Tama Sushi

I know this post is really untimely, as Katsu has now moved to Beverly Hills and opened up Sushi Katsu there. But I still want to provide some general information about the food experience, as I am guessing that Sushi Chef Katsu hasn’t changed the quality or offerings of his food that much, and if you are doing a lot of research on his food, I think this might be helpful.
First of all, I think some clarification is needed about what an omakase is. Omakase literally means «chef’s choice» or «it’s up to you» (you meaning sushi chef, please choose what is the best today). If a japanese place is offering omakase, it should be a wide variety of dishes which together will compose an entire meal. Ideally, it is the ultimate expression of a sushi chef’s creativity and quality of food. Omakase is NOT just a selection of sashimi. That is not omakase; that is a chef’s selection of sashimi for the day, which may be good, but it is not omakase. For the sake of accuracy, Sushi Chef Katsu does not offer a true omakase, he offers a sashimi selection.
With that being said, Sushi Chef Katsu is very good at his craft; he clearly has access to the best fish from Japan, and he definetly knows how to cut fish well to enhance the flavor and texture of the fish. His sashimi is definetly a five-​star rating. However, the cooked food he offers is pretty middle of the road in terms of the taste and creativity, at most three stars, which is why I gave it a four-​star rating. I am guessing that this is most likely the case at his new place, Sushi Katsu. I did like the spicy tuna on top of crispy rice that a lot of people seemed to like, but I think it is better than other places mainly because of the quality of the fish.
A final note: I am probably going to offend a lot of the ventura/​studio city japanese food crowd out there, but IMHO, although there are a lot of japanese places in that one area (sawtelle, etc), none of them are close to a five star. Perhaps a four star for the best places, if at all. It might be a five star for the Studio City/​Ventura area, both for all of Los Angeles? Not even close. For five star quality food, if you are really looking for the best fish and creative food in Los Angeles, omakase-​wise, try Matsushisa, the Hump, or Urusawa.
If you want to see more photos of some of the food there, please go to:

I discovered this place 3 weeks before they closed down! Damn it!
Anyway, «they packed up the truck and they moved to Beverlyyyyyyy… Hills that is, swimmin’ pools, movie stars».
They also changed their name so if you are looking for your miso biscuit/​spicy tuna fix. Here you go.

This was one of the best places that we’ve tried on Ventura. I really liked the food, and the price came out decently well for us at the end. I think perhaps they underbilled us for our meal.
The Chillean Sea Bass was AWESOME, as was the sashimi (baby tuna I believe) that we tried. The specials they had has some very creative mixes and it was a pleasure to eat here.

Excellent! I’ve been on most of the sushi bars on sushi row in studio city, and
would recommend the sushi bar at Tama. I went once before and sat at the table, but prefer the sushi bar:) Great attention to detail, let the chef prepare what is fresh. I went on a date, though not a romantic one.
The fish was so good it melted in my mouth, and made my cheeks blush.
Dinner for two, two rounds of sake and just enough sushi to feel satisfied.
$ 160. I’d give this 4.5 stars dinner sushi bar, (first visit lunch dining room 3.5)

I was taken there for a business lunch recently on a Thursday. It’s on the south side of Ventura Blvd and just east of Teru Sushi.
There were 4 of us and we went to the dining area. I noticed all the sushi chefs were Japanese and the waitresses were too. This is usually a good sign.
We shared a sushi combination plate and I ordered the «lunch combination» with chicken teriyaki and grilled fish. It came with some sauteed bean sprouts, Japanese style mashed potatoes (whatever that means) and of course, miso soup and rice. You can order a salad if you don’t want the soup. I think my dish was $ 10.50.
Overall, I thought the food was just average and nothing special. My Japanese colleague also agreed with me.
I may try the sushi bar next time, but I noticed there weren’t too many chairs.
Parking is easy and the restroom was clean.

