la.foodblogging

One of the things that really distinguishes LA (at least for me), is that we have an abundance of great sushi restaurants. You’ve got the high class (Katsu-ya, Matsuhisa), the hard-ass type (Nozawa, Sasabune), the gimmicky (anything with the word “roll” in their title), and a ton of the good value (e.g. Hide).

My family used to frequent Hide until about 13 years back, one of my mother’s Japanese friends recommended Sushi King in Santa Monica. We’ve rarely gone anywhere else since.

It’s not that Sushi King is extremely fancy or a drop-dead bargain. Rather, the service and the quality of food are consistently very high and you won’t be shelling out an unseemly amount of money to be full. The staff is very good at keeping up with your needs and extremely friendly. Whenever I eat there, I feel at ease, almost like I’m at home. I don’t feel the need to dress up in order to impress the crowd.

The sushi here is top knotch, fresh (though perhaps not like what you’d find at the extremely top-end places), and presented in a simple fashion. If you’re looking for something unconventional, this is probably not the place to go. They stick to the typical offerings and do them well.

We’ve recently taken to eating solely at the sushi bar and solely at the front corner with Saito-san (the owner or at least one of them). His cuts are extremely generous and his preparation is top-knotch, meaning the fish doesn’t spend much time between the counter and when it is handed to you. It’s fun to talk to Saito since he’s almost always smiling, looking like he genuinely enjoys what he does.

For the most part, it gets very busy Thursday through Sunday. Because of the nearby Wilshire Theater, the times to go are 5:30pm (when it opens), or 7-7:30pm (when the first crowd finishes), or probably 9:00pm and on (when the second crowd finishes). The other weekdays I’ve found hard to predict.

So if you’re in the mood for a perfect hole-in-the-wall sushi establishment and are looking to spend $20 - $35 including tax (depending on your appetite and how much sushi you may eat), I’d highly suggest coming here.

Sushi King
1330 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90403

By Jeff (see more of his posts).