Urasawa

I've been dreaming about eating Urasawa's food for over a decade.  Then came coronavirus, and a perfect opportunity arose.  Urasawa's offering bento boxes, which are substantially more affordable than eating-in.  Price was $220.  It was easy to call the restaurant and reserve a meal for take-out.  There was very little traffic, and street parking was easy to find.  I called the restaurant, and a few moments later, the chef walked over carrying a tray with this beautiful cloth-wrapped bento box.  Inside the bento box, there were real ceramics.

The bento box did not come with a written description of the items, but I will try my best.
Beef roll: slightly sweet.  There was a pleasant contrast between the slight chew of the beef and a crunchy vegetable inside.
Ginger shoot: crunchy, refreshing for palate.
Bean: a cute crisp green bean.
Scallop: firm and sweet
Tako: chewy in a good "Q" way.  Not rubbery.
Shrimp: so beautiful, toothsome.
Gari: yellow, not pink
Smoked fish: I think it was smoked fish.  Wrapped around a crunchy vegetable.
Squash: I think there was a squash piece.  Waxy texture in a good way.
Mushroom: sweet
Snappea: good crunch
Taro: sweet and smooth
Chestnut: very sweet.  It didn't dust or fall apart.
Daikon: soft and juicy
Carrot: it tasted like a carrot
Gobo: simmered.  Earthy, sweet, and fibrous.
Abalone: good crunch and chew.  Not rubbery at all.
Chawanmushi: smooth texture.
Caviar: I think there was caviar.  Was I supposed to eat it alone?
Sushi rice
Pickles: I saw daikon, renkon, cucumber, eggplant.
Chirashi: a believe this is a chirashi rice.  There were bits of unagi, uni, ikura, tamago, and a crunchy green vegetable.  Lovely.  Huge portion.  
Strawberry: a beautiful strawberry
Shisho leaf wrapped around something sweet: I think there was a bit of sweet orange inside?
Ume: sweet and firm

Strongly recommend Urasawa.

I had the privilege to finally dine at Urasawa. 2 Michelin stars warrants an applause, yes? For years, I had been curious about this exclusive restaurant and have wanted to try it after hearing so many fanciful and wonderful compliments about the Omakase. To say the least, I definitely had a memorable experience. Chef Hiro is a highly revered master sushi chef - devoted to his craft and is constantly in pursuit of perfection and excellence to the point of obsession. He balances precision and artistry in every painstaking detail of his work.

For quite some time, Urasawa was not only the most expensive restaurant in Los Angeles, but the second in the entire country. The high cost to dine here will be around $450 per person before tax and tip, and the prices continue to rise (every few years, it seems). The place can only accommodate 10-12 guests at a time on any reservation date. So what makes Urasawa so luxurious? The intimate dining, utter-secrecy, and the 30-course omakase menu that changes daily. To confirm, it really is the "ultimate sushi experience". The quaint little restaurant is hidden on Rodeo Dr. and once you find the location, you'll need to take the elevator to enter. There's valet parking. The servers and Hiro will kindly ask you to refrain from taking any pics.

My 3 friends and I had a magnificent time, but we were all beyond stuffed after the 30 courses. The total cost of the bill was about $4000 after tax, tip, and orders of sake. Worth the life experience!! We only live once, right?

Take-out due to the safer-at-home update:

Obviously not the full experience. And a great deal cheaper (something like 1/3rd the price?), but don't misunderstand-- this is still a very pricey meal. Even with the admittedly very reasonable delivery fee, by the time you pay tax and tip... this is by far the most eye-wateringly expensive takeout I've ever done.

The service and presentation are exquisite. Presented with old school formality, wooden tray and everything. And instead of a bag and cardboard box, it's layers of cloth and a real bento box, complete with glass and ceramic containers inside, including a chopstick holder and spoon.

The let down is the food. It's a packed box, loaded with tasty noms, including caviar, a single delectable cooked shrimp, and a variety of fresh and tasty dessert items. However, much of the rest of the meal doesn't mean the elevated expectations, set either by reputation, by Michelin rating, or by price. Even the combination of uni, ikura, tamago over rice... it's good, but not the level of epic noms you expect.

Neither the experience nor the food worth $2000. If this meal was $400 I would've given a 3 or 4 star rating, but with the price we paid, we expected the highest level of food, not just the quality of the ingredients but the actual taste of every dish.

The restaurant was very nice, service was good, chef and his apprentice were friendly- that's the best part of the meal. However, I didn't like how they filled our sake glasses after every sip, I even asked them not to, but after awhile they started doing it again.

Our meal started with a tofu uni dumpling with gold flake on top, it was ok, I liked the presentation. Followed by two trays of Kaisake style pickled vegetables and caviar, salmon eggs, and etc. (they were just ok but took them so long to prepare). After the 4th dish it was already over an hour into the meal and I started to feel full. The list goes on, every dish was nicely presented (I've seen way better though) but nothing was outstanding. When I look back, I think the crab dish and shabu might've been the best things of the night and they weren't that amazing.

Their sushi pieces were lack of flavor, whatever sauce he put on every piece needed to be more tasty, the rice was too soft.

The best thing of the night was their dessert, black sesame ice cream with truffle on top.

I really wanted this restaurant to be amazing, but in the end it turned out to be an expensive disappointment.

Finally made it to Urasawa & "wow" is my only word I can use to properly describe our dining experience!  Be ready to spend a legit amount of money for this meal, $600 per person + tax, tip, & alcohol, but it's an exquisite adventure definitely worth going to venture at least once.    

It will definitely set you back some, but a worth while adventure in my opinion if your up for it.

Overall Rating:  A++++

We are so blessed and spoiled with all the Japanese cuisines here in LA, they are literally everywhere with a full spectrum of selections.

