Luckyfish

Too bad it closed. I liked this place.

Very much middle of the road sushi. It’s nothing to write home about and since this is BH, it’s going to be priced as really expensive sushi. So it’s best that you head over to Little Tokyo and pay the same amount for quality stuff.
Came here fore the famous $ 1 sushi/​beer anniversary event. Started waiting at about 7 and got in around 11. Yeah, it was not a fun experience. I mean, everyone and their mother was here and they weren’t leaving any time soon. Even behind us the line was pretty bad. When we eventually got into the place they had us sit outside. What the hell? I did not care for the outside seats at all. Sort of defeats the purpose of a sushi conveyor belt when your a stand alone table.
The servers, who look like they just ran through a day of hell, did their best to keep bringing out interesting things, though they sort of ran dry on different pieces. Seems the late in the day run left nothing but the left overs.
While some of them were good, I can’t really see myself thinking much of them other than «Hey, $ 1 sushi!» So I had the beer flowing. I mean, what are you suppose to do with $ 1 beer? Turn it down? No thank you! Keep it coming. I need to drink away the idea that I just waited in line for about 3 and a half hours for cheap sushi.
The bill for the three of us ended up being about 40. Considering how many beers we knocked back and how many sushi pieces and rolls we had, that was a damn good price. Though they didn’t make much of an impression in my mind to have me coming back here.
Especially with the price tag. Meh, I can think of 10 cheaper sushi joints that would fulfill the need a whole lot better than this place.

This decent sushi joint distinguishes itself only through its sushi delivering conveyor belt snaking its way through the tastefully furnished restaurant. The sushi (presumably fresh — although there is no way of knowing how many laps it has completed before plucked) is placed onto color coded dishes, each color corresponding to a price bracket.
Despite the simplicity of the system and the relatively moderate pricing of each dish, I found it difficult to dine at Luckyfish without spending significantly more than I intended. The cause, I realized later, was that each dish was actually only HALF of a roll. Sure, $ 4 is a steal for a salmon avocado roll, but $ 8 is certainly not, especially when the sushi is nothing to write home about.
Luckyfish seems to have a pretty devoted following, judging from the number of people who seemed to be on a first name basis with the waitstaff. Dining at Luckyfish with one such friend was an entirely different experience than my previous outings among the hoi polloi. Comped dishes, deep discounts and a waiter at our beck and call made this solitary experience delightful (aside from the painfully mediocre sushi).
For mere mortals, Luckyfish is just another sterile product of the Beverly Hills fad machine. This Nascar of sushi will no doubt close when people realize that bad sushi delivered by robot is still just bad sushi.

Lucky fish is the counter part of Sushi Roku. Overall was good, I went for the dollar day anniversary thingy (I looked at the prices and would probably not have gone if it were a normal day). It’s a real trendy place in the smack dab middle of Beverly hills, really cool revolving belt that goes through out the whole store, and they had cheesecake, soufflé, as well as noodles and other tasty things on the revolving belt aside from SUSHI. Ummmm if you’re trying to impress a date (and by impress i mean dropping a whole load of cash) and your in Beverly Hills check this place out.
Bottom line: Go to try and experience… ummm not for a regular sushi meal especially when your not balling out of control because its just another trendy expensive sushi place. go to Kaiten on ventura same revolving sushi but their shrimp tempura handroll is tastier!

