KazuNori: The Original Hand Roll Bar — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Um, what is this sorcery?

Kazunori is one of the best sushi spots I've ever discovered. They specialize in hand rolls, which in my head, I had from previous experiences associated with being cumbersome to eat and oftentimes heavy on the rice and skimpy on the fish quantity and quality, but nope, not here.

My friend and I came in during the prime lunch hour on a weekday, but there was still plenty of seating around the bar. We were clearly clueless first-timers, because we sat down and waited for our order to be taken when really you're supposed to walk in and grab an order sheet on your right, fill it out, and hand it to whoever's working behind the bar. But everyone working there was super friendly, and they explained to us the different sets and how everything worked.

My friend and I each opted for the 4-hand roll set (only $13.50!), which was suggested for someone of the moderate hunger level. Sure, sounded good! But my internal dilemma was that I always always have to get salmon whenever I'm eating sushi. It's my all time fave. So they were kind enough to let me sub out the crab for a salmon roll.

Before we knew it, our first rolls were daintily placed in front of us. Not that I needed the reminder, but we were told that they were best consumed immediately. Bam. Liquid gold hitting my palate. Melt in your mouth status. Ruined. Forever. Like, I am sitting there wondering if I will ever be able to eat normal food again. A couple rolls in, I knew I wanted more, so I asked if I could get the salmon that I had originally subbed as an addition to the full 4-roll set, rather than a substitution. In the end, 5 rolls were the perfect amount. I wasn't stuffed, but definitely wasn't hungry anymore. With the crazy sushi-rolling skills of their chefs and the efficiency of all the other workers, we were in and out in record time --maybe 30-40 minutes-- leaving plenty of time to grab boba around the corner before my friend had to run back to her real adult job.

I'd heard amazing things about Sugarfish, but also that it's $$$$. As a poor med student, Kazunori's prices are very reasonable, especially for how amazingly epic the fish is. I even had to get some to go on my way to the airport before I left LA. Can't wait to come back the next time I visit!

Just a note: Parking is crazy here, well, because it's Westwood. Either budget lots of extra time to circle around and look for a metered spot, or pay up for a lot. It's...

Food: fish is mushy and overpowered by the amount and vinegar in the rice. Rolling method is non-traditional: extremely thick with no closed ends, so you’ll end up with rice/fish all over your plate from the other end as you bite into it. The yamaimo came with overly spicy mental, which was not mentioned in the menu. While I can eat spice, it was too overpowering for the light yamaimo and there was no mention of the spicy kick in the menu.

Service: non-existent to poor. Upon seating ourselves, the server asked us if we wanted the menu. Of course we wanted the menu… after serving us the menu, I had to wait to catch her attention to get a pencil to mark the menu. Rolls also came out untimely. After the chef made our first roll, he walked back into the kitchen and didn’t come back out to start rolling the rest until 10 full minutes. Other kazunoris I have been to used a computer that would prompt them to make rolls at certain intervals. Not this time. This place is supposed to be known for their efficiency and speed. Our experience was far from that. The chef also could not tell us what he had made. With how mushy the fish was diced we also couldn’t really tell what was what since we ordered mostly white fish. Meanwhile the server and manager just chatted and giggled the entire time in the corner. We came around 5pm and were also the only customers in the restaurant aside from another table who had already finished their meal.

Atmosphere: darker than when we went a year before. Good for dates perhaps but not with friends. Definitely NOT for family, especially not Asian parents. They’ll find it a complete...

Incredibly put off by the service here. Where to start? When I showed up no one else was in line to be seated, and yet all of the staff members were simply huddled behind the counter chatting with each other. The counter was about half full. When I finally walked up toward the end of the counter to ask them if they could seat me, they stared at me blankly. lol! My friend, who has already posted a review about the terrible service we received here, and I ordered six sets of sashimi and did not receive the last two dishes. Not a problem, necessarily. Until we told the waitress that the check had charged us for items we hadn't received, and she proceeded to ask her coworker, who had not served us a single item, RIGHT IN FRONT OF US if we were lying ("Did you see them get these?").

Are you kidding me? When it was their mistake in the first place for not serving us the items? As this all went down the manager just stood right beside us watching MSNBC on his device...didn't try to rectify anything...the waitress made several errors as she tried to update the check, first only removing one of the handrolls we ordered ($6 versus $24...), so we had to explain to her a few times what she needed to do. Just weird and unprofessional. Not to mention that all of the waitstaff were just gabbing with each other the entire time across the room...the only one who actually offered good service was the chef making the food. I'm sticking to Yunomi in Culver City...