Mountain View Sushi

Glad this dude out of business. His arrogance and sloppiness amazed me.

This place has gone downhill. Last few times we went the clams were not fresh and had a lot of sand. A few items we wanted were not in stock and overall not a great experience anymore so we haven’t been back in a while.

I’m finally writing my review for Mountain View Sushi. I’ve eaten here probably 30 times in the last year, alone. It is my favorite sushi restaurant in LA, currently.
The restaurant is small, elegant, homey, and run traditionally. The owner (and chef) expects a certain decorum from his guests but when you behave well, he treats you like royalty.
Someone said his fish isn’t fresh. Let me tell you how I KNOW that isn’t true (besides the fact that I’ve probably consumed 15 pounds of his fish over the last year). I live in Sierra Madre and I have seen the daily «Fish King» truck pull up to his restaurant. Yup. If you don’t know who Fish King is, look em up. They supply most of the high-​end establishments in the San Gabriel Valley (and beyond) with the highest quality fish around. Smitty’s buys from them. This guy buys and serves fresh fish! Quality is NEVER an issue at Mountain View.
My recommendation is to try his traditional sushi and sashimi. He makes great rolls but I find his traditional fare to be extraordinary. Try his enoki sushi if you want some umami goodness.
If you are polite, quiet, and the night isn’t too busy– he’ll let you sit at the bar and he’ll let you «trust the chef» (omakase). If you are appreciative and adventurous, he’ll blow your mind with things you’ve never had anywhere else.
If you can’t respect his rules about not talking on your cell phone and not bringing in outside food and drink, please don’t come here. Some of you make it sound like these things aren’t common sense social courtesies. If you think it’s too much to ask that you not talk on your phone while sipping a starbucks in the middle of a cozy traditional sushi restaurant– I don’t even know what to tell you but none of us will miss ya!

My first time here was super satisfying! Was in during my lunch hour, service was great and quite quick. Had the Captain Kirk roll along with some miso soup and some baby octopus calamari. Everything tasted fresh and authentic. The man who was serving me was very kind and always made sure to check if I needed anything. The view of the mountains near the window was nice bs made my overall experience enjoyable. Will be going back soon!

What can I say?
The food, service and scenery all rolled into one are all a great match here!
I had myself the Samurai Special (California Rolls-​Yeah, I know how Californian of me). Man, they were fresh, as well as the soup, salad with what tasted like a spicy ranch or mayo type of sauce, which was amazing! The terryaki Chicken was superb. Tender and the sauce was just nice on the taste buds and wasn’t too salty or sweet, but just right.
The waitresses were such a pleasure too. Very nice. Always smiling and courteous. Did I mention their smiles? Wowza! Knockouts! :-)
All while sitting at the window, looking North at the Mountains over Sierra Madre and as well as Sierra Madre, Blvd. Sierra Madre Square is a delight to take in whether your sitting and eating and viewing out the window or just taking a drive or stroll on your feet. I did it all!
I was here for film location stuff, so eating here was a just on a whim. I was not told about it, but my buddy said «Hey, Sushi sounds good!!». Off we went. Into the Mountain View Sushi Restaurant! I’m glad he was in the mood for sushi, because I probably never would have thought to try it and boy I’m ever glad I did! Besides… a few famous faces have eaten here evenl and YOU KNOW THAT’S A GOOD SIGN!
GO for it, when you’re in town in Good O’ Sierra Madre, California, take in this place and forget about it! IT JUST ROCKS ONE’S SOCKS!
Compliments to the Chef, who was really nice.

Friday night and we walk in here at 6:45 pm to find one person sitting at the end of the sushi bar and two tables of three occupied inside, our dream of finally sitting at the sushi bar is within our grasp!
We tell the waitress/​hostess that we want to sit at the sushi bar and she turns to the sushi man (owner) and says words I didn’t understand. He replies in words I didn’t understand and seconds later we are being escorted to our TABLE without being told why we couldn’t sit at the sushi bar! I am now on a mission to find out what it takes to be able to sit at the bar here, if any of you know please tell me!
It was training day as two new waitresses were being shown the ropes by one of the regular waitresses. I don’t have a problem with slower service on days like this because everyone has to learn how to do it at one time or another but this was a bit more ridiculous than I could have ever imagined. After the lengthy wait for our food, which of course was not her fault, she never came back to our table until she brought our check. I had one cup of water for the entire visit literally. The sushi was actually better than usual which was the only saving grace of the visit.
I am so torn about whether we will ever go back here because of the issues we have had but I want to like it so much because it’s a 5 minute walk from home and so close to so many things we can do after we eat like Lucky B’s or the dessert shops. I may not be able to wrap my head around the sushi bar seating issue anyway so we may be out just because of that.