«Nothing ever comes easy.» — Anonymous
«There is no such thing as a free lunch.» — Anonymous (Probably not related to the other anonymous guy.)
«You spend money like you have a hole in your pocket.» — Mom (Hi, mom!)
«Por favor tire minha esposa a jantar to eu posso ter alguma paz e tranqüilidade ao redor da casa!» — My 80-​year old Portuguese neighbor.
(For the record, I have no idea what he meant here, but he says it with such conviction that I can’t help but to think this was sage advice.)
«Never look a gift horse in the mouth.» — Perhaps the smartest man in history!
It was with that mindset, I made a mid-​day trek to make those immortal words applicable to my life. I didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth when I heard that Luckyfish was celebrating its 1 Year Anniversary with $ 1 sushi and drinks, all day.
I truly must have found myself in a Kafka-​esque experience, because I walked away from a sushi joint stuffed to the hilt, spending only $ 15. And that included the cocktails, of which I took full advantage of in the form of 2 mojitos and an ice tea.
This is not the standard fare at Luckyfish, of course, being that this was their 1-​year Anniversary Special. And like bees to a hive, everyone in L.A. had flocked to take advantage of this special. This is L.A., after all, and if you were born here, it was with a spoonful of Gerber’s peas and carrot mix in our mouths, and an Unagi hand roll in our hands.
In hearing feedback from other Unilocalers, people had waited upwards of 3 hours just to get in. I was lucky to bear through a minimal wait of 45 minutes. On top of that, the owner personally came out, adorned in full Chef regalia, and provided free Hanabi (crispy rice squares, topped with spicy tuna) for our wait.
This sushi isn’t for the hardcore habitual harbingers of hamachi, though; this is simple, no flair sushi. It’s like going to a Chipotle for «Mexican food.» It’s pretty good, but you’re not going to find the best made of its kind over here. With that said, sushi is also like pizza — cold, warm, leftovers… no matter how you eat, as long as it’s not spoiled, it’s pretty darn good.
The wait staff — some pulled from the owner’s other sushi restaurant in Pasadena, to meet the patron demand for the day — were very attentive, and handled the pressures of a packed house.
I’d be remiss to not single out the professionalism of this place, amid the overwhelming dining demand for the day. While the sushi isn’t anything to impress a Japanese tourist over, they make it just well enough. However, on a typical day, I’d find the prices for Luckyfish over-​priced.
Since I find this place to be good, but nothing special, I think Samuel Johnson said it best:
«This was a good dinner enough, to be sure; but it was not a dinner to ask a man to.»

Oh Luckyfish, you’re so lucky tons of people lined up for your $ 1 sushi.
I came here super excited for the $ 1 sushi anniversary special and left feeling underwhelmed. I got here around 5 and was seated around 6. Not too bad of a wait and they served samples of their spicy tuna on fried sticky rice. They even had a stand serving $ 1 handrolls outside. Sadly, I thought their handrolls were better than most of the actual food inside. The whole time we were there we were able to only get 1 plate of sashimi… and it wasn’t that fresh either.
What I remember us snagging from the conveyor belt:
— Chicken karaage w/​wasabi sauce (dry and unimpressive)
— Ahi tuna salad with a wasabi vinaigrette (the wasabi was overpowering, I think I lost my sense of taste for a few minutes)
— Orange shrimp (think orange chicken, but with shrimp… probably the best thing we had that night)
— Salmon and cream cheese roll (standard)
— Salmon and avocado roll (standard)
— Octopus roll drizzled with tonkatsu sauce (this was pretty good, but the sauce was very orangey — orange zest orangey)
— Unagi and avocado roll (lets just say there was more avocado then unagi, and there wasn’t that much avocado)
— Crab roll w/​soy paper (it was pretty good and surprisingly they use real crab meat here)
— Yellowtail sashimi (it was ok, definitely not that fresh)
I think we ended up paying like $ 30 bucks for the food, 4 beers, and 2 cups of sake. Food wise it was ok, underwhelming, but ok. I’m definitely glad I got to try their food during the promotion, but I don’t think I’ll be back. With their prices averaging $ 4 for 3 – 4 pieces of non-​fantastic sushi, I’d rather blow my money at Sushi Mac where I can get twice as much for half the price.

