Matsuyama Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar, Westminster, CA

 

Sometimes, being too lazy to scroll through a long list of restaurants to find a good one while searching online does have its own luck. I practically chose Matsuyama because it was the first thing that popped up for sushi. 🙂 It’s like opening a book of baby names to find a name for your baby boy and choosing “Aaron” because it’s the first ‘real’ name you see (unless you think “Aadi” is a real name, too. Haha).

Anyway, back to sushi. It’s the first one on the list for sushi in the area I was in, and it just happened to have high ratings so I went there to see if that holds any truth. And luckily, it did. Fresh and good quality sushi with nice presentation for a strip-mall hole-in-a-wall sushi joint.

This is their “420 roll.” There’s tuna and albacore topped with special sauce and scallions. Very yum.

Crunch roll with tuna and fried shrimp. Anything crunchy is always good with me. 🙂

Onion crunch albacore, seared to perfection. The crunchy deep fried onion was super delicious I think I ate down to the very last piece!

Spicy scallop hand roll. I didn’t like the fact that the scallops were cooked. The texture was more firm than I would’ve liked. I’m not used to eating cooked scallops in rolls.

The restaurant is small but clean. My only disappointment (other than the scallop roll) was that there’s no happy hour prices for sushi. Only on sake, which means nothing to me since I don’t like drinking that much. Oh well.

Matsuyama Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar
13531 Beach Blvd
Westminster, CA 92683
(714) 379-2661

 

Sushi Gallery, Cerritos, CA

 

Yup, sushi again! I’m a sushi lover in case you haven’t noticed. 🙂 People always ask me how I find these restaurants. I tell them it’s the same reason why anyone finds anything: either online or word of mouth. It makes it less “scary” when someone tells you “Oh come here for good sushi” versus just finding it randomly on Google.

Sushi Gallery is a small but nice and quiet hole-in-a-wall sushi joint. Upon sitting down, we were told by our nice waiter that we made it just in time for Happy Hour, right before 8pm – half price sushi. Yay! But appetizers are regular price. Boo.

The fish is pretty fresh and being so cheap, I wanted to order everything! But no, I have my limits so my friend and I narrowed down to these rolls and sashimi – salmon, yellowtail, tuna, soft shell crab, spicy scallop:

Soft shell crab hand roll. The crab was super crunchy and delicious!

Salmon and spicy tuna cut rolls. Pretty fresh and yum I must say.

Spicy scallop, salmon, yellowtail, sashimi style.

Albacore cut roll. Not bad either.

Our check came out to be around $50. Cost more than our previous all-you-can-eat (AYCE) sushi meal at Jun Sushi. I think I should just stick with AYCE for the same price.

 

Shin-Sen-Gumi Hakata Ramen, Fountain Valley, CA

 

 

This is the second time I’ve eaten here at Shin-Sen-Gumi in years, and I don’t remember it being very good the first time. But since this is the closest ramen place to me while in the area, and my friends seem to recommend it, I decided to give it another chance. It’s slightly better the second time around I must admit. I got the standard Shin Sen Gumi ramen but 1/2 portion in a smaller bowl so I can have the add-ons.

The standard ramen bowl comes with just 2 pieces of chasu pork and some ginger strings. I had to add the spicy oil to make it look..pretty. 😛  If you want anything extra, you have to purchase more by circling the items on the paper menu. I don’t like how you have to pay extra for every little thing, like spicy miso paste, onions, bean sprouts, egg, seaweed, etc. I mean, I’d understand if you want an additional something on top of what’s already in your bowl, but things like onions and spices? C’mon now. It can really add up for well over $15 or more a bowl if you’re the kind of person who wants a big variety.

Here are the two extra things I had to pay for – fried onions and spicy miso paste:

At Ajisen, one of my favorite ramen restaurants, at least the bowl already comes with several items like chasu pork, spicy ground pork, seaweed, egg, bean sprouts, etc. all for about $8.75, which is certainly a lot less than here.

