As I indicated in my initial post, 3 years is a long time. And that LA Weekly mention was a review (when the Ike first moved from NoHo to his new digs in Pasadena). Most restaurants, good or not, get mentioned as part of a preview or review of some sort when they first open. Sort of de rigueur.
Since that time (circa 2012), rarely, if ever, has Kimagure made a “Best of” list of or thrown about as a “go to” place for omakase or sushi.
oh for cryin out loud.
do. you. like. sushi?
if so, go to mori. its very good there. you know how i know that? i read about it on the interwebs.
you know what that is? ITS THE MEDIA.
then i went there, and was glad i did. know why? because the food tasted good. i know this because i ate it, not contextualized it.
sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, man.
loved this.
From markambrose’s review, it sounds like it is kind of a crime to go to Mori just because it might taste good. You can got to many other places where the food tastes good, and spend a lot less than $150/person I imagine. You cannot go many other places (any other places?) where they get the precise knife work necessary for perfect sushi just right.
I completely respect such a level of skill, and would feel somehow ashamed to even set foot in the place personally until I go through many other levels of sushi, and studying so that I could appreciate the subtleties involved.
I think I can see why a small number of people really heartily defend the place given that context. It’s not just that it tastes good, but that very esoteric, advanced techniques are on display that cannot be found elsewhere, and appreciating that is incredibly difficult, and hard to understand for the majority of diners. All great points to make I feel.
However, it also makes sense to me that it would be kind of impolite, or improper for someone that knows very litle about proper sushi to eat at such a temple to the cuisine.
If you just want to eat shit that tastes awesome, Gjusta is just a couple minutes away from Mori after all (well, depending on the time of day I guess) =P
If one goes to Mori, he/she will probably enjoy the sushi very much, granted he/she has the right expectations. After all, their food does taste good, very good. It’s just that it offers a lot of things to be appreciated beyond what is readily apprehensible to most. But still, what can be easily discerned undoubtedly is that the food is quality, pure, and delicious. It’s not that a newbie should be ashamed to go there - no, not at all - he/she just naturally may not get the most out of the experience or understand the full range of what they have to offer, even though what could be understood right off the bat by nearly anyone with an interest in sushi is that they do make good sushi. It’s that for the price, he/she may not understand why they charge what they charge (which, by the way, isn’t much higher than elsewhere in its echelon) or the subtleties that add to the QPR.
If one drives a Ferrari 458 Speciale for the first time without any real experience with a sports car, he/she will not fully appreciate all the little details of the driving experience. But he/she can easily tell it’s a fast, exciting, and very purpose-driven special machine. He/she may not see much of a difference between the Speciale and a Corvette Stingray - the Corvette is a fine car in its own right - but the more he/she gets seat-time with cars dialed in the calibre of the Speciale, the more he/she will naturally appreciate the experience of the Speciale.
Anyway, this is becoming a Mori thread, and I didn’t originally intend it to become as such, it’s just that I needed to speak up on this particular restaurant and how it exemplifies that there can be certain restaurants that, despite their relative lack of published media attention, are nonetheless very good and can legitimately have a very good fan base. Generally, you would find a correlation between a restaurant’s merits and media coverage, but that’s not necessarily the case (and we’re dealing with food media, after all).
No. It’s not that those places aren’t good. It’s that Mori is a place that deserves to be mentioned alongside them, but because its merits and relative value/QPR/noteworthiness are not as readily discernible to the media or to most of their readership, it’s often overlooked. Please don’t confuse this. Just because the food media may not understand the intricacies of what makes for good Japanese cuisine does NOT necessarily mean that they every Japanese restaurant they praise is bad. Please, and I am not being condescending here, think about that logically. Also, please don’t think that Mori is the only good Japanese restaurant in LA. That is not what anybody is saying here.
