BiMi Update: Now Offering Happy Hour!

Yup that’s right…happy hour at BiMi Sushi from 5:30-7:00 Monday-Thursday starting June 8!!!

‘Rolling’ into our Second Year…

Happy Anniversary Sushi Club!!!!

Us 1 Year Ago!

Whoo hoo! We made it a whole year reviewing sushi restaurants (almost) every month.

What started out as an excuse for a group of friends to regularly get together has turned into a new set of specialized food critics scouring the LA area for top sushi restaurants!!!

Next month we will be have a special anniversary celebration! Especially with big Kris back in town! Look for a super special post for that one. We are debating to re-visit our first restaurant Ahi, or maybe we should venture out for something super special…like sushi in Little Tokyo maybe?

If you have any ideas, please post them on our suggestions page.

Getting “Together” at Kazuyo

Nestled amongst several restaurants on Melrose, just west of La Brea, Kazuyo, which means “all together” in Filipino, was quite a pleasant surprise. Parking is a little tricky because all the neighborhood areas are for residents only (be careful because parking tickets are $55 – we found out the hard way!) If you cant find metered street parking on Melrose (good luck) you will end up having to valet for $5. First off, we were seated on this large 8-top table on their outdoor patio in the front of the restaurant – great for large groups as it seems like you have your own private space. Watch out for the crazies walking by on Melrose though! We had one of them lean over the glass to yell all aggressively at us – luckily he kept walking by. Our waitress, Tracy, along with the co-owner Angie treated us like royalty, as did Chef Joe. We ended up eating A LOT of food…I suppose that is a good testament as to how good the food was. We could really use Kris this time to help pack it away!

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What We Ordered

• Bonzai Roll (compliments of the chef)
• Spicy Tuna Crunch Roll
• Seaweed Salad
• Garlic Albacore Sashimi
• Popcorn Lobster (YUM!)
• Hollywood Roll (Outstanding!)
• Spicy Tuna Biscuit
• Dragon Roll – nice presentation with eyes!
• Monkey Balls
• Japanese Pizza – spicy! (recommended by Tracy, our server)
• Kazuyo Roll (house compliments)
• Yellowtail & Salmon Sushi
• Black Cod – with Mashed Potatoes!!!
• Banana Wonton (house compliments)
• Crowned Green Apple Ice Cream (house compliments)
• Mochi Ice Cream

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Our Favorites

Spicy Tuna Biscuit
We actually get this at nearly every restaurant we go to although it often has slightly different names. We all agreed that there was something that made this particular version of it especially tasty. Plus, I am not a huge spicy tuna fan, and even ‘I’ could tell this one was actually quite excellent. For that, it gets a special shout out: “yum!”

Popcorn Lobster
YUM YUM YUM! Imagine small spicy crunchy pieces of lobster on top of what I believe is a California Roll. It really didn’t matter what kind of roll it was cause it was so super yummy though. Just the right amount of crunch, just the right amount of spice, just the right amount of roll.

Bonzai Roll – thanks Chef Joe!
Pretty much as soon as we all arrived 2 orders of Kazuyo’s special Bonzai Roll showed up. We figured the chef wanted to get us set up on the right foot for our evening with him. It was warm and delicious. Obviously we just ate what was put in front of us, but after it was on our mouths, were were asking “wow! what was that?”

Kazuyo Roll
This is an original roll that was designed with love by the owners, Angie and Joe. It consists of shrimp and softshell crab to represent each of their favorite items. It is a rice-less roll so it is filled with all sorts of goodies, was delivered with a beautiful presentation and its own special dipping sauce.

Both Desserts – Thanks Angie!
Both the Banana Wonton and the Crowned Green Apple Ice Cream were nothing short of awesome. I think we were more taken back by the banana one though. I mean warm baked apple with ice cream on top…of course it’s great. But the banana wonton, we didn’t know what to expect. We did all agree though (including Angie, the owner) that it would be slightly better with ice cream – so make sure to ask for that when you order it…them them its a Sushi Club special recommendation!