*sigh* … I really wanted to like you Luckyfish. Your concept, location, décor + website are amazingly cool… but unfortunately, my experience at the 1-​year anniversary event a couple days ago wasn’t so positive + I was let down. I guess you could say my experience was fairly similar to that of Mimi C, although not quite as bad.
We arrived a little after 12 noon + the line had to have been at least 40 people long, which isn’t too bad. Lucky for us, though, we had a member of our group arrive early so she stood in line for only a little over a ½ hour before we arrived + were seated promptly after. However, the only seat available for the 4 of us was outside unless we wanted to wait for another 5 – 10 minutes for an indoor table. As our tummies were rumbling, we decided to take the outside seating…
… which ended up being a BIG mistake…
Not only did we not have access to the spiffy conveyor belt sushi that everyone raves about, but we rarely had access to any variety at all since we had to depend on the waitresses who were periodically bringing out trays to us. They would fill up their trays with multiples of the same sushi dishes, bring it out to the tables closer to the door than us, + then come to our table with nothing but the same sushi every time. All the more interesting dishes were either snatched up by the inside diners at the conveyor belt or the ones at the other outdoor tables before we got to them! This lead us to attempt to request certain items from the waitresses that we saw on the tables of our fellow outside diners or from taking peeks inside to see what there was. This was a failed attempt. We had to ask multiple different waitresses multiple times before finally being delivered the dish… or being told that they were out of it… or making more in a few minutes. Sad.
Fortunately for us, though, they didn’t seem to care much about the 45 minute time limit. We were there until a little before 2pm + in all that time, we were only table to grab up 18 dishes that we wanted…
2 Salmon nigiri — yummy but typical
2 Albacore nigiri — one of the ones we saw on the tray a billion times
2 Glazed popcorn Shrimp — our favorite! but it took foreverrrrr to get a second dish!
1 California roll — typical
1 dish of Fried rice — dry + hard… we ate it throughout the meal while we waited for better things to come along
1 Caterpillar roll — yummy!
1 Shrimp + seaweed salad — ehhhh, not bad… another that we saw a billion times
1 Crispy Fried Chicken — not special, but good… except for the green sauce glopped on top
1 Salmon sashimi — okay, soaked in some orange sauce
1 Octopus sushi roll — pretty cool
1 Steamed Crab roll — wow, i think it was actually real crab…
1 Crispy Rice w/​Spicy Tuna on top — not really crispy… but okay, I guess
1 Philadelphia roll — good, but odd that it lacked any veggie in it
1 Cheesecake square — ehhhh, okay… not creamy or fluffy at all
1 Chocolate cake — yummmm! but took foreverrrrrr!
+ 3 spicy tuna handrolls from the cart next to us while we waited…
So overall the quality was so-​so. The only dish we didn’t particularly like was the fried rice. But as everything was only $ 1, we really can’t complain too much, though. We just wish there had been better service + more variety such as how they told us that they ran out of Unagi yet other Unilocalers here seemed to able to get their hands on some. The manager did come to our table a few times to reassure us that more trays of food would be coming out shortly, which was nice of him to do… but it didn’t seem to make any of the service happen faster. Even better actually was that they miscounted + only charged our group for 13 dishes when we consumed 18. Perhaps they felt sorry for us that we had to wait so long? I’m not sure… but the Chocolate cake we asked for didn’t come until after we’d finished paying + were ready to leave.
*sigh* I’m glad that we were able to take advantage of this opportunity for under $ 5 each, but… sorry Luckyfish, I don’t think the sushi was good enough to have us coming back again when it’s regular price for everything… especially since the parking lots in the area are not so friendly on the wallet either… =/

I came for the One Year Anniversary and it was totally awesome.
$ 1 all sushi on the belt, sake, beer, coctails, etc
So worth it! Probably a good promotion and brand recovery from all the old bad Unilocal.
So they proved their SERVICE is: Excellent! Even though we stayed past 45min time, they were still extremely nice to us.
Food Quality: Its eh. Its okay, nothing too special. I would call it American style sushi.
Environment: Awesome. The cost of the food is paying for the atmosphere and environment. Conveyor Belt is fun.
Seating: Not good for big groups over 4 people. 4 & less is a good choice.
Parking: Street Parking (1 hour meters .25/​15min, after 6pm free), still difficult to find though.
I may go again just for fun, since i did have a pretty good time there. =)

