MAEDA SUSHI ENJOYABLE BUT PRICEY.Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic If you didn't think there were enough sushi bar-restaurants in Studio City, along comes a brand-new one. It is located in the former Jitlada building, long shuttered, but remodeled beautifully into a sleek, shiny, very cool-looking, blond woody place called Maeda. The only trouble with Maeda is its pricing. A first visit here, where we sit at the sushi bar Noun 1. sushi bar - a bar where sushi is served bar - a counter where you can obtain food or drink; "he bought a hot dog and a coke at the bar" and order the way we usually do, produces an eyebrow-raising bill totaling about $115 with tip, or twice the amount we're used to paying at our preferred local sushi rendezvous. Now, if you compare the Maeda bill to nearby Sushi Nozawa or to the famous Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, city (1990 pop. 31,971), Los Angeles co., S Calif., completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles; inc. 1914. The largely residential city is home to many motion-picture and television personalities. , the $50-per-person tab would be comparable, possibly even a bit less. But if you figure this restaurant wants to grab a lot of customers in a hurry, especially considering the fierce sushi competition in the area, it doesn't appear that this policy will work too well. In fact, ensuing visits and passing-by checks have suggested a remarkable lack of customers for such a new and attractive facility. The sushi bar quality here is pretty high, though not high enough to warrant such an expense on any regular basis. The chefs appear to possess the necessary talent to create all the familiar sushi snacks as well as a few requests for rarities. There's a good, accommodating attitude by the entire staff. But you have to be careful what you order. There's a notation at the bottom of the menu that tells you that all special rolls will cost $16 or more. If you order appetizer dishes, nine of the listed 18 on the menu are ticketed at $10 or higher. The consequence is some very good sushi, but a shocker shock·er n. One that startles, shocks, or horrifies, as a sensational story or novel. Noun 1. shocker - a shockingly bad person bad person - a person who does harm to others 2. of a bill. To alleviate this, the idea that maybe it would be less expensive to sit at a table and order minimum sushi and a couple of dinner entrees came to mind. We decided to forgo the counter experience and order actual main-course items like sauteed chicken with curry sauce ($14 a la carte, $19 with soup or salad and rice) and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of steak and scallops ($19 a la carte, $24 on the dinner). But when I ask for the steak to be cooked medium-rare, it throws the kitchen off because the steak in this dish is cut very thin and wrapped around large scallops the same way continental and American kitchens wrap bacon around them. Consequently, the steak isn't in slab form and cooked to order. So the kitchen presents me with a medium-rare filet mignon instead. When I ask where the scallops are, it's explained to me what happened and the right dish is then cooked up and served. Meanwhile, I order a red miso soup with clams as a starter. And it comes up as a very tasty, hot soup with an attractive sea bouquet emanating from the bowl, but without clams. Floating in the soup is a handful of mussels instead. Given that the mussels look and taste pretty good, I don't bother to mention anything about this gaffe. As for the curried chicken dish, the baked rice on the plate is rated as passable pass·a·ble adj. 1. That can be passed, traversed, or crossed; navigable: a passable road. 2. Acceptable for general circulation: passable currency. 3. and the tempura Tempura - Language based on temporal logic. "Executing Temporal Logic Programs", B. Moszkowski, Camb U Press 1986. vegetables merely measure up to par. Unfortunately, the chicken leaves a lot to be desired, being listless (programming) listless - In functional programming, a property of a function which allows it to be combined with other functions in a way that eliminates intermediate data structures, especially lists. and dry. At least this time the bill only amounts to $65 with tip, a $40 savings over the first visit. The facts The restaurant: Maeda. Where: 11622 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. When: Open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays except Monday, for dinner from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Recommended items: Light fried eggplant in miso (Multiple Inputs Single Output) Pronounced "my-so," it is the use of multiple transmitters and a single receiver on a wireless device to improve the transmission distance. See MIMO. sauce, red miso soup with mussels, albacore albacore: see tuna. albacore Large oceanic tuna (Thunnus alalunga) that is noted for its fine flesh. The streamlined bodies of these voracious predators are adapted to fast and continuous swimming. or tuna tataki, familiar sushi snacks, whitefish whitefish: see salmon. whitefish Any of several silvery food fishes (family Salmonidae, or Coregonidae), inhabiting cold northern lakes of Europe, Asia, and North America. or lobster tempura, grilled scallops wrapped in thin sliced steak, spicy scallop scallop or pecten, marine bivalve mollusk. Like its close relative the oyster, the scallop has no siphons, the mantle being completely open, but it differs from other mollusks in that both mantle edges have a row of steely blue "eyes" and hand roll. How much: Starters and sushi snacks from $4 to $15, entrees from $14 to $21. No beer or wine yet. AE, MC, V. Wine list: No alcohol yet. Beer and wine pending. Reservations: Helpful. Not taken for sushi bar. Call (818) 623-7888. Our rating: Two and one half stars for food; Three stars for service. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos Photo: (1 -- 2) Ryoji Oroku, chef-owner of Maeda in Studio City, prepares a splendid-looking sushi boat, see below. Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer |
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