Restaurant: Sushi Tsujita
Location: 2006 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. 310.231.1177
Date: October 9, 2014
Cuisine: Japanese Sushi
Rating: Classic Fish
One of the busiest and yummiest spots on the busy Sawtelle Blvd is Tsujita Artisan Noodles (and annex), which serve up an insanely rich and delicious porky ramen. The owner, Takehiro Tsujita, was cooked up a third place just down the street — well actually cooked isn’t the right word since this is a high end, omakase focused, traditional sushi joint helmed by chef Shigeru Kato.
Sushi Tsujita specializes in traditional sushi preparations that involve a lot of subtle salting, curing, and marinating.
The interior has been jazzed up since its previous engagement as Orris.
2000 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte. Burghound 95. While discreet, there is a trace of wood that sits atop the ever-so-mildly exotic fruit and wonderfully layered aromas that are still admirably fresh even though they now display some mature notes. The exceptionally rich and overtly muscular flavors are quite forward though powerful as a still firm and prominent acid spine keeps everything in perfect balance on the magnificently persistent finish. This is classy juice that is knocking on the door of its prime drinkability.
agavin: our bottle was unfortunately badly premoxed
Stewed motomara tomato.
A bit of everything. Persimmon with tofu (back in the sub-dish). Sea pike cooked with sake, soy sauce, & ginger (back left). Shrimp cooked with sake and black cod roe (front left). Oyster & baby abalone (front). Ginko nuts. Crispy rice (center back).
Steamed Abalone with mizuna mustard greens. Marinated with bonito broth.
Dobin-mushi. Matsutake mushroom, sea eel, chicken, mitsuba, ginko nuts, sudachi.
Very Japanese, this soup is in a little teapot with the cup (and yuzu) on top.
First one pours out and drinks the light dashi broth.
Then one can pick out the eel, shrimp, chicken and the like.
Sashimi. Nodo kuro (black sea perch), blue fin tuna, tai.
Snapper (tai).
Kinmedai (golden eye snapper).
Grouper (hata).
Scallop with truffle.
1995 Robert Ampeau & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes. 92 points. Tis is medium gold. Nose is very ripe fruit and honey, but not boytritis. Sweet and satiny and weighty, acid is failing. Finishes with baked apples and pastry.
Steamed golden snapper head. With silky tofu. This was rather delicious, and was dipped in a light sauce zested with green onion and daikon.
Ginger. Chunks of very strong and tasty ginger.
Egg with eggplant caviar. Gooey!
Sea robin. (Hobo).
Sea pike? (sanma). It can be hard to remember which fish is which.
Chu-toro.
O-Toro. Awesome.
Kanpachi (amberjack).
Waygu beef. Delicious and melt in the mouth.
Halibut.
A pretty double course.
King crab (kani).
Salmon roe (ikura) and sea urchin (uni). Fabulous.
Sweet shrimp (ebi). The heads were still moving.
But not after being turned into shrimp head miso!
Mackerel (saba).
Sea bass (suzuki). Marinated in kelp.
Egg (tamago).
Melon for dessert.
And roasted tea.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Tsujita, but the meal proved to be quite interesting. Absolutely first rate sushi, and of a somewhat different ilk than most of the less cured or particularly heavy vinegar style places (like Sushi Zo). It wasn’t cheap, offering omakase in the $120, $150, and $180 ranges (above is more or less a $180), but this is pretty comparable to other top sushi houses in LA. It’s also on my favorite lunch street, giving Kiriko some competition in the serious sushi world.
