Japanese Food and Cooking

Marugame Monzo and Tsurumaru: Two Handmade Udon Shops Now Open in Little Toyko

While Japanese noodle fanatics have been gawking over artisanal ramen joints, another type of noodle business has been growing, albeit at a much quieter pace, within Los Angeles. The noodle of choice? Handmade udon. According to Yoko Isassi, a Japanese cooking instructor in Los Angeles, the compos ... More >>

Morihiro Onodera: The Chef Throws Pots

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here. For the first decade of the 21st century, people who loved sushi in Los Angeles made a pilgrimage to Mori Sushi, a minimalist restaurant on Pico Boulevard. There, owner and sus ... More >>

Now Open: Osawa Brings Otsumami, Shabu Shabu and Sushi To Old Town Pasadena

At 11 a.m. yesterday, Osawa opened to the public in Pasadena. The restaurant is owned by Sayuri Tachibe, who is the wife of corporate executive chef Shigefumi Tachibe of the Chaya Restaurant Group, though he isn't involved in this project, nor is Chaya. The chef at Osawa is Norio Yoshikawa.

Happy Hour: Shin-Sen-Gumi Yakitori & Shabu Shabu in Monterey Park

Place: Shin-Sen-Gumi Yakitori & Shabu Shabu, 111 N. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park; (626) 943-7956. Hours: Beer special runs from Mon.-Thu., 6 p.m.-7 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. For the rest of March, yakitori specials are available Mon.-Thu., 6 p.m.-11 p.m. In April, the specials will only b ... More >>

5 Essential Japanese Restaurants in Los Angeles

Our 99 Essential L.A. Restaurants issue came out recently, and we're highlighting a few categories drawing from the list. Today: Japanese restaurants. This is not a definitive list of the best Japanese restaurants in L.A., but it is a sampling of five that we think are each essential in their own w ... More >>

Kiyokawa: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Where The Chef's Eat: Rustic Canyon's Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan

Where the Chefs Eat is an ongoing series in which we ask a local chef to give us his or her favorite dining options. This week, we talk to Josh Loeb, co-chef/owner with his wife Zoe Nathan of Rustic Canyon, Huckleberry and Milo & Olive, about where the two eat out when they're not cooking, at home, ... More >>

Sperm is in Season: Hamasaku Has it Three Ways

There it sits on a plate, shiny and quivery and not unlike a pile of raw sweetbreads. Intertwining sacks, bound by sinew, filled with creamy sperm. Cod sperm, to be more exact. And I'm going to eat a lot of it. Without gagging. In fact, I'm going to enjoy it. Hamasaku, a Japanese restaurant tuc ... More >>

10 Best Eats in Little Osaka: Neighborhood Grub Crawl

Just north of the intersection of Sawtelle and Olympic, in the neighborhood known as Little Osaka, there's a quadrant of Los Angeles with so much outstanding food crammed into a relatively small space that it makes you wonder why these neighborhood planners can't have a crack at other parts of town. ... More >>

Nobu Malibu Review

The oceanfront sushi restaurant has a beautiful new home – and the same classics that made Nobu Matsuhisa famous

18: Matsuhisa's Yellowtail Scallion Donburi

Celebrating this year's Best of L.A. issue -- now out in print and online -- we're counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes. 18: Matsuhisa's Yellowtail Scallion Donburi. You may be able to eat chef Nobu Matsuhisa's stunning Peruvian-influenced Japanese cuisine at one of hi ... More >>

U Sushi: Build Your Own Sushi In Beverly Hills A Sushi Video

The trend of personalized food has reached the realm of sushi. U Sushi, which opened on South Beverly Dr. last December, brings the make-your-own concept to one of L.A.'s favorite foods. U Sushi owner Jeremy Umland, who also owns Ozumo in Santa Monica Place, traces the idea for his restaurant to th ... More >>

Men Oh Tokushima Ramen: Chashu, Pork Belly A Ramen Video!

The history of the San Francisco-Los Angeles rivalry is well-documented in many fields, whether it's the Giants and Dodgers contesting the NL West (we're all aware of how that turned out this season) or a frank debate on which city offers the biggest and best representation of West Coast cuisine. In ... More >>

29: Sashimi Special at Sushi Gen

Celebrating this year's Best of L.A. issue -- now out in print and online -- we're counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes. 29: Sashimi Special at Sushi Gen. In a perfect world, every visit to your favorite sushi bar would entail an omakase meal, an ever-changing elabora ... More >>

Men Oh Tokushima Ramen Opens Today in Little Tokyo

It's October on the calendar and thus theoretically great ramen weather. Alas, theory hasn't quite met thermometer just yet, but when it does, it might be a good time to welcome the belated fall season with a nice bowl of noodles from a new ramen joint (yes, another one): Japanese chain Men Oh Toku ... More >>

