Not Pasadena but Yui in Sierra Madre is excellent. $20 nigiri lunch is quite fine. We go at least once a month.
Very nice Japanese flavor.
leeās chicken hoagie. and tell shahan barry says hi.
and avail yourself of the complimentary assortment of homemade pickles.
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their minds will be blown if they knew they are serving two different secret asian manā¦
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Lolā¦
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Iād wondered about Yuiāthanks for the rec!
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Anyone been to Saso yet?
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Thanks, JL!
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Well, I tried Sushi Karen for a sit-down dinner indoors (no sushi counter right now), and Iām afraid I canāt recommend it. I think Iāve gotten spoiled.
I ordered their āomakaseā which was nothing more than the chefās selections of half orders of sashimi and nigiri from the standard menu. Two sashimi dishes, 9 pieces of nigiri, nothing from the kitchen (except the amaebi head tempura), nothing off-menu. And nothing at all special. I ordered an oshinko roll and miso soup to finish. Total for food was $65.
The fish itself was āindustry standardā for the price point, ranging from tasty enough (hotate, unagi, Santa Barbara uniābut $11.50 for a single piece!) to okay to mediocre (mealy, bland kanpachi sashimiāI think it sat in its citrus marinade too long). None of the fish was actively bad.
Service was not attentive. The restaurant wasnāt busyāa two-top and meābut after each order was brought out, my empty plate sat there until the next plate came, only at which point the dirty plate was removed, even though the wife half of the team wasnāt doing much else.
My issue wasnāt so much with the neta, or even the lackadaisical service, but with the shari. It was awful. Mushy and bland; at times it was all I could do to swallow it. Funny, until fairly recent years, I (like many self-proclaimed sushi-lovers, I suspect) didnāt pay that much conscious attention to the rice, but experienceāand, I have to say, FTC education!āhas taught me to take note and appreciate it. And I found nothing about Sushi Karenās rice to appreciate.
Maybe it was an off night. 65 five-star Yelp reviews (plus one four-star and one one-star) gave me some hope for a pleasant experience (I know, itās Yelp, but stillā¦). But it wasnāt, and I just canāt get past the shari. I appreciate mom-and-pop enterprises, and I know itās really hard for restaurants right now, and I want to support such places, but I wonāt be going back.
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Not feeling particularly excited about any of these; Iām likely not the target market, though.
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Ive enjoyed Perle the couple times Ive been
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As a resident of the area, Iām a bit worried about the idea of Pasadena as a food magnet for the tourist trade. Iād be happy if it remained a āsleepy suburban city,ā thank you very much!
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We got takeout omakase from Sushi Karen the other week, as well. Our impression is similar to yours, fish is decent, but nothing special. The rice was a bit cold and sticky for us, as well. I was hoping for better.
Off topic: but how do we get back to the Paris of 15 years ago?
Hot Tub Time Machine?
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grin As a fellow local resident, I share all those sentiments, @happycat! While Iām all for the restaurants thriving, Iām not thrilled at the idea of an influx of food tourists. Then again, I rarely venture to the Old Town area, so maybe I shouldnāt opine ā¦ .
We were considering Perle this week, @butteredwaffles - the vegetarian options look excellent! (We ended up with takeout from Zephyr - https://www.zephyrpasadena.com/ - and are saving Perle for a future special occasion.)
While Iām thinking of it:
Has anyone tried OāSeyo - https://www.oseyoshabushabu.net/ - either take-out or dining there?
How about Erva Brew Co. - https://www.drinkerva.com/ - for Yerba Mate or their empanadas?
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The apple tarte tatin is so delicious
iād read the review, but i have to go back to sleep.
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Priorities. 
I disagree, I feel like our food has been so mediocre in Pasadena for so long - which is kinda bonkers to me for a city of this size, Iām glad there will be more options Iām willing to eat it on a regular basis that isnāt quick ethnic food. Restaurants play it too safe here because the general clientelle isnāt adventurous enough. We need food tourism. Thereās a reason we have so many steak houses in Pasadena.
That being said, Eater LA listing outposts of other fast casual spots isnāt really that big of a deal to me. Not exactly food tourism as there are outposts elsewhere to go to.
U street is pretty good tho!
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