A short journey away from the cliché of west LA or downtown gets you to Studio City which is proving to be a mecca for Japanese food.
I loved this place. Friendly attentive service. Great food and fair prices. I had the $ 30 omakase chef’s menu which was refreshingly different to previous ones I’ve had in LA. My cousin had the king crab tempura, but anything that delicious fried is hard to get through (imho). Her husband had the honey-​baked cod which was mouth-​watering and just melts in the mouth with a sweet, but slightly fermented flavor!
My multi-​dish smrgsbord was delicious. It started with a platter of spinach with a satay-​styled dressing, mushroom jelly, okra with soya paste and salmon pâté. Then the mushroom soup came in a beautiful clay pot with a little serving dish and lime! Lime? Hmmm, well a squeeze into the soup gave it an extra zing which was amazing.
The bento box of entrees was so varied and broad that I got sensory-​overload as I dipped into every thing. It all ended with fresh fruit. Whilst my dining companions jumped on the fresh papaya and green tea ice-​cream.
I’ll definately be back. It’s got a different, less casual vibe than Katsu-​ya, as it goes for a more cozy tranquil vibe, but is by no means a Nobu decorated joint.

I wanted to like this place… a reasonably priced place near my house with a larger variety of fish than the normal less expensive places. Well, I am sad to report that it failed it almost every category.
First off, our food took about 20 minutes to appear, and when it did it was served on a tray that looked like it was stolen from Burger King down the street. We were literally the only people in the restaurant so I was amazed it took so long. If you are going to eat here I would suggest bringing a book.
The eel and yellowtail rolls were inedible, as was the albacore sashimi. The spicy tuna roll was pretty good, and the only reason I am giving 2 stars instead of one is that the sushi we ordered — snapper, yellowtail, jumbo clam and albacore — was pretty tasty as well. Seemed like maybe they used the good fish in the sushi and the bad fish in the rolls. Strange that our albacore sashimi sucked though.
As I said, as much as I wanted to like this place I won’t be eating here again, too many other good options nearby. Also our bill for 3 was $ 82, which is only about $ 20 less than we average at Katsu-​ya.

My friend and I decided to hit up this sushi joint out of the f ing ton that are on Ventura Blvd because her coworkers loved going there for their cheap lunch.
So based on that glowing review we decided to try it out.
I’m not going to pretend like I’m a huge sushi connoisseur but I think I know the difference between suckass sushi and pretty damn good stuff, and this place had the good stuff.
We decided on the chicken teriyaki/​tempura combo and some assorted sushi (toro, albacore, and uni).
combo: You can’t really prepare tempura wrong unless you’re a complete idiot and can’t dip things in hot oil, so they did well here. The chicken on the other hand was dry and chewy. Not recommended.
toro: Hot damn. Hot damn. Hot damn. Melt in your mouth hot damn.
albacore: Please see toro review above.
uni: Pretty damn good too… nice and silky. Yummers.
service: Pretty rad. They were very attentive (although it might have been because they weren’t too busy) but at the start as we were ordering, my friend couldn’t decide whether she wanted salad or miso with the combo, so the dude just said, «I’ll just give you both…» without extra charge of course.
After all was said and done, I ordered a second helping of albacore and uni, and was stuffed like a fat man at a buffet. All this stuff (with two large Sopporos) came out to be almost a bill. Great experience all around.
Editor’s note: I apologize for the use of «yummers».

I’ll have to disagree with the masses here and not recommend Tama sushi. Now with that said, you can take my review with a grain of salt as I have never been to Japan for traditional sushi and did not order the omasake.
With that being said, here were my likes and dislikes of the evening. We started with miso and an albacore sashimi app. The soup was way too salty– the fish was fresh and soft, slightly different than the albacore I am accustomed to– but I wrote it off as another species or the Katsu-​san cut. When the sushi arrived, we had again ordered albacore, but these pieces were a little more chewy and missing the ever-​so-​lovely juice that soaks into the rice and allows you to skip the soy. In fact this albacore tasted like mackerel, and maybe it was: (The eel was also a disappointment as someone else mentioned overcharred and dry, salmon was kinda fishy too– if you catch my drift. Spicy tuna on crispy rice was OK, better than Ahi Sushi down the road but not close to Katsu-Ya’s. There were some others that were obviously not memorable.
I will say the service was excellent, very nice waiter and there was no problem getting a reservation or being seated on a Friday night. As for me in the future, I think I will keep searching for my sacred sushi spot.

