BiMi

Dish (& its star ratings):
— mushroom tobanyaki (3): not bad, just not a «wow»
— baby squid (3.5)
— ankimo [monkfish liver steamed & rinsed with sake] (4): interesting, my first time trying. that liver-​texture is very minimal.
— roasted duck (3.5)
— fried tofu in ponzu (3)
— rock shrimp tempura (4)
— corn tempura (4): sometimes, i like to imagine i was born in the MidWest given my natural affinity for all-​things-​corn. fried corn tempura? oh yes.
— octopus sashimi (3)
When:
— Early 2009
Crowd:
— few diners
Interiors:
— contemporary, clean lines
Service:
— 4 stars
Overall:
— Good enough Japanese tapas but I probably won’t revisit given the endless other tapas waiting to be tried.

Closed — no more dynamite rock shrimp! :(

We were hungry for dinner on a Friday night. We often walked by, but never went it. The ratings were decent, so we decided to give it a try!
The place was full, which is a good sign. We chose to sit at the bar. The only sushi chef was quickly preparing food without acknowledging our presence even as we seated right in front of him. The waiter told us to order from him and not with the sushi chef, which seemed a bit odd. We were watching as plates were sitting at the counter for long minutes waiting to be picked up while the sushi chef was rushing through making more sushi plates. There is also a kitchen behind the sushi chef with staff rushing through to get food out.
I was completely befuddled when the sushi chef prepared two plates with ginger and wasabi, put it on the counter, and a few minutes later the waiter came by, took the two plates and served it to us! The sushi chef is literally in front of us, yet he needs a waiter to deliver the plates to us, all this while he completely ignores us. We were getting annoyed quickly.
Alas, the food arrived. Now for the taste test. After watching the sushi chef rush through making dishes, it was our turn to try the dishes we ordered. Oh no! The food was decent at best. The dishes looked like they were quickly rushed out with no love, no care for preparation, and it showed. One of the dishes of hand rolls looked like sushi in a diaper! I kid you not. It was that bad, it was laughable. Needless to say (or write), we ate some of the food, asked for our check and left to finish our dinner elsewhere.
CONCLUSION: If you like sushi that is made with no love, rushed, and mediocre, then this is your place. I had decent hopes for this place, but was sorely disappointed. We shall not be back.

Several people I know who work in the area go to Bimi alot. I was told it was a great sushi place with great prices.
I got the bento box which was huge. You chose 1 item from 3 different categories. I got the Steak Teryaki, spicy tuna roll and mixed tempura. It also came with these sweet potatoes drenched in spices, which was almost the highlight of my meal. It also comes with miso soup and salad! You definitely do not leave hungry.
The person I was with got BBQ Pork Fried Rice. Oh man, I didn’t know how it would be compared to the usual chicken fried rice, but let me tell you it was ahhhamazzing! The other two things he got was the sauteed asparagus and a corn salad. I tried the asaparagus and they were very good!
The service was excellent, I never had to ask for a refill, they came by and refilled when I was low!
Can’t wait to go back!

Middle of the road sushi spot.
A coworker suggested BiMi for my work birthday lunch and after consulting Unilocal (of course) and their menu I figured it would be good choice for a party of 9 since we’ve exhausted the few good options within walking distance.
Only a third of the group had been before, the rest didn’t even know it existed but we managed to find our way around the menu just fine. Most got the «My Bento» for around $ 10 which included three choices and smallish portions. I chose the sushi combo which was around $ 13, and definitely not enough food. Tear. Fish was fine, but not very flavorful. Rolls were tiny and just 3 pieces of Cali and spicy tuna, and the sushi was meaty but nothing special.
The best dish was the spicy tuna on chrispy rice ($ ⁹⁄₄ pieces)… as another reviewer pointed out it was better than Katsuya’s and half the price! But otherwise not very memorable.