Stopped in for sushi and a few rounds of sake but had to leave… Waitress complained about the cup of Starbucks coffee that I had just picked up next door. I wasn’t going to toss it so we had to leave. We were just walking in the neighborhood and after my coffee stop my wife spotted the sushi and wanted to eat
The waitress was rude about the coffee and so we left offended… Never to return… No worries though, a few steps away there was a more accommodating restaurant named Zugos where we ate and drank. It was awesome!

Wow, I thought I wrote a review for this place ages ago, guess not.
Where to start, first off, yes it is owned by one person, and yes he is from Japan, and yes he can be very rash, I suppose is the nicest way to say it.
The place is small and the service from his staff is very good, his service to me and most everyone I see come in is fine. I have had friends who claim they have seen him be short with customers, and if you believe all the Unilocalers on here who blast him, well STOP. Read no further, and go someplace else to get your sushi.
Still with me, OK. Do you love rolls that explode in your mouth with flavor, keep reading. I have been going here since the day they opened. I work in LA and travel often, had sushi in 26 countries, including Japan. Is this the best, not even close. However it is a neat little place with some very fresh sushi.
As a rule I do not prefer rolls, I enjoy sushi, and love sashimi, but his rolls are suberb, I try and split at least one roll every trip. Had them all, and they all are great. His sushi is wonderful and his sashimi is perfect. Good selection of saki, Japanese beers and all served properly.
I do know he can be particular about seating folks at the sushi bar, for example, serving only sushi type food to customers at the bar, so what, makes perfect sense to me, but I guess eating sushi at a sushi bar is bad? Still with me? Lets push on.
I have seen him treat families with children like royalty, just the most genuine person, warm, friendly, attentive and even a smile. My daughter has been eating sushi since she was starting on solids, and Mt View eased her into a solid sushi fan. Their is nothing he puts in front of her she won’t try, she trusts his judgement that much. And yes, she only eats at the bar. That’s why we go to sushi, to eat raw fish.
I have brought friends and family to this lil gem from 5 years old to 78 years old, many first timers, and many full blown sushi snobs. Not one person has even raised an eyebrow of concern. Most have returned on a regular basis.
Can you pay more, absolutely. If you are a Unilocaler only, and get scared off by reviews you woulda stopped reading awhile ago. However, if you want to try a nice little place, and don’t mind the chef being the owner and having the right to be human, consider Mt View.
Make sure you try the «Capt Kirk» roll, explodes in your mouth!

The SUSHI NAZI!
The sushi is very very good. My favorites are the Spicy Tuna Hand Roll and the California Roll.
BUT, heaven forbid if you make the mistake even just to text on your cell phone, say from even from the back of the restaurant, as I did! You will not get served!
NO SUSHI FOR YOU!!!
I heard (but I have not been able to confirm) that the owner got into a fight with a patron who talked on his cell phone in the restaurant!

I wasn’t going to write a bad review for this restaurant at all as I usually like to support mom and pops. However, the food wasn’t fresh to a point that my stomach is not feeling well and I’m up for an hour and it’s 4am, feeling like to throw up.
Even for fishes the sushi chef recommended as being fresh, like his Hokkaido scallop, tasted like it was from yesterday and had not put in the fridge the whole time. When we ordered Ankimo, we were asked sushi or sashimi. Ankimo sushi? Really? Never heard of… To be honest, the minute I walked towards the sushi bar and sat down, I wasn’t impressed with the way he keeps the fish. It’s very disorganized and the doors aren’t close at all time. That says something that the chef probably didn’t come from a solid and real sushi making training and he doesn’t care enough about his food.
Giving him another chance, we ordered a hot dish, chicken meatball, only to eat a half frozen thingy with cold teriyaki sauce. I immediately informed him and he went to reheat.
He gave us 2 chunks of complimentary hamachi, as a gesture of saying sorry I suppose. But my bf was like can we ask him to slice it into 6 pieces (because it was really thick even the surface was small) and I said it doesn’t seem very polite (to my understanding of Japanese culture at least). So we wrapped the chunks in our napkins when the chef and waitress were away and trashed them outside… They were nice, but the niceness is not enough to make up for the bad of the food.

