There are little strip malls all over Hollywood. And, generally included in these strip malls are an international restaurant or two intermixed amongst fast food, convenience stores, and massage parlours. In some cases, the massage parlours are replaced by pop-up gyms… San Francisco has pop-up restaurants… but LA has pop-up gyms.
I’ve seen Russian food, Armenian, Brazilian, Peruvian, Thai, Japanese… and some are completely fantastic. From the outside they appear rather non-descript but once you are inside, some transport you into a foodie paradise. I like these pleasant surprises and I’ve started to seek out these unicorns. Sushi is my immediate go-to because it’s easy to find and also (for the most part) gf.
Below are the findings around Hollywood Boulevard. I’ve rated the restaurants based on a tier system, which I worked out with my co-workers (it’s our secret code). Tier 1 is the highest and Tier 3 the lowest. In each of these tiers, we use a high, medium, and low rating.
Here is an overly complicated version of our map:
- H Tier 1: Michelin Star. Celebrity chef. Completely unique and difficult creations. Fish is so fresh that it melts in your mouth.
- M Tier 1: Classy. Unique creations. Other restaurants try to copy. High quality ingredients.
- L Tier 1: High end trendy. Includes different styles of sushi/sashimi and know how to use appropriate sauces.
- H Tier 2: Trendy, foodie approved, sit-down restaurant. Offer unique and artistic signature rolls and rice bowls.
- M Tier 2: Americanized sit-down restaurant… consistent. Offer some signature rolls with the standards: volcano, rock n’ roll.
- L Tier 2: Good quality supermarket/food truck sushi. Have only standard rolls and no signatures: dragon, salmon, avocado.
- H Tier 3: Fast food sushi. Think Edo Japan… the McDonalds of sushi.
- M Tier 3: Sushi made with cheap vegetables as a filler. Only eat if you are really hungry and have no other options.
- L Tier 3: Suspicious. Avoid at all costs.
Cho Oishi Sushi
This restaurant is located on the top floor of the Hollywood & Highland Mall. It sees a lot of tourists, mall rats, and convention attendees (because of its proximity to hotels). It’s much quieter in the winter.
Personally, I think the sushi here is rather meh and feel a little bit like a traitor for writing this because the staff are always so nice and know me by name! It is the only gf restaurant steps away from my hotel so I come here a lot when I am exhausted and need to avoid the chaos of the strip. I’ve learned here that some of the sushi chefs are better than others… especially during the day. They either nail it or it is meh. Glutinos beware: they seem to like to deep fry everything in tempura before it goes into a roll… so ask. They don’t have tamari soy sauce, but also water down the regular soy sauce to the point where it no longer has taste.
Rating: I would consider this M Tier 2. It’s middle of the road Americanized sushi.
Location: 6801 Hollywood Boulevard
Soy Sauce Roll Bowl
Really really bad. Just don’t. This is really disappointing because I know people who highly recommend this restaurant… including Yelp. I now silently judge all these people and I’ve stopped believing Yelp.
Rating: M Tier 3.
Location: 7131 Sunset Boulevard
Shintaro
From the outside, this restaurant is rather unassuming and bland. But after just one visit, this place became my own personal Jesus Christ. Not only do they serve saki at the proper temperature, but they also really know how to dress up a sushi bowl. It’s very popular amongst the non-tourist LA foodie folks and is often filled with publicists. How do I know this, you ask? Because these people are really loud when they talk and it’s a very intimate environment.
Rating: I’ve had disagreements with co-workers on the rating of this one. Our overall consensus is H Tier 2.
Location: 1900 Highland Avenue
Kino
This restaurant was a huge surprise for me… huge. It’s on Hollywood, slightly away from the chaos, but close enough for it to be “grouped in” with all the fast food, overpriced Boulevard restaurants. But it’s none of these things. They have interesting and unique rolls, extremely fresh fish, appropriate use of sauces, and really nice staff. They’ve also come up with creations that are made without rice and without seaweed as the wrap.
Rating: I think this is an L Tier 1 because of their unique sushi, use of sauces, and fresh taste. The sushi here is better than Shintaro but the atmosphere is less “foodie”.
Location: 6721 Hollywood Boulevard
Kabuki
This place was confusing: the atmosphere is hip and lively, the selections are unique and different… but the sushi itself sucks. It might be as pretty as cake, but it is completely tasteless and they use too much rice. The sauces are strange and the fish combinations confusing.
I’m also not sure that what I ordered arrived at the table… I can’t validate this because the menu was difficult to sift through and it was really hard to talk to my waitress who kept calling me “Lady” after ID-ing me when I ordered saki (which was so hot that it burned my mouth).
Rating: I think this is somewhere in the Tier 3 realm because of the poor quality rolls (the rolls tasted like they came from Edo). I’d rate it as an H Tier 3. It’s Americanized fast-food sushi pretending to be something more.
Location: 1545 Vine Street
PokiNomintry
Fast. Cheap. Fresh. Tasty. They serve delicious and filling poke bowls assembly-line style.
How it works: you walk in and choose your base (brown rice, salad, white rice, burrito), pick your second layer (avocado, crab), pick your “nemos” (salmon, tuna, scallop, shrimp — you get a choice of 2 or 3 depending on bowl size), pick your sauce (the staff will help if you’re unsure), and finally, you pick toppings (onions, roe, seaweed). They mush it all together and you have a poke bowl.
This is in the heart of Hollywood, which is super convenient when you work on the strip or are a tourist… but not if you are coming in from elsewhere. Tip: it’s kinda hidden on a platform behind the Chinese Theatre. There’s a set of stairs that lead to the restaurant on the boulevard between the Chinese Theatre and the Dolby Theatre (not the Oscar stairway). The other way to get to the restaurant is to go to the Hollywood/Highland Mall (3rd Level) and walk toward the Chinese Theatre from the middle.
Rating: I’d rate this as an H Tier 2 even though it is not a sit-down restaurant. It’s fast. It’s good. It’s cheap. A great place for lunch.
Location: 6801 Hollywood Blvd
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