Morihiro resturant in Atwater Village, California. Mori’s choice for a few selections of nigiri from the omakase on his ceramics. Wooden plate is the a “sushi six” plate from the four course option. The long rectangle plate is all (veggies acorn squash, tamago, carrot, fried tofu, house made pickles), the red bowl is house made tofu with wasabi and the yellow plate is a dessert fruit plate.
(Maggie Shannon/For The Times)
21 places in L.A. to find the best sushi, omakase, chirashi and more
Los Angeles is the best sushi town in America. We know this, even if that’s the only thing around the subject we may agree on.
Are you in a traditionalist or maximalist mood? Do you want maki filled simply with kanpyo (dried gourd) in the strictest Edomae fashion? A few moments of rapport with the chef shaping pieces of nigiri just for you? Or are you headed out for a deep-fried roll filled with spicy tuna, cream cheese and avocado and zigged with sauces that match the Lakers’ team colors?
The current generation of omakase chefs in Los Angeles are returning to the essence of the cuisine. A trip to Tokyo confirms what’s been driving their pursuit for excellence.
What’s the occasion: blowout omakase, takeout chirashi or a wind-down evening at your neighborhood strip-mall sushi bar?
There are no wrong answers. But I have been eating a lot of sushi lately, so I have many fresh opinions.
My tastes lean classical and stripped down, and I’m in luck: So many of our best sushi chefs have been reconnecting with the roots of the cuisine, wedding their creativity to a focus on immaculate seafood and, of equal importance, fragrant and exactingly seasoned rice. (The rice is really, really important.)
This is your guide to what the best sushi city in America has to offer, from the ultimate California roll to spectacular omakase.
The restaurants on this list admittedly lean to omakases: If you’re shelling out hundreds of dollars for an evening of appetizers and nigiri, you should know which ones are worth it. For affordability, I will directly point out Gen and Hama in Little Tokyo and, for a filling and modestly priced top-shelf nigiri at a counter, Kisen in Arcadia.
Sushi, like so much in L.A., seems to evolve at an ever more rapid pace. My wish for the city’s sushi restaurants generally is to push its sake lists forward: California has better access than ever to Japanese sake, which is an astonishing beverage in its variety and seasonality and pricing tiers. Most of what we see on menus here is dull and affordable or comically overpriced.
The actual sushi? That we have in wondrous plenty, as these 21 restaurants — a top 10 and 11 additional standouts — attest.
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(Shelby Moore / Los Angeles Times)
1. Morihiro
Atwater Village Japanese $$$$
Morihiro Onodera arrived in Los Angeles in 1985 after training as a sushi chef in Tokyo. Beginning in 2000, with the 11-year run of his debut restaurant, Mori Sushi in West L.A., which he sold in 2011, and now with his small, 3-year-old sushi-ya in Atwater Village, Onodera has remained a defining force in our city’s sushi culture — and by extension has guided the meaning of fine dining in Los Angeles.
He helped codify an L.A. style of omakase in which small dishes — some of which reflect technique-focused kaiseki traditions (a zensai plate of tiny, seasonal bites) and some of which spring from his imagination (big-eye tuna tartare dolloped with a heaping tablespoon of caviar) — precede the parade of sushi. A table is a fine option, but if you can, splurge on a seat at the sushi bar in front of the master himself. Nigiri is spectacular when it begins arriving from Onodera’s hands, with equal attention to superior seafood and daily milled, meticulously seasoned shari (vinegared rice). Handsome ceramics bring another level of beauty; Onodera made many of the plates himself. Seiichi Daimo, a certified sake sommelier, pours the most compelling pairings of any sushi bar in L.A. Rather than the hushed environments of most top-tier sushi bars, Morihiro has a boisterous warmth. You will leave very full and very cheered.
He helped codify an L.A. style of omakase in which small dishes — some of which reflect technique-focused kaiseki traditions (a zensai plate of tiny, seasonal bites) and some of which spring from his imagination (big-eye tuna tartare dolloped with a heaping tablespoon of caviar) — precede the parade of sushi. A table is a fine option, but if you can, splurge on a seat at the sushi bar in front of the master himself. Nigiri is spectacular when it begins arriving from Onodera’s hands, with equal attention to superior seafood and daily milled, meticulously seasoned shari (vinegared rice). Handsome ceramics bring another level of beauty; Onodera made many of the plates himself. Seiichi Daimo, a certified sake sommelier, pours the most compelling pairings of any sushi bar in L.A. Rather than the hushed environments of most top-tier sushi bars, Morihiro has a boisterous warmth. You will leave very full and very cheered.
