Sushi in Irvine

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Ayame in Irvine

http://www.zipanguoc.com/ayahome.html

http://www.yelp.com/biz/ayame-irvine



Restaurant facility: A

Service: C for non-drinks, F for drinks

Sushi: B- (fresh but not exceptional)

Cut rolls: C- (barely acceptable)

Presentation: A (fancy looking)

Desert: A

Pricing: B (would be C elsewhere, but this is Irvine so more expensive)

Overall: C+ if you order sushi, B if you order non-sushi dishes



Non-sushi dishes and deserts had excellent presentation. If you dine at this restaurant, consider skipping the sushi and go with the non-sushi entree's and deserts instead. They got everything else right except for the sushi (LoL) and the service. This restaurant gets a "hand drawn peach bloom" award for its artificial presentation, but lacking in substance for sushi:



<img src="http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=64205&rendTypeId=4" alt="" />



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Kanpachi in Gardena

http://www.yelp.com/biz/kanpachi-gardena



<img src="http://static.px.yelp.com/bphoto/tRm8CizyU7B9XJcpmb6OHg/l" alt="" />

<img src="http://static.px.yelp.com/bphoto/3XrlLl8mdI1cOsb8x6EnDw/l" alt="" />



I dined here earlier this week, the photos above are from yelp and not mine. Since it was my first time there, I sat at the table (not the sushi bar) and ordered the $32.50 or $33.50 omakase plate special ("G" on the menu). What I received, was an interesting mix of traditional nigiri sushi and... the chef's own creations. @_@ I couldn't identify some of the items he put on top. Omakase set came with tea, "shrimp head" miso soup, steamed egg cup, and ice cream desert. Good value.



The quality of the sushi was good but lacking something... I just didn't feel the love. It was like as if the chef was well trained, but lacking passion, or just tired from long day at work.



Restaurant facilities: B (traditional sushi bar with few tables on the side, tatami room in back)

Sushi: B+ (good quality but lacking love)

Presentation: B+ (some of the sushi cuts were fancy looking)

Pricing: A- (good value for omakase plate)

Overall: B+ for sushi



This restaurant gets a Momo "half boom" award:



<img src="http://www.gapphotos.com/images/WebPreview/0036/0036369.jpg" alt="" />
 
[quote author="vicstah" date=1211510689]Try Taiko off Jeffrey/Walnut. They are next to Yogurtland. Can't miss it.</blockquote>


Taikos service is lousy unless you like your food thrown at you, and the wait is way to long for the quality you get. So unless you enjoying waiting on line for dinner like you were waiting to see a band or something, id skip it.
 
Try Gen Kai. It's new in Irvine, on Jeffrey Road and Irvine Center Drive in the same plaza as the Thai Spice. They have a restaurant in Corona Del Mar as well.
 
[quote author="George" date=1217138851]Try Gen Kai. It's new in Irvine, on Jeffrey Road and Irvine Center Drive in the same plaza as the Thai Spice. They have a restaurant in Corona Del Mar as well.</blockquote>


I tried Gen Kai and they are subpar IMO.
 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122480233710964683.html



Sushi Bullies



Top sushi chefs dictate what's made and who eats it, and even eject dissenters. Why do the fans keep coming? Katy McLaughlin on culture clashes -- and the California-roll taboo.

By KATY MCLAUGHLIN



If you're seated at the sushi bar at Sasabune in New York, Sushi Nozawa in Los Angeles, or Sawa Sushi in Sunnyvale, Calif., a few words of advice: Don't try to order -- the chef will decide what you eat. Use extra soy sauce at your own risk. And don't ask for a California roll. You might get kicked out.



You have entered the domain of the sushi bullies -- top sushi chefs who serve only what they want, how they want it and to whom they want. Their rules are often posted on signs throughout their restaurants. Some chefs are notorious for ejecting patrons who annoy them.



Geri-Ayn Gaul had her first encounter with a raw-fish autocrat in August at Ino, in San Francisco. First, she tried to add some soy sauce to her seaweed salad. Big mistake. Chef Noboru Inoue scolded her, she says, telling her, "No, no, no. No soy sauce!" Then, she had the temerity to scrape some wasabi off a piece of sushi, because she doesn't like spicy food. The chef's response, she says: "'No. It needs the wasabi.'" She obeyed, and choked down the fish.



"I was so nervous, I spilled my miso soup," says Ms. Gaul, whose meal for two, with no alcohol, cost $75 -- before tip.