I have used Unilocal many, many times but have never written a review until now. I usually choose a place with a good review and am satisfied and simply don’t write a review but my experience was so bad that I felt I needed to state my opinion.
The portions were small and the food was not that tasty. Still this wasn’t bad enough for me to write a review and give it 1 star until we got our check. It was a friday night and my friends and I wanted to get out go to a bar. We waited 30 minutes, were the last ones at the place and still nobody explained the situation. I had to get up and go back behind the kitchen to find out what the LITERALLY 30 MINUTE WAIT was all about to get our cards back and get out. Apparently the credit card machine was broken so they wrote down all our card info and said they would charge us tomorrow. I asked to speak to the manager and she proceeded to blink incisively and did not know how to make her costumers happy by offering a comp or an apology, or come to our table after 5 minutes of spotting the problem and explaining the situation.
I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THIS PLACE AND I HOPE NOBODY ELSE DOES EITHER. THE SERVICE WAS HORRIBLE AND I HAVE EATEN BETTER FOOD FROM A HOLE IN THE WALL 3 MILES FROM MEXICO.

Bimi is fairly small with a modern décor. Staff is usually pretty friendly.
Cooked dishes could get a bit salty so that’s why I am giving it a 3 star. But I do like Bimi’s corn tempura, fries, and popcorn chicken. I also like the miso soup with nameko mushroom. (Most restaurants usually only serve miso soup with tofu), Their Sushi (I believe the head Sushi chef’s name is Tomo-​san) is OK, but nothing too special. They don’t have as much variety as other places on the West Side (such as Kiriko and Sasabune) so if you like eating a variety of Sushi, then here, you may be out of luck.
I used to go more often when Sabu-​san worked at the sushi bar. If he still worked there, then I would’ve given Bimi a 4 star. I miss Sabu-san’s sushi! He was good at using different sauces on his sushi such as yuzu, salt, shiso leaves, nikiri, depending on the types of fish, freshness, etc. This more than compensated for their lack of fish variety. Sabu-​san is now back working for Matsuhisa/​Nobu in Europe.

Corn tempura and bluefin toro were excellent. Chirashi bowl, not so much though. Excellent waitstaff and modern décor. Yay! A little gem in West LA. One of my favorite hidden Japanese places in this part of town for sure.

Nice happy hour handrolls for $ 2.50 on weekends… it’s a good enuf place but nothing stands out for me here…
had albacore, yellow fish and freshwater eel. nice. not spectacular.
french style portions :)
I miss my ugly roll sushi :(
PS: They have cool utensils — soup spoon with a few indents that hang off the bowl, so it doesn’t fall in and drown. kudos to whomever invented this!

The only good thing was that they Happy hour was from 5pm-​9pm weekdays. Other than that, the food was quite mediocre.
Initial service when entering was good, were greeted and seated pretty promptly cause we had a reservation. Then the server came and the place get more and more people… then they start to lack in service. You have to ask them to get a hot tea refilled.
We ordered the spicy tuna with crispy rice, spicy albacore with onions, roasted duck, pork belly, scallop gratin (no scallop could be found, mostly potatoes), dynamite lobster (mostly mushroom and mayo).
our total was $ 168 for 5 ppl, we left the place still feeling hungry. Most of that bill were for sake, beer and overpriced food.

2 stars for 2 reasons
Good Happy hours special $ 2.50 for a hand roll
Tiny pinky size hand rolls, I know its marketing but at least give a little more.
Fish quality ok. ** that’s the only reason they didn’t get the * star review.
Service, one of the worst I had ever had! The waiters had no set sections they looked like they chickens with out heads.
Never got asked if we needed any more of anything, they missed 4 hand rolls we ordered then waited for 34mins. only to find out that they never put in the order so we Bailed, and headed to a new place Downtown called Fuga!
I spend allot of money on Sushi… and all I can say is wait in line at Sakura!

This is one of the best sushi spots on the westside for the price. They have half price saki and handrolls for happy hour that goes until 7 or 8. The yellowtail scallion handroll is excellent as is the creamy rockshrimp roll.
Bang for your buck its a great spot.

