Tag Archives: sushi

Jun 23 2012

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.

Matsuyama Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar Westminster CA, sushi, sushi roll, special sushi rolls, crush roll, fish, sushi bar, raw fish, japanese food, japanese restaurant

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

Matsuyama Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar Westminster CA, sushi, sushi roll, special sushi rolls, crush roll, fish, sushi bar, raw fish, japanese food, japanese restaurant

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

Matsuyama Japanese Restaurant Sushi Bar Westminster CA, crunch onion albacore, albacore, sushi, seared albacore, sushi roll, special sushi rolls, crush roll, fish, sushi bar, raw fish, japanese food, japanese restaurant

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

Matsuyama Japanese Restaurant Sushi Bar Westminster CA, spicy scallop roll, scallop, hand roll, sushi hand roll, sushi roll, special sushi rolls, crunch roll, fish, sushi bar, sushi restaurant, raw fish, japanese food, japanese restaurant

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.

Matsuyama Japanese Restaurant Sushi Bar Westminster CA, sushi bar, sushi restaurant, japanese food, japanese restaurant

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

 

May 31 2012

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:

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

Sushi Gallery Cerritos CA, sushi, tuna, salmon, tuna roll, salmon roll, raw fish, sushi hand roll, sushi roll, special roll, sushi special roll, Japanese sushi, Japanese food, Japanese restaurant

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

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Spicy scallop, salmon, yellowtail, sashimi style.

Sushi Gallery Cerritos CA, sushi, yellowtail, raw fish, yellowtail roll, sushi roll, special roll, sushi special roll, Japanese sushi, Japanese food, Japanese restaurant

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.

 

May 14 2012

Jun's Sushi, Cypress, CA

 

Jun's Sushi Cypress CA, sushi, white tuna, albacore, sashimi, sushi rolls, Japanese sushi, raw fish, Japanese food, Japanese restaurant, tuna, yellow tail, salmon, spicy scallop rolls, octopus

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: 🙂

Jun's Sushi Cypress CA, sushi, white tuna, albacore, sashimi, sushi rolls, Japanese sushi, raw fish, Japanese food, Japanese restaurant, tuna, yellow tail, salmon, spicy scallop rolls, octopus

Jun's Sushi Cypress CA, sushi, white tuna, albacore, sashimi, sushi rolls, Japanese sushi, raw fish, Japanese food, Japanese restaurant, tuna, yellow tail, salmon, spicy scallop rolls, octopus

Jun's Sushi Cypress CA, sushi, white tuna, albacore, sashimi, sushi rolls, Japanese sushi, raw fish, Japanese food, Japanese restaurant, tuna, yellow tail, salmon, spicy scallop rolls, octopus

Jun's Sushi Cypress CA, sushi, white tuna, albacore, sashimi, sushi rolls, Japanese sushi, raw fish, Japanese food, Japanese restaurant, tuna, yellow tail, salmon, spicy scallop rolls, octopus

 

Apr 23 2012

Sushi Kills!

 

Sushi, sashimi, japanese food, japanese restaurant, japanese sushi, fish, raw fish

OK, maybe sushi doesn’t kill you, but this is definitely not good news for sushi lovers such as myself.

MSNBC recently reported:

Government health officials are investigating a growing outbreak of salmonella food poisoning possibly tied to restaurant sushi that may have sickened at least 93 people in 19 states and the District of Columbia. The outbreak of salmonella Bareilly that may have sent at least 10 people to the hospital is mostly clustered on the eastern seaboard and the Gulf Coast, although cases have been reported as far west as Missouri and Texas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What’s worse is that it also says “spicy tuna roll sushi [is] ‘highly suspect.'” Just the thing I like eating the most. That’s just great. Maybe it’s time for me to go on a no-sushi diet for a while. 😦

[photo source: deviant art]

 

Apr 15 2012

Wokcano Cafe, Pasadena, CA

 

Wokcano Cafe Pasadena CA, chinese restaurant, japanese restaurant, sushi, chinese food, japanese food, asian food, asian restaurant, asian bar, asian restaurant bar, old town pasadena

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.

Wokcano Cafe Pasadena CA, chinese restaurant, japanese restaurant, sushi, chinese food, japanese food, asian food, asian restaurant, asian bar, asian restaurant bar, old town pasadena

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.

 

Apr 10 2012

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.

Naked Sushi Millbrae CA, calamari, squid, deep fried calamari, sushi restaurant, sushi bar 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.

Naked Sushi Millbrae CA, sushi, raw fish, japanese food, japanese sushi, sushi restaurant, sushi bar, sushi rolls, deep fried sushi

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.

Apr 4 2012

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.

Gesshin Sushi Westminster CA. Sushi, japanese sushi, japanese food, japanese restaurant, sushi rolls, raw fish, sashimi

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

Gesshin Sushi Westminster CA. Sushi, japanese sushi, japanese food, japanese restaurant, sushi rolls, raw fish, sashimi

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

Gesshin Sushi Westminster CA. Sushi, japanese sushi, japanese food, japanese restaurant, sushi rolls, raw fish, sashimi

Hand rolls: spicy scallop and yellowtail. Good stuff.