The other night I was craving Sushi and had recently crowned Katsu-​ya my favorite, but I couldn’t get a reservation so I went here instead… I have a new favorite and let me tell you why…
Let’s set the scene…
I dislike scallops (cooked), I can be a tad squeamish trying new sushi (texture can freak my mind out), I also tend to be heavy handed with wasabi.
Tama sushi went and flipped my world around. We ordered the Omakase from the waiter who said he moved from New York especially to work with chef Katsu. The first bite was Sea Scallops.
I have never, ever enjoyed a mouthful as much as I loved that scallop, my next bite was albacore belly (something I’d never order on my own, scallop either) and yum yum I was in taste heaven. I didn’t use the soy or the wasabi for the remainder of the meal. For all the food and some saki the bill was $ 80. Very reasonable.
And I’m not kidding here, when I woke up at 7am the next day I actually craved Sea Scallop. I have a new appreciation for Sushi because of this gem of a place.

My BEST sushi experience ever! It helped with the advantage of my boss being a friend of his and once he told Chef Katsu, that I to was a chef, I was only asked one question after that. «Would you like another Asahi?». «Of course», was my constant and swift answer.
From this point on Chef Katsu supplied course after course of the freshest, most beautiful, sushi I have ever laid my taste buds on. Some of the night is a touch blurry and there were many courses, a bottle of sake, and three asahi, but I think I remember everything and here it goes, in order.
–pickled cucumbers
–miso soup w/​mushrooms
–living scallop w/​lemon juice, black salt
–spanish toro
–yellowtail w/​grated radish, green onion, yuzu
–bowl of shisho peppers, bonito flakes
–spanish mackerel w/​grated ginger, green onion, soy, wasabi
–fried fish bones
–skip jack
–crab brains and lump crab, lemon, salt
–tuna fin meat
–Best roll of my life, here it goes, uni, wrapped with shisho, wrapped with halibut, wrapped with shisho and lightly tempura fried. The uni was like melting butter! FUCKING AWESOME!
–six kumamoto oysters
–stir fried giant clam, sweet soy, green onion, sesame
–hand roll, ahi, pickled vegetable, daikon sprout
–monk fish liver
–fresh water eel
–salt water eel w/​sweet soy, grated ginger (hint), lemon peel
–dessert poached fig, roasted pear, beet ice cream
I may have missed one or to two things, but you get the idea. Some times its good to be a chef, some times. I have never been more satisfied during or after a meal as I did on this night. What i really liked about the sushi was no ingredients like salmon or any thing heavy like that. Just pure and clean. I can eat me some sushi!
Now my night could have easily ended there, but no. I normally do not care about celebrities, however this night Adam Arkin was there. Whats the significance of that? Well a part he played in on the show Northern Exposure, as a recluse chef that was suppose to make wedding dinner. First thing he does is throw out one of the French chefs working there and calls him a hack! Then he goes and gets all hung up on a glacé de venaur sauce and he keeps saying «Its the essence of 40 cows». That character of the brilliant chef battling demons of despair was always entertaining to me for some strange reason.
Thank you Chef Katsu. You are a master of your craft.

I ate here last week for the first time and I thought it was pretty good, not amazing like its neighbor Katsuya (which is my absolute favorite sushi in all of LA), but pretty tasty.
Our waiter didn’t seem to understand us very well but he was nice so good service.
The lighting is horrible… it’s really bright ceiling lighting so I would avoid this place if you’re going for a romantic date because your date won’t look so hot.
The lobster with dynamite sauce was very good, salty as ever, but good!

