Gin Sushi

I can’t front: Gin Sushi serves the best sushi I’ve ever eaten. Complete with a sushi bar and photographs of happy customers sprawling across its walls, this restaurant’s food quality is hard to beat. Although the service varies highly, especially during the busy night hours, I do not recommend skipping this joint while in the San Gabriel Valley.

Here are photos that detail my latest splurge there:

Salmon sashimi: fat, smooth, and creamy.

Philadelphia roll: The cream cheese does not overwhelm the roll. Instead it complements well with the creamy salmon, making this dish a smooth and fresh delight.

Unagi roll (right): Served with a sweet sauce, this roll’s unagi boosts both freshness and flavor. The unagi itself was a bit crisp around the edges.

Spider roll (left): Crunchy and tantalizing. The mix of ingredients in this provided a light and cold feeling.

Baked scallop crab roll (BSCR): Wonderful! + Tastes heavy. The best verb I can use to describe this is “ooze”. The big amount of sauce on it just oozes out of the roll. The blended flavors just ooze easily out. This roll is such a mouthful that its ingredients just ooze out of your mouth when you bite into it.

Cherry blossom roll: I was informed by a regular of Gin Sushi that this was a new roll. The spicy tuna serves as the main flavor and the rice seems to taste extra sweet. The salmon was just as fat and smooth as the ones used as the sashimi dish.

Dragon fire roll: Filled with cream cheese and spicy tuna, the roll itself was excellent! The pepper was simultaneously juicy and crunchy, which complements well with its crunchy fried exterior. The spicy bang seems to fade the longer the roll sits uneaten, so be sure to eat this the moment it arrives!

Caterpillar roll: The fact that I somehow forgot to take a picture of this roll should not unjustly make you think that this roll isn’t memorable. This perfect combination of the avocado and unagi is one of my favorite dishes at Gin Sushi. It was a bit salty this time, but the avocado never fails to be fresh and the unagi never fails to be sweet.

Might I mention that the prices are also rather fair for such good sushi? Everything totaled about $65 (minus tip).

Don’t be fooled by the photos’ focus on sushi. Gin Sushi serves other kinds of Japanese food, such as noodles, rice bowl combinations, and delicious desserts (pictured: strawberry mochi ice cream and tempura green tea ice cream):

Gin Sushi
3589 E. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91107
(626) 440-9611
website
Sun - Thu 11:00AM to 10:30PM
Fri - Sat 11:00AM to 11:00PM

Lighthouse Buffet

This sushi buffet restaurant was named one of the top five buffets to eat in the nation by the Food Network.

Located conveniently near the ever busy 3rd Street in Santa Monica (on the corner of 2nd and Arizona), this small restaurant has sushi to die for. Although its size cannot compare to Todai, its variety is far different from those of Todai. Its sushi is prepared fresh before your very eyes and extremely tasty--I dare say it even tastes better than Todai's (not to mention it is also about $5 cheaper per person than if you ate at Todai).

My favorite sushi (not really sushi, what is a sushi without fish in it?) was one that had a blend of avocado mixed with onions and cilantro topped on the sticky rice, wrapped with seaweed. It was amazing. The avocado melts in your mouth and the cilantro flavor is just right--not too subtle, not too overwhelming. They also have non-sushi foods there. Aside from the obligatory miso soup and tempura, they also had fried oysters, egg drop soup, and mussels baked in a cheesy sauce. They also had cold baby octopus mixed with vegetables. The octopuii were tender and sweet.

After a heavy meal you can walk it off at the nearby 3rd street--you can have an enjoyable feast and enjoyable walk down fancy shops and amusing entertainers. But beware, don't be like me and arrive 30 minutes before the restaurant closes and the rest of the 3rd street goes to sleep. This restaurant closes at 9 pm (sometimes 9:30 pm) and most of the stores nearby have already closed their shops by then too.

Lighthouse Buffet
201 Arizona Ave.
Santa Monica, CA
(310) 451-2076
website

Mon-Sat 11:30am to 2:30pm
Sun 12pm to 3pm

Sun-Wed 5:30pm-9pm
Thurs-Sat 5:30pm-9:30pm