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(Ron De Angelis / Los Angeles Times)
2. Sushi Kaneyoshi
Downtown L.A. Japanese $$$$
Kaneyoshi opened in 2020, hidden on the basement level of the 1970s-era Kajima building in Little Tokyo in an elegant, windowless room that calms the senses with at least five shades of polished woods. (Important tip: Take the elevator down to the restaurant from the building’s adjacent parking structure. Security guards are helpful with directions.) This is Yoshiyuki Inoue’s star turn after years spent developing his reputation behind the counter of paragons like Mori Sushi and Sushi Ginza Onodera. He follows the sushi-kaiseki omakase format; the lineup of appetizers often includes chawanmushi threaded with meat from Hokkaido hairy crab and skipjack tuna smoked over cherrywood in a vinegar-onion sauce. Then Inoue and his assistants launch into a procession of Edomae-inspired nigiri, each seasonal seafood prepared to best highlight its flavors. At one point, he’ll likely hand each person pressed sushi folded into a sheet of nori that crunches like the sheerest potato chip. By the final piece you’re in the master’s trance. This is sushi for connoisseurs, many of whom, at $300 per person, are already regulars.
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(Andrea Chang / Los Angeles Times)
3. Sushi I-Naba
Torrance Japanese $$$$
Yasuhiro Hirano, whose family operated a sushi restaurant and fish market in Japan’s eastern Chiba prefecture while he was growing up, ran the first iteration of Sushi I-naba in Manhattan Beach. In 2022, the restaurant moved to a six-seat counter inside I-naba, a restaurant in Torrance that shares ownership with the sushi bar. Its size, and Hirano’s exquisite version of omakase, make it one of the region’s toughest reservations. Delicate dishes begin the meal: ankimo (monkfish liver) prepared two ways, perhaps, or a stunning cross-section of futo maki (a thick roll) layered with sardines and pickled ginger. When the meal shifts to nigiri, notice the distinct, pleasing sourness to the shari; to achieve the flavor he blends two kinds of akazu, the red vinegar made from sake lees that has its roots in sushi’s Tokyo origins.
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(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
4. Sushi Kisen
Arcadia Japanese $$
Set in a space full of calming light woods in the nook of an Arcadia strip mall, Kisen has a menu that veers through two dozen izakaya-style appetizers, a la carte nigiri and maki options, and combination dinners that include sashimi with grilled chicken or salmon. We’re here to talk specifically about the sushi bar. Sitting at the counter requires an $80 minimum per person. If that seems expensive, let me frame it this way: This restaurant offers what is arguably the best deal for top-tier, tradition-minded sushi in the greater Los Angeles area. Rather than a grand omakase presentation, the format is a conversation with the chef, so you can set general parameters around the kinds of fish you prefer and how much you’d like to eat. Chef Hiro Yamada’s selection of Japanese fish is usually extensive; ask for nigiri that surveys a swath of tastes and textures in a dozen or so pieces.
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(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
5. Sushi Gen
Downtown L.A. Japanese $$$
Little Tokyo’s best-known sushi bar opened in 1980. Angelenos know it for the midday crowds — the restaurant doesn’t take reservations and the prime-time wait usually totals no more than 20 minutes — and for its popular, photogenic sashimi deluxe platter. I love the place as a crossroads of affordability, efficiency and quality. Sitting at Gen’s counter makes for a far superior and immersive sushi meal than sitting at a table. Chefs provide a list of seafood options in English and gladly interact, making nigiri two or three pieces at a time; if they aren’t buried in a lunch rush, they’ll direct you to some of the most seasonal options. Look beyond the tuna-yellowtail-salmon standards for rich, sweet varieties of sea bream and sayori, a delicate, pearly fleshed fish listed as “halfbeak.”
