Asanebo (Studio City)

Back to LA with many belated entries. First up. I met up with a big time foodie friend at Asanebo, also known as the small strip mall sushi place that got Michelin one star (given that Michelin stars are scarce in LA to begin with). We got there at the right place and right time and landed the counter seats facing the chef.

Omakase is in 3 price range: A: $80-100, B: $100-125, C: $125-200. We picked the 2nd level, and requested uni and ‘as exotic as possible’ in general. The waiter took down our names for future records as well.

It started off with a Spinach Salad with Portebello Mushroom and Fried onions. Simple but very delicious, the fried onions provided great texture. Whitefish and Shrimp Roll with Shiso Leaf, Yuzu pepper and Shitake Mushroom with Sweet Onion Salsa, interesting .

Mountain Yam with Uni and Seaweed. The slimy shredded yam and very sweet and creamy are so smooth and gulp-down able together if weren’t for the acidic vinegary sauce. It’s a dish full of contrasts. Very refreshing.

Red Snapper with Yuzu salt and Kanpachi with Miso Paste and Jalapeno. Very fresh and melt in your mouth good.

Halibut with Truffle. The wonderful truffle makes the Habliut more buttery tasting.

King scallop and Grilled octopus. Roasted salt and yuzu pepper are drizzled around the plate, they added to the heavenly grilled aroma. The octopus are very tender (and enhance with some wasabi salt). It’s AMAZING!

Big eye tuna, Yellowtail, Snapper topped with Miso Wasabi sauce. The sauce are a bit overwhelming for my preference, the fresh sashimi are top notch by itself.

On the left: Kagoshima Beef. It’s flown in from Japan, marinated in miso, grilled as a whole filet then minced and mixed with sauce. It’s so tender, smooth and delicate, very un-beef like. They just melt away in your mouth. On the Right: Miso seabass is perfectly cooked and flavorful. They’re meant to be ate with the butter lettuce like a taco.

My friend went back and had this again, the Kagoshima beef were in a whole piece…amazing!

Soup and Shrimp head. The chef show us the still breathing shrimp heads before these poor little fellers were deep fried.

Toro, Aji, Amaebi and Kimantai. So good! The sweet shrimp wasn’t as sweet as I expected though.

Our stomach still have some room so we go all out on the dessert: soy milk, chocolate cake, green tea flan, and black sesame ice cream. I like the black sesame ice cream.

After we paid the bill ($125 each + tips), we sat there chatting with Chef Tetsuya. My chatty friend was telling her Japan sushi adventure stories, the topic of marinated Kohada came up….

Chef Tetsuya is very proud of his Marinated Kohada and let us try for free!!! 😀 The meat texture are preserved and very flavorful. Very good!

The ingredients are top quality, the dishes are interesting and prepared meticulously, very satisfied. Though I have a feeling that experiences varied as the two women sitting next to us got very different dishes (mostly cooked things). So it’s good to state your preference at the beginning. The most expensive omakase C is basically same as B but more in quantity, plus a few special premium features of the night (ex: crab, Kagoshima beef in ‘filet’ style, etc).

Asanebo (818) 760-3348)
11941 Ventura Blvd. Studio City, CA 91604-2607

Tags: Haute Cuisine, Japanese, Sushi, Uni