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Categories: Sushi Bars, Seafood [Edit]
11301 Olympic BlvdMon-Sat. 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Mon-Sat. 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Sun. 1:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
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A fun, laid-back, very friendly sushi joint and a place that I often end up at when traffic back to the eastside is just too hard to handle. You can just go in, sit down, and start eating right away as the sushi, rolls, and seaweed salad drift towards you on the conveyor belt. To clarify what a previous reviewer said about there not being an easy way to determine how much things cost: actually, there is. The menu states how much each color of plate costs. Blue and yellow plates are $2.50, orange are $3.50, and so on.
I think the single drawback of this sort of sushi is that people who are equally ravenous as yourself, yet happen to be seated closer to the "drop zone" (so to speak), will get the sushi before you do. In that case, just ask one of the chefs to make you what you want and they'll hand it over.
The chefs here are very personable, the sushi isn't world-beating, but it's really good, and in the end the atmosphere and memories of good times had kicks this up to 5 stars.
Scratch one sushi off the list of future meals.
I don't know how to explain this, I like sushi conveyor belts. It's fun. It's suppose to be cheaper sushi, knowing full well that it's both in quality but with the understanding that for that trade off you'll get a price reduction.
The whole purpose of this cheaper sushi is to stuff your face with more and more of it. Yes, it's cheaper in quality but it's suppose to be cheaper in price. Also it's neat to just grab what you like from the belt as it comes along.
Usually places like this offer some sort of guide on how much each plate runs you. After looking around and even scanning the menu, I still had no clue. We were both hungry so we went for it... only, there wasn't much to go for.
Another point for sushi conveyor belts is to have a wide selection of choice of the more common fishes. The belt was really empty. I mean, completely empty. The place as fairly crowded, at least the seats were occupied but I wasn't seeing much come out from the cooks.
When they did put out new waves of sushi plates they would only make about 4-5 plates. Which of course would be snatched up or picked through well before they made it even four feet past the starting point. They were seriously not doing good in turn around time and it was pretty annoying.
Then to special order something, I went for the classic spicy tuna roll. A piece we seem to always get when going out for sushi. This time when it was finally give to us it tasted of tuna and horseradish. It had to be the worse tasting spicy tuna ever. As if someone just put a ton of wasabi on some grounded up tuna and called it a day.
The beer.. while normally when ordering a large, you'll get a cold frosted mug and a large bottle of beer to pour it in yourself. This place brings you an already served foamy beer...
I'm an alcoholic, I drink far too much. I know how much beer fits in a glass and there's no way in damn hell that a large bottle of any Japanese beer fills a mug and doesn't have some excess. It's normally a fill and a half - EASY. So right about here I'm feeling a little cheated out of the other .5 of my beer.
Which I suppose would have been a good thing to get me drunk to look past all the other faults that I found with the place. The sushi chefs were pretty unresponsive. I saw them meaning well, but really, the place wasn't great to visit and while none of the sushi quality was stinky or gone south, it just wasn't even passable. I would have been better off with some Ralph's pre-made package that had been sitting in the freezer for the whole day.
Next time I'm just going to look up and see where Fish Lips is stationed for the night.
The PASSION and ROMANCE were fun while they lasted.
Wow, i thought this was gonna be a LTR but instead it's a one night stand.
I'm still kinda in shock that the beautiful, creamy, silky, juicy succulence I indulged in a mere 5 weeks ago is all dry, tired, and un-freshed out.
Sat nite. 8pm.
Another spin of the conveyor belt.
I won't even bother to bring you the customary blow by blow salacious details of my usually ravenous raw indulgences.
Cuz this shit was BEAT. Every piece I hit.
That Sunday hookup 5 weeks ago musta been a fresh fluke.
Dai-chan, Sayoonara!
DONE.
'Round and Round and Round it Goes,
Where it stops?
Nobody Knows.
For my Sushiholicism Grows and Grows…
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The sushi chefs are more than friendly and accomodating, they are downright hospitable. Though non-intrusive, they managed to somehow become part if the conversation.
The food is good and They have plenty to choose from for those who like their "sushi" cooked. I do feel like there is more cooked sushi than real sushi on the menu. Maybe I got the abbreviated lunch special menu.
Price isn't expensive but it isn't cheap either.