I’m very sad to say that my experience at Luckyfish’s 1-​year, $ 1-​sushi anniversary wasn’t nearly as tasty or pleasant as that of other Unilocalers.
Four of us arrived after work at 7pm sharp. We waited in line for over 3 hours and were finally seated at 10:12pm. I have never waited in line for anything that long my entire life. Not for a club. Not for the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. Not for $ 10 blue ray DVDs on Black Friday at Best Buy. Not for tickets to any concert or show… but for dollar sushi, I bit the bullet and did it hoping for a delicious and affordable dining experience.
The restaurant seats about 45 inside, 15 outside. The décor was cool and modern and the hanging decoration strung along the ceiling looked like a long fish bone. The conveyer belt was fast-​moving and required significant coordination as I had to stuff my face with whatever was in front of me while eyeballing the belt, ready to reach out and grab (use two hands!) whatever looked good.
By the time we were finally seated, there was an extremely limited selection of plates and the same 3 rolls and pepper salad kept going around again and again. I didn’t see the cheesecake or chocolate cake once and the couple sitting just to our right kept grabbing every plate of sashimi and crunchy rice that came along. :(I settled for some oversalted edamame, soggy spicy tuna tempura roll, and bland, mayo-​drenched ??? roll. The eggplant I tried did have a nice flavor although the texture was too chewy for my taste.
The total tab came to $ 40 for 4 people which deserves a couple stars in and of itself for sushi. Still, the entire experience was disheartening and next time I’ll stay closer to home and order from Ugly Roll which has better taste, freshness, and service. Thanks for trying but no thanks Luckyfish, I wasn’t impressed and won’t be back. :(

I must be slightly insane to have driven to Luckyfish in the middle of the day for their $ 1 Anniversary sale. It took me about 45 minutes but at least I found a decent public lot for $ 2/​hour. Lots closer to Luckyfish are more expensive.
Then I endured a long wait (45 minutes plus) to get in. I was beginning to think getting pizza at Mulberry Street across the street may be the way to go but then they started bringing freebies out and offering handrolls from the itames out front for $ 1. I tried the spicy tuna and the California handrolls. I skipped the veggie roll. The spicy tuna was okay. The seaweed was very fresh. The California roll was a bit odd with no cucumber but a pretty good slice of avocado. I thought the mushy crab in it was rather tasteless. Good thing they had soy sauce at the hand roll cart.
There were 6 of us in our group and they squeezed us into a table meant for four. It was okay even with half my ass hanging out. Thank goodness they found a stool for me to perch on eventually. Everything was a $ 1 and we did a lot of grabbing in the first 10 minutes with no mind of what the food was. As we slowed down, more interesting things came along but my stomach was waving a white flag in defeat. I just wanted to get the yummy looking chocolate thing and roll back to Downtown (which unfortunately took another hour– taking about a 4 hour lunch was definitely not my plan yesterday!).
Some of the items we enjoyed yesterday:
shishito peppers– good
seared tuna salad– good, though some slices were very small and obviously end pieces
spicy albacore roll– meh
seared albacore– yay, I had a couple of plates of the nigiri
hanabi– spicy tuna on top of crispy rice… wow, this was weird to me. The rice was so overfried. Eh.
crunchy shrimp with tonkatsu sauce– these were fab piping hot
eel roll– eh, too much sauce, not enough eel
shrimp and avocado roll in soy wrap– pretty good
potato croquettes– didn’t try
tuna nigiri– didn’t try
salmon nigiri– smallest pieces I’ve ever seen, decent even with the horrifying neon orange flesh
rainbow roll– good
there was another roll I couldn’t identify but it vaguely made me think it was a shu mai disguised as a roll– good
Service was really good despite it being crazy busy. Our server was really friendly and apologized about the 45 minute time limit and even though it seemed like our drinks were taking a while, it really wasn’t. For $ 1, keep those sakes, beer and cocktails coming! The lychee mojito (though it’s made with soju) was pretty sweet and perfect for the hot day.
The other server who helped us turned out to be a cocktail waitress at Sushi Roku in Pasadena. Luckyfish is from the creators of Sushi Roku. She gave us a wink and nod about coming out there and «probably» getting us some freebies there.
All in all, I say it was pretty good for kaiten style sushi since I only spent $ 17 ($ 15 at the table plus $ 2 for the handrolls outside).

I decided to try Luckyfish after hearing about their anniversary special in which all sushi and drinks were $ 1 each. I figured there would be a long line and a lot of waiting since this deal was too good to pass up. I was right. We waited in line for an hour, but have to say that Luckyfish made it very pleasant by providing a stand outside where you could order handrolls for $ 1, as well as passing free samples around. The spicy tuna on deep-​fried rice was delicious.
When we got seated, we were greeted by a very friendly manager. The waiters were excellent — friendly and cheerful — despite the fact that they were all working from 11am to midnight in order to service the hundreds of customers that were waiting in line all day, as well as probably making less money in tips due to checks being a lot lower than normal.
The seats are right next to the conveyor belt and so getting sushi is very convenient. No waiting — you just grab what you want from the belt. The sushi was ok. For $ 1 it was fantastic, but comparing it to other, more expensive sushi, it was just ok.
Obviously on any normal day the wait would not be as long as we had to wait, but if I were to be honest, I would say that while I very much enjoyed my lunch at Luckyfish, I probably would not have enjoyed it as much if I had to pay full price. Again though — kudos to the friendly service and sushi chefs who were obviously working extremely hard but always had a smile on their faces.

