Octopus Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Burbank

I've visited Octopus at their Downtown L.A. restaurant on 7th street near the 7th & Metro subway Station--where they have two Happy Hours--the first from 3pm to 7pm followed a few hours later with their Reverse Happy Hour from 9:30pm to closing--as well as their Burbank location at 227 E. Palm Ave., which I believe has the same Happy Hour schedule. Downtown is perfect before and after going to any events--especially if you use the subway--and the Burbank location is the restaurant my two good friends always choose when we go out for a meal. The menu has many options such as sushi, sashimi, and a fusion of cooked dishes and sushi rolls at affordable prices without any discernable sacrifice in quality. Octopus has combination dishes of various sizes where you choose from a selection of three or four groups. During Happy the 7th Street location has some excellent combination platters for groups of 2 or more people that include pitchers of beer and small to large carafes of Sake and assorted appetizers. You may have to wait 10-20 minutes to be seated if there for Happy Hour menu only, even when there are plenty of seats available at the downstairs section. I assume this is to ensure they have enough staff to serve patrons eating from the regular menu and to keep the kitchen and sushi chefs from falling behind on their orders. Nevertheless, the food is always fresh as they have a high turnover. There are certainly other Japanese restaurants with better selection of high-quality sashimi and sushi, but with much larger bills as well. The ambience at 7th street is a lot warmer with softer lighting and colors, and the vibe is great. The Palm Avenue restaurant, while still comfortable, has more of a lunchtime feel to it, though I'm sure they get a decent dinner crowd due to their proximity to AMC movie theater and San Fernando Road foot traffic. I strongly recommend Octopus to anyone. The restaurants are clean, the service is good, the menu options are decent, tasty, and come in good proportions, the food always fresh and consistent in quality, and the prices are...

We had dinner at Octopus Japanese Restaurant on Saturday 5/28. We arrived at 545 pm, in time for happy hour. Our server was new but was kind and gave great service. The following was not his fault but the fault of the manager on duty who clearly doesn’t care about the guests experience. We put our order in which included 4 rolls; two for me and two for my partner. When I ordered I specified I wanted a deep fried roll and the waiter told me two to choose from. I stated I wanted one that was deep fried, not baked but completely deep fried. I also ordered one of my rolls without fish eggs. My partners rolls came out really fast and correct. When mine came out around 5 minutes later they both had fish eggs and the one that was supposed to be completely deep fried only had deep fried seaweed on top. They took that one back and said they could give me the completely deep fried roll but since it was now 606 pm I would have to pay the normal price and not happy hour. I don’t think this is fair because I ordered the original roll during happy hour and it was not my fault I received the wrong one. I was shocked the manager would rather lose a customer than take two dollars off the bill. Instead of paying the extra two dollars I just didn’t get the roll I wanted and left hungry and upset. I didn’t even mention the roll coming out with fish eggs on them because it wasn’t that big of a deal and I was scared they would charge me full price for the replacement. I just scraped them off. The manager should have just gave us the roll for happy hour price and we would have had a good experience even though they messed up. They didn’t even come tell me themselves they sent the brand new waiter to relay what the manager said. And again, the waiter was great, the reason we won’t be returning is the...

Okay, I popped into this place just before I left LA to temporarily relocate to NYC. I had just seen “One Love” - which I highly recommend seeing - and decided to extend my self-date into dinner. O’ and what a tremendous treat it was!

For any future million-dollar trivia question, I love sushi like Kel loves orange soda - a special shoutout to those who understand the reference - okay? Suffice it to say, I was fully prepared to go the distance and indulge to my heart’s delight I’m worthy and deserving. But I digress.

First I had a HOT SAKE along with the APPETIZER SPECIAL: RED SNAPPER. Topped with Tobiko, Yuzu Citrus, Red Onion & Herb. The flavors blended so well and the slight tang of the yuzu citrus pleasantly complimented the bold taste of the red snapper. Then I had the OCTOPUS SALAD, which accidentally ended up being the Cucumber Salad topped with the Octopus. I didn’t mind at all because it all paired very well, the cucumber marinated in rice vinegar.

The big order was the OCTOPUS CHEF’S SPECIAL PLATE, which came with Sashimi, Sushi, a Spicy Tuna Hand Roll and Roe Bowl. It was SO DELICIOUS and SO FILLING, I really tried to finish it all. Alas, I had to bow out and humbly accept where I ended before total defeat. I didn’t even get to order desert! Next time…

Speaking of next time, if you happen to be in the area and pop in, tell them that Donny recommended. When I’m back in LA and I happen to scurry over there myself, be sure to say heylo and let me know what...