Sushi Spot

Sushi Spot Restaurant Review:

Chef Taku Shimuchi, who hails from Kagoshima, Japan, debuted Sushi Spot in a Tarzana strip mall in 1989. Sit at a black bar that's shaped like half an octagon and backed by a three-panel 3D image of a giant octopus. Cream and red walls are lined with geisha art and a framed System of a Down platinum record. Sure, you can order à la carte, but the best play is the $35 set menu, which delivers value and variety. Start with albacore sashimi, garlic ponzu sauce and crispy fried onions. A sushi parade includes yellowfin and rosy bigeye tuna; black snapper and halibut dressed with sea salt, mint and yuzu; cooked shrimp; and sesame-dusted Scottish salmon draped with kelp. Crispy sushi rice is the only clunker, with chew that does no favors to tuna folded with mayo and chile sauce. Scallop and mussels arrive on the half-shell topped with ponzu sauce, broiled mayo and egg white. Japanese scallop sushi is dressed with lemon, sea salt and a dab of wasabi. Sticky sweet eel sauce dresses broiled freshwater eel, flaky butterfish and tender squid stuffed with imitation crab. The high-value meal concludes with a blue crab hand roll, with sweet meat folded with mayo and wasabi, bursting from a nori wrapper. Looking to go bigger? Submit to the seasonal omakase. To drink, saké and Japanese beer are your best bets.