Tama sushi is a great place for some cozy sushi at the bar, they have by far the freshest fish ive ever had.
the Omakase is excellent!

Tama sushi is great!
It’s a more traditional place than your regular hollywood-​sushi places. The fish is is as fresh as you’re gonna get. The omakase consisted of bluefin, toro, kampachi, yellowtail belly, albacore belly, fresh shucked scallop, uni, and a blue crab handroll. All for $ 40! Expertly prepared. Chef Katsu has a way of bringing purity to the food. Notice the way he cuts each type of fish, each one has a particular way it’s cut, it’s really fascinating.
Great service at the bar!

OK so last night I decided to leave the 310 and head into the Valley… yes, that place over the hill. It was a good central spot to meet my newlywed friends who live out there. They are big sushi connossieurs so we decided to meet here. I wasn’t that hungry, but as usual, I managed to eat way too much food. I probably committed one of the deadly sins last night… gluttony!
There is nothing particularly stellar about this place, but that’s not necessarily bad. The staff was really pleasant and the place was not very crowded. My friends said that this is an authentic place that doesn’t do any fancy shmancy sushi. It’s traditional sushi. I ordered 2 orders of Unagi, but had I known it would be so huge, I would have only ordered one order. They grill the Unagi to the point where the edges are charred and the slices are enormous. My favorite spider roll was just ok. It’s better at Chaya. My octopus sushi was also huge. Did I mention that the portions are very big??? Of course my friends really enjoyed their food (spicy tuna, toro, etc.), but at this point, everything is good for them since they are still basking in post-​wedding joy. I think I smiled so much my face hurt by the end of the night and my belly ached from too much food!
I wouldn’t be opposed to eating here again, but I can’t say anything really great or really bad about this place. As much as we all ate, it was worth the $ 114 bill. My friend offered to pay and I wouldn’t let him. What was I thinking??? ;-)

Came for dinner and did not have the experience the lunch reviewers did. Perhaps it was because we were there at the end of the night, but the rice on the rolls was a bit on the hard side, and the fish was *pretty* fresh but not melt-​in-​your-​mouth good. The menu pretty much consisted of the usual fare. Overall, seemed a decent place to grab a bite to eat, but not to impress.
In our group, we tried the omakase, combination dinner with teriyaki and California rolls, and a sushi combination plate. The omakase seems to be the best bet. There are three levels, and you get a pretty good bang for your buck. In the future, I would definitely avoid the non-​sushi food. Teriyaki was no better than those fast-​food bowl places.

I came here about 4 times over the past 4 years, one for a dinner combo set and 3 for the sushi bar experience. The most recent visit was to see whether the food was still good like the last time I’ve tried it. And for the most part, it was.
I had almost every nigiri sushi on the menu. The last time I went I ordered the omakase dinner, which included the likes of conch soup, spanish mackerel, sardine, ankimo, scallops w/​black sea salt, toro, blue fin tuna, salmon, albacore, and kanpachi. All the selections were very fresh, had good texture, and was tasty.
For those people who are roll crazy, this aint the place to go. The main focus here is on the actual fish, sushi, and sashimi. So if you come here and order rolls, chances are you won’t really like it as much as the ones in the other Americanized, half price sushi restaurants in the city. This is pretty much fine which me since I’m a nazi sushi eater myself.
I actually wanted to give this place a 4.5 stars, since the sushi, although good, wasn’t exceptional tasting enough for me to say that it’s one of the bests in Los Angeles. Nonetheless, the 4 will stick for now.
In all, Tama Sushi is one of the top 5 sushi restaurants in Studio City, along with Nozawa, Kazu, and Ahi Sushi. A highly recommended joint for real sushi lovers because it’s real sushi. And the cooked entrees are pretty good as well.

