la.foodblogging

How is it that it has taken me this long to write about Uzen? It has become our go-to local sushi joint when we want something reasonable and high quality.

Funny story. When I lived in Santa Barbara, we had one sushi bar we went to: Hanaya. We had our own chopsticks behind the counter and would sit and chat with Mikami for hours while eating sushi after sushi, sharing Sapporo and sampling whatever Mikami snuck over the bar when his wife wasn’t looking. Unfortunately, Hanaya closed, hopefully not because of the free bonuses we got and for the last couple of years I lived in Santa Barbara, we had no steady sushi supplier.

Fast forward five or six years, the first time I walk into Uzen. Who is standing behind the counter? None other than Mikami-san. His trademark innapropriate sense of humor in tact, he was glad to see us. Uzen is not his restaurant, but he still lords over the sushi bar with precision, creativity and the delivery of incredibly fresh fish.

Last time I was there, I tried the Koji roll and it is a new favorite. Also high on our list is the Spicy Crispy, an open faced spicy tuna taco served on won ton skins.

The chefs are all friendly and the atmosphere is comfortable. The is a large communal table right next to the bar which is great for big parties. Most sushi places are a nighmare once there are more than four of you, but Uzen handles groups flawlessly.

Uzen
11951 Santa Monica Blvd,
Los Angeles

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.