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Sushi Gallery

(click image to zoom)

Bonzai Roll

Seaweed Salad

Individual Wasabi & Ginger

Japanese Pizza

Garlic Albacore Sashimi

Hollywood Roll

Popcorn Lobster

Spicy Tuna Crunch Roll

Spicy Tuna Biscuit

Monkey Balls

Baked Black Cod

Yellowtail Sushi

Dragon Roll

Kazuya Roll

Banana Wonton

Skip

Sushi Club

Lovely Ladies

Enjoying Dinner

With Server Tracy

Signage

Points of Interest

Patio for Large Group
Except for the random ‘crazy’ walking by outside and all the street noise, the large 8+ person table on the front patio made this my favorite atmosphere for sushi sharing so far. It was light bright and like having a private dining room. Because it was more of square table than a long one, it made socializing and sharing much easier. Even on my venture inside, I noticed that the back of the restaurant had a curtain that probably allows for private parties. Kazuyo is good food and good for groups.

Extremely Friendly and Gracious
Not only was our server Tracey nice but the co-owner, Angie was also coming by to check on us and talk to us. She told us about her husband, Chef Joe and kept bringing up complimentary dishes she wanted us to try for one reason or another. Also special thanks to our runner Skip for grabbing us some much needed soy sauce in our moment of need!

Dish Presentation
Honestly, I didn’t even notice until looking at all the dishes side-by-side on our photos, but the visual presentation of every dish was just beautiful. Many of them you don’t even notice except for the birds-eye view. Most impressive was our Dragon roll that was amazing with eyes made of octopus tentacles! It reminds me of the impressive dragon roll that we ordered at Sushi Fukyu that was laid out on a ring of fire.

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Summary

Date: June  18, 2009
Restaurant: Kazuyo in Los Angeles (Melrose & La Brea)
Desserts: Banana Wonton, Crowned Green Apple Ice Cream, Mochi Ice Cream!
In Attendance: All Founding Members (except for Kris) plus special guests: Ted & Leah
Price: $$ – Actually a great sushi price for all the food we got. Keep in mind we did get some complimentary dishes AND we had a $50 coupon.  Meal cost was $35 pp. (with 20% tip)

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SPECIAL NOTE: We got our $50 certificate from www.restaurant.com.  If you’re not familiar, you need to get with the program…literally!

Preview: Kazuyo

Here’s the place we’ve chosen for International Sushi Day, tomorrow, Thursday, June 18th.

Kazuyo (website »)

7160 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90046
ph: 323-939-3816
fax: 323-939-2543

We MUST make reservations so if you would like to join us, please let us know ASAP!

Let us know on our Facebook group page

BiMi Restaurant for Sushi: Highly Pleasing or Delightful?

It’s not a small restaurant but it is a little hard to spot from the street. Probably because of the readibility of their sign. The interior was clean and it wasn’t too crowded making accommodating our large group fairly effortless (even though we did have a reservation.) There was a steady stream of patrons and the bar seemed fairly full most of the time that I could notice. Parking was probably the biggest challenge. We had to park in the neighborhood behind the restaurant. As for the food, honestly BiMi was on the high end of mediocre with a few shining stars. Being somewhat a Japanese Tapas restaurant they had a nice selection of menu items in addition to traditional sushi fare. .

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What We Ordered

• Sautéed Pumpkin
• Edamame
• Seaweed Salad
• Sushi Combo Plate
• Chirashi
• Usuzukuri
• Caterpillar Roll
• Spicy Tuna on Rice cake
• Spicy Tuna Roll
• BiMi House Rolls

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Our Favorites

Japanese Pumpkin Appetizer
Doesn’t sound that glamorous but the pumpkin appetizer was one of the first things we ate and one of my personal favorites. It was simple, just a plate of possibly roasted sliced pumpkin. Definitely worth it and not just to get in some veggies with your sushi dinner.

French Fries
Normally we would NEVER think to order french fries, yes that’s right, french fries at a sushi restaurant…but, they were highly recommended as a signature dish, so we gave it a go…and YUM! They were nicely presented in a cone with 3 dipping sauces (yes, one was ketchup!) The thing that made these stand out was the tempura-style cooking style. They were light and crispy like tempura!

