Azai Hand Roll Sushi — Restaurant in Los Angeles

This is one of my new favorite sushi spots and I can't wait to return!

I stopped by in the afternoon and enjoyed the restaurant to myself for the first half hour or so until a few more people came in. Adam (I believe he is a co-owner) was present along with the chef preparing my food. Adam was an incredible host, chatting and sharing his story and making sure everything was up to par and always checking in with me.

I ordered quite a variety of items because I was enjoying everything so much, even after I was full I just had to order a few more items to try!

Below is my food review but the restaurant itself is simple, aesthetic, and cozy. It's only sushi bar seating so I can imagine there can be a wait during busy hours.

Across the board, the sushi rice was on point and the nori was so crispy each and every time, I loved biting into each hand roll and getting that crispy response.

I started off with the cucumber salad, a big portion with slightly sweet and crispy cucumbers off-set by the savory and salty seasoning.

Next up was the lobster crispy rice, something I haven't seen elsewhere and really enjoyed it here!

First nigiri included the Blue fin and Yellowtail belly. Holy hell these were sublime. Both thick cut and so fatty and just melted in your mouth with the best freshest flavors.

Spicy tuna cucumber hand roll was slightly spicy, creamy, and delicious. The Blue crab hand roll was meaty, the crab was so sweet, and it was one of the best crab rolls I've had.

Salmon hand roll had a good bite and the salmon was amazing while the Bay scallop had the bolder flavor with a good kick as well.

The Eel was outstanding, crispy and fatty with slightly sweet thick eel sauce.

The salmon nigiri was amazing, again thick cut and buttery smooth with another order of that to-die-for Yellowtail belly.

The yellowtail hand roll was one of my favorites and the lobster hand roll was firm and sweet.

I couldn't have asked for a better first experience and will...

These hand rolls were STUFFED. I thought we would be able to try more but after some apps, three was enough (and I mean that in a good way).

We tried with the yellowtail jalapeño yuzu sashimi from the specials menu and this was a delicately refreshing way to start our meal. Next, we ordered the spicy tuna and it was my mom’s first time trying it, and she loved it.

We tried a few of the nigiris before the real deal which came beautifully presented on a wooden platter. There was salmon, bluefin tuna, albacore, yellowtail belly, and a cucumber roll. These were solid but not the star of the show.

Now, what we came here for. If there’s one hand roll you have to order, it’s the bay scallop. It’s tender and comes in a creamy mentaiko sauce, which I’m biased about because spicy cod roe is one of my favorites. I also enjoyed the lobster and blue crab hand rolls which use quality ingredients.

We ended our meal with some miso soup, which was surprisingly really good. I feel like most places neglect miso soup and use some pre-made mix but this seemed homemade. I can’t forget about dessert which was vanilla and chocolate mochi ice cream.

It’s an intimate experience since there’s only bar seating so just know that you’ll be getting your food served directly in front of you since it’s made right then and there. The workers were really kind to us and checked in every so often to ensure we were...

I hope this review gets seen by people who might be skeptical of a mountain of glowing 5 star reviews.

I came here because it appeared to be a very highly rated competitor to Kazu Nori right down the street, boasting a strong 5 star rating at 600+ reviews. Our food was fine, but honestly the quality of some of the pieces of fish, such as the salmon and tuna, were really lacking. The salmon seemed to be slightly pale and lacking in flavor which wasn’t a good sign for a hand roll bar competitor that was more expensive than the rest. At $18, the albacore special we ordered was nothing more than sliced fish swimming in ponzu covered with crispy shallot or garlic. It felt far too plain and uninspiring taste wise to justify that price tag.

Lastly, and to no fault of our server who really was trying his best, the atmosphere was just really odd. Our server was asking us many times how the food was tasting, maybe even too many times. In the corner, the owner/manager was sitting on his phone with his AirPods in the whole time, not looking up once.

Although the staff are trying their best to accommodate, the strange atmosphere and lacking food quality at higher prices than other places makes this a...