Types of Sushi restaurants in LA

Americas - USA West Los Angeles
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Fellow FTC’ers,

I need some opinions about what kind of sushi there is to be had in LA.

  1. Fast casual spots like Sushi Mac, or “conveyor belt” style or AYCE.

  2. There’s the run of the mill spots found scattered all over the city and SFV that are typically “Americanized” filled with rolls and sauces, but also have nigiri as options. prices for a meal can be anywhere from $35-$150.

  3. higher end places serving omakase but also A La carte like Shunji, Asanebo, Shin, Brothers, etc. Meals can be from $120-$250 per person.

  4. Sushi temples like Kaneyoshi, Hide, Mori, etc. These are omakase only and adhere to the edo style more or less. Cost is usually $200-$400 for a meal.

Am I missing any general groups?

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Mexican sushi maybe?

I remember finding these articles interesting but not sure if it’s the sign of a general group with its own characteristics or mostly the work of individuals.

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Korean Sushi spots Gimbap

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Supermarket sushi lol. Tokyo Central, Mitsuwa, Nijiya. End of the day discount ftw for the very desperate that needs to scratch that itch.

Sakae in Gardena. Homestyle cooked sushi like what a mom or grandma would make for their loved one in a bento.

Sushi in Izakaya and Washoku restaurants. Battera sushi, basic maki’s.

Sushi in Kaiseki. Hayato and n/naka have a sushi course.

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I think Mexican sushi is a definite thing, or maybe two things.

Culichi Town puts cream cheese in most things, looks like El Sushi Loco does too. I’m not a fan of that at all.

I love Sushi Miguel Style. I think if somebody did something like that in Silver Lake / DTLA / WeHo / Culver City it would be a hit.

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What are the good Korean sushi places these days? Jonathan Gold raved about one but it closed before I got there. I found a great one in Koreatown a few years ago but it closed as well.

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A-Won.

I go there only for the hwe dup bap (sashimi, veggies, over rice with a squirt of gochujang) or the al bap (fish egg over rice, it’s beautiful looking)

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Somehow I thought A-Won closed. I must have confused it with another place.

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I think there’s also a missing “mid-tier” option which is priced comparably to #2 but doesn’t have much in the way of americanized rolls, and may instead have some more traditional cooked items (e.g. nasu miso, various cooked kama, etc). For an example see Soregashi.

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Warrior: it would be nice to have a good mid tier. In Tokyo, there is a chain of restaurants open 24 hours that for ～$40 serves sushi meals that would be in the top 5% of sushi restaurants in the USA. The fish comes straight from Tsukiji, what would you expect? My favorite breakfast. :grinning:

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Sushi at places where they don’t specialize in sushi. All the izakayas (I miss Raku) and places like Wadatsumi/Tanuki No Sato/Otafuku.

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I was literally just looking-up this place to see if they survived COVID (they have!) – one of my favorite LA-area institutions. I even bought their sushi to cater my post-graduation open house in 2010 :partying_face:

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Even the sushi at Osaka Airport is able to achieve that, with even lower cost.

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How about an unclassifiable closet in a Westside hotel lobby serving Edo-mae style, but okonomi only?

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Handroll bars?

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