May 20, 2009...9:05 pm

BiMi Restaurant for Sushi: Highly Pleasing or Delightful?

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3.5 of 5 RatingBiMi Sushi-24It’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)

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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

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