Sake House by Hikari — Restaurant in Culver City

The Good: The service at Sake House by Hikari is good. They are very accomodating and try to be helpful. I appreciate that in a restaurant. The portions are generous and the price is certainly reasonable. I really liked their house special sea food Miso soup. It was full of little nibbles from the sea.

The Bad: There is a Japanese Sushi term called "IKI" which means freshness, liveliness, vitality. Unfortunately, Sake House, in general, does not have IKI.

The fish is acceptable, and if it is all gussied up with sriracha, mayonnaise, tempura'ed, etc., then you may not notice the difference. However, when I ordered their Chirashi, which is a bunch of "virgin" sashimi on a bed of Sushi rice, I noticed that the raw fish lacked that IKI.

The Ugly: There is a certain lack of finesse in the small points that make for fine dining. The sushi rice was dry and hard to the point of making the texture very chewy. Sushi rice should be softer & moister with a slight al dente feel.

Also, the frying oil was getting over used or was slightly old so that anything fried in it acquired a slight mustiness. This use of old oil in frying the dessert, Tempura ice cream, imparted a meaty, fishy taste into the dough surrounding the ice cream. They should fry their desserts in a separate fryer to avoid malodorous food contamination.

Back to the good: They have an OK sake & beer list. The Onigoroshi Daiginjo Sake is dry, astringent with slight chalky minerality and a subtle acidity that was a good palate cleanser for the next different flavour of Sushi. The Ebisu, Orion, and Echigo beers are another exellent choice to pair with the food.

The Sushi establishments that have IKI in the Westside are places like Sushi Sasabune, Echigo. Sushi Masu, Hirozen,Takao, Hamasaku, Hide, K-Zo, Mori Sushi. ...

If you are looking for a lively restaurant where you can show friends and family a particularly good time, then "Hikari Japanese Restaurant" is the place for you. My girlfriend, a LA native native, took my boy friend and I there during an overnight visit. It was perfect for my boy friend’s first exposure to LA, epitomizing the city’s friendliness and spunk. We all started out with a round of beers and sake, which were doubled and eventually tripled throughout the night complements of the generous owner. Finding ourselves in a particularly hungry mood, my boyfriend and I ordered a roll each and the teriyaki chicken dish to share. Needless to say our appetites were certainly satiated. The rolls were large and topped with an abundance of fish, giving us enough to protein and other fillers to feel satisfied. This complimented with the variety of samples they provided free of charge, just to enhance our eating experience, and plentiful dish of chicken and rice, definitely left us feeling well-fed. Just when we thought we were about to implode the owner emerges challenging us to a sake-bomb face-off. “Finish the last drop of this sake – bomb before I do” he proposes “and your tables’ $130 bill will be on me”, “loose”, he cautions “and I will add this bottle of beer to your tab”. Impassioned by the exciting chance of a free meal, low stakes, steady stream of alcohol that had already lowered our inhibitions, and false sense of self-confidence we accept the challenge. After loosing miserably we learn that he keeps himself busy by challenging his patrons on an hourly basis, giving him plenty of experience and inspiring skill to show us up. We left feeling slightly defeated but altogether jubilant after a delicious...

Went here with my sister after doing the Culver City Stairs hike this afternoon - we had no real plan and I just picked Sake House out after driving through downtown looking for a place to eat.

I don't leave reviews for most things unless they're incredible (or so bad that people need to know), and I gotta say - Sake House falls in to the former category hard.

I had the spicy Miso soup, spicy garlic edamame, and a Spicy Tuna roll (yeah yeah, I know)...the roll was solid, but the edamame might have been the best edamame I've ever had. Anywhere. And the soup, well - I expected it to be your standard small cup of soup, but spicy, and instead was surprised by a whole dinner-sized bowl. It was amazing, some of the best I've had anywhere as well.

Between the two of us ordering multiple items and me ordering a large sake because I just got laid off and well - what else am I gonna do - the bill was under $70 with a 20% tip. Sure, I know $70 is a lot in many contexts, but for a place like this and 2 multi-course meals with alcohol on tip PLUS tip? That's a deal.

Check this place out,...