Fresh fish and friendly service.
Simple sushi or rolls named after beloved characters. It’s all good. The salmon and eel never disappoint me here. I recently had the dynamite dish (which I had never had before) and loved it!
The owner is very sweet and helps to make you feel comfortable. I have only been here for lunch time so I am not sure how different it is for dinner. But when I am here for lunch and if someone comes in with a child, he will put on some cartoons on the TV to help keep the kids entertained.
The lunch specials are a great deal. My usual is the Katana lunch special. Two rolls of your choice, miso, and a little salad for $ 6.96.

This place is like what people have describe small and family liked owned. First of all, the place is scary with the plastic on the table and my husband didn’t have the same things in his menu as I did. Either way we ordered water it was room temperature and not filtered water. We ordered the scallops and it was so good we ordered more. But when we Got it the second time they didnt put the eggs on the sushi when we asked the waitress she tells us that they don’t put it on. I told her I have a picture you did. But the sushi chef was not going to do it, she say it was special that time but they don’t usually put it on. What? Crazy, I had to ask for more wasabi since they took all the plates and I didn’t have any more. I thought she was going to tell me you don’t get any more. But she brought it. The water refill after asking a few times asking for more water, took at least 15 minutes. Other than that the sushi here is fresh and delicious. Don’t expect any service here. I would give them the 5 stars but the service is below average. Service is important to me when I go to a sit down place. The soft shell crab was big and made perfect. The yellow tail belly was delicious with the green sauce on it. The spicy tuna is unlike other places it is like gourmet spicy tuna. I probably would not order this one here. The fresh eel was pretty good but when they use toaster oven it can smell the place up. Oh they forgot about our shrimp and vegetable tempura when we were almost done I asked about It and they apologize they forgot and it is coming. You can hear when they deep fry. So I had a feeling they forgot. We spent 84.00 for dinner and it was expensive for two to me, that is the part why I expected better service. We only ordered sushi and the tempura. We plan to go back but not any time soon since they are kind of expensive but if you don’t mind they do have high quality sushi.

A short stop over to grab some eats while in town. This place feels like a mom-​pop operation and cozy. Much like you might expect to find on one of the side streets while visiting Japan.
We came in just after lunch hour so the place was pretty quiet. A basic menu of traditional and western style rolls were listed. She ordered the chirashi and I had a basic salmon, a scallop roll along with the tempura side plate.
The regions of Japan will have varying tastes in seasoning the rice and the fish served. The taste at this shop hits middle of the road. The rice isn’t over seasoned and the fish quite mild. Rice consistency is good though a bit softer. I might wish for just a hair more flavor to the rice but that is my preference. The tempura was tasty and the battering light and to my palate just right. Portions are as they should be, not like some of the «fat» rolls that are basically giant rice balls with a little bit of fish hidden within. Rolled up nicely and as expected. Finished off with orange wedges and a nice conclusion to the meal.
Service was attentive and pleasant.
Already a pic of the chirashi so I’ll add a pic of the tempura.

It’s a small family owned sushi place so I really wanted to like and support this restaurant, but I had an average dinner experience. When we arrived the place was empty, so we got seated immediately and had time to pour over the options. The décor seemed odd for a sushi place, Simpsons and Star Trek but I can dig it. I also like the flat-​screen behind the sushi bar playing this Japanese old-​timey movie, wish the sound was turned up so I could hear what was going on.
I wanted takoyaki but they couldn’t make it, they also ran out of Yellowtail so no handroll for me, no shimp for shrimp sushi but they had tempura shrimp?! Small sushi place is small! It seemed like everything we wanted they ran out or couldn’t make that day. I understand that fish is seasonal but coming on the day after they closed (usually a restaurant’s restocking day) I expect to find common sushi items like Ebi. :(
Tempura shrimp– Good, but it’s tempura shrimp. Seriously one star if a restaurant managed to mess this up.
Miso soup– Not bad actually had tofu which many restaurants leave out, plenty of miso flavor.
Side salad– Nice touch using light dabs of yuzu sauce, so yummy.
Chirashi bowl– Also has some hints of yuzu, small portion, good variety but some fish particularly the tuna was borderline rank. Wow, I rather you give me less variety and have them all fresh, then try to slip in a few sub-​par pieces and think patrons won’t notice. Please make the executive decision on this, you limited other items for the night already… unless they couldn’t tell that it wasn’t fresh?!?
Soft-​shelled crab– Fishy tasting in a bad way, disappointing.
As soon as we ordered, people started trickling in and the place went from zero to hopping in an hour. I guess that’s a good thing for the business, but it reeeeeeally slowed things down. When we tried to get our bill the one waitress for the night was so occupied she didn’t the number of times we tried to flag her down. It took so long that we gave up waiting and just stood up and literally grabbed her in order for her to get the bill. Nice and very cordial waitress and chef, but theres more to a satisfactory meal than niceness. I think I will go to a larger sushi place that has items well stocked and in continual rotation for freshness.

