okay to break south bay sushi into its own thread instead of just having one massive mushrooming south bay staples thread?
thanks to whoever recommended it on the budget sushi thread, we ended up at kanpachi on western in gardena today (well, siri first took us to kanpachi to go on artesia but it was just a short hop away). i won’t make large claims for any of what we got but we got a lot for the $49 we paid for the lunch omakase, which is everything pictured below. the albacore and the saba were below par but everything else was more than decent. no flourishes and the nigiri is on the small side but a good option for decent sushi that won’t break the bank.
Believe the location next to Torimatsu is now their take-out hub, and the sit-down is located on 182nd and Western, formerly Sen Nari Sushi, in the same strip mall as Can-Zo and Tanuki No Sato. Close-ish, but not quite the easy bang bang it was before.
correct. we landed up at what turned out to be the takeout hub on artesia and they kindly redirected us to the (larger) new location on western, which was doing fairly brisk business at lunch with what seemed like mostly regulars.
This was a popular hangout amongst the Japanese salarymen / execs during the heyday of Japanese companies in the area. Especially under the original chef. Very legit, I recollect receiving a gunkan with raw shrimp brains once.
Yup this was very much a Japanese locals place when the OG chef was there. This is your neighborhood spot. I got him once. The majority of the customers were all speaking Japanese around me. Been making sushi longer than I been alive and more. Probably one of those places were the good stuff had to be requested or you were a regular. The new chef is a younger guy. English speaking very cool. Maybe not quite the same vibe as it once was.
Have not been to Tanuki since they switched format, as we stick mostly to places where we can dine outdoors. Have done takeout at Fukuno and have heard from friends we introduced who have done both takeout and dine-in, and it seems good as ever. Such a kind, welcoming couple.
we ate at nozomi again yesterday. a very nice lunch. more details coming later but i just want to note first that i was struck by how sharply prices have risen in exactly one year. we ate pretty much the same lunch there at this time last december; we paid quite a bit more this year. for direct comparison: the lunch omakase has gone from $60 to $80. uni has gone from $10/piece to $15/piece. even their tamago has become more expensive: from $2.50 to $3.50. can’t help but think that is a result of the skyrocketing prices at the ultra-premium end of the market pulling everything below up as well.
dinner at koi on pch in seal beach tonight. this is basically a place where you should get combination dinners and not bother too much with the sushi. tiny pieces, hard rice. of the nigiri, only a few above average, some things quite disappointing. but the price is on par with nozomi, with a lot of the nigiri actually more expensive for smaller pieces of lower quality.
Seafood prices and labor costs have become significantly higher within the past year. There’s no way that a respectable sushi restaurant can survive without passing at least some of those increased operational costs on to the customer.
a fuller report on this meal finally went up on the blog today, replete with more kvetching about the price increases. good sushi but really not a good value any more.
