Uzumaki

We supported one of our favorite local restaurants this weekend, Uzumaki.  This small sushi joint is well known by Culver City locals and truly has the best fresh fish offerings.  I'm serious.  You could spend twice as much going to Nobu and get just about the same quality fish.  It's not a fancy place, in fact, they don't even take reservations, but it's 100% worth it.  Our favorite thing to do is sit at the sushi bar and order omakase, telling them to give us whatever is fresh.  You can tell that the sushi chefs love this because they get really excited to share their offerings with us.  They typically pair together 3 nigiri sushis on a plate that tell a story - like 3 different types of tuna.

We discovered that even ordering to-go sushi, we could still order the way we typically do.  We asked them to give us omakase, whatever was fresh and they recommended doing 15 pieces each.  They also provided us with complimentary miso soup (always a must) and discounted bottles of sake.  What's a sushi experience without a little sake?

This was the best to-go sushi experience I've ever had.  Each to-go box has a list of each piece of sushi and which sauce you should pair it with (olive ponzu, truffle soy, etc.)  It wasn't quite the same as sitting at the sushi bar, but it was as close as we're going to get for quite some time.  And the sushi was still amazing!  Here are just a few photos of our favorites.

We absolutely love uni and this piece of uni was so fresh and briny, I could have eaten a dozen of them.

Have you ever seen to-go sushi look that good?  Some of these fish I've never even heard of before, but they were so fresh and tasty.  In the upper-right hand corner you can see one of my favorites - seared toro.  We've had this at Uzumaki a few times and it never fails to disappoint.  The fatty piece of fish is just kissed on the grill so it has a lightly smoky flavor that's unbelievable.  Seriously, I can't think of anything else that compares to this piece of fish.  Again, I could eat a dozen of them.

Last, but definitely not least, we finished with a piece of salmon belly topped with caviar.  What a way to end a meal. This salmon belly was so rich and unctuous and topped with briny, salty caviar. It was the perfect pairing and the best way to end the meal.  I was full after eating 15 pieces, so it was the perfect amount of food and a great combination and variety of fish.

I can't wait until we can go back to restaurants, but I have to say, we had a 1st class to-go experience and I would 100% recommend Uzumaki to go.  Remember to support your local restaurants so they'll still be around once all this is over!