Restaurant: The Brothers Sushi Santa Monica — but not — Shunji Hashiba
Location: 1008 Montana Ave #1, Santa Monica, CA 90403. (424) 330-0270
Date: July 8, 2023
Cuisine: Toyko Sushi
Rating: Awesome — maybe the best sushi I’ve had in the states
Our Foodie Gang has been going to the incredible “The Brothers Sushi” in the valley for some time now, and it was with much glee that we welcomed in the brand new (and somewhat delayed) Montana Santa Monica location. Now it’s become a bit of a staple spot for us.
This meal was special, with Brothers owner Mark hosting Shunji Hashiba, the No.1 Protégé of Tokyo’s world-renowned 3 Michelin star Sushi Saito.
The space used to be the repulsive Louise’s Trattoria, serving not exactly Italian for decades. But Brother’s has given it a major new makeover.
The build out is gorgeous. Here the bar is for omakase only and the tables are for à la carte only.
More details.
Shunji Hashiba, the No.1 Protégé of Tokyo’s world-renowned 3 Michelin star Sushi Saito, came to Los Angeles for a special pop-up event. July 8th, 9th and 10th. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Angelenos to experience one of the most exclusive introduction-only sushiya in the world on US soil.
Of course I’ve eaten at Brother’s itself countless times and really enjoy the cooking of chef Mark O — who was hosting Chef Shunji for this special event.
The menu.
Welcome glass of rose champagne.
The first of our Otsumami dishes, a “welcome dashi.” I small glass of unsalted perch bone stock. Mellow, fishy, delicious, and a perfect cure for any common cold.
Chef Shunji at work.
Kinmedai Sesame Tofu.. Homemade sesame tofu, Goldeneye snapper, Seaweed. Warm sauce, cool fish. Lovely. Salty. Very savory. Had one of those delectable soft squishy textures that many Americans might find “odd.”
Steamed Grouper Sushi. Sushi rice, peas, nori, ginger. Really incredible textures and subtle flavor. The fish was cooked but incredibly moist, like it had been oil poached. The overall blend was just very comforting.
Incredible sake. One of the most fruity I’ve ever had.
Sea Urchin Corn Chawamushi. Sweet corn, Hokaido Uni, Purple something. An absolutely stunning custard. Sweet (from the corn) and salty, with this incredible soft texture puncuated by bits of slightly chewy. There was also a stachy gooey texture not unlike that produced by cooked okra.
Tuna Cheek Tamayaki with Shunji’s special blended Shichimi salt. Two chunks of cooked tuna: kama toro and cheek. One was darker are even more meaty than the other. But were so rich, almost beefy, and very clean tasting. Just perfect with the salty & limey special salt. Or the wasabi. Or both. Or the sunomono style cucumber pickles. Awesome dish.
You can see the special salt better here. It was so good I was eating it plain after I finished the fish. There was some kind of ground citrus rind in there, probably one of the Japanese ones like Yuzu or its cousins. Awesome.
Simmered Octopus. So ridiculously tender. Slightly sweet. I drank the sauce (which was the sweet part). Softest octopus I’ve ever had by a large margin.
Pickles and pickled ginger. The ginger was very mild and didn’t really have any sweetness. There was also cerely and some other bit. I love pickles. Unfortuantly they didn’t refresh them as I could have eaten several containers.
White Baby Shrimp. Every fish tonight was from Japan. This was super soft. Slightly bitter (but good) finish.
King Salmon Nigiri. Shunji marinated it in a soy based solution for a few minutes before forming the nigiri. The fish was melt in your mouth soft.
Bigfin Reef Squid. A bit of yuzu juice and super tender.
Mackerel. Super soft and not very “pickled” (if at all). Formed into one of those little nori “pinch rolls.”
The second amazing sake.
Chutoro. A cloud-like texture.
Kohada Gizzard Shad. Strong in a great way with a bit of a ginger bite.
Otoro. What can we say? Richer than the chutoro, but I actually prefered the cloud like texture of the latter.
Akami Zuke. Amazing.
Trout Caviar Sujiko. These are only available for 2 weeks a year! It’s basically like “underipe” Ikura. I’ve never had any type of trout/salmon roe as a nigri actually. Pretty awesome.
Pink Unicorn sake!
Hamaguri Clam. Sweet sauce like a great eel sauce.
Sea Urchin Roll. Hokaido uni. I’ve never had an uni cut roll. Pretty awesome too.
Whole abalone.
Abalone nigiri. I didn’t know this was a thing. So tender. Definately the most tender abalone I’ve had, and I’ve had some pretty great ones.
Futomaki Roll. Sort of a fancy eel and “new style” futomaki. The composition is traditional but it didn’t have that pink sugar stuff that they have in Japanese train stations. Delicious and more savory than the pure classic, but highly evocative of same as well.
Miso Soup. Super nice.
Tamago Sweet Egg. Not very sweet. Perfect texture.
Special Melon. It’s been a while since I had one of these perfect Japanese melons. They really are THAT good. Soft, complex sweetness. Lovely.
This was an incredible sushi meal and one of the best I’ve ever had. The style is more Japanese and subtle than we can usually get in LA. My current favorite here is Takeda, which is also amazing, but this reached a new level of textural mastery. Everything was just so ridiculously tender and perfectly balanced. Amazing!
Chefs Shunji (left) and Mark (right)!
The whole gang tonight. We had the entire resteraunt and I was a singleton in this group that all knew each other. One guy knows Erick indirectly, but not in person. They were incredibly nice and “took me in.”
For more Sushi dining reviews click here.
A different Eric who in that small-world way knows “my” Erick.