Mar 19 2012

Kabuki Japanese Restaurant, Huntington Beach, CA

Kabuki Japanese Restaurant, Huntington Beach, CA. Sushi, Japanese sushi, sushi roll, Japanese food, Japanese restaurant, sashimi, fish, yellowtail, tuna, salmon

Decent sushi at expensive prices. This is one of those places you’ll “settle” for standard sushi if you run out of ideas of where to go. Granted, they make the rolls look pretty enough for you to enjoy. It’s as good as any large chain Japanese restaurant can make.

Yellowtail, salmon, tuna, sashimi boat (left). Fairly good but it doesn’t quite melt in your mouth like other places that serve fresher fish.

Geisha Roll and Kabuki Roll, both wrapped in sesame paper (right). Again, pretty standard. Nothing exciting, although I enjoyed the spicy sauces.

I’d much rather go to Sushi on Fire, a few miles down the street from here. You’d come to Kabuki because it’s inside a big shopping plaza with a huge Century theater as well as other dessert eateries around. A matter of convenience.

Mar 18 2012

Sushi On Fire, Huntington Beach, CA

As a sushi lover, after vegging out for 49 days, meat withdrawals were kicking in. After gorging myself at a big dinner of hot pot with friends, sushi was my next cure. And what better place to get my fix of sushi than Sushi On Fire in Huntington Beach?

This place gets really crowded on weekends. A bit of a noisy environment with several TV screens displaying sports games at the sushi bar where we were lucky to find exactly two spots. I was overwhelmed with the menu – many yummy choices I couldn’t just settle for just one or two.

But, I had to do it – had to narrow down to three:

Sushi On Fire, Huntington Beach, CA. Sushi, tuna, salmon, yellowtail, albacore, mixed green, mango, avocado, Japanese restaurant, Japanese food, Japanese sushi

This is called the "Sexy (JJ and Alicia)" roll. Who the heck are JJ and Alicia? Anyway, I'm a person of variety so I went for the one roll that has it all (no rice!): tuna, salmon, yellowtail, albacore, mixed green, mango, avocado, topped with creamy sauce and chilly oil. The fish is fresh and soft, and the spicy flavor kind of brings it all together. Mmmmmm!

Sushi On Fire, Huntington Beach, CA. Sushi, spicy scallop hand roll, scallop roll, sushi roll, scallop, Japanese restaurant, Japanese food, Japanese sushi

I always get my spicy scallop hand roll almost every sushi restaurant I go. I just love scallop! They make it really good here. The scallop is very spicy and tastes just right. This roll wasn't overly stuffed with rice, either, which is what I like.

Sushi On Fire, Huntington Beach, CA. Sushi, sushi salad, sashimi salad, salmon salad, salmon, Japanese restaurant, Japanese food, Japanese sushi

Sashimi salad, which has small cubes of salmon, with mixed greens. Spicy and delicious. Great for times when you just want fish and salad and none of that rice and fake imitation crab stuff.

Hmm, I’m thinking Korean BBQ is my next target! 🙂

Mar 16 2012

I Love Sushi!

Feeling a little lazy right now to write about each dish, so I’m just going to post a bunch of pictures of sushi I’ve eaten at various places. 🙂

Gesshin Sushi, Westminster, CA:

Gesshin Sushi, Westminster, CA. Sushi, raw fish, sushi restaurant, sushi bar, Japanese food, Japanese sushi

Volcano roll (left). Fried calamari and spider roll (right). Spicy tuna & spicy scallop hand roll (bottom).

 

Kuma Sushi, Upland, CA:

Kuma Sushi, Upland, CA. Sushi, raw fish, Japanese sushi, Japanese food, sushi bar, sushi restaurant, Japanese restaurant.

Yellowtail hand roll (top left). Spicy scallop hand roll (top right). Agedashi tofu (bottom left). BSC roll. Lobster and crunchy stuff (bottom right).

 

Fun Sushi Momo, Fullerton, CA:
No, it’s not because it has the same name as me that I like this place… or, is it? 😉

Fun Sushi Momo, Fullerton, CA. Sushi, raw fish, Japanese sushi, Japanese restaurant, sushi bar, sushi restaurant, Japanese food

No name roll (top left). Summer roll, today's special (bottom left). Rainbow roll (top middle). Another no name roll which has various fish (bottom middle). Spicy tuna roll (bottom right). Lovely decor (top right).

 

Niko Niko Sushi, Irvine, CA:

Niko Niko Sushi, Irvine, CA. Sushi, raw fish, Japanese sushi, Japanese food, sushi bar, sushi restaurant

No rice roll, spicy tuna, salmon, yellowtail (left). Crispy scallop (right). Both are excellent, although the roll is very filling. I could only finish 3.