The gyoza, or dumplings, are so tiny you can probably fit all six pieces in your mouth at once. The soy sauce is plain so we added spicy oil and sesame (there are free containers on the table) to spice it up.

This place is always crowded. Always. Luckily we came early around 6pm, so we got a table right away. When we were left around 7-something, there were a ton of people waiting. It’s a small hole in the wall place so come early or expect at least an hour wait.

 

Tampopo Restaurant, Buena Park, CA

 

Tampopo Restaurant is a small mom and pops Japanese ramen eatery run by non-Japanese owners. It’s often said that ramen isn’t good if it’s not made by Japanese chefs. To me, it doesn’t really matter. But apparently, this restaurant kind of fits the stereotype. 😛

I love ramen, and I’m pretty sure I’m able to tell between good ramen and bad ramen. Well, this place is kind of in the middle. Tampopo’s menu doesn’t really have a large variety of ramen to choose from. There’s miso, chasu, vegetable, and spicy ramen. “Spicy ramen” is pretty much chasu ramen and you’ll have to add the chilli paste yourself from the container on your table. I wonder if these ramen restaurants have just one giant pot of soup base that they use for every single bowl? It sure feels that way here. All the bowls that come out look yellow – not exactly exciting to look at let alone eat. See those red oily things floating on top? That’s a result of me adding a ton of chilli paste they have on the table just to add a little more flavor and color to the bowl. The only thing I liked about my bowl was the soft chasu, or pork slices.

The tempura shrimp appetizer was actually pretty delicious. Big, thin, and crispy. I think I liked the appetizer a lot more than the main course. Would I come back? Only if I were starving, craving for ramen, and there were no other choices around.

 

Jun's Sushi, Cypress, CA

 

It’s been a long while since I’ve had all-you-can-eat sushi. So when I was craving for sushi, my friends recommended Jun’s Sushi and mentioned “all you can eat”, how could I say know?

They give you the option of regular dining or all-you-can-eat. I wonder if there’s anyone ever going with the regular dining option. 😛 They have a big all-you-can-eat menu, with several appetizers – miso soup, edamame, fried calamari, mussels, veggie and shrimp tempura – and all the typical sashimi and rolls – tuna, white tuna, salmon, yellowtail, albacore, octopus, scallop, crunchy, smelt, etc. The fish is quite fresh and comes out to you in a nice and colorful presentation.

On the paper menu where you pencil in the items you want, marking “1” really means “2” pieces of sushi. My friend made a mistake of marking 4 (there were 4 of us) so everything we ordered was doubled. We ended up having to stuff ourselves because they charge you $1 for each piece you don’t finish. But luckily, we didn’t leave much leftover on our plates. I don’t like the fact that they put a little too much rice underneath each piece of fish so you’re forced to eat all that rice, which we know will expand in our stomach leaving no room for the good stuff. Great restaurant business strategy, but not good for us! I’m already not a big fan of rice so just imagine me trying to down everything.

So, here’s what we pigged out on, our “too much for our tummies to handle” sushi plates: 🙂

 

Gyu Kaku, Huntington Beach, CA

 

This is one of my all-time favorite all-you-can-eat BBQ restaurants. I actually like Japanese BBQ more than Korean BBQ. Maybe it’s the way it’s marinaded – it feels a lot less “heavy”. I think I go through phases of food. There will be times where all I can eat is sushi, and then onto ramen, then to KBBQ, then to JBBQ, and if it’s really delicious, I’ll stick with it for a really long time. And that’s what happens with Gyu Kaku.

I’ve eaten here many, many times. All-you-can-eat and grilling my own meat – my best combination for a good meal. Best part? It’s only $15 a person for lunch! The price includes 5 types of meat, edamame, veggies, miso soup, rice, and newly added fried dumplings! Does it get any better than this? I love their marinade – sweet and spicy that cooks well over charcoal grill, as opposed to gas grill at KBBQ places.