BiMi House Roll
Late recommendation from our server, this roll with large tiger shrimp on top of each piece was delicious. Unfortunately for me I was getting full at this point, but I could still tell this was something I would want to order again for sure.

Green Tea Ice Cream
Okay, Okay, green tea ice cream is somewhat standard fare at a Japanese restaurant, however, this scoop of ice cream came with a nice little chocolate cigar on top which really elevated the normally basic dessert.

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Sushi Gallery

(click image to zoom)

Pumpkin Appetizer

Usuzukuri

Spicy Tuna Rice Cake

House Roll

French Fries

Catapillar Roll

Spicy Tuna Roll

Seaweed Salad

Suzi

Everyone

Sab & Skip

Mixed Sushi Suzi

Chirashi

House Roll w/Shrimp

Dessert

Guests

Sushi Club

Signage

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Points of Interest

Atmosphere
A clean and simple interior made for a pleasant dining experience. I noticed the sushi bar was on the small side, with room for approx 8 people. I suppose considering that BiMi is not selling itself as a sushi restaurant as much as a tapas restaurant makes this somewhat acceptable. They were able to easily accommodate our large group and service was adequate. We didn’t have to wait long for our food and it timed out nicely.

Signage & Parking
It’s a good thing I put a picture of their sign at the top of this post, because without it, it is very hard to find this place – even though it is right on the street in plain view. One of our members had to drive back and forth and call others to make sure she had the address and cross-street correct! Once you finally find it, then you need to find parking. Again, maybe it just wasn’t obvious, but I ended up having to park in the neighborhood on the opposite side of the block. Not a good option for some people.

Something for Everyone
Since this is a Japanese Tapas restaurant, there is a broad selection of items on the menu – both raw and cooked. We tried a variety of things and overall, all of them were good.

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Summary

Date: May 20, 2009
Restaurant: BiMi Restaurant in West Los Angeles
Dessert: Green Tea ice cream with chocolate cigar
In Attendance: All Founding Members (except for Kris) plus special guests: Leah, Brian, and Sebastian.
Price: $$ – Average sushi price, not a great bargain, but what you would expect. Meal cost about $35 ppS

Yes or No to Yen on Ventura?

In a newer strip mall near many many other sushi restaurants on sushi row in the valley is Yen Sushi & Sake Bar. From the outside it looks like a typical contemporary restaurant in a 2 story strip mall. Inside it has a much warmer feel with dark wood furniture, although not the most comfortable seats. There was an impressive sake selection, but for some reason our sake cups had rounded bottoms??? Yes, that makes it quite difficult to keep the sake in the cups! Especially the later the night goes! The menu had many appealing photos of their dishes but didn’t have labels which made it difficult if you wanted to try one of these dishes. All the dishes we had were descent with a few standouts and everything had a good presentation. The long narrow plates made for nice dramatic appeal for the rolls and the dark dishes really made the sushi ‘pop’. A few of us strayed from sushi into chicken teriyaki and their feedback was that the chicken was dry…so maybe stick to the fish here.

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What We Ordered

• Seaweed Salad
• Salmon Sashimi
• Tuna Sashimi with Garlic Ponzu Sauce
• Seared Albacore with Crunch Onion
• Japanese Yellowtail Sashimi with Diced Chilis
• Crispy Rice Spicy Tuna
• Rainbow Roll
• Salmon & Spicy Scallop Roll
• Rock & Roll
• Alaska Roll
• Boston Roll
• Las Vegas Roll
• Hawaiian Roll
• Scallop Volcano Roll
• Caterpillar Roll
• Baked Salmon Roll
• Chicken Teriyaki

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Our Favorites

Seaweed Salad
Although fish-less, this was probably one of the best dishes of the evening. Served in a large bowl with lots of yummy extras including small carrots and sprouts in addition to a variety of different types of seaweed. This was passed around and around as people took in seconds.

Yellowtail Sashimi with Diced Chilis
This one was so good we ordered two! The yellowtail was extremely tender and the bite given by the small slice of jalepeño on top was nothing less than awesome.

