This is one of my local friend’s favorite places. The chef-owner used to work at a nearby conventional sushi bar, got a reputation for making fusion rolls, and went out on his own.
Mixed tostada tasted a bit like Chinese chicken salad.
“SocCal burrito” was closer to something you’d get in a sushi place but spicier.
Jalapeño roll was seriously spicy but also had a nice green-vegetable flavor from the raw chiles and cucumber.
Octopus sashimi Miguel’s style was really something different, if I ate it blind I might have guessed it was beef. My friend ate the lemon slices but I thought they overpowered the octopus, though the lemon note was good and nicely balanced with the onions and hot sauce.
Didn’t remember to photograph the baked mussels before we devoured them. This was the only dish that was similar to something I’ve had at traditional mariscos places (topped with mayo, then cooked on aluminum foil until the mayo has dark spots).
So maybe the place Miguel used to work was Korean-owned? Anyway, gochujang was clearly a part of their secret sauce.
Prices were low. They have an “all you can eat” option that’s crazy cheap, it’s not really AYCE but rather your choice of 15 dishes from a subset of the menu. That could be a reasonable or insanely huge amount of food depending on which things you ordered (compare the serving size of the mussels and the jalapeño roll).
Everything we had was really good and mostly nothing like anything I’ve had before. I liked this much better than Culichi Town. Somebody should open a place like this in Oakland, I think it would be a hit.