I think some of my Irish good fortune must still be lingering over from St. Paddy’s Day. Through a lucky change in my schedule, I was able to come to Luckyfish for their One Year Anniversary Celebration. My fellow Unilocaler compadres and I swallowed such luxuries as the Spicy Tuna Roll, California Roll with Real Crab, Crunchy Rice, and Cold Ahi, just to name a few, at the special price of $ 1.00 a plate.
Because this was their anniversary, only the items on the conveyer belt were available, but they were all fantastic. Amongst the plates of sushi fair, there were also two desserts: A fluffy classic cheesecake and a molten chocolate cake, rich and powerful. Any sushi establishment that can produce classic indulgences as these, and do them well, definitely scores points with me. CAUTION: When lifting plates off the moving belt, use both hands. We ran into some slight mishaps with this — but no sushi was harmed, thank God.
Our server, Brandon C, was cheerful, informative, and knows the menu inside and out. Indeed, the whole staff was friendly. There are plenty of structures nearby for parking, or one can park at the meters. I’m eager to see what other options they usually offer. I am coming back here very, very soon.

Okay, I’ll admit it, I fall for gimmicks. Make any kind of meal fun and interactive and all of a sudden my eyes pop out of their sockets, and my heart beats a little faster, and I kindof feel like a twelve year old in a candy store.
It happened the first time I had conveyor belt sushi in the UK, and it happened each time I heard about a conveyor sushi place in LA. Granted, with every gimmick there’s a little small print. Or perhaps small portions. Or perhaps just small quality. Does it balance out with the gimmickiness? Hmm, not always.
I figured the latter might be the case when the first reviews of Luckyfish started rolling in, so despite my excitement, I popped my eyes back in, took a nap, and slept it off. No Luckyfish for me.
Until today. Holy hell, who can resist $ 1 sushi? Okay, I guess that depends on the place, but who can resist $ 1 drinks? Even if the sushi is bad, it costs you like $ 5 to get buzzed and all of a sudden that stuff tastes spectacular. Win, win!
Luckyfish had one hell of a first birthday. Not only were they feeding the hungry masses in line, but they kept the line moving with a very reasonable time limit. Once you get inside, you’re obviously immediately fed, and our server was so damn spot on, not only were our empty plates cleared and tallied before we knew it, but he even saw us REACHING for certain rolls and stopped to give us the full ingredient list on the fly.
As for the food, definitely standard-​to-​great. There was the usual spicy this and tempura that, but if you were lucky enough to catch one of the hot-​off-​the-​block nigiri or sashimi dishes that passed by, you were soooo money. And as Mr Shaun-​Mathieu mentioned, those desserts were to die for! How is it that the fluffiest cheesecake I’ve ever eaten came from a sushi place?
Oh, and to clarify, yes I was sober throughout this experience. I had one delish ginger-​lime mojito, but it was far from large or extremely potent. There’s only so much you can do in 45 minutes…
All in all, fabulous lunch, fabulous service, and fabulous way to entice me back, Luckyfish!

I really liked this place. Okay so the sushi wasn’t OMG the best ever, but it was tasty, the soft shell hand roll was particularly yummy. Everyone in my party was satisfied and had a great time.
There is the novelty of being able to eat as soon I see something yummy pass before my eyes. We sat at the end of the belt and saw the sushi come off the conveyor belt. I don’t remember any of it circling for more then a couple time before getting kicked all the belt, their barcode conveyor belt system is actually pretty cool.
The staff was also great. I remember our waiter was quick, funny and very personable. The chef’s were also quick with our requests. I think we got out of here with a full belly for about $ 70 per person including drinks. I don’t live in Beverly Hills but I didn’t think that was astronomical.
I would definitely go back with friends.

