Santa Monica Japanese Restaurants

Sushi

1. Urasawa

Neighborhood: Beverly Hills

Perfection.  THE best restaurant meal/experience ever.  The only complaint, and it's not really a complaint, is that It ruined me for sushi for months - others just cannot compare....

2. Sushi Zo

Neighborhood: Palms

I went to Sushi Zo at 6pm; there were not many people. However, when we were done around 8, the place was packed. I don't think I can tolerate other sushi places after having gone to Zo.   Breakdown...

3. Sushi Sasabune

One of the defining characteristics of Sushi Sasabune is that they serve fairly traditional-style sushi. That means there are no crazy creative rolls.  Fresh salmon with a slice of light seaweed kelp...

4. Irori Japanese…

an abundant Lunch box with 2 choices of entrees, ranging from tempura, rolls, to beef, chicken and salmon teriyaki with miso soup and salad. Their sushi is very fresh and their rolls are made...

5. Hiko Sushi

Neighborhood: Palms

Definitely the BEST SUSHI I have ever had.  We don't eat sushi very often since it can be out of our budget but we tried this place when we wanted to splurge and it was totally worth it.   We had...

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Sake

1. Terried Sake House

of Suehiro in Little Tokyo, not the finest ingredients or the best to be found, but good basic eats for cheap.  I love yakitori and Terried Sake House is not the place to go for it.  Of the skewers we tried...

2. Bar Hayama

since it opened.  From the outside it looks like a house.  With no reservations on a Friday night, my dude and I sat at the sake bar.  We didn't exactly have any sake flights.  The point was to eat some...

3. Sasaya

and noisier (Musha which I really like but is far from really great and is not really an izakaya) but if you want a really unusual sake menu at reasonable prices and authentic small dishes...

4. Sushi Zo

Neighborhood: Palms

as I am!     Oh, one last recommendation: try the live sake, Yuki Shibare.  It just means it's unpasteurized, (not to be confused with Nigori sake which is the "milky" slightly sweet unfiltered stuff...

5. Musha Restaurant

Neighborhood: Santa Monica

My favorite restaurant of 2008.  For a while I was going weekly.  Favorite dishes are the Tuna Dip (tuna tartare), the Sake Salmon and the Seaweed Salad. Unfortunately the place gets PACKED at dinner...

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