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Head to Michelin-starred counter Inaba for chef Yasuhiro Hirano’s impeccable array of sushi served at a six-seat counter within I-naba. Dinners are served from Wednesday to Saturday at 7 p.m., priced at $280 per person before tax, drinks, and tip. A national sushi brand with a ravenous fandom just landed its first West Coast restaurant, launching in West Hollywood — with another L.A.
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Seafood is impressive, whether it's ceviche or sashimi-quality halibut bathed in a ponzu sauce vinaigrette. Chef's specials include shimeji risotto or whole baked branzino with sake. Sushi chef Morihiro Onodera founded the celebrated Mori in West LA before helming the counters at Inn Ann and Shiki over the past few years. Onodera finally has his own omakase restaurant in Atwater Village, with masterful preparations and world-class sushi.
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The price tag to see Onodera in action is $400 per person at the counter though dinners are a more approachable $250 at a table. This iconic sushi restaurant in Little Tokyo is consistently packed at the bar and in the dining room. Most come for the unbelievably priced lunch sashimi special, but order directly from the menu or at the bar for an even better experience.
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The expansive selection of nigiri sushi and sashimi never fails to please. Leona’s Sushi House in Sherman Oaks goes into the former La Loggia space with proprietor Frank Leon and sushi pro Shigenori Fujimoto, previously of Asanebo and Shiki. The result is a multi-faceted space with indoor and outdoor dining rooms, plus a tucked-away counter where patrons can get a Valley-style omakase blending of Peruvian flavors but hewing closely to a two- or three-plate nigiri dinner that Angelenos are more than familiar with. Awarded a Michelin star within a few months of opening, this rarefied omakase counter from chef Seigo Tamura is one of the top sushi restaurants to open in Los Angeles in the past few years. The 20-course tastings that cost $350 per person include a proper mix of prepared dishes, such as ankimo (monkfish liver) and Japanese hairy crab, and sushi, like umami-rich kohada (gizzard shad) and seared anago (sea eel).
A number of dishes likely will remain unique to the Echo Park location, even as Little Fish opens a Melrose Hill restaurant sometime next year. One of L.A.’s most popular pop-up sandwiches just found a home in Echo Park with an expanded menu, pastries and a full coffee program. Anna Sonenshein and Niki Vahle began Little Fish, their seafood pop-up, during the pandemic. They’ve turned out countless beer-and-vodka-battered fish sandwiches over the years, first from their house, then with a residency at Smorgasburg and another at music venue and bar Checker Hall.
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Inspired by LA’s own Nobu and Katsuya, among others, chef Tyson Cole opens a suave and already bustling lounge in the heart of West Hollywood serving a tightly edited array of Japanese dishes. Sushi remains an important part of Uchi, and the preparations offer a thoughtful departure from classic Edo-style sushi that still preserves the restaurant’s high-quality fish. Think strawberry XO-sauce and basil-bud olive oil over namahotate (day boat scallop) over rice. It’s not often that a high-end omakase restaurant resides at the street level, but that’s the case with Sakurako, which comes from Sushi Enya founder Kimiyasu Enya. Enya brings on three talented chefs who trained in Japan, with head chef Akira Yoshida preparing the heart of Sakurako’s nigiri array.
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Instead, cuts like tuna, kanpachi, steelhead trout, and blue crab salad are served with seasoned rice either a la carte or as lunch-sized omakase meals. The fish can be found throughout the omakase, as well as what they call the “somakase,” where the server builds an omakase out of their personal choices, plus a la carte small plates, nigiri and sashimi. A vegetarian omakase, a full vegetarian menu and vegan options also are on offer, and the space — all wood, low-lit and modern — seats nearly 200 across a sushi bar, the dining room, the cocktail bar, a patio and a private dining room. Longtime West LA chef Shunji Nakao moved his upscale omakase restaurant to Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica, with an intimate counter starting at $280 per person to sit in front of Shunji, and $250 to get one of seven seats in front of chef Takahiro Miki. Expect near-perfect quality nigiri and Nakao’s careful construction and proper balance between fish and rice at these prices. In possibly a first for LA, an Austin-based Japanese restaurant splashes on the West Coast as a notable sushi opening.
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This month they launched an indefinite residency within a new corner store, Dada Market, giving Little Fish a more permanent kitchen and picnic tables along Sunset Boulevard. Uchi, founded in 2003 by James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef Tyson Cole, sprouted from Austin before expanding to Miami, Denver, Dallas, Houston and beyond. Famed for intricate seasonal small plates and vegetarian offerings in addition to a range of sashimi, nigiri and daily specials, it’s the first of two flags to be planted in West Hollywood. Oheya, a high-end, 14-seat omakase restaurant, is slated for a 2024 opening in the same building.
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Like with Note in the Valley, this omakase experience is best with the restaurant wine pairings, which puts terrific wine pours that amplify each piece’s flavor profile. Priced at just $75 per person, the omakase from Hirofumi “Gen” Sakamoto offers one of the best deals in town. Settle into 15 pieces of terrific sushi that impress even the snobbiest of sushi-goers — the varieties of fish range from familiar cuts to more obscure ones. Kaneyoshi is one of the newer stars in LA’s high-end sushi scene.
Uchi’s fish is primarily sourced from Japan’s famed Toyosu Market, with some also from Europe, such as bluefin tuna from Spain, and others from New Zealand such as the Ora King found in nigiri, sashimi and with Spanish chorizo and brown-butter hollandaise. The kitchen prioritizes ocean sustainability, Hammond says. Sushi Tama opened in August 2020 with a sleek counter and impeccable nigiri using Japanese-sourced fish. Chef Hideyuki Yoshimoto worked for years in Tokyo’s Tsukiji Market before partnering with Showa Hospitality at this stylish sushi destination in a chic part of West Hollywood/Beverly Grove. As the most discerning, up-to-the-minute voice in all things travel, Condé Nast Traveler is the global citizen’s bible and muse, offering both inspiration and vital intel. We understand that time is the greatest luxury, which is why Condé Nast Traveler mines its network of experts and influencers so that you never waste a meal, a drink, or a hotel stay wherever you are in the world.
Chef Fumio Azumi has brought a phenomenal destination-worthy sushi place to Alhambra (his partner chef Kwan-san has since departed for a new restaurant in Ohio), with $300 per person dinner menu served at the bar and a more reasonable $120 lunch on weekdays. Quality is top-tier, with two kinds of rice and all the freshest fish available. This unassuming spot in Arcadia has a versatile lunch sushi set from chef Hiro Yamada (Sushi Gen, Shiki).
Also on offer are vegan pastries by Jen Yee of Baker’s Bench, available on weekends, and a coffee bar by Phill Kim, who also handmade the cafe’s ceramics. Inside Dada Market there are teas, oils, fruits, tinned fish, bottles of wine and other gourmet retail items, while its evening menu serves marinated olives, wedge salads, hamachi tostadas and more. The market is set to be a daytime anchor for two forthcoming restaurant and bar concepts located behind the shop, and serve as a space for collaborations and pop-ups like Little Fish. The Joint Seafood founder Liwei Liao opened this casual handroll counter modeled after Kazunori serving high-grade fish in a parade of seaweed-wrapped creations. Liao’s market in Sherman Oaks specializes in dry-aged fish, though the offerings at Uoichiba aren’t necessarily of that style.
His new cafe sells bags of his coffee beans as well as phin filters and other apparatus for home brewing. In the future Nguyen hopes to offer coffee workshops and, thanks to a partnership with nearby shop and restaurant Gingergrass Mini Mart, banh mi and other food items. Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and 8 a.m.