Don't forget cash for parking. They validate, btw. Elevator from the underground parking is a bit confusing coz they don't have the directory to tell you which floor to get off at for the restaurant.
I came here on Tuesday and they told me the fish was fresh the second I sit down. They never say that.
I come here every so often because they have convenient parking and I can't think of where else to go that takes credit cards.
This past Tuesday I reallllllly enjoyed my meal. I had the "White Candy" which was some sort of concoction that involved baked lobster. YUM. The albacore was the absolute best I have EVER had. The salmon was perfection. The Tuna was fresh!
I usually order some rolls because I like the variety but the sushi was just that amazing. I probably had 2 salmon, 2 albacore, 2 tuna, white candy and tea = $22. Loves it!
The customer service is amazing, too.
Not the best sushi I've ever had. But not the worst I've ever had.
The freshness of the raw fish is…
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I am actually a sushi lover... I eat sushi all over the place
and I find that the sushi and service are not bad at all in Daichan sushi
There are variety choices on sushi....I can either choose on the meau or get it from the convey belt. The fish are fresh and the taste are good. Besides, the chef will tell you what is today's special and in this way I can try the best sushi of the day in Daichan. The price is not high...Until I got really full..I just need to pay $20 something at last.
It is a good place for dating too! it is comfortable and quiet.
This was one of the worst sushi I've ever had!! The freshness was okay, no funky smells and I didn't get sick, but anything I had off the conveyer belt was gross. I had a crunch roll and it was soggy, no crunch! It tasted like it was an hour old...the salmon sushi was alright but nothing special.
We ate three plates and decided it wasn't worth our money to keep eating. Everything was just NOT good. Spent $30!!! And I'm still hungry right now...so sad. The chefs were nice but that's about it.
Save your money for somewhere else.
I used to work at this restaurant and let me tell you it's one of the worst experiences of my life. I'll let you in on some of the secrets, just some because I don't expect anybody to read 4 full pages of complaints I have with him. First off I'd like to explain that it's just not me, many employees have left this restaurant (without notice by the way) because they just could not handle "Bruce". Let me tell you just a few:
1: he tells his servers to go spy on other sushi restaurants (aka HIDE) let me tell you that, that is not part of our job describtion
2: numerous female employees left because he verbally (sexually) made crude comments toward them
3. HE IS CHEAP!! I tell you once again he is CHEAP! he yells at his sushi men for making portions too big and yells at waiters for giving customers too much beer (he says that there is foam that stays "foam" and foam that turns into beer, we just need to fill the glass with foam that stays "foam") Ask one of his sushi men in English (because he does not understand English) what it's like working for him).
Again I can write all day about how messed up this restaurant is but I'll save you the time. If you really want to know why they have not been able to keep an employee longer than 6 months and why this is the worst place for sushi in Westwood let me know, I'm not just another disgruntled employee, I can prove it, a lot of my co-workers and former co-workers will not hesitate to tell you. If you have any more questions you can email me at edwardyi85@yahoo.com. I'm completely open about this and I am not making this up.
Sushi on conveyor belts sounds like fun, but it can quickly add up especially if you are having a good time and not paying attention to the different plates. The sushi was decent. If you are impatient or straight up starving, this is a good place to get your sushi fix.
this place is a joke
i dont know about now, cos the last time i went there was a while ago.
it used to be OK, not like 4 stars, but 3 maybe.
but after the first japanese owner sold this place to some korean,
the "sushi chef" working in front of me didnt even know what yuzu kosyo(yuzu pepper) was...
no yuzu kosyo, no shiso, no natto... WTF?
and the WORST THING is, they make sushi with tiny amount of rice,
so people have to eat more plates...
this is ridiculous.
no offense, but i hate when koreans or chineses (or any other non japanese) do "sushi" or "japanese" restaurants, and ruin the real japanese food. not all of them though. but this is definetely one of the worst.
This place is ok. It's not as cheap as you think it is. Cheap plates add up quick.
Their seared garlic albacore is quite tasty though. And the Kaiten experience is quite fun.
But if you go there for cheap sushi, this isn't the place. My orders (7 plates in total-and I'm not quite full yet) came out to be $28. I've had better sushi for much cheaper price.
