the cool folks will go and enjoy the cocktails, but it’s still a few years ahead of its time.
Went last night. It was awfully good - and drinking beer in the lot was kind of fun, a nice break, that reminded me of being a smoker.
It does seem to me his rice ball is a tad larger than say mori, shunji, Zo - anyone else notice that?
Slow - but it was Tuesday after the long holiday - one family at a table and just two others at the bar all night. The two bar patrons were a sushi chef and a guy who works for Shunji.
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Yes I agree that the rice is a tad bit on the bigger side.
He seems to have a maximalist view on rice and a minimalist view on wasabi.
There was no extra wasabi offered - or asked for.
Saucing was also, nicely, laid back.
Chef Take did ask to let him know if more or less wasabi was desired. I asked for more, because I like a bite to my sushi.
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Same here. He also asked to let him know if we want the rice bigger or smaller too.
At last I got to try Shin Sushi last night. It was outstanding. Take-san is a delightful fellow I have known since his Mori days. He has lost some weight (guess starting your own restaurant may do that to you), but was beaming with pride at his new place. Shin was his father sushi restaurant in Tokyo, but he actually never got to work with his father who passed away several years ago. On a Friday night there were a couple of other customers at the sushi bar and a family at the table. However, over the course of the night several people tried to walk in, but were turned away, even though there were seats available. On that particular night he must have felt that he did not have the capacity to serve more people as it was just him and his sister in law working (and his 8 months pregnant wife doing some accounting). I think the place has been designed for 2-3 chefs, but he is only getting started. I imagine that after his brother is done opening Zo in HK, he would be back @ Shin and they will run it as a family.
The meal was wonderful, with spot on flavors, textures, knife work, and shari. I also noticed that Take was a bit “maximalist” on the rice which resulted in it being packed a bit denser than I would prefer, and I do recall him being that way at Mori as well. Interestingly as the night progressed he reduced the amount of rice closer to ideal and packing improved as well. Seasoning and fish selections were perfect and similar to what was already posted. It may have been my first time trying yukimasu (snow trout) lightly seared and quite amazing. Kohada and Nodoguru were other standout pieces.
Total was $468+tax+tip for 4 people which included 1 appetizer, 1 soup, 17 pieces of nigiri, and a small desert, as well as corkage for 3 bottles (20 each).
We loved the place, and I agree that this is a great addition to our sushi scene.
By coincidence, going to Mori tonight - so will have a chance to compare Shin to one of the flagships of LA sushi (I already know that Shin has Maru-san beat on prices).
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Had another great meal at shin sushi. Business has really picked up, when we arrived we got the last two seats at the counter and two tables were occupied. Pacing was also understandably slower and Take-san ran out of uni (no second rounds) and his new castella-style tamago that @Chowseeker1999 had.
In other sushi news @beam may find interesting, Take-san says his friend yoshi-san, formerly of mori and sushi ginza onodera, will be opening his own place in playa del rey.
Highlights
Scallop
Chutoro
Baby sea bream
Sanma
Saba
ma-iwashi
Uni
Le valley. Come for the sushi and free parking, stay because there’s a sigalert on the 405.
scallop, arsley pesto
menegi - baby green onion
#salad
kasugo - baby sea bream
hotategai - scallop
kurodai - black sea bream
ikura - salmon roe
maguro - lean bluefin tuna
sanma - mackerel pike
madai - wild sea bream
tombo - albacore tuna
isaki - grunt fish
ma-iwashi - sardine
chu-toro - medium-fatty bluefin tuna
saba - japanese mackerel
sake - seared salmon
kanpachi - yellowtail
kohada - gizzard shad
uni - santa barbara sea urchin
lobster
anago - sea eel
hotategai - scallop
miso
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Thank you @PorkyBelly, were there Friday, so got an update on all the happenings. Can’t wait to see Yoshi open his own place. Take is currently manning this place all by himself, with his wife and sister in law helping out. He has to clean up and wash the dishes himself after the service is done. Hopefully as get gets going he can have consistent flow of people and hire help.
Regarding Mori vs Shin, Maru-san, especially last night, was in a different stratosphere entirely (I guess the price point reflected that as well). I would say that main differentiating factor was shari (consistency, amount, and packing quality) as well as perhaps superior knife-work. Shin nigiri was really good, Mori was divine.
Please take into account that at Mori you have to sit in front of Maru-san, as dining with another itamae would be totally different. I think that next time I will ask Take to use less rice, and I suspect that will improve both packing and neta/shari ratio. His seasoning is already quite perfect. I guess we need to give Take san this feedback because in Le Valley demand for bigger can cause his skills to erode (kidding of course).
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It’s also entirely the local popualtion isn’t going to appreciate this kind of food (::running and ducking::).
Thanks for the feedback. That’s interesting you mentioned the neta/shari ratio, I actually think mori uses too little rice so the neta is sometimes out of proportion with the shari. i always like to be able to see the rice, but that’s my preference.
Sounds like another great meal @PorkyBelly, thanks for the report. 
(And I’m so glad to hear Take-san’s business is improving; it’s such an out of the way spot.)
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Amen!
According to Take-san, before Shin Sushi took over, his friend also ran a sushi-ya at that spot which was quite busy.
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