While Urasawa may have a reputation known for the excessive sticker price on their tasting menus, many have oversight their relentless effort in perfecting their foods in the areas of presentation, authentication, temperature, freshness, texture, quality, taste, balance and experience.

The food presentation was very captivating, placement of the foods, decors around the foods, and along with the matching tableware were carefully selected for both practical and decorative use purposes. I am almost reluctant to eat and destroy the art pieces, and indeed they are more than just foods.

I am largely impressed with the Chef's technique and artistry in preparing the dishes, he has perseverance in making each of them to be flawless. I remember as he was preparing the wagu beefs, he was determined to precisely remove and break off the tendons one at time while not damaging the core muscles.

My favorite dishes of the night got to be:
1) Sesame Tofu Wrap with Uni topped with Gold fakes
2) Caviar, Uni, Toro
3) Shabu Kobe beef with Foie gras
4) Kobe beef wrapped with Uni and Mushrooms
5) kobe beef sushi

It was quite a bit of money, but the experience was well worth it!

You know an establishment is proper when they don't even care about claiming their place on Yelp! Urasawa doesn't give a crap about our lame and peasant-like reviews because he knows many will still be clamoring to try to pay an exorbitant amount of money ($600/pp not including tax, tip or beverage) for him to grace his culinary skillset, utilizing the best daily imported ingredients from Japan (Hokkaido-region specific), upon us. He does this as a hobby so enough said.

I was fortunate enough to be part of this invitation from friends who know the chef since he prefers to only serve a party of 4-6 people per night and he's the only one prepping and serving every course (21 courses for us) within a 3-4 hour timeframe. He doesn't mask the quality of the ingredients and does so by keeping his seasoning and glazing to simply Yuzu, soy and/or salt. Everything was great from flavoring to execution - a truly work of art. The star performers for me were hairy crab from Hokkaido (in season from mid-December to February), A5 Wagyu served seared and shabu-style (came with certificate of authentication with the poor cow's nose print), the 9-piece sushi (made and served one piece at a time) started and finished with my favorite which is Toro, charamisu with shaved white truffles and the red bean/mochi dessert served with 24 karat gold flakes and matcha green tea.

Because these small courses are paced out within a 3-4 hour time span, you'll more than likely be full but not overly stuffed at the end of it all. This was definitely a YOLO experience for me and I urge anyone who loves food and experiences, can secure a reservation and willing to shell out the dough - do this once in their lifetime.

Just a tip: Urasawa is the equivalent of the soup nazi on Seinfeld so don't piss him off by being obnoxious, finicky and/or trying to sneak pictures of his dishes because he will blacklist you.

We ordered 2 bento boxes. It was the best take out food we have ever had. Yes, it's by far the most expensive bento box you'll ever eat, but where else would you be able to get a $200 bento box full of the best tasting selections from a 2 Michelin Star restaurant? It was totally worth the price and we can't wait till Urasawa reopens so we can dine there for the full experience.

One of the best sushi experiences I've ever had, but not a full 5-star meal because of the price tag and the length of the meal (3-4 hours).

My boyfriend took me here for my birthday / new job celebration. On a Friday night, it was only us and a family of 3, but still took about 4 hours to complete the omakase. That's because Chef Urasawa prepares each and every person's dish one by one, so you spend much more time watching him than you do anything else lol.

The quality of his ingredients are #1 in LA, though Yamakase and Sasabune are a close second. Aside from Urasawa, I've only been a huge fan of Shiro's in Seattle. So if you're familiar with any of these four places, I think Urasawa tops them all. However, the meal came out to be $1500 for two people.. and we didn't even get any drinks! They charge for water though.

I loved every bite except one or two. Chef Urasawa is creative and heavily detail oriented - it was great to watch him cut of slivers of fish that he thought to be imperfect. However, after some time, I kinda wanted him to hurry a bit and give more food. He's still presenting food creatively, such as on an ice block or through a paper net pot for the hot pot.

No photos!!.. which the waiter reminded me as I was taking a picture of one of the first dishes :P.

Probably will not be back at least in a long time because of a) the price and b) would rather try other sushi places I've never been to before. However, I highly recommend it as it's one of the best omakases in the US and it was a great experience.

Parking: same lot as the rodeo plaza mall thing -- just go underground and you'll see a sign that says Urasawa restaurant. Confirm with one of the valet guys that you can park and get validated for Urasawa.

Favorite: Uni Chawanmushi. Beautiful, flavorful steamed egg :)

Was eyeing this place for YEARS now... SO blessed & thankful to have gotten the chance to experience Chef Urasawa's Omakase. There were a total of 4 patrons dining that night - including my friend and I...  Believe there's only one seating per night as well.  Make sure to call way in advance for reservations!  I think my friend got lucky with ours AND we got to sit in front of Hiro San. :]

Expect dinner to take around 3 hours as everything is prepared to perfection.  From the intricate plating to the way each dish is placed in front of you... Although you're seated literally right in front of the chef.  You can tell how much thought and attention to detail was put into every step.  Left superrr drunk but I do remember it being such an amazing experience.  Definitely recommend dining here at least once in your life.  Splurge.  Just do it.

Foie gras shabu and the toro were my favorite..  Won't go into too much detail on each course but will warn you to finish your courses.. Think we offended him by not eating one dish.  O.O  But dishes ranged from caviar, gold flakes, toro, foie gras, uni, abalone, and much much more!  Pretty much all the sushi-related fancy sh*t you can think of LOL.

OH and photos - don't try it.  I tried... and got in trouble right away haha

It was a bit tricky finding the place.  Located in the heart of Rodeo Drive tucked away on the second floor.  Look for the minimalist and simple black sign that reads "URASAWA" and enter through the wooden curtains.

Such a pleasant surprise this year for my birthday. :]