A Girl's Best Friend: Sugarfish

If there's one thing I love and know, it's sushi. I have tried over half of the "best" sushi restaurants in Los Angeles, and always make it a point to try sushi in every new city I visit. It is, without a doubt, my favorite food, and the sole reason I cannot call myself a full vegetarian.

Yesterday, my boyfriend decided to treat us to a date night, and told me to pick the restaurant. I debated between our few normal sushi places, but then I remembered that I had heard from a few friends about Sugarfish in Studio City. I took a look at their website, and was immediately intrigued, but skeptical.

Their sushi menu is very simple, more so than any other restaurant I've ever seen. They have a few kinds of sushi, and a few types of rolls, plus your basic drinks and edamame. The point is that the quality of the sushi is highlighted, instead of pouring sauces all over the sushi and rolls. Here is a little excerpt from the menu:

Great sushi highlights the quality of the ingredients instead of “fancy” sauces and rolls.

Great sushi needs great rice– rice that is warm and loosely packed to create a melt-in-your- mouth sensation beneath the cool fish.

Seaweed needs to be of the highest quality:

hand rolls should be eaten right away

to enjoy the seaweed at its very best.

Each plate is served as soon as it is prepared to give our guests the freshest food possible, so please enjoy your sushi as soon as it arrives.

I am here to tell you that if you live in Los Angeles, or come for a visit, a trip to Sugarfish is an absolute must. My boyfriend and I both said we will never eat sushi anywhere else, and I probably never will. Each piece of sushi melts in your mouth, and is the highest quality fish I have ever tasted. The rice is warm and loosely packed, and is unlike any sushi rice I have ever seen served.

There are three pre-fixed menus - "trust me," "trust me lite," and "the nozawa." I was expecting the prices to be astronomical for the quality of the sushi, but they were not at all. In fact, they were much cheaper than the upscale sushi restaurants in LA, and about the same cost as the mid level sushi restaurants I used to go to for a typical dinner or lunch out.

We got "The Nozawa" and split it. It was plenty of food for us, and is only $39. That's 20 per person, for a filling meal of the highest quality sushi, I believe, you can find in Los Angeles. If you are by yourself, I would recommend the "trust me lite" for $19.75.

With "The Nozawa" you get organic edamame, tuna sashimi, albacore sushi, salmon sushi, snapper sushi, yellowtail sushi, hallibut sushi, the daily special (which was scallop sushi), the toro hand roll (yellowtail), and a blue crab hand roll.

I must also mention that for a place of this calibre, sometimes the staff can leave a lot to be desired. Sugarfish is the exact opposite. Our waiter and the manager were incredibly attentive, and with every dish they brought, they explained how best enjoy it, and seemed so humbled by our compliments. Additionally, we ordered 2 pc's of "uni" or "sea urchin," because we wanted to be a little bit adventurous. We knew that if we were ever going to try sea urchin, it would have to be at Sugarfish. Unfortunately, we did not care for it, but hey - at least we tried! Without us even asking, the waiter took it off of our bill, which I found very thoughtful. At a restaurant like this, they do not have to treat their customers this well. But, they do.

Thank you Sugarfish for changing the way I look at sushi. I could never imagine going anywhere else.

www.sugarfishsushi.com