Sushi and Sashimi – Page 12

Saturday Stuffs: Sam Returns at Wal-Mi-Do and Shabu Shabu House Opening Soon

November 8, 2008 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi

Just a couple of things…..

Sam is now at Wal-Mi-Do:

**** Wal-Mi-Do has closed

With jet lag, the time change, work, and surprise visitors, I just haven't been able to keep up! So thanks to Theresa, Hao, Kim, TammyC, and JKP, for keeping letting me know that Sam is now at Wal Mi Do.

Since closing Sammy Sushi, I know people have been wondering what Sam would be up to. I managed to finally return Sam's phone calls, and decided to drop by for a quick lunch. Sam does look well rested.

Sam told me that after 2 weeks of "hibernation" he was going stir crazy…so much for taking that long break.

Since this is a Korean styled, "Hwe" (raw fish) restaurant, I thought I'd try the Hwe Dop Bop lunch special ($10.99):

Nice portion size…fish is better quality than other Hwe shops. The Cho Jang, was more on the "beany" side, and less sweet than other places. The lunch came with some panchan, and was overall a pretty good deal. I think 2 persons could acutally split this.

Sam assures me that the fish he works with is of the same quality as Sammy's. He currently works lunch (1130 – 2pm) Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and dinner every night except Tuesday. He also said he had a surprise for my next visit…….so when things settle down…..

Wal Mi Do
4367 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Shabu Shabu House:

While driving on Convoy, I noticed this sign:

Right next to Tapioca Express and Crab Hut.

The sign says it'll open on November 12th, that's right around the corner.

Just in time for colder weather……

That's it for now….I hope you're having a great weekend!

Oishii – an excellent Thai and Japanese and Sushi restaurant in Santee

October 30, 2008 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, Thai Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is the food blog written by a bunch of friends. Cathy is still blogging about meals she has eaten.

Hi. I blogged Oishii about two years ago- as my last post before Kirk and His Missus came back from their Hawaiian vacation. It is a small restaurant that serves great, fresh sushi, wonderful Japanese food and Thai. Wonderful Thai food. Because all I keep reading in my email from Kirk is describing Thailand and Laos and the food he is eating there, I have been craving Thai almost daily…I suppose to be enjoying something vicariously.

Oishii is in a strip mall on Mast Boulevard (an exit off the 52) just before Magnolia, and seems nondescript. OiishiThai 002 (I will insert a photo of the restaurant soon but will post now).

It isn't very fancy but it is nice and clean. There are 10 chairs surrounding the sushi bar, 5 booths and 8 tables.

The menu does have a plethora of Special rolls listed which a lot of people seem to order. I didn't.

OiishiThai 001

I always get an oyster shooter ($3.50) and sometimes they give me two which always makes me happy.

There are at least two oysters in the shot glasses which are filled with the liqueur of the oyster and spicy sauce, topped with masago (herring roe) and served with a lime slice.

The Mister ordered the fried calamari appetizer ($5), which is listed on the Thai side of the menu, even though tempura is all over the Japanese side…

In amazingly light batter and very soft, tender squid. It is always done so well here.

Served with a sweet chili dipping sauce (which tastes like the stuff I usually buy off the shelf at 99Ranch, which is from Thailand).(The cap is yellow and "Pantai norasingh" is written on it-this is thicker than the sauce served with the calamari, but the flavor balance is the same).

I got the silver noodle salad ($7.95) made with bean threads, shrimp and chicken and covered with a spicy lime based dressing.

It is always fresh made and very filling.

OiishiThai 006

Not much spice for The Mister, still, so he got beef pad see ewe- flat noodles with red and green pepper, onion, black bean sauce and broccoli. ($9.95)

Fresh vegetables, beef and sauce as well as nicely fried noodles.

It is always good here. The Japanese and sushi is prepared as well and as much care as the Thai food. Always fresh.

Excellent lunch specials.