Bimi is an island of reasonable priced Japanese food in a sea of overpriced LA restaurants! My friend and I stopped in on a rainy night for some Japanese tapas and were overall very happy with our meal, both the yum yum part and the money part.
Instead of braving through the rain, we opted to park valet (I think it was $ 6?) instead of search around for street parking. I’ve street parked around the area before and it never seemed that difficult — if you can’t find anything on Wilshire you can try one of the side streets behind the restaurant.
We ordered a couple things from the specialty menu that were actually pretty impressive and unique:
–Tuna with mozarella — YUM. I am a sucker for sashimi and cheese so this dish tied them together really nicely with an awesome sauce/​
–Yellowtail collar — This is one of my favooorites and this one was probably one of the best ones I’ve had. It was very moist, flavorful and BIG!
–Hand rolls — I got a salmon hand roll and it was only $ 2.50 for happy hour (M-​F, 5:30−9). Although it wasn’t the most amazing handroll in the world I was pretty happy with it considering it was less than half the normal price!
We also ordered these weird firefly things as a risk, which turned out to be little itsy bitsy squids. It was in some sort of sweet, plum-​type flavored sauce which was really too sweet for our taste.
Here’s the basic menu:
, but keep in mind that they have a specialty menu too with all sorts of unique goodies!
Overall a good meal and a low-​key environment for us to just catch up. Service was very weird in that it started out great and ended up completely horrendous. By the end of the night they were completely ignoring us and it took us ages to get a dessert menu, tea refills and the check. Check turned out as a little over $ 20 per person.
Bimi has a nice ambience and I could see it being a good place to bring an out-​of-​town visiting friend for some light drinks, light bites and light conversation .I’m not sure that I’ll make the extra effort to come back but if the opportunity presents itself, why not?

What do two hungry girls do? They keep ordering, and ordering, and ordering and eating and ordering and eating.
Tried a plethora of delicious eats at Bimi and everything was just right. We started off with a dish that has a trio of vegetables. The veggies included lotus root, kabocha, and asparagus. The lotus root was lightly salted and sauteed, the kabocha was peppery and warm, the asparagus had a delicious sesame-​mayo infused sauce. I used to never order shisito peppers because I never understood why anyone would want to pay to eat some grilled peppers. Well. I do! They are delicious. Have a slight kick to them. And that grilled flavor…
They have happy hour specials M-​F until 9pm. Until 9pm! Most places only have it till 7pm. They have handrolls for 2.50 and decently priced drinks/​cocktails. The spicy tuna handroll was pretty good, had a spicy kick, not too mild. Fanning mouth, thinking about it.
The white fish carpaccio was definitely catered towards a American tastebud, complete with olive oil, capers, and grape tomato. Interesting taste but I’d probably prefer a mirin + soy + rice vinegar type of sauce. The amaebi was fresh and the heads were fried to a crisp. The homemade tofu was velvety smooth paired with delicious sauces, green onion, bonito shavings. The rolls were good, picture perfect.
There is valet parking or you can park in the structure next door for free I think. There was a party going on for half of the restaurant when we came so it was a good thing we had reservations…

Happy New Year!
I came here for dinner on new year’s day, actually it was breakfast for me since it was my first meal of the day. First meal at 5:30 p. m… what a night I must have had, right? hahaha but, I don’t want to bore you with my long night of partying.
Back to the review… The bf ordered the sushi omakase and I got 2 handrolls (yellowtail/​scallions and dynamite crab) and the chirashi. The handrolls were good, but nothing spectacular. The seafood salad that comes with the omakase was good, but the black cod seemed a bit undercooked. The sushi assortment for the omakase was fresh and a good variety. I couldn’t even touch the chirashi since I was mooching off my bf’s omakase courses, so took that to-​go. I definitely would go back and sit at the sushi bar for the omakase, for $ 30 I think it’s a great deal.
Why 3 stars? The handrolls didn’t wow me (even at happy hour prices of $ 2.50) and cod was undercooked. I definitely want to go back and order my own omakase and to try their pop-​con chicken. The servers were friendly, but not as attentive for an unpacked night (never filled my water, had to drink the bf’s almost gone watered down sprite).

