Thursday, May 22, 2008

Finally, Sushi Zo! Mmm ....

I finally went to try out Sushi Zo after reading all the rave reviews it got on Chowhound and Yelp. Went pretty late on a Monday. They close at 9:30 and we arrived at 9:00. The hostess asked if we had been there before and we told her no. Then she started putting on this concerned face and saying "Oh, we only serve sushi here". Me: "That's fine". Her: "We don't have california rolls or things like that". Me: (getting a little annoyed) "That's fine." Her: "And we close at 9:30." Me: "That's fine ... "(so you better seat us soon so we can eat and get out of here shouldn't you?)

It's really just the way she said these things, as if anyone who hasn't been to sushi Zo clearly only eats california rolls or something... but anyway, now that we're done with the initial annoyance, we sat down and ordered omakase.

Keizo san started us with the oyster and abalone. The oyster was good, though not outstanding.
I'm also not really a fan of abalone sashimi ... Too tough and chewy for me. But it was fresh and pretty good.

Then there's the maguro. I usually don't dig maguro that much, but the one served here was actually really really tasty. The sushi here is on the small side, but it really does fit perfectly in your mouth in one bite! I can finally eat sushi without making a mess or having to bite the fish in two.

After that was the scallop sushi. The rice on this one was a bit warm :/ But the scallop was good.
Next is the hamachi, served with Yuzu!! Delicioussss ... definitely one of the best hamachis I've had.
Also got the mirugai. It was good, but again I'm not a big fan of the tough chewy ones, compared to melt-in-your-mouth toro .....
Then finally! Finally the toro came! OMG OMG!
This toro was outstanding!!! This is right up there, right after Hiro Urasawa's seared toro! Having toro melting in your mouth is ... heavenly.

Then I had the yellow striped jack. Again, mmmmmmm. Words are superfluous ...
Love the texture, love the taste.

And then there were the ones that I can't remember the name of for the life of me :( I think I have an idea but for fear of being wrong, I'm going to refrain from trying. If anyone knows what they are, please tell me!

I stopped after this last dish: the uni and ikura. Isn't it beauuutiful?
A very sweet uni, I loved it.

I could've done without the abalone and oyster and gone straight to the sushi! But the fish that I had were all very very good indeed! I will definitely, definitely be back.

Sushi Zo

9824 National Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
(310) 842-3977

Sushi Zo on Urbanspoon

3 comments:

Epicuryan

Nice Pictures, I was hoping to name the unnamed fish, but I couldn't find anything in my pictures that looked like it :(. Now this mystery will haunt me as well!

XMartian61

I think you blog is fantastic. You're a wonderful writer and the photos are amazing. The only qualm I have is that you arrived at a restaurant a half hour before closing time. As a waitress, I dislike it when people do that; it just seems a little rude. Sorry to be so blunt, I just have spent a lot of hours waiting on people. That being said, you have a wonderful point of view. :-)

tjy57

Actually, Xmartin61, Restaurant hours are posted at the convienience of the owners and customers, not the wait staff. The hours posted reflect when the last customers can be seated, not when the wait staff wants to go home. This is a service oriented business and the staff goes home when the last customer is served. Are you saying a restaurant that closes at 9pm should seat the last customer at 8pm? I'd be interested to know what your boss has to say about that. I am not trying to be offensive to you, but I do find it odd that you say you are in a service oriented position but you call a customer "rude" who merely entered the door and wants to give you their good money for that service.

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