Oishii Japanese-Thai Cuisine and Sushi Bar 10251 Mast Boulevard Santee 92071 (619) 596-4852

Mon-Sat 11-9 closed Sunday

View Larger Map

Sammy Sushi says goodbye

October 6, 2008 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi

A few months ago, Sam, Owner, Itamae, and the namesake of Sammy Sushi, mentioned that he planned to put the restaurant up for sale. After 4 years and change, Sam had decided that the 24 hours a day demands that his restaurant had put on him had started wearing away at him, both physically and mentally. I don't blame him, the restaurant industry is a tough one. And so it came to pass, a few weeks ago, Sam mentioned that he had a buyer, and the end was in sight. So it is with a heavy heart that I announce that Sammy Sushi's last night of operation will be Saturday, October 11th.

So this week will be your last chance to drop by and enjoy the nice neighborhood vibe of Sammy Sushi. It appears that Sammy Sushi is going to become a Fresh Seafood Market.

Over the years Sam has become much more than my friendly neighborhood Itamae, he's become a friend. And as sad as I am knowing that Sammy's will be gone, I have great hopes for Sam's future endeavors.

Good Luck Sam!

Saturday Stuffs: No Moa Da’ Kine’s National City, What’s this about Drive-thru Banh Mi, A Surprise at Sammy’s, and other “stuffs”

August 23, 2008 mmm-yoso Banh Mi, Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Plate Lunch, Sushi and Sashimi, Vietnamese Restaurants

Just some Miscellanea for the weekend:

No Moa Da Kine’s National City, La Dat:

I’ve been thinking about doing another plate lunch week, and it seems that I always do at least one post on Da’ Kine’s. After all, they’ve been around over a decade. So, back in July I had a plate lunch at Da’ Kine’s, and decided to drop by one more time a few weeks ago. And to my surprise, this facade:

Was replaced with this:

Wow, so this is the third Da Kine’s to close. Only the new Liberty Station location is still open. Oh, I did have lunch here, but you’ll have to wait for that post. This is what I had at Da’ Kine’s in July:

I’m still contemplating plate lunch week….but all the Teriyaki – Hawaiian BBQ, blah, blah, blah, gets to be the same after a while. Maybe I should just intermingle them…..what do you think?

Nani Moku Hawaiian BBQ
1635 Sweetwater Road
National City, CA 91950

What’s this about drive-thru Banh Mi?:

A few weeks ago, "22cards" (thanks for letting me know), reported that Cali Baguette Express’s long awaited Banh Mi Drive-thru was open. And not only that, but they were now open 24 hours a day! So that very Friday, the Missus and I headed out to Cali Baguette Express, at about 930pm, and found the place completely dark, totally closed, not a creature was stirring. We were so disappointed, we headed straight to Golden City and had Peking Duck…talk about depressed.

Determined to get to the bottom of the "drive-thru" mystery, I took a serious detour, and hit up CBE at 630 am a recent morning. and indeed all the "signs" were in full display. It does say Open 24 Hours, looks like the Drive-thru is from 9pm to 6am, which would have been right in the ballpark. So I ordered a Banh Mi Trung ($2.59), and asked the young lady about the drive-thru. I had a bit of a problem understanding, but I believe the gist of it was, the store closes at 9pm, with only drive-thru service from 9-midnight Sunday-Thursday, and 9pm thru 6am Fridays and Saturdays…..I think. Maybe someone else will have more info.

As for the Banh Mi, the bread was better on this occasion than my previous visits. Warm, decently crusty, with some chew. The egg wasn’t dredged in Maggi, which is what I’ve gotten at a few places. It was not bad….of course it could have just been that I love Banh Mi Trung…especially when I’m starving.

Sure beats one of those egg mc-something’s any day of the week.

Cali Baguette Express
5215 El Cajon Boulevard
San Diego CA 92115

A Sammy Surprise:

I haven’t been to Sammy’s in a while, but on my last visit, not being too hungry, I just had a few pieces of Nigiri.