Yum. I’m not a sushi conoisseur or anything close to it, but I know when something tastes good and fresh and this stuff does. I went for my birthday a couple years back on a weeknight and while the place was full it wasn’t cloyingly packed or with tables too close together-​space is important to me for enjoying conversation and my meal.
I made simple choices, yellowtail and spicy tuna, but they made my tummy very happy. My parents were timid about raw fish so had the tempura and were pleasantly surprised at how much they enjoyed it (though really, can anything fried in batter ever not be tasty? I don’t know…). Reasonably priced.

Stephy: spicy mayo? See related story at the end of my review.
Anyway, Tama is one of my favorites. A couple years ago a friend told me this was Katsu’s place… of past Katsu (Los Feliz) and Katsu on Third fame. I immediately set to check it out. On her suggestion I tried the ‘sushi combination B’, not as poetic as ‘omakase’ perhaps but impressive all the same. You will get a great sampling and at a good price no less. I was mightily impressed and have been a regular customer ever since.
The sushi combination C includes an amazing appetizer plate consisting of five tiny artistic treats the likes of which you have never seen before, and a soup that comes perched on its own little clay pot of smoldering charcoal. Both of these draw gasps from onlookers, which made me wonder: how come I’ve never seen anyone ELSE order these combos? Shame.
And don’t let Katsu-san’s soft-​spoken manner fool you. He is working subtle magic behind the counter. Whether it’s a piece of shiso leaf hidden under the eel in his unagi sushi, black flaky salt from Cypress that’s sprinkled on the sinfully fresh scallop, or a thin strip of pickled radish in his toro handroll, you better be paying attention because he isn’t resting on his laurels (i.e. doing this for +40 years).
Oh, and you may not want to hear this, but you know that wasabi you’re over-​using, disrespecting your sushi-man’s selection of today’s fish? It’s not really wasabi, but a mix of horseradish, mustard, and green dye.
But if you ask Katsu for it and it’s available (and he likes you), you WILL get real wasabi. You will see it being grated on a piece of sharkskin, from the actual knobby, green/​white root. And when you taste it you will feel its rich, heady vapors cavort across your palate and through your sinuses, teasing and seducing you to weep but you won’t, because it doesn’t really hurt that bad after all baby, and as the grassy aromatic sensation flows out of your body and returns you to your regularly scheduled program, your lip slightly trembles and you have to excuse yourself to go out and have a cigarette.
For all his artistry, Katsu is like a kinder, gentler Nozawa. Recently I sat near a guy who said, «Katsu, I see you have Bluefin tuna flown in fresh today. Can you make me a spicy handroll?» Which Katsu did.
After he left, I asked, «Was that a strange request?» Namely, to erase all the subtle nuances of a super-​premium piece of fish with a lot of mayo, spicy stuff, and rice.
Katsu smiled knowingly, and although the look on his face said «Hell, yeah,» out loud he said, perhaps only slightly insincerely, «The customer is always right!»
The sushi is so good that for years I still haven’t made it to the dining room, which by the looks of the menu is also excellent.

Finally tried this place for lunch yesterday and I have to say, it was pretty good.
Located smack dab in the middle of Ventura Blvd’s Sushi Row, you really have to be good with all of the surrounding competition, but I think Katsu does a great job of offering a balanced menu of fresh and tasty sushi and prepared dishes.
I went with my basics (yellowtail and yellowtail toro) and both were like butta. I also went with a blue crab handroll that for $ 12 really wasn’t anything special. We also asked for a side of spicy mayo and unfortunately they use the sweet mayo which is just grosso to my palate, so i wouldn’t order that again.
My friend ordered the Sea Bass tower and it looked really good. Overall the meal was filling and fresh and not too spensive :) So check it out, it’s not bells and whistles shout it from the rooftop great, but it is certainly a good meal worth the price of admission. Also, there is parking at lunch in their lot with no valet. love that!