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(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
6. Kogane
Alhambra Japanese $$$$
Chefs Fumio Azumi and Kwan Gong run one of the city’s newest high-end omakase restaurants; the duo met during the pandemic and opened Kogane in Alhambra at the end of 2021. Behind a counter that seats a maximum of seven, Azumi and Gong prepare meals in beautiful sync. They intersperse small, seafood-focused dishes with nigiri throughout the evening, rather than saving the parade of sushi for a finale. I love that the chefs use two styles of shari, seasoned with different blends of vinegars, alternating them with milder or stronger varieties of seafood. It’s one of many details that highlight their joint ambitions. The commitment shows; as it nears the two-year mark, the restaurant is hitting its potential.
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7. Sushi Yuen
Industry Japanese $$$$
Sushi chefs tend to prepare omakases as meditative performances; Ryan Kwak and his team bring an exuberance that makes for a fast couple of feel-good hours, though their showmanship is grounded in skill. Signifiers of luxury — caviar, shaved black truffles, a hunk of Wagyu displayed with its certificate of authenticity pre-grilling — show up as part of a pageant of starting dishes, then the meal shifts into a traditional sequence of nigiri. It’s a telling sign when a finishing piece of tamago is made with unusual care; the chefs use pureed shrimp and mountain yam (as does Jiro Ono of “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” fame) to give the egg a creamy density. Kwak talks to customers about twice-a-year trips to Tokyo to research omakase meals. His drive is obvious and inspiring — and worthy of a trek to City of Industry even for sushi fans who might live on the other side of the metro area.
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8. Shin Sushi
Encino Japanese $$$$
Admirably, chef-owner Taketoshi Azumi doesn’t spangle his omakase with farmers market finds, gold leaf or truffle salt. Dinner will start with one appetizer plate of rotating seafood and vegetables that frequently includes one sawagani — a minuscule fried crab that is the essence of crunch. Then Azumi, an ebullient presence behind the bar who banters easily with customers in English or Japanese, funnels his energies into nigiri. His unions of fish and rice are riveting in their gradations of texture, with minimal embellishment needed. Pray that he receives his weekly shipment of menegi, needle-thin Japanese chives. He binds a bundle of them to shari with a strip of nori and a finishing sprinkle of bonito flakes. This is often the meal’s climactic piece, and its unique sharpness doesn’t dim until after a spoonful or two of tofu mousse with black sugar syrup that’s typical for dessert.
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(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
9. Shunji
Santa Monica Japanese $$$$
For eight years, from 2012 to 2020, Shunji occupied the wildest, most only-in-Los-Angeles location for a sushi bar possible: a stuccoed 1930s-era building shaped like a soup bowl. Shunji Nakao’s menu was expansive, with a la carte options as well as omakase in multiple price tiers and elaborate vegetable creations woven in among the seafood courses. With a move to a serene new space in Santa Monica comes a reset. Shunji 2.0 has two rooms, each with white ash counters and space for seven seats: Nakao serves customers at one counter and chef Miki Takahiro mans the other. The format is sushi-kaiseki, with far more lyrically restrained starters like a pairing of firefly squid and fiddlehead in miso sauce. I’m a longtime fan of Nakao — of his aesthetic and his presence behind the counter, at turns intensely focused and slyly witty — and sitting in front of him is the reservation at Shunji I’d fight for.
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(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
10. Sushi Takeda
Beverly Hills Japanese $$$
As with the other standouts behind L.A.’s breakout generation of omakase restaurants, Hideyuki Takeda brings a lifetime of experience to his own first place. He began his sushi career in Japan at 16 and previously led the kitchen at Sushi Tsujita in Sawtelle. Reach the third floor of Weller Court in Little Tokyo to find his new secluded retreat. Takeda presents several meal options: an abbreviated omakase at lunch, which would make for an impressive business outing; a nigiri-only option at dinner for $140 per person; and the full omakase with 10 or so small plates and at least a dozen nigiri. During the sushi-kaiseki feast, expect some striking, painstaking starters including his signature slice of maki filled with sardine or mackerel, pickled ginger and shiso, encircled with nori and an outer band of daikon. There are also order-ahead chirashi and nigiri to-go boxes available midweek between noon and 2 p.m.