Kula Sushi: Conveyor-Belt Sushi in Little Tokyo

Conveyor-belt sushi restaurants, or kaiten-zushi as they're known in Japan, are big business these days. You might not think so when plates of sushi are priced at just $2 each, as they are at Little Tokyo's Kula Sushi, the newest and most ambitious kaiten joint to hit the L.A. scene. But arrive on a ... More >>

77: Agedashi Tofu at Izakaya Bincho

Leading up to this year's Best of L.A. issue (due out Oct. 4), we'll be counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes. 77: Agedashi Tofu at Izakaya Bincho. At Izakaya Bincho, a cubbyhole of a restaurant hidden along the boardwalk Redondo Beach Pie, chef Tomo Ueno might have bee ... More >>

Ramen Hayatemaru Beckons the Noodle-Obsessed to Torrance

The 4 Things You Need to Know About This Week's Review of Ramen Hayatemaru

This week's restaurant review is of Ramen Hayatemaru in Torrance. We encourage you to read the review, but offer this bullet point synopsis to whet your appetite.

Soba Sojibo: The Slick Noodle

Soba -- those delicate, earthy strands of pasta you find floating in a bowl of hot broth or piled onto flat bamboo trays -- is one of the most difficult creations in a Japanese noodle chef's repertoire. Since the ash-colored buckwheat flour from which they're made contains almost no gluten, soba noo ... More >>

U-Sushi Serves 1/2 Off Rolls for International Sushi Day

International Sushi Day? Never heard of it. Perhaps it's a ruse set up by the sushi industry to make us purchase extra sushi like greeting cards on Valentine's Day. Who are we kidding though? We love sushi -- and will gladly take advantage of a questionable holiday to satisfy a craving. Kanpai!

Top 5 Sushi Restaurants in the Valley

One of the hard truths reached while researching our 10 Best Sushi Restaurants list a few weeks ago was that Los Angeles has far too many superb sushi restaurants to ever be condensed into a single list. One area that felt particularly overlooked (with only one entry in the top ten) was the San Fern ... More >>

Sushi Restaurants in Los Angeles: Top 10

SushiBots are the Anti-Jiro, Create 3,600 Pieces Per Hour

There is chef Jiro Ono, in Jiro Dreams of Sushi, dedicating 75 years of his life to the art of sushi, making and serving only one piece at a time at his tiny restaurant in Japan, and then there is this: Sushi robots that churn out 300 medium-sized rolls per hour, or rice mounds for nigri at 3,600 m. ... More >>

10 Best Sushi Restaurants in Los Angeles

Does Los Angeles boast the best sushi in the entire country? If even Ferran Adriá is on our side, we can probably feel confident it's true. The factors that allow our city to be blessed with such a ridiculous bounty are fairly apparent: proximity to superior fish markets, a healthy roster of mast ... More >>

Plan Check: How is This Restaurant not Like the Others?

Scattered around Los Angeles are restaurants that could be used as examples for teaching kids how to differentiate among objects. "One of these things is not like the others" lessons. Petrillo's on Valley Boulevard in San Gabriel, a solo Italian neighborhood restaurant bobbing up and down in a sea o ... More >>

L.A.'s 4 Best Bargain Omakase The "Jiro Effect"

If you're planning on seeing David Gelb's brilliant documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi this weekend when it premieres at Santa Monica's Nu-Art Theater you might be well advised to pass on the popcorn and soda. The film clocks in at just under an hour and a half -- a good portion of that is dedicated t ... More >>

Q & A with Jiro Dreams of Sushi Director David Gelb: Elegant Eel Dissection The Importance of Rice

The film Jiro Dreams of Sushi follows sushi master Jiro Ono, whose Sukiyabashi Jiro, a ten seat sushi-only restaurant located in a Tokyo subway station, is the first of its kind to earn three Michelin stars. For his unparalleled skill and relentless perfectionism, he's considered by many to be the b ... More >>

Blue-Collar Bento Boxes 3 Places to Find Them

When the term "bento" gets tossed around on many Japanese menus in Los Angeles, it often refers to those oversized cafeteria platters filled with sauce-slicked bits of chicken teriyaki, udon noodle bowls, and stacks of tempura fortified with a California roll or two -- call it the "super combo meal" ... More >>

Sushi Nozawa Closes Today Sugarfish Coming Next

Tonight's your last chance for tuna, yellowtail and albacore at Sushi Nozawa, the 25-year-old sushi joint tucked into a Studio City strip mall. The restaurant, whose chef Kazunomi Nozawa has been described as a "sushi tyrant" and "imperious," told us last month that it would close its doors. But i ... More >>

Sushi Nozawa Closing

Sushi Nozawa is not known for its customer service. Many call chef Kazunomi Nozawa a "sushi tyrant," our critic once wrote. The L.A. Times dubbed him "imperious." And the restaurant famously features a sign that reads: "Special of the Day: Trust Me." So it wasn't a huge surprise that the Studio Ci ... More >>

Sushi Kimagure Ike: Pasadena's Best Sushi Bar Ever?