While unaccommodating service may sound like a recipe for a failing restaurant, these domineering sushi chefs can have lines of supplicants out the door. Some are expanding their reach with new restaurants, and their proteges are opening places of their own, bringing with them some of the attitude they learned from their former bosses.



Each sushi dictator has his own pet peeves, but there is common ground. Most do not allow sushi bar patrons to order off the menu. Instead, diners must accept whatever the chef gives them, a tradition known as "omakase" -- a Japanese expression that can be loosely translated as "trust the chef." They reserve special enmity for spicy tuna rolls -- typically made with scraps of raw tuna, mayonnaise and chili powder -- which they say were only invented so that restaurants could mask the taste of substandard fish. And they generally loathe the ubiquitous California roll. Not only is it a newfangled American invention that combines avocado and cucumber, but it usually contains imitation crab -- anathema to chefs who have spent so much of their energy and money securing pristine seafood.



In Los Angeles, a veritable breeding ground for despotic sushi masters, Sushi Nozawa is one of the highest-rated restaurants in the local Zagat guide; the description says Kazunori Nozawa "makes the Soup Nazi look polite."



At his Sunnyvale, Calif., restaurant Sawa Sushi, Chef Sawa uses this miso sauce on marinated salmon and ocean trout sashimi, and a variation of it on sake-steamed Alaskan king crab.



In August, Mr. Nozawa opened a second Los Angeles restaurant, SugarFish. About half as expensive as his flagship, the restaurant also offers take-out that comes with an instruction card on exactly how the sushi should be consumed once it gets home. Mr. Nozawa and his associates hope to expand SugarFish into a chain around Los Angeles and other cities.



During a visit there in August, 19-year-old student Jillian Kasimow thought she might get away with a request she knows Mr. Nozawa would never allow at his flagship restaurant: She asked for more "delicious ponzu sauce." The waiter's response was swift and unyielding. "Nozawa never gives extra ponzu sauce," Ms. Kasimov says she was told.



Higher gas prices may be partly to blame for the sushi dictators' increasingly inflexible ways. Chefs say they are paying 30% to 50% more for staples like tuna and yellowtail, compared to two years ago, because the spike in fuel costs makes both deep-sea fishing and transporting the catch more expensive. At the same time, disappearing fish populations around the world have made some chefs particularly passionate about serving sushi in its purest and simplest form.



"You're not going to be able to taste this fish forever," says Nobi Kusuhara, chef and owner of Sushi Sasabune in Los Angeles, referring to dwindling varieties such as bluefin tuna and abalone. He says that's why he won't use mayonnaise and other nontraditional ingredients that mask the flavors of the fish -- even if customers beg for such things. (Two of Mr. Kusuhara's former employees have opened Sasabune restaurants in New York and Honolulu, respectively, complete with signs reading "Today's Special: Trust Me.")



Dealing with American diners who are unfamiliar with centuries-old Japanese culinary traditions can be agonizing for some chefs, says Andy Matsuda, head of Sushi Chef Institute, a Los Angeles cooking school. Requesting fried soft shell crab rolls at a traditional sushi bar is akin to "going to your grandma's Thanksgiving dinner and someone brings a pizza," Mr. Matsuda says. Dousing sushi in soy sauce is like pouring ketchup over the entr?e at a three-star French restaurant. Other offenses, such as ordering miso soup at the beginning of the meal, only add to chefs' frustration.



But some chefs say that strict adherence to tradition is also a way to stand out in an increasingly crowded market. There are about 9,700 full-service Japanese restaurants in the United States, up from 7,800 a decade ago, according to Technomic, a Chicago-based restaurant consulting firm. Many of them, along with many Chinese restaurants, take-out places and even supermarket refrigerator sections, offer sushi. There is one sushi restaurant for every quarter mile in Beverly Hills, according to the Beverly Hills Conference and Visitors Bureau.



Steve Sawa of Sawa Sushi in Sunnyvale, Calif., decides what his customers eat, doles out soy sauce by the droplet and has a ban on California rolls. Patrons who rudely demand miso soup and extra rice are often shown the door.



Ousting annoying diners makes the ones who get to stay feel like they are part of a special club -- a fringe benefit, Mr. Sawa says. "Some people love it when I kick people out," he adds.



Some chefs inspire a sort of love-hate relationship with their patrons. Atlanta lost its feared (but beloved) sushi despot when Sotohiro Kosugi closed his restaurant, called Soto, in 2006. Mr. Kosugi, who reopened in New York last year, would occasionally berate staff in front of diners, and scowl so darkly that the entire restaurant ambience would sour, says John Kessler; the former restaurant critic for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says he ate at Soto about 30 times.



