If you want to go really old school and get teriyaki or tempura, there it is, served with salad and steamed rice (white or brown). There are two dozen small dishes, ranging from barbecue beef ribs to grilled yellowtail collar to Cajun salmon tataki. There are eight salads, mostly made with seafood. In the California style, there’s much more on the menu. It may be theoretically possible - that whole thing about calories expended warming the cold food - but I don’t think it works that well. Deepfried sushi feels a bit like eating ice cream to lose weight. I tend to think of sushi as my go-to cuisine when I need to slim down the old waistline a tad. It is notable that, in the California style, there is a fondness for deepfried rolls and rolls made with cream cheese, and with mayonnaise. They fall apart pretty easily and ingredients are layered on a bit unevenly - not that that makes the Dragon Roll (barbecue eel on top of a California Roll) any less tasty. The rolls are good, but they do seem to be made with some haste. And a Rolling Hills Roll is a Crunchy Roll with avocado and eel on top. Why a California Roll topped with spicy tuna is a Hawaiian Roll is a mystery where’s the pineapple? Top a California Roll with salmon and tempura crunchies, and it becomes a Sunshine Roll. (There are big screens over the sushi bar for those who want to linger.)īut if you want to run a bit amok, there’s the very California section of the menu referred to simply as: “Chef’s Special Rolls.” That’s where you’ll find 22 bits of complex exotica, which in the great tradition often have names that have little to do with what’s in the roll. There are three party trays as well, for those who want to watch the football season get under way at home while nibbling on sushi. For those who can’t make up their minds, there are two sushi samplers, and a sashimi deluxe. There are nine old school hand rolls, and 12 old school cut rolls. You want mackerel (Spanish or otherwise), snapper, yellowtail (including the belly cut), bluefin tuna - it’s all there. The menu lists two dozen fish options for classic nigiri sushi( sushi rice topped with a slice of seafood, held in place with a strip of seaweed). One can, of course, stay wholly conventional at Asaka. I have the same respect for places that offer several dozen exotic sushi rolls, that I do for pizza restaurants that redefine the options (imagine life without barbecue chicken pizza, and you’ll know what I mean.) This may sound like a backhanded compliment, but really, it’s not. I tend to think of restaurants like Asaka, in all the best ways, as a California Japanese restaurant a Los Angeles sushi bar. There are places where you’ll be asked to leave if you request a spicy tuna roll (or anything with spicy tuna for that matter), and where you’ll be chastised for mixing wasabi with your soy sauce - or for even using soy sauce without the permission of the sushi chef. There are Japanese restaurants around town that are doctrinaire in their adherence to the traditional ways of making and serving their food. You can spend a very pleasant afternoon or evening lingering there, watching the shoppers and folks coming from the beach, while sipping on a cold sake and nibbling an exotic roll. But at the branch of Asaka Sushi & Grill in the bustling Riviera Village section of Redondo Beach, the outdoor seating is on a sprawling patio that extends from the restaurant to the street. Though it’s not completely unknown, sushi bars with outdoor seating is a rare bird and of the few (like Katsuya in Brentwood and Kabuki in Old Pasadena), the outdoor option tends to be in a sheltered patio outside the front door.
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