No big deal, right? Except for one thing; knowing that I don’t really use the usual rehydrated-dry-wasabi-powder-that-is-Coleman’s-mustard-in-disguise, Sam told me to try what he placed on my plate. It was real wasabi…..actually wasabi paste, probably from Pacific Farms. It’s still not as good as fresh ground wasabi…but it’s much better than the "other stuff". I’m not sure if Sam was just trying it out, or if he’s going to carry it from now on…….so it’ll be interesting to see.

Sieu Sieu BBQ Reopens:

I dropped by Barbecue’s Galore, and noticed that Sieu Sieu BBQ had opened in the former Maui Maui Hawaiian BBQ location on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. I’m not quite sure if this is something to be very happy about. When we first moved to San Diego, we visited Sieu Sieu at it’s old location on Linda Vista Road a few times…..and had some of the worst Chinese BBQ I’ve ever experienced.

Dry roast pork and Char Siu, and some of the most bland Roast Duck I’ve ever had. But as I was walking past the place, I noticed how busy they were…..full of Chinese! It could be that they were all just checking things out. But maybe we should be too!

Sieu Sieu BBQ
7420 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

I hope everyone’s having a great weekend!

Banbu Sushi Bar and Grill- a restaurant inside the old Movie Theater complex in La Mesa

June 20, 2008 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is just a humble blog. Kirk and ed (from Yuma) are busy with life today and Cathy is just blogging about yet another meal.

Hi. I’m back again. Remember the old Pacific Theaters on Fletcher Parkway, down the hill from Grossmont Mall? Well, once the theaters were built right inside the mall, those by the Trolley Station were abandoned, but the building stayed…and now look at it!

Inside and outside, it is decorated beautifully- the sushi bar has 12 chairs and could accommodate a few more…there were five sushi chefs (one of them female…) working constantly, and a couple of television sets behind them. We ordered a couple of "basics", staring with the fried calamari ($6.95)…sliced thin and with a very light batter…the flavor was good, but the calamari was a bit too chewy; maybe a bit overcooked because it was sliced so thin. Still, it was tasty and a good sized portion, accompanied by the spicy Sriracha flavored dipping sauce.

The Mister ordered a lunch special, which started with a fairly large bowl of onion soup (miso is also a choice). Very rich, not salty, not too onion-y, with thinly sliced mushrooms and fried onion bits floating in it. Very nice (and different)

The shrimp and vegetable tempura lunch plate ($9.00). The portion of rice is an excellent size and quality. The California rolls were fresh and made with *real* crab. The tempura itself was very well done, not burned, not greasy, lightly crispy. There were two shrimp and two each of some of the vegetables-mushroom, broccoli, sweet potato and one each of a fresh string bean, onion and green pepper. All of the vegetables were crispy fresh and tasty- the frying did not destroy anything. Very good.

I decided to try the seafood salad ($12.50) -opposed to the $17 Chirashi Sushi- Don’t let this photo fool you: I was trying to be non-conspicuous and this was the only photo I could get. The bottom of this salad bowl was *filled* with seafood pieces; the albacore being the best of all. I liked the salmon, hamachi, ika and tuna also. Each piece of seafood was extremely fresh and not just some thoughtless ‘endpiece’ tossed in there. the salad was fresh with a light garlic ginger soy dressing. Again, this was more than enough food. The photo looks small portion but it isn’t.

Oh, the hot tea was *excellent* and free. I also noticed free refills of soda.

Banbu Sushi Bar and Grill 8555 Fletcher Parkway (between Grossmont Center Drive and Nagel) La Mesa 91942 (619)589-0071 (Closed between lunch and dinner M-Sat) Sunday open at 1 p.m. until 9 p.m.