This place is good for 3 things:
–The cool conveyor belt sushi technology
–The root wassabi they offer
–The amazing women that work there (some of the prettiest women I have ever seen work here).
Beyond that, the sushi is overpriced and isn’t remarkable.
The rice cake is good, but beyond that the cuts of meat are extremely small and the portions are not the most fulfilling.
Go for the eye candy though!

I’m not a fan of kaiten restaurants, but I decided to give Luckyfish a try because (1) it belongs to the family of restaurants that operates Sushi Roku, Katana, and Boa — and I’ve had decent experiences at these places, and (2) I watched LC and Lo eat there on an episode of «The Hills.» OK — just kidding on that last part. I could care less about LC, Lo or «The Hills.» Ha.
All in all, the experience was good. I went for lunch, so it was quick and easy. The staff was very attentive, and the conveyor belt brought out a plethora of stuff — most of which was just OK. It wasn’t «amazing» sushi. But I don’t want to hold it to the «esteem» of say Roku or Katana since it’s definitely a different concept. The place itself is chic, and well-​decorated. There’s also a few tables outside; perfect for people-​watching along Canon. I just wish that there were more than four pieces per roll. Other than that, this spot was OK. I’d go again since it’s an easy lunch spot close to my work, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get there.

Way over priced sushi and not even that good!
The concept is cool with the revolving sushi going by on the belt.
I’m a person who eats with my eyes first, and seeing all the colorful plates made me go gaga for sushi.
Well, once I tasted the sushi, it was gaga no more. :(More like wahwah.
To be honest nothing was memorable. I can’t even describe the dishes. Oh– the miso popcorn shrimp was quite tasty. Yellowtail scallion roll was good too. Spicy tuna– wah. Yellowtail sushi– wah. Whatever else sushi we ate– wah.
Firecracker veggie fried rice. Holy bazookas. I think they went cayenne pepper happy on this dish! Don’t bother ordering it. It jacked up my tummy for hours. :(Double wah.
Dinner for 2. $ 70. Big WAH.
It’s cute to try once, but there are like 5000 other better sushi places. 3 stars cuz service trumps the food.

Sushi for people without taste buds. This was by far the most disappointing sushi I’ve ever had in LA, especially since this was on Canon in Bev Hills.
It had a very cute patio outside, which was the best thing about the place. Inside, there were some strategically placed tables around a conveyor belt, very typical of the fast-​food sushi places I’ve seen in Asia, or even the fast-​food sushi joints I’ve avoided in LA. I figured that being on Canon, maybe they ante’d up a bit on the sushi quality. BUT to no avail.
The food was VERY 1 to 1.5 star. The crowd was either kids, or people that clearly knew nothing about sushi. Awful. Terrible. Yuck fest.
2 stars because the service was good, and I sat out in the very comfortable patio, which was actually a stark contrast to the fish-​flavored snot wrapped in seaweed I ate.
Even their «special» rolls sucked. Special-​Ed sushi chefs would be a more accurate description.

Love to love you but, I gotta hate you. Who throws fish away in this day and age? As a member of Seafood Watch. .. Luckyfish is liken to a modern day Holocaust for fish. But, if you want to see Spencer & Heidi or LC in the 90 210 — Luckyfish is your place.
Strictly for posers.
Seriously? Who throws away fish?

My first experience at a conveyor belt sushi place was quite good. First of all its located in Beverly Hills so the area is nice and there’s a place you can find cheap parking nearby ($ 2). The décor is pretty cool too and I liked the service, the waitresses were pretty cool and very patient with me as I constantly asked them what this dish was and what this other dish was.
I won’t say its the best sushi I’ve ever had, but it was good. I liked the process of watching the sushi go around and you just choose what you want. Each dish is color coded and there’s a guide that tells you how much each plate costs. Depending on where you sit, sometimes you’ll see a food get prepared and you decide you want it but it never makes it to you… that can suck… hehe, but they usually make a couple of dishes of the same thing so you just gotta be patient.
It can get expensive real quick as you’re grabbing plates and ordering drinks… I had to keep a running count on the menu to make sure I didn’t go too crazy!
A good time with good sushi… just make sure to bring lots of dough!