Rock and Roll – Roll
As beautiful as it is tasty. This is a rice-less roll, great for those watching their carbs! It is also a seaweed-less roll. It uses thinly sliced cucumber to hold everything together. With a variety of fish, veggies and even a little orange peel umbrella, how can you go wrong?

Salmon and Spicy Scallop Roll
Mix the cool calmness of the salmon with the spicy qualities of the scallop and add some smooth avocado on top to create a delicious combination of flavors. The presentation was also nice with the long platter to add drama to the roll.

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Sushi Gallery

(click image to zoom)

Salmon Sashimi

Seared Albacore with Crunch Onion

Salmon & Spicy Scallop Roll

Rainbow Roll

Suzi presenting Las Vegas Roll

Caterpillar Roll

Ceedar presenting Baked Salmon Roll

Alaska Roll

Rock & Roll

Tuna Sashimi with Garlic Ponzu

Jake with Boston Roll

Japanese Yellowtail with Chilis

Scallop Volcano Roll

Teriyaki Chicken

Dessert

Brian, Ruth, Tiny & Kris

Cat, Skip & Ceedar

Kris & Tiny

Suzi & Jake

Everyone

Signage

Points of Interest

Sake Sake Sake
Self proclaimed sake bar, Yen has a wide variety of sake options, but they also let you BYOB which is something we haven’t yet seen at any other sushi restaurant. The corkage fee is $15 (funny because sake doesn’t even have a cork!) As mentioned above, the only real disappointment here was the round bottom sake glasses we had for the cold sake. I mean, round bottom? REALLY?

Lots of Roll Options
WOW! Not for the indecisive! There are over 40 roll options at Yen. Everything from raw, baked, and tempura. They even have chicken teriyaki roll those squeamish about sushi! As you can see we gave it a go and tried as many rolls as we could. There are so many rolls on this menu in fact that it can easily become a main topic of conversation at the table!

Above Average Way to End the Meal
Some restaurants offer nothing more than a dessert menu. Others will offer a nicely cut up orange to finish your meal. But at Yen, they pony up oranges AND STRAWBERRIES with whipcream! Now that is a good way to end your meal!

Where’s the Server?
Yes, unfortunately, it seemed as if there was only 1 server for the whole restaurant. There were several busboys, but they weren’t all that attentive either. We had to ask for things like wasabi and soy sauce even after the dishes started arriving. Those things should be given and we shouldn’t have to ask. Especially considering we there on a Friday night, not our normal Wednesday night. For a Friday, I would expect more staff.

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Summary

Date: April 17, 2009
Restaurant: Yen Sushi & Sake Bar
Desserts: Strawberries & Cream and Oranges (complimentary)
In Attendance: All Founding Members plus special guests: Brian, Ceedar, Tiny and Jake
Price: $$$ – Seemed a little expensive compared to other places we have been to with just as good food at $44/pp. Probably because of the whole ’sake bar’ angle. Sorry to those of you who just ate the chicken teriyaki

What’s Special at Nami Sushi?

Nami is tucked WAY in the back of a large strip mall on Van Nuys, just north of Ventura Blvd. Parking is a plenty because there is not too much else going on in this mall except for Pineapple Hill dive bar next door. The staff at Nami were super nice and helpful. There very intregued by our sushi club and as a result kept offering us complimentary items such as edamame, miso soup, and green salad. They also allowed us to two restaurant.com vouchers instead of the customary 1. Also interesting is that Nami offers lots of free events. As of this posting, we were informed of specials, usually on thursdays. For example on April 9th, they are offering free tap beer from 5-9:00 pm and on April 23rd free sake tasting. As far as the sushi, it was good but as we continue to try different restaurants, we are realizing that there seems to be a descent baseline, but a shining star is somewhat rare. Definitely better than you would expect for how it looks from the outside, and definitely worth going back to if it were your neighborhood spot, but I don’t think we would make it a destination dining experience.