Sushi Porn 2: The Sequel from Sammy

January 22, 2008 ed fromyuma Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

*** On October 11th 2008 Sammy called it a day.

Welcome to mmm-yoso!!!, Kirk's blog on the wonderful world of food from San Diego and beyond. Sometimes, he lets one of his friends post here, and today, ed from Yuma will share some more salacious sushi pics.

A few weeks ago when I was preparing my first excursion into the fishy world of sushi pornography, I was surprised by how many of my favorite raw pictures were of items from Sammy Sushi, not Sakura.

After I thought about it for a while, I began to understand why. Ever since I first wandered into Katzra, where Sammy was then employed, on a rainy night many years ago, I have been impressed by Sammy's skills as an itamae. Not only is his fish usually fresh and tasty, but he creates an atmosphere of warmth and friendliness in his sushi bar. Over the last few years he has honed these skills (as well as a number of knives, I suspect) at his own place on Engineer, about a block away from Convoy.

While Sammy's kitchen does not turn out the wide range of tasty izakaya treats like Sakura, he does more than just sushi. For example, the salmon skin salad is a wonderful combination of crunchy, fishy, and smoky flavors:

In addition, Sammy's appeals to me because it is a great American neighborhood sushi bar (in the best sense of the term). The friendly atmosphere and reasonable prices attract a lot of regulars. If one wants to watch a World Cup game or a baseball playoff, Sammy has no problem turning on his television set. Similarly, Sammy's menu contains a wide range of America's favorite rolled sushi. Sometimes it's nice to tuck into something like a spider roll or rainbow roll, though in general, my taste in rolls runs to the more traditional, as in this beautiful albacore roll:

Sammy also creates pressed sushi, using the mold somewhat like a plastic ice cube tray to create oblong cubes of densely packed rice and raw fish:

As you can tell from this close-up, this version contains maguro and some crunchy items along with the rice, presenting a mix of flavors and textures:

Sammy also does a wide range of nigiri sushi. The salmon and mirugai shown here were both excellent:

Some days, the sushi at Sammy's crosses over the line into the obscenely good. This display of naked fishflesh (hamachi) makes me want to eat my computer screen:

Similarly, I cannot imagine any connoisseur of crustaceans not being aroused by this gorgeous display of amaebi, split wide open, its pearly moist luster beckoning the viewer into serious indulgence:

Of course, in my mind, no post on such an erotic and exotic topic would be complete without a look at some fresh uni. Here the sex organs of a sea urchin lie exposed above the rest of its body:

In the tradition of fine pornography (so I am told), I feel it is completely appropriate to end with a close-up of this kinky echinoderm, a picture that leaves nothing (except the rich creamy flavor) to the imagination:

Now that is truly obscene.

Sammy Sushi, 7905 Engineer Road San Diego, CA 92111

Sushi Porn: Pics from Sakura

December 18, 2007 ed fromyuma Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Hello readers. This is Kirk’s incredible mmm-yoso blog, but sometimes he shares the fun (?) of blogging with a few of his friends. For the last three months, I (ed from Yuma) have been enjoying the posts by Kirk and Cathy and others. Today, I finally get to do another one.

Several weeks ago, Cathy’s wonderful posting on lunch at Sakura reminded me that I had some decent pictures from a couple of recent (well sometime in the last two years) visits that I could share with everyone who reads mmm-yoso!!!

I usually let Kazu serve me what he wants to serve me, although I will occasionally provide guidelines or suggest something that I just have to eat that evening. Most often he starts me off with an exotic sashimi platter. This one is both typical and beautiful:

In fact, I thought it was so pretty I took another picture of it from a different angle:

I remember the ama ebi (sweet shrimp) as being especially succulent and rich in flavor. This also has to be one of the largest sweet shrimp that I have ever been served. The aji, always a specialty at Sakura, was outstanding. The maguro was good although nothing special, but the rich salmon made up for the rather ordinary tuna. Soon after I had gobbled up all of this wonderful fresh raw seafood, the shrimp head (which I’d torn into two pieces) and the aji bones were brought back to me deep-fried and tasty:

