la.foodblogging

Some will claim that writing about what you eat everyday is a waste of time. Someone even took the time to write a book called Nobody Cares What you had for Lunch. Call me crazy, but I do care what you had for lunch. I care what you had for dinner. I care what you had for breakfast, for brunch, for your late night snack and your urge driven dessert run.

My foodblogging friends Eat Drink and Be Merry and Best of LA both wrote about their meals at Sushi Karen. What they say is true, it’s a gem of a sushi joint hidden in Culver City. Without their tips, I can say with almost certainty that I would never have made the stop. After reading the reviews, my wife an I popped in while we were doing some errands and since our first visit, have made several trips over for delicious dinners.

Before I tell you about the sushi, I’ll start with the drinks. I’m not a huge sake drinker, but there is a extensive selection of sake available at Sushi Karen. I often see the owner, Toshi, guiding his customers to one bottle of another, depending on their tastes. I do enjoy Japanese beer and Sushi Karen shines here as well. I had enjoyed Orion and Echigo beer prior to Sushi Karen, but they also serve Hitachino Beer. Beside the cool owl logo, the beer also has amazing flavor, perhaps from the cedar casks, from the high end hops, or the combo of the two. At $7.50 a bottle it’s not cheap, but it is worth it.

A warning though, this beer is aggressive. I don’t mean the 7% alcohol content, this beer climbs right out of the glass. The waitress warned me as she opened it, and sure enough, after she popped the cap and started to pour, the foam went everywhere. Almost like magic, the head kept growing, it looked like a grade school science fair volcano. Soon, there was beer all over the counter and I asked if I could get a new bottle since a good portion of the first one was anywhere but in the glass.

Kindly, the waitress brought out a new bottle and a larger glass, but she didn’t bring any better luck. Again, the bottle foamed over and the head grew slowly but surely in the glass. I eventually took the bottle and poured it myself, quickly and without as much head. This seemed to work and the waitress was appreciative that she didn’t have to bring out a third bottle. I was thankful that I finally got to start drinking the delicious brew.

Of course, the true star of Sushi Karen is the sushi. Prepared by the two sushi chefs, the fish comes out quick, even when the restaurant is full. Nigiri is cut generous from fresh slabs of hand picked catch. There are usually a few specials on the menu, depending on what is in season. We also like that Sushi Karen serves up a few lesser traditional dishes like their rolls and carpaccio.

I like to start with some albacore, some yellow tail, maybe some tuna and on a special occasion some toro.

While I do like bonito, I’m not sure if it lends itself to searing. The edges tend to have more of the fishy flavor.

We usually order a couple rolls, even their california roll is recommended, using nice big amounts of blue crab.

And for dessert, we have the crunchy roll, an over the top shrimp tempura creation with a tangy, creamy sauce. Green and pink rice dots cover the outside while the shrimp and avocado dance on the inside. Traditional? No. Delicious? Yes.

Sushi Karen has occupied our go-to sushi spot for the last couple of months. It isn’t cheap, but isn’t outrageous either, and the quality of the fish is very high. That toro I mentioned earlier? Some of the most luscious, buttery tuna belly I ever had. I can still feel it melting on my tongue a month later.

Sushi Karen
10762 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232
310.202.0855

Who Else Went?
Eat Drink & Be Merry
Best of LA
The Delicious Life

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.