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The Brothers Sushi
Woodland Hills Japanese $$
Mark Okuda, a longtime chef at Studio City’s Asanebo, took over this Woodland Hills sushi staple in 2018, keeping the name but making the menu entirely his own. Rather than going omakase, I tend to order a la carte here, beginning with a tomato and snow crab salad, a plate of pickles and maybe a bowl of ginko nuts before moving on to sushi. Home in on the nigiri Okuda crafts from fish dry-aged at the Joint nearby. If omakase at the counter is your preference, check out the restaurant’s new sibling restaurant in Santa Monica; its airy space is more acclimated for settling in comfortably at the bar.
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Hama Sushi
Downtown L.A. Japanese $$
The long-standing sign reads like a mantra: “Only Sushi, Sashimi. No Tempura, No Teriyaki. No Noodle, No Rice Alone.” And also no reservations, so waiting for a seat at one of L.A.’s most popular sushi bars, particularly at lunch, can be half an hour or more. The reward? Unfussy, good-quality seafood at reasonable prices. This is the order-from-a-checklist model of sushi bar rather than omakase. It can be tempting to take a table in the restaurant’s side room when you’re hungry and hurried midday, but the action is at the sushi bar; not only do you receive your nigiri faster, when the rice still holds some warmth, but the whiteboard behind the counter lists daily arrivals of prime Japanese seafood that the printed menu doesn’t mention.
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Go's Mart
Canoga Park Japanese $$$$
Tsuyoshi Kawano — who runs the restaurant with his wife, Chiemi, and originally ran the business as a market with a thriving side gig renting VHS tapes of Japanese films — believes in extravagant garnishes. His nigiri arrives with truffle oil, citrus zest, garlic chips and other loud stylings. But his traditionalist sensibilities can be teased out; have a conversation asking him to dial back the bells and whistles and he will serve an omakase showcasing the top-notch seafood he stocks in his case. This isn’t a long evening out: Kawano knocks out meals unusually fast, in an hour or less, but I always leave content.
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Kenbey Sushi
Silver Lake Japanese $$
Kenji Koyama’s Silver Lake sushi bar slipped into the scene late in 2021 and still remains relatively low-profile. Among the density of the area’s restaurants, Kenbey stands out especially at lunch; ask Koyama for a straightforward nigiri omakase and he’ll pull out some excellent seasonal seafood, feeding you just enough to be full. Omakases at dinner, without some conversation, can swerve into truffle-oil territory; that’s not my thing, so I’ve learned to speak up. But overall Koyama has chops, and the nicely edited sake list includes some approachably priced bottles like a lemony-earthy Sohomare Tokubetsu Kimoto Junmai. Kenbey is a midpriced gem that nearby sushi lovers should work into their rotations.
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Matsumoto
Beverly Grove Japanese $$$$
Naruki Matsumoto is among L.A.’s most underrated sushi chefs. At his sedate restaurant set in the corner of a Beverly Boulevard strip mall, customers tend to park at tables and order from the a la carte sushi menu, with its deep list of seasonal Japanese fish. When you sit at the counter for an omakase, Matsumoto does not mess around. He’s done away with appetizers for his omakase; the meal consists of nigiri, which arrives rapid-fire often three to a plate. I might wish for the sense of communion that comes as a chef makes nigiri piece by piece, but I can also respect Matsumoto’s aesthetic, particularly when he hands over a trio of two different shrimp flanked by a mound of lacy meat from Hokkaido hairy crab, each united with the restaurant’s firm, gently vinegared shari.
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Nozawa Bar
Beverly Hills Japanese $$$
Twice nightly — at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. sharp — customers who have booked a reservation at Nozawa Bar line up near the entrance of the Beverly Hills location of the juggernaut Sugarfish chain. In a few moments, they’re whisked through the dining room and escorted to a 10-seat sushi bar hidden behind a door down a long hall. For a decade, Osamu Fujita has presided over the company’s high-end omakase destination with the blessing of Kazunori Nozawa, the retired chef of Sushi Nozawa in Studio City who co-founded Sugarfish with his son Tom and other partners. Expect a high-octane, nigiri-heavy meal. Fujita has a mischievous streak; I watched him once correct a customer for eating a piece of sushi in two bites, a sushi etiquette faux pas, but he was friendly about it. Nozawa famously entrenched the blue crab hand roll into L.A. culture. As a mic drop, Fujita fills his roll with Maine lobster instead.