On another visit, the sashimi featured fresh local uni perched next to crunchy chunks of abalone (awabi). The abalone was almost too crunchy for my taste, but the uni was excellent as always:

I love this picture of fatty salmon belly and rich and succulent hamachi. Both tasted as good as they look. Both were extremely unctuous (in a very good way):

The Toro that evening was similarly superb and beautiful, so pretty in fact that this pic has become my avatar at Chowhound. Not that I see myself as a tuna belly (tunas are sleek and muscular, after all), but from their bellies to mine is sortof my sushi mantra:

After serving me a long chewy piece of squid (ika) wrapped around cucumber matched with a crunchy slice of giant clam neck (mirugai), Kazu presented me with saba (mackerel), something I don’t recall having eaten there before. With one taste, I realized that this was not the standard, pre-marinated mackerel with that standard sour fishy flavor, but instead these 5 slices were a real treat, Kazu’s own marinated saba, the best I have ever eaten. If one could taste the essence of the Pacific Ocean, I am convinced it would taste just like the saba that evening:
On another occasion, I was served spicy toro roll, the light spiciness perhaps covering up some shortcoming in the tuna belly. In any case, the smooth richness of the toro came through perfectly:

Since I don’t often order items, I am often unsure of the name of things I am served. I believe this fish salad is albacore tataki. In any case, it contained lightly seared moist and tender albacore slices: :

Tako wasabi is one of my favorite dishes, so it deserves a picture here too: Over the years, Kazu has served me many stew like dishes. At first this seemed strange as it didn’t fit my rather simple ideas about what Japanese food was. Now Sakura’s various izakaya specialties seem normal to me. In fact, many folks believe that the kitchen at Sakura turns out even better food than the sushi bar. This particular beef stew with perfectly cooked, but still firm potatoes and crunchy pea pods was both simple and flavorful. The chunks of beef had achieved a perfect balance of meaty flavor and a rich and tender mouthfeel. For dessert, my favorite thing (unless it has already been served to me) is always uni. What a way to finish: That looks so fresh and tasty that I’m salivating just sitting here at my computer looking at it. In any case, I hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures as much as I have enjoyed re-experiencing some tasty treats from my favorite San Diego restaurant.

Sushi Hut- a local (3 store) ch-ch-chain

September 15, 2007 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is the blog and Kirk is on vacation. Here is another post of what Cathy ate one day.

Hi. I'm back with a short post. The Mister and I went to one of the locations of Sushi Hut (in Mission Valley) around March of this year and were not overly impressed. I even deleted those photos from my camera, planning to not talk about it, primarily because I didn't want to bother going back to try different dishes. Not bad food, not great food, just…food.

We were on Clairmont Mesa Boulevard the other day and saw a couple of places inside the parking lot Kitty Corner from the Rockler Store (and Cheetahs..the men reading this know where I am now, right?) and Lo and Behold, another Sushi Hut. A chain- who knew?

Well, we were hungry; there is a Mexican place and a Boba place a few doors down, but we thought we could try Sushi Hut one more time, just to see if it was still…meh…just food, or something better. We were pleasantly surprised.

The paper menu says that all photos and slogans are copy written, so I won't post a photo of the menu here, but you can look at it on the Sushi Hut website,

Basically the menu has sushi, rolls, Bento Plates, Bowls and wraps, along with some Combinations thereof. They also make some beautiful looking Party Trays.

I decided to let another wrap come into my life- second one ever – I don't know where have been, but I wanted to try this version. Teriyaki chicken, steamed vegetables and sweet rice. ($4.59)It was a Teriyaki Bowl in a tortilla, and pretty good. The chicken was all white meat, the Teriyaki sauce was not overwhelming (and I added some 'spicy teriyaki' from the condiment area after my first few bites), the vegetables were crispy/fresh steamed/not soggy and the rice was a good sticky rice. The serving was quite large for me.