I am a huge sushi fan and love Hide sushi and Sushi Gen because they are good yet well priced. However, it can get pricey even at these places, so it's Daichen Kaiten-Sushi near Westwood to the rescue when the craving hits for all types of creative rolls with lots of fish.
The restaurant itself is in an odd faux marble Persian mansion style mall with twisted staircases, big plants and lots of wasted space. I am surprised that they don't house a bellydancing middle eastern hookah joint in the mall. Instead, it houses 2 japanese restaurants, go figure. But when you step into this place, it is a cheerful, clean, nicely lighted(not blindingly bright) place with friendly and very helpful staff. The sushi chefs are very friendly and accommodating. It's even a good place for a date since it's nicely decorated.
They have new rolls at times and so you will usually have new things to try. These are very well constructed rolls with good balance between the ingredients and usually with the right amount of fish and other seafood in balance with the rice. Surprisingly their $2.50 nigiri sushi(plain fish and rice) are usually as delicious which makes me wonder why I don't go there more for nigiri. But I think Hide and Sushi Gen specialize more in this type of sushi and do it fresher and better.
They also have full menus of regular food such as teriyaki chicken and beef. They have fried items such soft shelled crabs and tango ball which are balls of fish, squid, and batter that is very popular. The tango balls are so scrumptious and light that I could eat plates of them but I don't since there are many other dishes to try. Always make sure they are fresh! I didn't like the soft shelled crabs as much, too greasy and bland.
They have all the array of the usual nigiri sushi including Uni(sea urchin) and a variety of rolls for all tastes. Their salmon skin hand roll is very well done with crispy salmon skins, I prefer it over the one at Sushi Gen.
One of the best part of this type of a restaurant is that you can sit and start eating without any pause. The chef told me that a couple ate $110 worth of food in 10 mins and that's a lot of food there. But the plates do stack up without effort while you are there. This restaurant offers something for everyone and do it pretty well. It's at Sushi Mac price range if you stick to yellow/blue/orange plates and there are also higher priced rolls available on the red and red/gold plates. Try to avoid the high volume time since you'll have to wait longer for the sushi to come around and try to sit closer to the inside of the restaurant where the dishes come out. They have validated free parking.
Mmmm sushi. Ok, I found Daichan through my college that had flyers advertising a 15% discount for university students so after class one day I thought "hey I like sushi boats!" and went to check it out. . . . ok, I'll tell you about the place first then I'll tell you the plus and minuses of it next. . . ah heck, you probably want to hear the +/- of it first then about my experiences there next. . . .
The Pluses of Daichan:
* Great service! I've been here 3 times in the last year to always have great service from the staff, chefs and waitresses.
* Great food! Delicious and fresh (and I'll tell you why)
- Here they guarantee the freshest sushi (on a sushi boat) because on each plate that rotates on their conveyer belt "boat" has a barcode that after 1 hour the machine that scans the plate will be discarded.
* Great new sushi specials! Their rolls are delicious and new.
Cons of Daichan:
* No Parking.... well ok there is, but to get to it takes some slithering. It's either in the parking spaces for mini coopers or underground in the dark.
* 3rd Floor - yes there is an elevator. . . and yes there are escalators. . . and yes there are stairs. . . which are the best way to go because the escalators and elevators didn't work (and they're a little out of the way)
So it was delicious. . . . need I say more?
If you've never been to a sushi boat restaurant then check this place out; if you've never experienced food on a conveyer belt;
If you just love to watch food come to you;
Then you will love Daichan.
Enjoy!
The sushi in here was ok. I have definitely had better and fresher sushi.
BUT, the place is almost the only conveyor belt sushi place in the westside. It is fun to go there. The chefs are really nice, and they would love to have conversation with you.
And I love Red Dragon Roll. It is hard to find red dragon roll in the area. This is the place where I can have unlimited red dragon rolls.
There were also many creative sushi dishes. Something different!
If you are looking for cheap and fresh sushi, this may not be your best bet!!
Conveyor Belt Sushi Bars are the best.
Service at Daichan is great . Food is excellent. My boyfriend and I usually go here on Fridays. We love it!!!
What I like about this place is that it's instant gratification and the service is good. The sushi chefs are friendly and make you feel welcome. The food however is so-so. I've definitely had better sushi, but when you want to grab a quick bite and you're not too peckish then this can be the place for you.
