09/19/09

Avoid at all costs

by Toner5000

Avoid this place. I can't believe someone called Saito friendly. He charges double what anyone else does with a terrible attitude to go with it. The place is also pretty filthy. Saw a couple huge monsterroaches patrolling the floor during dinner. And Saito can usually be found not washing his hands and smoking butts out front. NASTY! Do yourself a favor and drive another mile down sunset to KODA where the chefs are all very cool , extremely generous and the sushi is far better and fresher. Seriously. Saito is some bad fish. Throw it back.

• Cons: Overpriced and mean

08/13/08

used to be better

by luvfood7

I feel bad about writing a less than stellar review for this family resto that has been here forever but it is not as good as it once was.

the shoga/ginger I was served was off and when I pointed this out to the waitress she stared at me blankly and would not respond. it was also much more expensive than before. I am down with spending more if the food and service are worth it but it was not. I will give it another try because I really liked it before and want them to do well, but overall my last experience was disappointing and sad.

oh, and don't bring kids.

• Pros: family owned, been there a long time
• Cons: pricey & rude

07/15/08

A place to go for true traditional sushi

by tyhsieh0621

I arrived at the restaurant today pretty early and right away I could tell that this is a traditional Japanese sushi place: it is not too big and there was only one chef and one waitress (traditional sushi restaurants usually don't have too many chefs because they take sushi seriousely and won't risk ruining their reputation by hiring just anybody).

Since I was the only one there at the time, I was able to see exactly how the chef was preparing each dish. I was very pleased at how hard he tried to preserve the natural flavor of each fish: washes his hands before making every dish, uses different plates for sauced dishes, and I believe he even used different knives to cut different fish. I was pleased with the freshness of the fishes as well.

Since it is a traditional sushi restaurant, I feel like there are a few things I should point out to new sushi lovers.

1. If you like restaurants that put a lot of sauces on their sushi/rolls, then this is probably not the place for you. Traditional sushi chefs try to deliver the natural flavor of the fish to their customers, so if you are used to a heavier flavor, the sushi might taste bland for you. In my opinion, natural flavor sushi taste the best, too much sauce just ruins it (but don't get me wrong, some modern sushi chefs are able to compliment the flavor of fishes with different sauces, it is just really hard to find one).

2. Omakase is probably the best thing to order there, just let the chef bring out his freshest fish to you.

3. I don't think it is worth going to that restaurant if you are gonna order anything other than sushi, even if it is sashimi. I believe this is why the place had some bad reviews. Like I said before, traditional sushi chefs take their sushi very seriousely, and some are willing to protect their flavor even if it means kicking out the customers. Some might say this is unreasonable and they are not in Japan anymore. But to me, conforming to their rules is worth it for good sushi.

• Pros: Fresh and traditional sushi
• Cons: Maybe the price, though it is not uncommon to pay above $100 at some really good sushi places