The Mister tried the Bento #2 Platter ($5.29) pretty much katsu chicken cutlets, rice, two fried shrimp and seaweed salad. We recalled that on our first visit at the other location, they told us they were out of seaweed salad, which has become one of my cravings this year for some reason- I have to try the seaweed salad whenever I see it on a menu or for sale in a market. This seaweed salad was good with a few different types of seaweed and a light sesame dressing and good, fresh crunch. The chicken cutlet was lightly breaded and fried and topped with a Ponzu sauce and sesame seeds and the fried shrimp were lightly breaded with breadcrumbs and light fried so that you could taste the sweetness of the shrimp.

All in all, Sushi Hut has a good fast service and fresh food. The rolls are numerous and made fresh to order and some selections come in two sizes if maybe you just want to try a few. We were not impressed with the rolls the first time we got them at the Mission Valley location and did not want to try them on this visit. If you are in the area, stop and try a bite. (This is my subtle way of saying don't go out of your way to try it).

Sushi Hut 8058 Clairmont Mesa Blvd San Diego 92111 (858) 874-5803

5624 Mission Center Road San Diego 92108 (619) 6889214

8240 Mira Mesa Blvd San Diego 92126 (858)689-2475

Website -Click here

Sushi Time

June 10, 2007 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi

**** Sushi Time has closed

A few months back, I was having some sushi, and since eating at the sushi bar is very much a "social" activity, the nice gentleman to my left struck up a conversation. As with many of my conversations, the subject ended up being steered toward food (If anything, I'm consistent), and in particular, sushi. Toward the end of the conversation, he leaned toward me, and in the most conspiratorial tone, started whispering the name of "his" favorite sushi bar. Was it Ota? Maybe Shirahama? Or Sakura? The conversation went something like this:

"Sushi…..in Lemon Grove, huh?"
"Yeah, it's my go-to place in East County for sushi…."
"What's the name of the place?"
"It's called Sushi Time, I know, I know, don't let the name fool you"
"Really? Sushi Time, in Lemon Grove…."

And so, a few months later, here I was on the corner of Federal Boulevard and College Avenue. I guess it was sushi time…

I had seen this place before when visiting a nearby taco shop, but never, ever, thought I'd be eating here. I entered the dark restaurant which was pretty busy, and quickly noticed 2 things; first, I was the only Asian customer in the entire restaurant, and number two, there was the ubiquitous sheets of colored paper with names of various "rolls" taped across the back of the sushi bar……

I found a seat before two of the Itamae working, and started up a conversation with the young man. I was given a check-off sheet for sushi, SOP in most of these type of places, but decided to ask and see what was "good" this evening.

Me: "So what's good today?"
Young Itamae: Looks at me, and after taking a brief pause, "What do you eat?"
Me: "I eat anything…."
Young Itamae: Shrugs his shoulders, and gives me a small grin, "Well, we have most everything on the menu…"
Me: "Toro?"
Young Itamae: "Oh sorry, no toro…."

Somewhat nonplussed and realizing I was going nowhere, I did strategy two, and bought the Itamae some beer. Which made things quite friendly all around. I never did find out what "was good", but I did find out that the two really nice "kids"(Joe from the Valley, and Sho-go from Okinawa) were both students at San Diego State. The older gentleman was the Owner, but during my visits I never had the chance to sit in front of Him, though we had a nice conversation. It seems that he's also from Okinawa, and knew both Jou(former Owner of Sushi Ishikawa) and Kuni (former Owner of Katzra).

So I placed an order "to start" and after watching about two dozen rolls go by, the first part of my order was handed to me. And I was in shock…

It's hard to discern from the photo, but these were the largest nigiri I've ever had, in both the amount of fish, and rice…..

The Hamachi "Toro"($5.95) was quite good, creamy, with nice fat.

A far cry from the amazing Buri Toro I once had, but I was quite pleased. Much better than expected.

