Ootoro Sushi (Walnut/Irvine) Stay away IHO and Socal

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OmG. I just read the bit about fried shrimp heads while I'm eating. If it's one thing that freaks me out, it's shrimp heads AND LEGS. Anyone who eats out with me if I order shrimp and it's served with the legs still on, is responsible for peeling my shrimp for me while I sit at a safe distance away. I don't care who you are. But now I've learned to just ask the waiter ahead of time if that's" "with legs or no legs?" I just had to ask a few days ago when I was a Steve's Steakhouse in Avalon. I've NEVER ONCE seen heads offered anywhere I've dined in my entire life, thank God. The tail, I can deal with.
 
@_@?  Back when Alpha Beta was still around, I used to buy cooked whole prawn (with head and legs) packed with roe.
 
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Reg. Chirashi for $18.  It was ok, comes with miso soup.  All the pieces tasted fine and fresh of course.  Not sure why the tuna looks jagged edged, maybe got the apprentice sushi chef
 
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Premium chirashi for  $40, extra toro, sweet shrimp, uni and some white fish.  Not worth it in my opinion, toro was stringy and the tuna looks smaller than the reg. Chirashi.  Shrimp head can be fried but you lose the miso soup, wtf?
 
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Foie gras with toro steak, small for $28, we split it, so it was a $14 30 sec bite of two very rich ingredients.  It was ok.

Glad we did lunch first instead of the Uber expensive dinner omakase.  Probably won't be back for awhile.  Unless someone else is treating..
 
Oh, God. Not roe. I can not eat caviar or roe. Whenever I see it, I instantly think that must be exactly what my eggs must look like inside my ovaries. It feels so wrong, almost cannibalistic, to eat them. Why would anyone want to eat anything that looks like it could be one of your body parts or came out of you. Sorry if this made anyone gag reading this.
 
On the topic of sushi, if you guys are thinking of visiting Asia, do yourselves a favor hit up Sushi Da in Tokyo.  Just went over the holidays and it's the best sushi I've had.  Especially Toro.  8 course + 1 of your choice Omakase is only 4000 yen or $40.  It's even lower if you go soon since the yen dropped vs the dollar so everything in japan is like 20% off.  Just be warned, I waited in the cold from 12:00 Am with opening at 5 am for 1st round.  If you get there later than 2 Am, expect to wait for hours.  Bring like 5 layers of clothes HAHA it's colddddddddddddd  :o
 
SoCal said:
Oh, God. Not roe. I can not eat caviar or roe. Whenever I see it, I instantly think that must be exactly what my eggs must look like inside my ovaries. It feels so wrong, almost cannibalistic, to eat them. Why would anyone want to eat anything that looks like it could be one of your body parts or came out of you. Sorry if this made anyone gag reading this.
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Do you eat scrambled eggs?
 
I'm the last person on Earth to finally try Inka Mama's.

Peruvian food is nothing like I expected it to be. I thought it was going to be somewhat like Mexican food. Probably consisting mostly of rice and beans as found in south America. It's actually a hodgepodge mishmash of Italian, German, Chinese, French, Mexican. Basically everything you would expect when a country has lost its cultural identity, all wrapped up on a plate. It made me think my upcoming restaurant, BobaSchnitzel, is not so far-fetched after all.

I got the Tallarin Saltado de Mariscos. It's basically cabbage / veggie lo mein (or chow mein for us Americans) with tilapia, shrimp, and calamari in it. I don't eat calamari. Because legs & squirty things. I figured it was going to be sliced into ringlets, though. Something easily avoidable. Instead, as I was going through it, a huge rubbery piece ended up on my fork. It was the entire lower(?) body portion of the squid. The body cavity with all the tentacles attached. Jiggling and dangling. I let out a little yelp. Mr. SoCal quickly stabbed it with a fork as though he was hunting and killing it. I looked up to see the tentacles hanging out of his mouth as he chewed. Oh, God. Check, please.

He got the Tallarin Verde con Pollo. It's like a German chicken schnitzel on a weird (non)Italian pasta suffering from an identity crisis.

They serve Inka Cola which is like liquid jelly beans.

The place is certainly different!
 
SoCal said:
Peruvian food is nothing like I expected it to be. I thought it was going to be somewhat like Mexican food. Probably consisting mostly of rice and beans as found in south America. It's actually a hodgepodge mishmash of Italian, German, Chinese, French, Mexican. Basically everything you would expect when a country has lost its cultural identity, all wrapped up on a plate.
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Peruvians would strongly disagree with that characterization.  Maybe you should step outside your bubble and visit Peru someday.
 
SoCal said:
It's actually a hodgepodge mishmash of Italian, German, Chinese, French, Mexican. Basically everything you would expect when a country has lost its cultural identity, all wrapped up on a plate.
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What if I told that their cultural identity is defined by influences from Spain, Italy, China, Japan, as well as what the African lave trade brought in.

Breaded meat should be referred to by its Italian origin as milanesa rather than Schnitzel.



 
I'm somewhat more familiar with it's next door neighbor, Brazil, however, I just don't find the Peruvian food as distinctive as, say, Brazil's. Imo, it lacked the indigenous food Brazil has - at least, at the restaurant. Meanwhile, not really doing any one dish better than the country it came from. An exception may be the Chaufa -- that looked like it could be good, maybe better than the original but I only looked at it. Generally, if I wanted German food, I'd go get (or make) German food. If I wanted Italian, I'd go get (or make) Italian, etc. I'm familiar with both of those categories and this was not like above & beyond. For example, in my experience, the Portugese Brazilian food is more authentic than the Peruvian equivalent. It was interesting but I can't say it was great or, like I said, distinctive / particularly outstanding.
 
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