I miss Yoshi. =(
This used to be our favorite sushi spot for VALUE and QUALITY. Yes, you could get better sushi elsewhere for more $$$. But for the portions and quality - coupled with the value - it couldn't get any better.
But that was years ago.
So it has a conveyor belt. Big deal. I've been to other sushi joints that have boats (e.g. Isobune in SF).
As much as I tried resisting to write a negative review of this place, ever since Yoshi left, Daichan has been decaying in all areas. The last time I visited there really wasn't much on the belt - whatever was on there tasted like it had been waiting to be eaten for hours. Orange and red plates were nowhere to be found. The chefs and waiters were inattentive. Special orders took forever.
It just isn't the place it used to be anymore.
For a conveyer belt sushi joint this is the best one Ive tried. The fish is fresh, the chefs are nice and the atmosphere is casual. The reason it is missing one star is that the prices add up quickly. The cheapest plates (for 2 pieces of sushi or 4 pieces simple cali or tuna roll) its 2.50, for the general rolls (4 pieces) its 3.75 and for all other fancier rolls its 4.75 (4 pieces). These are pretty average prices, but I never leave paying less than $20. Not bad, but not ideal if you want a super cheap sushi dinner. This place is casual, yet delicious and quick when you're starving!!!
We went here and we didn't have a great experience. The conveyor belt was sort of a turn off - many places do this style of sushi, but put a little more charm into it (like boats etc.). I just wasn't that impressed. There seemed to be the same pieces going round and round again.
The specials are printed on colored paper and hung up for you to see, but everything started to taste the same. I can't say that I was impressed with the creativity, taste, freshness, atmosphere...
The chef was attentive, but it might have been because it was a slow night.
I can't say I would go again, but it wasn't the worst sushi I've ever had.
First off, Bruce is awesome! They are so friendly every time that I go there. The food is reasonably priced, the fish is pretty fresh (the salmon is really good quality) and they have a nice selection on the belt. Also, for those who said that the belt was somewhat bare, keep in mind that they are more than happy to make whatever you want, they just don't keep it full when it's not busy bc they want to keep the fish fresh.
Tip on the parking- either go during the week ( no attendant in the garage) or wait until after 9 to leave bc the attendant is usually gone :)
I though I'd give it another try....
Well, they try to "japanize" their service by yelling greetings in bad Japanese..they upped customer service and they try sweeten the expensive bill with pieces of fruit "on the house"...but the sushi is still terrible, terrible, terrible.
When it first opened a couple of years ago this place was truly a fun place to go to for a quick… Read more »
If you're looking for a place that has not only decent sushi but also acceptable price, this is the right place. Personally, I am a huge sushi fan and this was definitely the right place for me.
First off, what impressed me at the entrance was the loud welcoming of waiter. I still remember his vivid smile; his smile was very spontaneous and sincere. The interior design was quite luxurious. Overall, the environment was very friendly and comfortable.
I went there with my wife and two kids, so sitting at the table was the best option for us. However, the bar looked very nice as well. There were numerous sushi plates revolving around on the conveyor belt. Majority of them were Yellow & Blue Plates, which are the cheapest plates. At first, I grabbed like 5 of them, and my family loved them. Subsequently, I tried Orange, Red, and Gold Plates, and they were definitely worth for their prices. They were very delicious.
What I truly want to recommend is the special menu. This place has many special menus, and what you must try are White Candy, Popcorn Lobster Roll, and Fire Roll. They are not pricey at all but very delicious.
What my kids liked the most were Mochi Icecream. This place has 2 flavors, Vanilla and Green Tea, and both of them were awesome. I am definitely gonna visit that place again soon. If you havent tried this place yet, then you must. It was a priceless experience for me.
Over two years later..the place has gone downhill...
Portions, quality, and freshness - all downsized.
After frequenting a Kaiten (revolving) sushi place in Japantown, I searched for a similar place in… Read more »
The sushi was ok
I was probably stupid to think that ALL the sushi on the conveyor belt was 2 dollars. The portions were small and kind of expensive
The terriyaki chicken was realllyy thin
If i had enough money i would try to eat more than 30 plates and get a spot on their wall, but that would end up being over 100 dollars
the sushi chefs were very nice and friendly (:
best UNI i've ever had! prices aren't so bad either. i love the conveyer belt as well... try the UNI!!!