With that said, I personally could not care less about a hypothetical lineup of what Michelin should do if they were to return to LA as dreamed up by Eater. So, I think I’ve said enough here.
i really don’t understand this kind of thinking at all. you might as well be typing in urdu.
again:
i like sushi. mori’s sushi tastes good. i enjoyed it. simple as.
if someone tells me i “can’t appreciate” mori’s sushi because i don’t know enough about sushi, or i can’t
appreciate a ferrari because i don’t know enough about cars, i usually
smile, nod and think they should eat a big bag of shit.
yes, there’s tons of stuff i don’t know tons about. but who says that?.
Well, let me just say this. Go’s Mart is not Japanese food. The heavy-handed dishes are inconsistent with Japanese culinary sensibilities. Shunji – I’ll accept it as Japanese, but it’s very untraditional. Yes, I think American food critics who write about these restaurants do not understand Japanese food.
Alma’s accolades didn’t mean it was a good restaurant.
Mori’s lack of media attention doesn’t mean it’s not a great one.
I feel so cherished with Tony is defending me…
I’ve heard a ton of good things about Kimagure. My sister has gone a ton of times and given me good reports, so maybe I’ll have to schlep over to Pasadena.
I went to Kin Khao last week. N+M is at least as good, if not better.
Yeah so boring 
I had a lot of chefs either thank me or get angry at me because of this and I was like, it’s just for fun!
N+M is far better than Khin Khao… but the fair comparison in LA is probably the new LP.
What I get from his review is that people whose opinions about sushi are deeply informed by traditional Japanese sushi technique and etiquette might find it a good value while others might find it overpriced.
I’ve felt the same way about some Italian restaurants that did things the way they do them in Italy. If I send someone who hasn’t lived in Italy to one of those places they usually complain about lots of things and aren’t happy.
Kin Khao is seasonal / farm-to-table. Techamuanvivit sources her ingredients the same way the chefs at the two-star places do, so the comparison with Night+Market is sort of apples and oranges.
Markambrose’s opinion is just one person’s opinion. In Japan, there are extremely expensive Sushi bars that buy, cure, prepare, cut fish to exacting standards using the most expensive ingredients available. There are peoole that will pay for this experience and appreciate it. There are also very inexpensive Sushi bars serving 10 piece lunches for less than $10 US.
From my personal experience, there are lots of Japanese that do not know or have an understanding of the many nuances of Sushi. And, just like many people in the US, they would feel that spending over $100 US for Sushi is extravagant; they would probably agree that the quality of fish and rice are good, but just not simply worth the price.
I don’t think you need to know all the nuances of Sushi in order to appreciate it, but it does help. Also, trying Sushi at various places and trying different styles of Sushi helps.
I think the issue with Mori isn’t that there are so many informed Sushi eaters - I’ve found that most Sushi eaters in LA are horribly uneducated about Sushi - but that the price is high, it’s not flashy, and some customers may not appreciate the differences between Mori and other Sushi places. Mori is more traditional in the sense that the Omakase includes non-Sushi dishes that are very Japanese, and subtly flavored and textured. A well made Chawanmushi isn’t going to impress most diners as much as a rich, fatty, “melt in your mouth” piece of Bluefin Tuna will.
That being said, Kiriko and Zo aren’t necessarily less expensive than Mori when I went years ago. (I don’t go to Mori, Kiriko or Zo because of the price; I prefer to pay less for very good Sushi and go more often.) But, Kiriko and Zo were more assertively flavored than Mori, which, I think, accounts for their greater media popularity.
Agree that Pim brings a seasonality to ingredients, which is really great. I preferred one over the other, but they’re both outstanding restaurants in their own right.
Matt, you seem like a good guy so don’t take the critique too seriously. And it doesn’t seem like you have which is good. But lists are so easy to do and take such little effort (see all the Clarissa Wei threads on CH).
A couple of questions:
And if the answer is it’s just for fun, so be it. But why say Hypothetical Michelin Guide and not just Eater LA’s top 25?