LA Sushi Blog

Sugarfish

4722 1/4 Admiralty Way

Marina del Rey, CA 90293

(310) 306-6300

http://sugarfishsushi.com/

Rating:

Overall rating: Good

Pricing - Moderately high

Sugarfish is the self-proclaimed “hip kid brother” to Sushi Nozawa in Studio City. The restaurant has a good vibe, cool modern decorations, and a young friendly staff.  It offers an interesting fast food approach to great sushi and three pre-fixed chef’s choice’s called “Trust Me 1, 2, or 3″. There is also a 4^th ‘Trust Me’ that is not listed but offered as ‘Surprise Me’.  For sake drinkers, Sugarfish only offers 4 types of COLD sake, which was a bit of a bummer to us. We went with “Surprise Me”.   Tax and gratuity are included in the pricing.  For down right good sushi at a reasonable rate, Sugarfish is the way to go.

Tuna Sashimi - Good

A common starter for chef’s choice meals, this is up to par for sure.  Good portions of fish in ponzu and scallions, making it a refreshing start to the meal.

Albacore & Salmon - Awesome/Good

The Albacore comes with a light ponzu and minced green onion and ginger garnish, simply just a great piece of fish.

The Salmon is topped with sesame seeds, not overly chewy or fishy like most sushi restaurants and very tasty.  However, it did leave an indescribable taste on the roof of our mouths.   Must have been the sesame seeds.

Crab Roll & Toro Roll (cut) - Awesome

These rolls are served together, each with 4 pieces. Both are served with warm rice and are incredibly soft, melting in your mouth. The crab roll wasn’t overly filled with mayo, which is a big plus for us, and the crab didn’t have little bits of shells, which we encounter from time to time.

Oyster in ponzu - Don’t order it (if you can manage the request)

For us, this was a tough one. The oyster had much more of a fishy & metallic taste than either of us are used to which left a very strong and lingering aftertaste. The portion is generous, but for some reason we just weren’t into it.

Nozawa Style Shrimp - Good

Very tasty piece of shrimp topped with sesame seeds. We were trying to figure out what the Nozawa style was.  Our deduction was that the shrimp was blanched in a certain way so as to retain its texture and flavor.

Final Dish: Assortment of Kanpachi, Salmon Egg, Ankimo with Miso reduction and Halibut Fin.

Everything on this plate was delectable.  Okay, not everything – we both don’t like Salmon Eggs, especially when they’re salty.  The Ankimo was awesome.

Our take:  For the amount of sushi we had, the great service and the price we paid, this was definitely a decent ‘bang for the buck’ (minus the sake).  We noticed that the rice to sushi proportion was a bit on the heavy side and slightly vinegar-y with no wasabi base like most sushi preparations.   Overall, we enjoyed the dishes and the sushi was simply good.  It’s all about the fish here and enjoying its simplicity.