Ikko Japanese Restaurant - Opens for Lunch Too!

Ikko is one of the well-known sushi joints in Orange County. However, this place seems to get more positive feedback for their hot dishes compared to sashimi and sushi.

Dinner service can be packed and reservation is highly recommended. Good news is that Ikko also opens for lunch from Tuesday to Friday offering sushi, a la carte, and even lunch set at a bargained price. 

Small restaurant with counter seating and a few table settings -

Asahi -

Take a look at the menu (click on the image for an enlarged view) -

Sushi menu and lunch special -

Rolls and nigiri are also available -

Noodles and sashimi bowls -

So many options to choose from -

Chirashi sets -

Even miso soup comes in five different varieties - 

Sake -

Salad that comes with the lunch set -

Bamboo shoot and fennel salad with herb flower and kimone dressing $10 -

Bamboo shoot provides a clean crunchy bite to the salad. Unlike western croutons or crisp bacon that carry a little grease, the non-oily and juicy bamboo shoot gives this salad a refreshing texture.

Uni chawamushi -

Sakura salmon cheek with spicy relish on top -

Kobe beef hambagu with miso demi-glace sauce lunch set $9.75 -

The set also comes with salad, miso soup, and pickled vegetables.

It's actually smaller than I expected but the sauce was seasoned well with a hint of peppery spice, goes really well with white rice -

I think ikko used leaner part of the Kobe beef -

Assorted sashimi lunch with pork and mixed vegetable miso soup, small appetizer, and rice $13.75 - 

Veggie lovers, this is one healthy and satisfying combo. 

Here is comes the nigiri -

Flying squid from Kyushu, Amberjack from Kyushu, yellowtail -

Not complaining at all, I was already happy enough to have Japan imported seafood for my weekday lunch.

Special chirashi set, comes with salad, miso soup, and pickles $25 -

Decent lunch place if you want to indulge a little during weekdays or weighing your options for a company meal. In addition, most of the better sushi restaurants only open for dinner, so ikko might be one of the very few non-Americanized Japanese eateries available around the area. Lucky OC dwellers.

Cindy's rating: 7 (higher score for ikko's non-sushi dishes)

Ikko Japanese Restaurant

735 Baker Street

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

(714) 556-7822

*Saturday and Sunday dinner only

*Closed on Monday

Assorted Sashimi Goodness in One Wooden Bowl - Sushi Koto in Fountain Valley, CA

One of the benefits living in California (for a foodie) is cultural diversity and a wide variety of food that comes along with it. Popular cuisines such as Chinese, Japanese, and Italian are literally everywhere. Even some rare finds like Ethiopian and Burmese restaurants can be spotted. 

More restaurants mean tougher competition. Eateries have to strive for success on flavor, service, price, location, and more. In a way, the customers get the best of it. Taking Japanese sushi for instance, the Sushi Koto in Fountain Valley, CA has worked its way and became the to go place in Orange County for reasonably priced sashimi bowls, aka chirashi in Japanese. 

Prices for a lunch entrée range between $10.5 to $23. Don't be shocked by the $23 price tag. You actually get a good amount of fresh sashimi along with salad, miso soup, and even dessert with the set. Trust me, I tried to make my own chirashi the other day and it can costs quite a lot of money not even mentioning the prep and cleaning works before and after.

Lunch opens daily at 11:30 a.m., try to be there before noon especially during weekends, the seats get filled quickly. 

Lunch menu (click on the image to enlarge the view) -

Some other lunch combinations -

Chirashi variations -

Drink menu -

Koto offers three Japanese beer brands including Asahi, Sapporo, and Kirin -

Generous portion for the salad, especially when compared with the tiny dish you usually get from lunch combos -

Sesame based dressing, not too sticky yet not too diluted. Taste-wise not overly sweetened with granulated sugar. 

Miso soup -

Chef's choice omakase kaisen don $23 -

Am I the only person who wants to bring that wooden box home?

Literally sashimi overflowed and I still couldn't see the rice below after digging with my chopsticks. The restaurant also provides a small/medium size plate so that customers can move some sashimi over. It'll also be easier to find the rice in the sea of fish and crustaceans.

You can dip the seafood with soy sauce and a little bit of wasabi, or mix both on the side then pour over the sashimi to enjoy the meal. It's completely up to you and I've seen Japanese eating chirashi in both ways.

Komochi Konbu -

Herring roe on kelp, crunchier and chewier compared to regular salmon roe/ikura. Some people like the feeling when biting into the roes but I'm never a big fan of it. However, it does provide a different kind of texture to the seafood bowl.

Dessert and hot tea - 

Warabi mochi, fresh berries, sweet red beans, and cream. The dessert was beyond my expectation. At first I thought the dessert will be something like a small scoop of ice cream or pudding instead of this mixture of semi restaurant made sweet items. 

Final bill for two omakase kaisen don -

Sushi Koto can certainly be considered the place to go for bargained chirashi. The freshness is guaranteed especially with the number of customers it receives daily. The sashimi grade might not be the best but definitely well worth the one $20 bill paid for. Service is nice as always for a Japanese establishment. 