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What We Ordered

• Edamame (complimentary)
• Miso Soup
• Green Salad
• Seaweed Salad
• Cucumber Salad
• Spicy Tuna Rice Crackers
• Dynamite
• Seared Tuna Tataki
• Yellowtail Cucumber Wrap
• Salmon Cucumber Wrap
• Shisito Pepper
• Uni Sashimi (Lesley’s favorite!)
• Albacore Delight Roll
• Catepillar Roll
• Yellowtail Jalepeño Roll
• Salmon Dressed Scallop
• Green Tea Ice Cream

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Our Favorites

Albacore Delight Roll
Albacore is just plain good! It’s buttery and has both a nice texture and flavor. You don’t see it in a roll very often, so we had to try this one. Plus, it is one of Nami’s house special rolls. Inside it had crab, albacore and avocado. Ouside albacore and giant sauce. All the flavors went well together. Mostly mild flavors but the touch of red sauce on top really gave it the punch it needed to dance in your mouth.

Salmon Dressed Scallop
You put fresh fish together and you can’t go wrong. This is on Nami’s house special sashimi menu. It was fresh salmon on giant sea scallops with yuzu dressing. Mild but perfect so that you can really taste the freshness of the fish.

Yellowtail Cucumber Wrap
Many of the special menu items really focus on freshness and the cucumber wrap rolls are no different. Wrapping fish with cucumber really gives a light and freshness you just don’t get with seaweed alone. Plus, you get some veggies in there – so it’s a win-win!

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Sushi Gallery

(click image to zoom)

Seaweed Salad

Green Salad

Cucumber Salad

Yellowtail Jalepeño Roll

Albacore Delight Roll

Dynamite

Spicy Tuna Rice Cracker

Yellowtail Cucumber Wrap

Shisito Peppers

Suzi with an Empty Plate

Catepillar roll

Seared Tuna Tataki

Salmon Dressed Scallop

Us at Nami

Sushi Club

Leah, Brenno & Lesley

Window Signage

Signage

Points of Interest

Back Table for Large Group
In the very back was a table just for large groups. This was very nice because it separated us from all the noise and commotion of the rest of the restaurant. Even though there were only 8 of us, the table could have easily seated much more. This is not necessary for most people going out to enjoy an evening of sushi, but for our Sushi Club it is a big plus!

Friendly and Helpful Wait Staff
Not sure if this is an extra perk for being part of Sushi Club, but our waitress was extremely friendly and helpful. If this is a trend, we like it and have such, decided to inform all future restaurants about our club upon arriving to eat at their restaurant. Regardless, we did really appreciate the special service and complimentary edamame, miso soup and green salad. Thank you, Nami!

Regularly Scheduled Specials
Seems like Thursday is the day to visit Nami. As of this post we were just missing free tap beer night…YES, you read correct – FREE TAP BEER! A couple weeks out is planned a sake tasting. All of this sounded great! We all sort of wished we had known this beforehand so we could have scheduled our visit to take advantage – but now you know! They don’t seem to have a website, so I would recommend just calling to see what they have planned that you can take advantage of.

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Summary

Date: April 3, 2009
Restaurant: Nami Sushi in Sherman Oaks
Desserts: Green Tea Ice Cream
In Attendance: All Founding Members plus special guests: Leah, Brenno and Lesley
Price: $$ – Actually a great sushi price for all the food we got. Keep in mind we did get some complimentary dishes AND we had our coupons.  Meal cost was $27.50 pp.

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SPECIAL NOTE: We got our $25 certificates from www.restaurant.com.  If you’re not familiar, you need to get with the program…literally!

Chrismas Sushi: Where should we go?

After missing November Sushi Club, we are all really ready to eat some fish!

Our next outing will be Wednesday, December 17. It will be our last sushi club of the year, so we want to make it memorable. If you would like to join us or have a good suggestion, please let us know either in the comments section here or on our facebook LA Sushi Club group page.

Hope to see you there.

Finally, Sushi Ratings!!!

Well, here is the preview…

Start looking for our reviews to use these starting next month!

Catherine, Get Better :-(

Cathering Taking Notes

Unfortunately, we have had to miss Sushi Club for November – Catherine was sick. So hopefully we will get back on track next month, even though we will be in the middle of the holiday season.