The Albacore "Toro"($5.95) was not quite as good, a bit on the stringy-tough side.

I'm not a big fan of Sriracha on nigiri, and made a mental note to ask to have it left off next time.

I'd asked for Hirame (Flounder) but they were out. By this time, the Young Itamae making my sushi suggested something called "white tuna"($4.95) on the menu. Now, I'm in the habit of calling Albacore "Shiro Maguro"(White Tuna), but they already had Albacore on the menu. This is what arrived:

After a bit of questioning, Joe explained that this was Escolar. Now I've had Escolar cooked, but never raw. Also, Escolar is banned in Japan, why, you may ask? Well, you can read about it here. Looks a lot like Chilean Sea Bass, but it didn't have much flavor, and I could tell that this was "saku" (cut and refrozen) fish. It had that mushy-watery texture of "saku" fish. If you're wondering, I had no side effects, even though Sam later told me, "Kirk-san do not eat that fish, people die from eating it!"(I think a bit over dramatic on his part) It seems that after consuming Escolar a percentage of people suffer from Keriorrhoea, nuff said, you can read about it yourself, after all this is a food blog, so let's get back to the food.

By this time, I was pretty full from the jumbo nigiri, but still had one more item coming. The Amaebi:

This was fine, not overly sweet, but okay. The Atama(deep fried shrimp heads) were a bit too hard and chewy.

By his time, I had hit the wall, I was totally stuffed. I was still a bit surprised at the size of the Nigiri. Thinking that perhaps I got preferential treatment because of the "beer", I asked him if the size of the nigiri (I was the only person who I saw eating Nigiri that whole evening) was the norm. He replied that this was the "normal" sized nigiri sushi. The sushi was fine for neighborhood sushi. As you can tell, the cutting of the fish was not done with an immense amount of skill, but the rice was uniform in size.

When I returned home and downloaded my photos, realized that it was hard to determine the size of the nigiri. That when I decided to make another visit to Sushi Time…more research, you could say! This time it was on a Friday night, and the place was fairly busy, I could see various rolls practically flying out to hungry patrons sitting in the dining area. I managed to grab a seat in the exact same spot as my previous visit.

So this time, I ordered with some caution. And started with some Chu-Toro, the piece of fatty tuna toward the end of the belly. It's not quite as fatty or rich as O-Toro, but usually good nonetheless.

This was not bad, I've had better, and I've had worse. It pretty low in the fat department, but I was satisfied. I also got the last of it. I can see how that happened, thought these were not as large as the nigiri on my last visit, it was still quite large, and you can't get too many nigiri from one piece.

I tried to figure out a way to communicate the size…I think a comparison to my index finger came out the best:

Or maybe my cellphone(this was the smaller of the two pieces)

This time they had Hirame($4.50), but I forgot to tell them to not put on the Sriracha:

The fish was fresh, firm without being too tough and chewy.

Albacore($4.50):

Just so-so.

As before the Hamachi "Toro" was the best item of the night.

When you think about it, Sushi Time does a pretty good job for a place that does everything from Donburi to Teriyaki to Sushi. The clientle is as diverse as the menu. The service I received was very nice, even though the poor Itamae were slammed…I've never seen so many sushi rolls in my life. Personally, I'm not a big fan of super-sized sushi, preferring the perfect bite, and quality over quantity, but Sushi Time does a pretty good job, and the fish varied from decent to good. Plus, Sho-go and Joe were both really nice guys.

Sushi Time
6950 Federal Blvd
Lemon Grove, California 91945

Tokyo Sushi Loha on El Cajon Boulevard- which is not the same place as Tokyo in El Cajon

May 29, 2007 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome to the blog called mmm-yoso. Despite the fact that it is an Asian restaurant, Kirk is not blogging about it; Cathy is. It’s OK. She knows if food is good or bad.

