Sushi Dan might be fine for lunch if you are in the area but not worth going out of your way for fine dining or a date. Neither the atmosphere nor the food was very rockin’ at Sushi Dan in Studio City. There seems to be a bit of neglect by these sushi restaurants with outposts in the valley. They seem to focus their ‘coolness’ on their Hollywood locations. We saw this also with Katsuya. The strip mall aspect doesn’t bother me, because I love the idea of finding hidden gems in unsuspecting places. It’s more the interior atmosphere, service and food quality. At Sushi Dan the service was slow, then everything came at once. We had a hard time managing all the dishes on the table at the same time. There was a large screen TV above our head, so that was distracting. Once it got dark outside, the interior was not lit very well. In Italian restaurants that is acceptable, even expected, but for Japanese food, where the restaurants pride themselves on presentation and freshness, it’s nice to be able to see what you are eating by more than the light from the television above your head.

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What We Ordered

• Mango Salmon Roll
• Hidden Dragon Roll
• Softshell Crab Roll
• Caterpillar Roll
• Seaweed Salad
• Albacore Sizzling Sashimi
• Edamame
• Scallops on California Roll
• Spicy Tuna Tartar
• Albacore Special Roll
• Shisito Pepper
• Green Tea Ice Cream

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Our Favorites

Mango Salmon Roll
This was my personal favorite. Not only did the presentation with the different colored roe (fish eggs) WOW everyone, the fresh taste of mango went quite well with the taste of the raw salmon. I also like to give credit for something that is somewhat original and not all sauced up.

Albacore Sizzling Sashimi
The albacore sashimi was delightful. Tender and tasty. But most of the group didn’t like the overabundance of onions and garlic served with it. Usually when we have had this dish there are thin crispy onions. Here they were slices of red onion. It just seemed a little too dressed up for a sashimi dish.

Green Tea Ice Cream
This is pretty much a known quatitiy. I mean, when is there bad ice cream? I guess as a note to our readers, if we list “Green Tea Ice Cream” as one of our favorites, that pretty much means we didn’t have alot to say about the food. Also interesting to note is that we ALWAYS seem to have the green tea ice cream when Leah joins us…hmm…interesting coincidence!

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Sushi Gallery

(click image to zoom)

Points of Interest

Roll Selection
Sushi Dan did have quite a large menu with lots of specialty rolls. This is always a good thing for groups of people. We also liked the presentation of the wasabi. It was nicely shaped like little florets.

Less Desirable Atmosphere
Pretty generic and nothing to really denote this sushi restaurant as ‘rockin’ in any way. The service was slow and our server was fairly cold and less friendly.

Dirty Mens Bathroom
On the way into the dining area we saw a large kitchen trash can out in plain sight. Not very appetizing when you are about to eat raw fish. Brian, later ventured into the men’s bathroom and said “the bathroom is gross, you may want to have a drink and ignore them.”

Price per Wonton
Yes, we were charged for each “wonton chip” we wanted with our tuna tartar. If you are searved a tower of finely chopped tuna it seems appropriate to also provide something with which to scoop it up with. Maybe I misunderstand the advanced techniques of chopsticks (but I am pretty good with them if I say so myself) but it just seems like they should go together.

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Summary

Date: August 19, 2009
Restaurant: Sushi Dan in Studio City
Desserts: Green Tea ice cream
In Attendance: All Founding Members (except for Kris) plus special guests: Leah and Brian
Price: $$ -  Meal cost was $35 pp. (with ~15% tip)

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Evidently Katsuya has been very busy expanding over the past several years. With the most recent outpost Downtown at LA Live and employing famous designer Philip Stark to design some of the interiors. The restaurant in Hollywood is probably the most well known – especially to paparazzi and celebrities (see Crazy for Katsuya) so they must be doing something right! Either that or these celebrities don’t know their sushi! Maybe they are over extended? Or maybe they are not so concerned with their original restaurant out in “the Valley”? Afterall, their marketing website doesn’t even mention their original restaurant in Studio City! We don’t understand what happened…all we know is this has definitively been the most disappointing Sushi Club since we started doing Sushi Club!

Several of us had even been here before, with much fonder memories of this being a premier sushi destination. But after this month’s visit we aren’t sure if we will ever go back! We contemplated making a “Best of…” section on this site, but I am almost thinking it would be interesting to also have a “Worst of…” with this restaurant being the first on that list! Maybe the winner of the most over-rated category! Some reviewers even thought we should only give Katsuya a 1.5 rating out of 5! The food was nothing special and the portions were super small and nothing had much flavor at all. Presentations did not entice you to look twice. We almost forgot to take photos because we were so uninspired (or maybe it was because Ruth wasn’t there who is always very militant about us documenting every dish???) Katsuya has a good reputation for having some very creative sushi but we did not see what the hype was about!

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What We Ordered

• Crispy Rice (rice was burnt and not crispy!)
• Seared Spicy Albacore with Crispy Onions (black and oily!)
• Spinach Salad with Sauteed Garlic Tuna (tasted like chicken)
• Lobster Dynamite Roll
• Sunset Roll
• Robert Roll
• Rainbow Roll
• BSC Roll (best of the worst)

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Our Favorites

BSC Roll
Nothing to actually write home about but probably the best of the dishes we ordered this evening.

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Sushi Gallery

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Points of Interest

Very Poor Service!
After being seated it took over 10 minutes for the server to come. When she did come and take our food order, she never asked to take our drink order! We were served the first 3 dishes before we were even able to request our drinks. We only had 1 tiny communal dish of wasabi and ginger for the table. Needless to say, we ran out and had to wait a bit for more to be brought out. The poor service definitely lead us to not end up ordering as much food to try.

Loud and Crowded
Maybe not the best place to go on a date where you actually want to hear each other talk! We were crammed in like sardines. We didn’t even have a large group this month – just 5 of us – and we couldn’t even hear each other at our small table.

Celebrity Sighting!
Nothing major, but we did recognize an actor from General Hospital. We will have to fill you in later who he was. Sounds like we needed to go to the Hollywood restaurant to do the star sightings!

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Summary

Date: July 29, 2009
Restaurant: Katsuya in Studio City
Desserts: none.
In Attendance: All Founding Members (except for Ruth) plus special guests: Katrina!
Price: $$ -  Meal cost was $27 pp. (with ~15% tip)

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

Not much more info here »

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.

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)

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!

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

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)

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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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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)

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

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)

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!

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.