If you ever crave for sashimi but don't feel like making a dent in your wallet, or reluctantly to settle for compromised seafood grade at the same time, Sushi Koto's serves all the above purposes with its chirashi selection. Just make sure to get there before lunch and dinner rush hours.


Cindy's Rating: 6 


Sushi Koto (鮨処古都)
18225 Brookhurst Street. Suite 7
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
http://www.kotooc.com/

Operating hours:
Lunch daily from 11:30 a.m. ~ 2:15 p.m.
Dinner Monday to Thursday from 5:30 p.m. ~ 10:00 p.m.
Dinner Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m. ~ 10:30 p.m.
Dinner Sunday from 5:30 p.m. ~ 9:30 p.m.

Don't feel like dining out? How about homemade chirashi:
Festive Japanese Food at Home - Colorful Chirashi as Easy as 1 2 3!

Double the Sushi Pleasure at Sushi Sushi (Beverly Hills)

Sushi Sushi has been recommended by several friends for countless times. The only reason stopping me and Mr. K (my boyfriend by the way) from going is just that the distance is too far for us lazy OC people. However, I guess the urge of trying out new Japanese restaurant finally overwhelmed the hesitation, so one day we were determined enough to step on the gas pedal and made our "long journey" to LA County. Good thing the entire dining experience worth the 58 miles drive - one way.

Omakase is usually the way to go for when trying out high end Japanese restaurant, especially for the first time. However, Sushi Sushi also offers other more affordable sushi and tekkadon combinations starting at $24.

It's a more traditional Japanese style sushi joint, so do not except to find items like rainbow roll, Philadelphia roll, katsu don, or even ramen on the menu. The name of the restaurant already implied not only once, but twice that this is the place for "Sushi Sushi."

Omakase course generally comes with three different prices - $65, $95, $125 and up. I'm not quite sure which one we picked, most likely $95. Either way, to give you a better idea, our entire bill wound up being close to $300, that's including a 720ml bottle of sake.

Harashika 春鹿生酒 Junmai Ginjo Shiboribana, first draft pure rice sake -

Very light and smooth, just how I like my sake to be.

Hotaru ika/firefly squid/螢光烏賊 -

Try to Google the words firefly squid if you never heard of it and you'll be amazed by this night glowing marine life. Fishing season is around March to May, in which visitors also flocking to Toyama Bay in Japan to observe the magnificent blue light glowing along the shore.

Unlike most light tasting squids, the firefly squid seems to have more condensed flavor, partly from its bursting innards when biting into the meat and partly from chef's touch of ponzu seasoning.

I called it pleasure trio -

There is also other type of ika/squid underneath the uni.

Then an array of nigiri begins -

My memory fades since this visit was few months ago. However, the pictures should show that every fish used for nigiri were fresh and smooth in texture.

I like the portion of sushi rice used at Sushi Sushi. The amount is just right for one single bite and in perfect balance with the fish. Bigger is not always better in this scenario, if you get a bigger piece of the fish, then you'll need more rice to balance the flavor. Otherwise might as well just order sashimi if you're looking for a mouthful of fish chunk. 

It won't taste as good when you have to shuffle the entire thing in your month and acting like a chipmunk munching on food that make your cheeks twice as big.

I called it hula nigiri -

Light and silky -

Aji nigiri -

Kohada/gizzard shad nigiri -

Tamago/egg and oshi sushi -

Some hot dishes -

Ikura maki -

I like the overflowing effect.

Our feast continues with even more uni, sweet shrimps, octopus, and several types of shellfish -

Slightly torched uni close up -

It definitely helps in drawing out the sweetness from the uni. Slightly tarred paired with higher level of sweetness, creating a different sensation in the mouth.

Fish soup with the sweet shrimp head (I picked out the head already) -

See the camera lens cap and cell phone on the table? That's how busy I was trying to take pictures with my camera, my cell phone, and quickly finish the food before the temperature rises. The chefs were very friendly despite seeing me taking so many pictures. They were actually discussing about why some sushi restaurants do not allow guests taking pictures.

I might be biased since I'm one of the food picture frenzy member. However, as long as it doesn't disturb other customers and the chefs of course, and as long as you don't take too much time and spoil the fresh taste of the food, I think pictures can be part of the dining experience that help customers to"regurgitate" the delicious memories in the future.

Dessert menu -

  
We picked lemon sorbet and matcha pudding -

Lemon sorbet was very refreshing and not overwhelmingly sourish. I felt like I can eat even more after this dessert, highly recommended. Matcha pudding in the other hand, works more like a real dessert treat after dinner, creamy and slightly sweet to end the perfect evening.


Cindy's rating: 8 (definitely get more than $100 worth of food and experience)


Sushi Sushi
326 1/2 S. Beverly Hills Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
(310) 277-1165
http://www.sushisushibh.com/index.html

Business Hours:
Lunch - Tuesday through Friday, noon to 2 p.m.
Dinner - Tuesday through Saturday, 6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

*Street parking (meter) available
*Make sure to call in advance for reservation, just to be safe