I heart Mountain View Sushi. I really do. First of all, everything is so delicious and fresh! My favorite menu is Yellowtail Belly and Uni. Oh! You should try their Tempura Udon with lots of green onions! Yum! Lunch specials are also tasty. Secondly, the chef (Yasu) knows exactly what he is doing and he is super friendly! Thirdly, waitresses are also kind that makes you feel like home. I have been to many many sushi places in Pasadena and Hollywood. I personally think Mountain View Sushi is the best. Friendly atmosphere (full of happy energy), nice food, and reasonable price.
Today I went there during lunch time with my co-​worker. She said this place is superb. Happy New Year, Yasu! Jason, and I are a big fan of your place! :) ioi

The food is top notch. Japanese chef. Enough said. If you want cheap, go to a korean owned place. The food should be pretty good and you can get your california rolls. No offense to Koreans… you guys know how to do sushi on the cheap with pretty decent quality. But, if you want really good sushi or more authentic japanese food… try the chirashi bowl.
Actually… scratch all that… please don’t go to this restaurant. Stay away. There is limited seating inside and I want to be able to get seating when I decide I need some authentic Japanese food.
Service is not 3 star Michelin, but you come for the food.

I love Mountain View Sushi! I’m a regular here, and Yasu is the best chef out there. He serves the best quality of everything. Fresh seafood all day everyday :) Go here if you want the authentic Japanese restaurant.
My favorites from here:
— Yellowtail belly sushi
— Salmon sushi
— Seared tuna sashimi
— Crispy spicy tuna
— Shiitake mushroom sushi
— Monkfish liver sushi

I really, really wanted to like this place. Obviously that didn’t happen.
We arrived maybe 45 minutes before they were going to close. Ordered a couple of rolls and they were okay. Nothing exceptional. We finished our rolls and decided we wanted to try something else. Our server told us it was too close to closing time, they could not take more orders.
Meanwhile, there’s a large table near us. We watched as we waited for the bill and the server brought over numerous items to this table. Wow, thanks! Sure, they were spending a lot of $$, but we were looking for a new sushi spot and spend almost every weekend in Sierra Madre. They totally ruined the chance for new, repeat customers.

Small little place with an outside patio seating area. Definitely what I call small mom and pops type of place. My boyfriend and I stumbled upon this place because we were starving and in pasadena. According to my handy Unilocal app it led us here. I never knew sierra madre had its own city.
Driving by we totally missed the place. I didn’t see any big signage. Friday night and the place had a decent amount of customers. Only one sushi chef. I sat at the sushi bar. It took awhile for him to get to me. He was hella busy and backed up from the other tables.
We ordered the alaskan roll, the lisa roll, the marge roll, and salmon sashmi. I just had to order the lisa roll because of my name.
The lisa and marge roll is with soy paper. I asked the sushi chef if he can do sea weed with the marge roll instead. I repeated myself numerous times. He said okay. then I got the roll… it was soy paper. My tip for the sushi chef. please cut your rolls smaller. I can’t possibly fit that huge slice in my mouth. Honestly, the rolls were falling apart. It looked messy and part of it is probably because he was rushing on everyone’s food. I ate my rolls by pieces. Because it wouldn’t stay put. I think he needs more help in the sushi department.
Perhaps because we sat at the sushi bar the waitress wouldn’t take our order. she said to wait for the sushi chef. I felt that by waiting for him… took longer because he’s staring at the other sushi lists and when would he have time to hear me let alone remember what I ordered.
prices were decent.
Didn’t see an area to Park but we were lucky enough to find street parking.

This sushi joint is a gem. Yasu, the owner and sushi chef, serves up the delicious sushi and the warm hospitality to go with it. He’s always coming up with something new and off the menu for you to try.
The sashimi is always fresh. Also, the G. Schwa and the Spicy Tortilla Roll are a must have. These rolls are Yasu’s specialties. Packed with fish, stacked with rice, these monster rolls are all you need to satisfy your appetite.
I definitely recommend this place if you want quality sushi at an affordable price. Yasu takes care of all his customers. All my dining experiences here have been positive to say the least.