Sushi Kisen is in a mini-mall off of Baldwin, by Arcadia Ave. Ib had tried to book an omakase lunch there in January but back then, their reservation system was by email — not ideal — and they flubbed the reservation (they did discount our "regular" meal as compensation but we couldn't have the omakase because they didn't have room to seat us at the bar).
Now, they go through Tock so things are better organized and for my wife's bday, I booked a reservation for two last night. For those looking to do the same, they will charge a $88/pp cancellation fee if you cancel more than 24 hours prior to your reservation.
Key info:
- For the two of us, with no drinks but with tax/tip added, the total was ~$175/pp. That's on par with similar omakases at other restaurants in L.A.
- The standard dinner omakase included sixteen total dishes, starting with sea snails, ending with a tuna handroll. The remaining dishes were all nigiri-style. We were both comfortably full by the end of the standard serving but we could have added more dishes on request.
We thought the meal was excellent, equivalent to omakases we've had in both L.A. and Tokyo. All the ingredients tasted fresh/high quality, and what we especially enjoyed were the subtly unexpected preparations on many, if not most of the pieces we were served.
I won't go piece by piece (I added the full list in the comments) but notable dishes included:
- Sea snails in dashi: a nice way to open the meal with two, pleasantly chewy snails in a light dashi broth. Based on the texture, I assume these were not raw.
- Seared bonita with ponzu: this was the second dish we got and another good way to start the meal, especially as the char and ponzu played with each other.
- Halibut with shiso: the shiso added a nice flavor dimension to this one.
- Kanpachi (amberjack): this was one of several pieces where the fish practically melted in your mouth. Absolutely delicious.
- Marinated blue fin tuna: perhaps a touch too salty for my preference but my god, the texture here was perfect. Same with the chuturo which came after.
- Seared, Japanese barracuda: the bitterness from the char added a marvelous contrast with the other flavors. Not sure I've had barracuda before and this, plus the kanpachi, were my favorite two pieces of the night.
- Scallop: outside of oysters, I'm more ambivalent with raw shellfish, texture-wise. That said, what I enjoyed about the scallop here is that you get this initial hit of scallop-ness but then the wasabi kicks in, but then after that fades, it goes back to the taste of scallop. It was a like a little journey.
- "Large shrimp": that's what they called it when they served it. I'm guessing this was not ama ebi but rather, botan ebi. Either way, for lack of a more descriptive way to describe it…this one was funky. Not in a bad way but the taste was not what I was anticipating; it's hard to properly describe except to say that when I ate it, my brain went, "whoa, what's going on here?!"
- Mirugai (giant clam): this was the only dish we had where I thought, "no my fave." It's that texture issue I was mentioning earlier re: raw shellfish. In this case, it wasn't exactly chalky but there was just something about the weird "not soft enough, not chewy enough" texture that I wasn't a fan of. I don't think this was the execution or the quality of the ingredient. I just don't love mirugai (this isn't the first time I've had this realization).
Overall: We'd absolutely do this again for a special occasion. My wife's JA and her dad is an avid fisherman so she's a real sushi snob and Kisen clears her bar so good enough for me, too. It is annoying that you can't find their pricing on their website because I know they have a less expensive lunch omakase that I'd be interested in as well.
I haven't had sushi in enough other places in the SGV to definitively confirm that it's the "best in the area" but I'm certainly open to believing that.
by soulsides
Dining and Cooking