Mori Nozomi — Restaurant in Los Angeles

My husband and I celebrated his birthday with dinner at Mori Nozomi. The entire experience was marvelous.

The minimalist setting is wonderfully calm, and the ceramics, glasses, and even chopstick rests and coasters the restaurant uses are lovely and clearly chosen with aesthetics as well as function in mind.

Everything was delicious and beautifully presented, and the flavors of each dish built nicely over the succession of courses. The omakase closed with a two-part dessert course that included handmade sweets and matcha prepared with ceremonial grace.

The team’s hospitality was both expert and kind. Watching them prepare the food and tea was interesting and peaceful, and along the way, they explained what we were eating and its provenance. When we arrived, I happened to mention that it was my husband’s birthday, and they presented the fruit portion of the dessert to him on a platter inscribed with a birthday message in chocolate and lit with candles!

We opted to have a bottle of sake with our dinner. It was great and exactly as the team described. (We wanted to save the tea pairing as an excuse to go again soon.)

I chose Mori Nozomi for my husband’s celebration because we always enjoyed its predecessor Mori Sushi, and because I was interested in supporting a woman chef, especially one heading a sushi restaurant. We’ll return, however, because it’s simply a superb dining...

The owner chef, Mr. Nagano, is really a professional. I'm always amazed how he devotes himself into cooking and prepare things for better taste and experience. He's honest and hard-working. He never cheat you in any means. Yes, as some people say, the price is not cheap. Although they have $20-ish lunch special / chirashi sushi, I love $80 Omakase.

They do not use farmed fish, everything is wild caught and fresh. Most of them are air-imported from 3 different markets in Japan, Tsukiji, Kyushu, and Hokuriku area. As this is a real Japanese restaurant, they care about "seasons". You'll find different fishes / crabs in winter when you come back in summer.

I was born and raised in Japan for 25 years, I'm foodie and used to be a kitchen helper in Japanese Italian years ago. I know ins and outs about Japanese food, but I often found a certain dish in Mori sushi could be better than the ones I had in Japan. One example is a simple "Ebi" (shrimp) nigiri.

Mori Sushi is one of the best Japanese restaurants in greater Los Angeles area for sure. To serve real sushi is quite time consuming. Even one single piece of sushi, sometimes it require tens of hours of preparation. Mr. Nagano does everything in order.

If you love sushi, this is the place to go. Definitely...

This is the 3rd time I've been over the course of several years. I used to think it was a great place, but this time not so much. They now require a course menu at the bar and to order a la cart sushi you have to sit at the tables. WHAT? Quality was always good and atmosphere a little cold (decor, not temp), service good, and sticking to Japanese tradition was what we liked about this place. But this time I was told that the reason the bar was course only (chef decides what you eat) was because "the bar is more respectable". LOL I'm a veteran of sushi, from US and Japan. I know what the bar is. I'll never go there again. Too many other sushi place with equal quality, less price,...