Attentive service. Waiters come around often to check on you and change grills. Note that lunch time ends at 4pm. For dinner, the price becomes $39.95. Of course, they add more items to it, but that’s still pretty expensive.

 

Wokcano Cafe, Pasadena, CA

 

After a failed experience at the 626 Night Market, my friends and I wound up at Wokcano Cafe a few blocks away. Not my first choice, but at the time, we were just all hungry and just needed food.

Wokcano serves sushi but at the same time Chinese food. So you can pretty much guess the quality of either one. Not great. The picture of crispy honey walnut shrimp (above) looked good on the menu with a very nice presentation, pretty looking criss-crossing asparagus sticks so I went for it. It came out looking nothing like it. My second disappointment was it tasted blah. It wasn’t crispy and the walnut was way too sweet. I’ve had much better honey walnut shrimp at regular Chinese restaurants.

Thought I’d try some sushi too so I went for a spicy scallop hand roll. Again, blah! I’ve tried other stuff from my friends’ dishes – ie. stir fried filet mignon, “black pearls” (fried sushi), fried rice – everything was just sub-par for their expensive prices. I would not come back here.

 

Ajisen Ramen, Irvine, CA

 

People might disagree with me on this, but I think of all the ramen places I’ve eaten, this might be the best so far, even if it’s not considered “authentic ramen” by some. That’s probably because the flavor is just right to me, and they give you generous portions of meat – well, depends on which type of ramen bowl you get, of course. I usually get spicy pork ramen, which comes with spicy broth, spicy ground pork, three or four slices of pork belly, seaweed, cabbage, green onions, and egg. I’m always full afterwards, even with the requested half portion of noodle. I’m never left wanting more meat or anything like I have with other places.

The fried calamari appetizer was also delicious. Lightly battered and right level of crunchy. I love it that they only serve tentacles, and not the calamari rings which are not as crispy. The only complain I have is they didn’t serve any kind of dipping sauce other than mayo. Yuck. But there’s a light soy sauce container on the table you can use. Sprinkle some of the ramen spices in it and you’ll have your own spicy dipping which tastes much better than that fatty mayo.

Naked Fish, Millbrae, CA

“Naked Fish.” The name couldn’t have been any more misleading. I was expecting one of those sushi places where they serve sushi on a female naked body. While I don’t see the appeal of that, it would’ve been an interesting experience. But — there was no female naked body. Boo. Or, whatever.

I have to say, their fried calamari is one of the best I’ve ever had. Very crunchy, spicy, and served with a sweet chili sauce, one of my favorite dipping sauce flavors for calamari.

 I’m not too into deep fried sushi, but my friend talked me into trying one so I said ‘what the heck.’ It was surprisingly good. The roll was not overly fried, the yellowtail was nice and soft, and served with this tangy sweet sauce that just makes everything taste better.

The restaurant is located in a big shopping center, though sort of hidden in the corner. I remember it being next to an AT&T store. 🙂 The decor is quite modern and trendy, and very clean.

Gesshin Sushi, Westminster, CA

I know, I just can’t get enough of sushi!

This is my second or third time eating at Gesshin Sushi, and every time I keep thinking they have a bigger menu for special rolls. Or something extra special and out of the ordinary. But after looking at the menu yesterday, I felt a little disappointed. I like having a variety of fish in the special rolls but didn’t find very many items that had anything else other than tuna, shrimp, and salmon.

So we just opted for the King Cobra roll, which has fried shrimp inside and tuna on top, the dragon roll which is soft shell crab. And I myself got two small hand rolls on the side: spicy scallop and yellowtail. Total check: $43. Total momo stars: 3.5.

King Cobra roll. Tempura shrimp inside, spicy tuna on top. Drizzled with tasty sweet sauce.

Dragon Roll. Soft shell crab wrapped inside sesame soy paper. Didn't look like a dragon at all.

Hand rolls: spicy scallop and yellowtail. Good stuff.