Went here with the trustful Henry who has never failed me when it comes to food. The sushi is actually quite good! The sushi chefs are really friendly. The younger one is very loud and out going, he's hilarious. The older one looks really "kung fu master-like". Very quiet. But seems very very wise =]
I like being able to pick out whatever I want to eat and watching your plates stack up is really fun. This place gets pretty darn crowded during lunch and dinner. They have a TV for you to watch just in case you dont like the person youre dining with and would rather tune them out. The desserts are all AMAZING. The waitresses are friendly too! I really do love this place.
Paolo D said basically everything I was going to say -- I used to love coming here for cheap, delicious sushi in a fun atmosphere, but now the chefs who knew my name have gone, and the quality has gone tragically downhill.
The sushi used to be amazingly good for the price -- I could stuff myself silly for under $30, and still be satisfied by the taste and quality of the fish. It was never spectacular or anything, it couldn't be compared to a true high quality establishment, but for the price it was fantastic. I've been back twice in the past few months, and was shocked by the bad service, and especially the tasteless and bland fish. Very, very disappointing. I don't think I will be going back, unless I read that they have changed ownership again.
If I had written this review a year or two ago I would have given four stars, but now two is the best I can manage, and only because I used to love it so much, and remember how fun it used to be.
I am there all the time with my 6 year old son.
He loves looking at the rotating sushi bar, and Bruce - the head Sushi Chef is very nice.
Didn't really enjoy the sushi here. Not very fresh and the rice was very little...
The only good thing was the price, it's a lot cheaper than most of sushi places.
Like any conveyor belt sushi place, the only real reason to go here is to be amused by the fact that endless plates of sushi parade in front of you on a conveyor belt. Well, that and the fact that the lower price point enables you to gorge yourself on a large amount of lower quality sushi. Here, they claim they use an automated barcode scanning system that monitors the time the items spend revolving around the restaurant to ensure freshness, but somehow I'm skeptical. Anyway, the quality of the sushi is low, and you won't find any of the rarer or more interesting types of fish. Aside from being able to say "OOOH, a conveyor belt!" and being able to binge yourself on subpar sushi and a few Sapporos, there doesn't seem to be any reason to go here. Our bill was actually quite high, and I would rather have spent the money on a smaller but more fulfilling meal at Hide up the street.
1.99-5.00 for conveyor belt sushi. NOt bad at all, till you find out you have this insatiable appetite that needs to be quenched!
Dai-chan is my absolute favorite sushi restaurant. I love the fact taht they have some suprise sushi plates like the "TORO" it is the most SUCCULENT AND SAVORY sushi I've ever tried. LIKE BUTTAH!
Some people liken this place to Todai's sushi quality. Nope. Totally not. It really deepends what day or time you go. Weekends and the after 6p.m weekday time slot are best choice of sushi dishes. They come out endlessly and effortlessy. Sushi HEAVEN! They only bring out the good stuff if there are gonna be people who are gonna eat it!
Whenever my paycheck comes along. IM AM SO HERE!
Again in search of LA's Sushi Deli, we came here in part because of the good reviews and in part because of the novelty (revolving sushi is novel to a white girl from Orange County, okay?). It is possible to get out of there will a fully belly for under like $15 a person, but it is more likely that you'll be unwittingly spending more. Your check is based on how many of which color plates you've chosen off the conveyor belt-- blue and yellow plates are like $2 dishes, going up to red and gold plates which are like $6.50. So the prices SEEM good except you get at most 4 pieces of a roll on each plate.
Atmosphere reminds me of Sushi Deli, other than the conveyor belt in the middle of the room: simple, not a whole lot of effort put in. It's in a really upscale Japanese shopping center (in the middle of Olympic, go figure), and parking there is pretty expensive, but if you go around the corner you can find street parking and possibly evidence of some street rave that happened the night before (it's a happening neighborhood, what can I say?).
The sushi is pretty good, but best when fresh. The crunchy roll, for example, is heavenly when it's just been made, but after one turn on the conveyor belt it's not very tasty anymore. You can request any rolls from the head chef, who is very nice and funny and eager to hear that you love his food. For people who are too shy to request the rolls they want, this is a great way to try new things, but don't expect to know exactly what you're eating. The best part about their sushi descriptions is that most of them have "something?!?!?!" listed as one of the ingredients.