Ted Golden, a 29-year-old technology entrepreneur, says he would sometimes try to converse with Mr. Kosugi, whom he knew well -- he estimates that he ate at Soto roughly 100 times -- but the chef would be so focused on his work that he would refuse to answer.



For his part, Mr. Kosugi says he is deeply disturbed by characterizations of him as a tyrant, and that many stories about him are untrue. He admits, though, that the pressure can make him moody and that he is "very ashamed and cannot sleep at night" after behaving badly. He moved to New York, he says, because he felt the market there was more conducive to serving only traditional, high-end food. Targeting a narrower audience, he says, helps avoid the problem of unmanageable customer expectations -- and his resulting bad humor.



Sushi dictators, like the American sushi restaurant trend itself, first surfaced in Los Angeles, according to Sasha Issenberg, author of the "Sushi Economy," which examines the cuisine's prevalence around the world. The California roll was invented in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s
 
Although My wife and I Have tried such restraunts, berating me or my wife might get you on the wrong side of my self protection....



Other than that, the chef has been wonderful to work with and introduced both of us to really tasty treats. Unfortunately it was nearly 150! for two... minus drinks.



Well worth it though. I still need to invite momo3.14159 out to lunch.

anyways good luck

-bix
 
I recently dined at Maki Maki at the Irvine Spectrum. I ordered a shrimp crunch roll. There were two staples in my food. They made it in my mouth and I swallowed one before realizing it. Luckily, they were accommodating and offered to remove it from the check without my prompting. They were trying quickly to narrow down where the staples came from but were still serving the dish to others as I was leaving. The restrooms there were not in good shape and they had checked off the cleaning schedule for times that hadn't come yet. I don't think I will revisit.
 
nevermind the bad reviews here, i will never go to maki maki just based empty tables i see when walking through the spectrum on a busy night. i'll eat a deep fried corndog that's been sitting on a shelf for a wk. but the last place i would eat is a sushi place struggling for business.



we go to niko niko in woodbury quite a bit. the sushi chefs there are extremely friendly and know exactly what we like now that when we sit down they start preparing our favorite rolls. we see a fair number of other regulars there too. they told us weekdays have slowed in the last month or two but we havent seen any change in their fri and sat night crowds. not the greatest sushi in the irvine and the staff/chefs there are korean, not japanese, which can be a turnoff for aficionados. becoming a regular where you can trust the chef is sometimes more impt than where you go for sushi.
 
Maki Maki is only busy on Monday evenings, when they have their 50% off happy hours. Rest of the week is fairly dead (including the weekend). I find their sushi to be 'ok', and the fish quality to be average at best. My favorite sushi experiences for the last few months have been at California Beach Sushi in Newport Beach (http://www.eatsushi.com/californiabeach/).
 
I?ve had lunch at Maki Maki a number of times( mostly weekends) and there?s never been a wait.

The other sushi place located by Pinkberry is slow as well.

I?ve yet to eat there but the place is empty every time I?ve walked by.

Seems like the sushi concept is not working well anywhere in the Spectrum.
 
I was at the Spectrum last night and noticed a few stores are gone.



The sports bar and grill across from Cheesecake factory, and the Thai fusion place that's now a Halloween costume shop.



Good nigiri sushi requires a skilled chef and good quality fish. Lesser skilled chefs are allowed to make maki (roll) sushi and temaki (hand rolls) without direct supervision, because it's harder to screw up a salmon skin hand roll. Certain ingredients, such as salmon and spicy tuna, are also difficult to screw up and should taste OK even from Sushi boy, or the $1.60 onigiri rice ball from Famima.



<img src="http://www.noobcook.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/onigiri_cast.jpg" alt="" />
 
If anyone is interested...



There is a coupon out for a free California Roll with any food purchase at Wasa in The Market Place. Exp. 12/31. Just came out in the Market Place coupon booklet. If you don't have one and want to use it, PM me and I will mail mine to you.
 
[quote author="momopi" date=1225166748] Certain ingredients, such as salmon and spicy tuna, are also difficult to screw up and should taste OK even from Sushi boy, or the $1.60 onigiri rice ball from Famima.</blockquote>


Hey Momopi - what do you think about Famima? Considering it's a convenience store, the food looks pretty good to me. Much better quality than your typical circle k/7-11. There still aren't very many around though...
 
Only in a California forum will someone ask about Sushi and get a FIVE PAGE response. LOL



There are too many responses and Japanese names flying around to decipher. Bottomline: Where is the best Sushi for the best price in Irvine? I am a lady on a budget.
 
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