Had lunch with coworkers here; it seems like the lunch crowd is mostly local. Prices are very reasonable and specials come with a generous portion of rice, soup and salad (not iceberg).
I got the bimi sushi roll, which was flavorful, but needed more kick. Coworkers got the teriyaki chicken with tempura, and cold soba noodles accompanied by covered dipping sauce. Everything was delicious and service was friendly.
Cute spot for lunch and conversation.

After reading the review about their fries and corn tempura, I had to try it out. Very nice environment– clean, modern, and somewhat romantic. Great for a date or chill night out.
The fries were nice and crispy. Quite surprised that fries were so good at a sushi restaurant. Corn tempura was to die for! Sushi was fresh! I tried a filet mignon dish which I thought was ehhhh… Uni was very fresh, but I paid MP for it, I expected to be good. Service is great.
Definitely worth trying!

Just got back from happy hour at Bimi w/​my girlfriend, but ended up spending about $ 40 each! We were the only ones there (I wish Chef got more crowds because he’s so nice!).
Each handroll was $ 2.50 and all tasted yum. The seaweed he uses is slightly flavored, so it adds flava-​flavvvvvv to the handroll. We had:
— yellowtail w/​scallion handroll: yum!
— fresh eel handroll: good, super soft eel, a bit too teriyaki-​ish
— yellowtail collar ($ 8): a bit overcooked, in my opinion
— «Pop Con Chiken»: wasn’t that pop-​corny. I prefer the popcorn chicken at boba places!
— saba sushi: yummmm
— hamachi sushi: so good. i always love the hamachi here
The happy hour sangria was so yummy (but so weak. where was the alcohol?!). The glass was half full of FRESH peach and mango — perfect for dessert!
Service was great, ambiance was nice. Here’s a secret from the chef: Thursdays are the best day to come for the freshest fish. Unfortunately, today he had no aji or bonito. Boooo =*(

I went to BiMi for HH yesterday after reading another Unilocaler mentioned that they have good deals on hand rolls. I just couldn’t pass up a good value. Anyway, my friend and I arrived at 6pm and the place was empty. We were seated immediately and we were handed the HH menu as well as the regular menu.
I order some sort of saketini for $ 5 but it didn’t taste very good. We then proceeded to order food. There are about 10 different types of hand rolls on the HH menu for $ 2.50 and we were hungry so we ordered many including:
–Shrimp Tempura Roll
–White Fish Tempura Roll
–Dynamite Roll
–Albacore Roll
–Yellowtail Roll
–Salmon Roll
We ended up ordering 5 rolls per person plus an order of «Pop Con Chi ken» (I’m serious, that’s what it says on the menu) to share. The «Pop Con Chi ken» came with three dipping sauces and it was yummy but way too small. Before I ordered the Dynamite Roll, I specifically asked the waitress if it’s made with Crab or Krab and she told me it was made with Crab. Guess what, when it came out, it was Krab with a K. It didn’t taste terrible for something made out of Krab but I wouldn’t have ordered it if she had told me.
I know, it’s not fair to judge a HH place on how full you get but I spent $ 24 after tax and tip for HH and I still had to go to Rubio’s for a Fish Taco.
I’ve been to BiMi a couple times in the past for lunch and I thought the lunch specials are a fantastic value. For now, 3 stars is the highest I can give BiMi.

Ahhh the «secret place» that has become not so secret since the LA Times exposed it.
Come here if you’re looking for a swank izakaya in Brentwood… but don’t come here for authenticity. …now that’s not to say I’m turning my nose up – I gave it four stars for hatsu-​sake!
I went on a non-​Friday weeknight, and nearly all the tables were packed. I mostly stuck to the izakaya fare, and didn’t dive much into the sushi. Of the ones I can remember, the seared duck, and giant scallop were the best. Another interesting (and tasty) choice was the jellyfish… something I’d never tried before.
The service was slightly above average, and the overall value was good.