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Q Sushi
Downtown L.A. Japanese $$$$
Credit is due: Hiroyuki Naruke ushered in the Edomae-inspired rigor that’s become the yardstick in L.A.’s golden era of high-end sushi. He ran a small sushi-ya in Tokyo’s Roppongi district before opening his downtown restaurant in 2014. His omakase has a strict minimalism, but that doesn’t imply plainness. It means every element of the nigiri is imperative: how exactingly the seafood is aged, preserved or served at peak freshness; how precisely the rice is seasoned; how finely tuned the judiciously used sauces and condiments are balanced. Naruke has his fans, but in a decade the restaurant has become increasingly austere. Tables in the dining room are rarely used; guests may number four or six per seating. Naruke pays close attention to his customers, but he’s no entertainer; he performs his tasks with solemn absorption. At lunch, an abbreviated omakase is $150, half the cost of dinner.
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(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
Sushi Chitose
Redondo Beach Japanese $$
Housed in a soothing Midcentury building partitioned with slatted wooden walls, Chitose is the South Bay beacon for a reasonably priced omakase that leans on the Edomae ethos. The cost is $75 per person. Nigiri tends to feature milder seafood and gently seasoned rice, but the emphasis remains laudably on the essential flavors rather than busy garnishes. The intensity of a sushi meal doesn’t always make for a relaxed date-night option, but this one does. Bonus for an after-dinner walk: Redondo Beach is less than a mile away.
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Sushi Ginza Onodera
Beverly Grove Japanese $$$$
The West Hollywood outpost of a high-end Tokyo restaurant group serves a $400-per-person omakase. That’s the highest base-price ceiling for the most rarified sushi experience in Los Angeles, and at an energized moment for L.A. chefs interpreting Edomae-inspired traditions at the highest levels, Ginza Onodera has competition from locally owned exemplars. That said, Yohei Matsuki and his team present a lovely array of both classic and contemporary small plates (seasonal bamboo shoots with lemony sacho leaf; chawanmushi gilded with caviar) that precede nigiri. The gracious service staff might circulate through the room with maps and photographs to illustrate the province of the seafood, and the chefs have a collective charm that keeps the mood in the cloistered room light.
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(Sushi Note)
Sushi Note
Sherman Oaks Japanese $$$
Hitting its five-year mark in Sherman Oaks, Sushi Note aims to please many tastes with its zigzagging menu. There is plenty of a la carte sushi, rolls and sashimi for assembling self-directed choices, and two modified notions of omakase with set starters, desserts and nigiri. I have a hack for my happiest meal: I make a reservation for the counter and then request an all-nigiri omakase. Chef Earl Aguilar accommodated me with some spectacular bites, including hamachi aged for 14 days; houbou, or sea robin, a buttery winter fish I don’t see often on L.A. menus; and bonito marinated in brandy. Equally wonderful: brainy wine pairings, poured by ace sommelier Briana O’Connor, from the restaurant’s deeply considered list. Sushi Note sits across the street from Augustine wine bar, which is no coincidence; oenophile David Gibbs co-owns both places.
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Sushi Tama
Beverly Grove Japanese $$
The Los Angeles arm of San Diego-based Shōwa Hospitality opened in Robertson Plaza at the edge of Beverly Hills in 2020; the beach-toned restaurant at first sustained itself by selling takeout nigiri and make-at-home roll kits. When indoor dining resumed, Hideyuki Yoshimoto — who received his sushi training in restaurants around Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market before its historic relocation in 2018 — could finally show the city his abilities. The tiers here follow a pattern: Ordering a la carte will likely lead to a pleasant meal of mostly tradition-minded starters (clam miso soup, seaweed salad), sashimi and sushi, an especially worthy option for lunch. Opting for an omakase at Yoshimoto’s counter during dinner brings the fireworks, with the requisite range of rich, lean, vinegared and torched fish melded to nicely salty-sour rice.
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