Hi again. A few people told me about this sushi place near SDSU, and that I should try it. I didn’t think about the name of it. The Mister and I went there for lunch the other day…I saw the name was Tokyo Sushi Loha…sounded…well…heck, I had blogged about Tokyo in El Cajon, and remember one comment, from Mike, who said he went to Tokyo all the time and their sushi had the best prices in town…and well, if you read that post, you can see it was part of my string of bad meals (and actually, generally bad days) I was having back in February. It came full circle when I was eating in this lovely restaurant.

I really think Mike was talking about this place, which is on El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego and not in El Cajon. This place is good. The sushi bar is very large and always busy.

As you can see from the menu (click on any photo and it enlarges) they have lunch specials, a variety of items for dinner and sushi and rolls.

There are only 13 tables inside, 12 seats at the sushi bar. It was almost full at 1 p.m.. The menu covers are made of bamboo, and so are the paper wrapped chopsticks. When they bring you the menu, they also give you the sushi and roll menu and a pen, so you can order that way if you wish. We decided to not go with the specials and ordered some crazy things, oddly, no rice was involved in any of our dishes. {Actually there was a reason for my eating no carbs, and you’ll find that out in a future post}

We read the sushi and roll menu and decided on the very last one listed- "Monkey Brains"- ($6.95)

Hush.

Deep fried spicy tuna with mushroom. Well, the idea of a deep fried mushroom sounded like County Fair Food and we both enjoy that as one of our treats when we do go to the Fair, as well as we wanted to try some spicy tuna…so we chose it. There were those four half tennis ball sized pieces as the serving- and then the cross section- spicy tuna, a layer of real crab and then a flavorful portobella mushroom cap on the bottom, deep fried. The description did not say it had crab, but I did notice that ‘crab’ was spelled correctly all over the menu, so I was happy. The melding of the flavors was perfect. The tuna was a nice spicy hot, the crab and mushroom both flavorful, the crunchies, fish eggs and green onions left over helped with our other plates and the sauce on the plate had a nice blend of sweet and heat. The fried crust was nice, light,not oily. Sure, nothing traditional, but we have established that I am the Caucasian person from East County blogging here…It tasted good and was fresh.

We decided to try the sesame chicken appetizer ($5.95) as opposed to the sesame chicken lunch special, which would have been $1 more and had less chicken, but would have had rice, a piece of tempura’d onion, salad, and 4 pieces of California roll. This was all chicken in a not too sweet teriyaki sauce and sesame seeds, served with daikon (and a piece of broccoli) This was a good 3/4 pound, easily, of dark meat chicken and was cooked well- the meat was juicy and flavorful. I did end up dipping it in the hot sauce from the ‘Monkey Brains’, just to get rid of some of the sweetness after eating a good portion of it.

We decided to try the Seared Albacore Salad ($7.95). This was a good choice. The albacore was cut in chunks and not thinly sliced, as it would be for sashimi, but it was only lightly seared, still raw in the center of each cube and served on a bed of mixed greens with a nice spicy dressing, daikon, radish sprouts and, as you can see, surrounded by a border of thinly sliced tomato. It was just a beautiful, as well as flavorful, presentation. There was a lot of albacore on this salad, as well as the token piece of burdock, which seems to be included on every salad in every Japanese restaurant we go to.

There were many Caucasian people eating lunch here. All the workers were Japanese. I heard the owner is Korean. Everyone was helpful and friendly and willing to answer questions. It is a small place. MY ONLY COMPLAINT WAS THE MUSIC WAS TURNED UP FULL VOLUME THE WHOLE TIME WE WERE THERE. Five television sets, two set to basketball and three set to Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera ‘live’ concerts.

Tokyo Sushi Loha Japanese Bistro 6784 El Cajon Boulevard, Suite D San Diego 92115 (619)644-8600 fax (619) 697-1937

Lunch Mon-Sat 11:30-3:00 Dinner Mon-Sat 5:00-9:30 (10:00 on Fri-Sat) Dinner only Sunday 4:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.