To me the best thing there is a fresh crunchy roll, but My Roll is also pretty damn yummy. The worst things are the edamame--always cold, limp, and mysteriously moist--and I think I had a tempura lobster roll that was not worth the price. Dillon is waaaay into their fresh eel sashimi, and my roommate would do just about anything for a tango ball (ball of mixed fish dropped into tempura batter and deep fried--I sometimes think they deep fry it in crack, my roommate goes so crazy over it).
Overall, it's a really fun and delicious place to eat, and it's way more fun when you have a group.
Love love love this place. Fish is pretty fresh(some fresher than others) and they have sensors that go off after the sushi's been out on the conveyor belt for an hour.
I've had some pretty good melt-in-your-mouth sushi here, which is a surprise considering the price.
Staff is always friendly and attentive.
Daichan was recommended by one of my old roommates. He mentioned that the quality of sushi there is pretty much equal to the higher quality/priced restaurants in the same area as they get their fish from the same source. In other words, you get much more for much less.
My experience there has been very good, but the sushi itself last time I was there has been very fresh. I highly recommend the place.
Sushi was originally "working man's" food in old school Japan. A simple piece of fish on a simple clump of rice.
Daichan is not flashy, fashionable, hip or elegant.
Raw fish on rice circling around the restaurant on a conveyor belt. That's it. Plus, it's cheap.
You get what you pay for and I couldn't ask for anything more.
Don't take a date here. Take your buddy or a girlfriend that you don't have to impress anymore.
Daichan is located on Sawtelle Blvd. at the Olympic Collection plaza. One of the nice things about the Olympic Collection is that they have underground parking, with the businesses providing validation stamps - Daichan's validation is for an hour. The businesses can be a little hard to find because for some reason, the trees have been allowed to grow so that they cover the front of the businesses.
It was about 1:15pm when I got there, and it wasn't too crowded. It didn't look like they had anything other than seats at the revolving sushi bar (I didn't look around the restaurant that much), but there were two four-top tables adjacent to the bar. I ended up sitting right in front of where the two sushi chefs were situated, so that was kind of nice. The other revolving sushi places I've been have been set up so that the conveyer belt goes in a circle, but this one was almost like two half-moons, one going one way and the other going the opposite direction behind it. The seating wasn't completely circular, more like the half-moon, so that's probably why they have to have the second belt to double back to the start.
Conveniently enough, someone has posted a short video of the bar from the perspective of the four-top table at the end: http://www.youtube.com.... I was about 5 or 6 seats away from the end table. I guess *everything* is on YouTube now.
I ordered hot green tea and water from the server and then turned my attention to the belt and menu.
There was a sign posted on the belt that they had some kind of revolutionary technology where they track the plates so that any plate that sits on the belt for past an hour is automatically discarded. That sounds well and good, but I'm not sure I'd want sushi that's been circulating for 45 minutes, so I think I'd expect any kaiten sushi place to be able to somehow keep track of the plates and take them off if they've been on there too long.
The menu had a listing of non-sushi items that were available as well as a listing of the prices and items that came in each plate color.
There weren't too many things on the belt, but given that it wasn't too crowded, that sort of made sense. You wouldn't want to have too many things circling with no one to take them, and since the chefs were readily available to make orders on request, that wasn't a problem.
I had a plate of seaweed salad, which was very tasty, and I tried a couple of different types of fish like salmon, yellowtail and halibut, as well as a spicy tuna roll and a salmon skin roll. The spicy tuna roll was a decent size, cut into five big pieces, but the salmon skin roll was five smallish pieces. However, that wasn't a problem, because the salmon skin roll wasn't too expensive, and normally, a salmon skin roll is so big that I'm not able to eat much else. The fish was generally quite good, but the rice with the sushi was packed harder than I prefer.
They had ankimo listed on the menu, so I ordered that. When I've had it in other places, it's either been kind of smooth, like uni, or shaped into a cylinder and then cut into slices. This version was like it had been shaped in a cylinder and then cut into tiny little cubes and then put into a seaweed and rice cup. Made this way, I didn't think you could really get the flavor of the ankimo, which was also a bit drier than I prefer. I won't be ordering ankimo there again.