For years, Sushi Ike was the best sushi bar in Hollywood, the place you went when you wanted to escape from the fishy neologisms of Geisha House and Katsu-Ya for something close to classic, Edo-style sushi. Ike-san was never a flashy sushi chef, but he was beloved for his skill at the early-morning ... More >>

L.A.'s Idea of Japanese Food vs. What Japanese Really Eat

Our Venn Food Diagram series has studied the people of Thailand, Armenia, Vietnam and most recently California, comparing what they actually eat with what Angelenos believe they eat. In this edition, we turn our attention to Japan, looking past ramen and sushi to see what foods Angelenos have left t ... More >>

Saturday Event: Walk and Eat in Little Tokyo

Visit Little Tokyo, and -- even if you're a rabid manga fan or karaoke maniac -- your trip will likely involve food. Perhaps yakisoba, fried noodles topped with bright red ginger. Or okonomiyaki, a pancake cooked with a variety of savory ingredients. (The name literally means "what you want.") A ... More >>

Wako Donkasu: 30 Sandwiches in 30 Days (Day 19)

Guzzle & NoshThe tonkatsu sandwich at Wako.​Like a supermodel in a burlap sack, some sandwiches, no matter how sloppily presented or haphazardly photographed, sell themselves. Others don't strut into the room. The tonkatsu sandwich at Wako Donkasu isn't ostentatious. It may even look like "the ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Tsujita L.A.

Ramen and Tsukemen at the city's new noodle lover's paradise

Kimuya's All Night Happy Hour: $1.50 Pints Sushi & Art

jgarbeeSushi Art, In Its Many Forms​The notion that sushi is an art, both in its meticulous construction and finished form, is a cliché -- but one that gets a Happy Hour reprieve at the recently opened Kimuya Japanese restaurant and sushi bar in Santa Monica (formerly known as Hakata). The bo ... More >>

Ramen Rumble: Tsujita Pop-Up vs. Santouka

Guzzle & NoshA bowl of tonkatsu ramen from Tanaka.​It was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of thing: Last week, chef Takehiro Tsujita of Tsujita L.A. (a.k.a. Nidaime Tsujita), or rather, his ramen, popped up for one week only in Mitsuwa Marketplace. Serving as Tsujita's temporary training groun ... More >>

Frozen Tuna Recall: Histamine Illnessess From Frozen Ground Tuna Grocery Sushi

sushi from AFC​ Another day, another food recall. The latest is of frozen tuna that has been linked to illnesses caused by elevated histamine levels. According to Food Safety News, the FDA found evidence of food decomposition and elevated histamine levels in frozen tuna packed by Osamu Corpora ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Picca

At Ricardo Zarate's restaurant, Peruvian meets the Japanese izakaya

Ramen Chef Takeshi Tsujita Opens Tsujita L.A. Ramen Coming Soon

A. FrougThe open kitchen at Tsujita LA​ Confounded by an inability to make delicious ramen, searching for a shred of insight into a craft that he spent night after night practicing and experimenting with, Takehiro Tsujita did the only thing he hadn't tried before: he climbed into his stock pot ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Wako Donkasu

Jonathan Gold Reviews Glowfish Truck

Jonathan Gold Reviews Picca

Glowfish Truck Launches: Maximalist Okonomiyaki

Guzzle & NoshOkonomiyaki (left) from the Glowfish Truck (right).​ Bacon on your okonomiyaki? Now, it can be done. This weekend, the Glowfish Truck (@glowfishtruck), which had done a couple test runs last week, officially rolled out, sporting a menu of Japanese food that's been engineered to s ... More >>

Top 5 Food Events This Weekend: TOTNLA, Ramen, Wine, Hot Dogs & Roasted Meats

Ramen Bull Kicking off its Popchef series, Breadbar's consulting Chef Noriyuki Sugie debuts Ramen Bull, a menu of five beef-centric ramen dishes: short rib ramen ($11); oxtail ramen ($15), beef tongue ramen ($12); spicy ramen ($14); and corn beef ramen ($13). Available Monday through Saturday, 5 t ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Robata Jinya

Eatery expands from Studio City to Third Street's growing restaurant row

Beauty is Chicken Skin-Deep at Honda Ya Izakaya

​Anyone who orders sushi at Honda Ya Izakaya has wasabi for brains, specifically the fake, green, putty-like sort that comes on supermarket trays rimmed with plastic "fences." We're not saying that the raw fish at this Little Tokyo eatery isn't decent; we just don't see why anyone would order ... More >>

Make Your Own Sushi!

Food Truck Friday: Jogasaki, the Sushi Burrito Truck

Guzzle & NoshThe Jogasaki Burrito Truck (left) and the jalapeno bomb​ Since it launched in mid-January, we've heard the steadily building hype about the Jogasaki Burrito truck (@jogasakiburrito), a clever mashup of Japanese sushi and Los Angeles street food. The buzz runs the gamut, everything ... More >>