I also had an order of uni, which was good but not quite as flavorful as I generally prefer. My last order was ikura, and the chef asked if I wanted it with a quail egg, so I then decided to explain to him the tres huevos, which he did manage to make, and it looked good too, so I give him credit for that. One thing I did notice with the ankimo, uni and tres huevos is that the cups they make to hold them are smaller than I've seen pretty much anywhere else, so it ends up being a smaller portion. It was especially noticeable with the tres huevos since the quail egg took up much more space than normal.
The sushi chefs were very nice, and the older one made it a point of greeting me and another party when we were first seated. The younger one was who ended up making all my cup sushi, and he was nice as well. Otherwise, the wait staff was ok, but I noticed that whereas the people seated next to me were offered refills of their iced green tea, I had to ask for refills of my hot green tea on two separate occasions. Now, that may have been because it was easier to see how much liquid there was in their glass containers rather than my ceramic one, but I would think that making sure tea is refilled would be a standard concern at a sushi bar, especially when there's not as much for the staff to do.
Overall, I was satisfied with the restaurant. The fish was good, but it didn't blow me away. The prices are ok, and I figure I'll visit periodically and just know what to order and what not to order.
It would be really fun to have a sushi-go-round here in Los Angeles that offered good quality fish. Unfortunately, the closest one is probably in Tokyo. Dai-chan offers friendly service and a moderately interesting atmosphere, but the simple fact remains that the sushi is about half a step above what you get at Pavilion's.
I'm actually not a very big sushi fan, but having been invited to this restaurant that's literally 5 blocks away from where I live, I couldn't resist. This restaurant is actually quite hidden because it's on the 2nd level of the Olympic Collection at the corner of Olympic and Sawtelle, but it was fairly easy to get to since it's right above Pinkberry (and I'm sure nobody will have trouble spotting Pinkberry with its long lines).
Walking in at 7pm on a Sunday evening, the place wasn't too crowded, and we were able to see a few empty seats even though ours were already reserved by the group of people we were meeting. As soon as I sat down, I noticed the moving conveyor belt of sushi and started digging in. Half of the sushi I ate were at the $2 mark, and I wasn't disappointed at all. I especially loved the tuna salad roll because I'm a big tuna fan. The $3.50 and $4.50 sushi were pretty delicious too because a couple of them were baked or fried.
One negative thing we noticed was that we sat at the end of the conveyor belt so the sushi that came around were "leftover" ones that no one else picked up. After we paid our bill, we noticed a lot of yummy sushi coming around but we were too full. We theorized that it was because a big group of people left, and they were the ones taking all the sushi before it came around to us. =(
We actually spent about $27 (after tax & tips) for the 2 of us (no alcohol). Pretty darn cheap, eh? I'd go back there again in a heartbeat because it was decent sushi at a good price (better than Sushi Mac across the street for sure). However, we will definitely look for better seating next time.
If you love places like Hiko, Echigo, or Sushi-Zo, then forget about this place. Yes, it's cheap with plates ranging from $2 to $4.50 but if you're craving melt-n-your-mouth fish then you won't find it here. The quality is basically like what you'll find at places like Todai. It's sushi but you don't really taste sweetness in the fish (ex: the salmon and yellowtail both tasted like the quality they sell in pre-packaged boxes at Trader Joe's). Instead, a lot of items are masked by frying or spiciness. I left this place seriously craving Echigo!
Daichan's pro is that it's good for mid-size groups. You can sit at the revolving belt or there are tables that can fit around 7 people. However, it was hard to get plates at the table since only 2 people can directly reach the belt. Others in our group had to keep getting up to see the selection.
Place can be hard to find since it's nestled in the Olympic Conf. Center. Parking was expensive at $2 for 30 minutes. The restaurant validates an hour but I still ended up paying $6 for being 2 minutes over the third 30 minute mark.
I had lots of different sushi here, but I can't actually recall any names in Japanese or English. Anyway, everything was quite good, but the tuna was not the best I've had.
The sushi chefs were quite nice and amiable. There are also some interesting selections being made here that are renditions of California rolls. The red snapper here, though, is actually Tilapia. Still, I love Tilapia, so serve it up!
I'll definitely go again because it's an acceptable price for sushi and the atmosphere is really friendly behind the bar.
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