Rice & Nori — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Good quality, tasty onigiri in a casual and relaxed setting.

Location and Parking: Parking available in underground Weller Court parking and make sure to get your validation after your purchase. If not enough to cover your parking, we always love walking around this square as it has matcha desserts, a bookstore, lifestyle shops, and other eateries so parking here is well worth it.

Ambiance: Pretty spacious for this square, well-lit with lighter wood details, feels modern and casual - beautiful wave mural on the left when you enter. Turn right to head to the register to order (don't forget the specials handwritten near the counter); you pass by some pretty potted plants and local products too. Popular music playing from a small speaker on the wall; overall it feels like a nice cafe and little to no wait.

Service: Friendly (greeted us upon entry) and not pushy! I like taking my time when visiting for the first time to read everything carefully and didn't feel pressured to go order. The guy takes our orders on the iPad (you can sign your phone up for rewards, 1 free item after 10 purchases) and off we went to self-seat ourselves. Condiments, chopticks and utensils, napkins, and complimentary water station is in the middle for your use.

Food and Drink. Ikura Mentaiko Onigiri: Easily the king of the meal. Served warm in paper with some ikura on top, you bite into the slightly salted seaweed into warm and a savory flavor experience with tasty warm white rice, ikura stuffed inside along with mentaiko that's very flavorful without the "funk" flavor that you can sometimes get with mentaiko. I love strong flavors and this was so satisfying. After we ate our first round we both agreed we had to get another Ikura Mentaiko onigiri so we did that.

Yellowtail sashimi: Good value. 6 small pieces of well-marbled yellowtail fish on a generous bed of seaweed and fresh green onion slices with a little container of yuzu sauce. The yuzu gives a bright zing to the fatty fish and green onion tempers the zing for a slight crunch, and I liked how the seaweed was kept mild so that it could pair with the stronger flavors.

Spicy lobster shrimp Onigiri: Great value. Again served warm, freshly made. Wonderfully creamy and savory, with chunks of lobster and shrimp inside. That salted seaweed is fantastic against these textures.

Matcha Horchata: I forgot that horchata is quite sweet so if you're into that this is great! The more I drank the more I liked it. Beautiful matcha green on top of horchata cream-white, the cinnamon-rice flavor blending out any bitterness of matcha.

We will...

I am so glad I stumbled upon this restaurant during my trip to LA. My friends and I were looking for food to bring back to the hotel and I was looking for Onigiris in the Japanese supermarket nearby but they didn't look fresh. However, I saw Rice & Nori after walking out of the supermarket and immediately got excited. I went in and ordered the Spicy Lobster Shrimp Onigiri, Beef Sukiyaki Onigiri, and the Spicy tuna Hand Roll. I couldn't wait to go back to the hotel to try it out because the gentleman showed me the food before packaging it for take out and it looked amazing. It wasn't busy on a Tuesday night and the food was ready within 5 minutes.

All the items were pleasant to eat. My favorite was the Beef Sukiyaki Onigiri because it was the most flavorful. The sweetness and the sesame oil of the beef shined through. The Spicy Lobster Shrimp Onigiri was good too. It was simple but the mayo and rice complimented the slight sweetness and saltiness seafood flavors well. The Spicy Tuna hand roll was okay. I didn't really taste any spicy flavors and I don't think my taste buds are insensitive to spice. I denied the soy sauce the gentleman offered me because I thought it would be flavorful enough by itself but I wish I took it. But don't mistake this for it being bad. It probably would have been pretty good with soy sauce and maybe some wasabi.

Overall despite the slight disappointment from the Spicy Tuna Handroll, I really enjoyed the Onigiris. I would love to try the other flavors as well during my next visit to Little...

Delicious Onigiti rice 'balls' in Little Tokyo. We got 4 Onigiri, the Teriyaki Chicken, the Shio Salmon, the Salmon Yuzu and the Shrimp Lobster . As well as a Tuna Sashimi for $7.50 and a Yellowtail Handroll for $5.50 and also a Lychee Lemonade . In my opinion the Salmon Yuzu was the best one and next time i go here I would just get 3 of these with some pickles or edamame on the side because the Handroll was kind of hard to bite a piece of because the nori wasn't too crisp and the Tuna Sashimi tasted like it had been in the case a little too long though it was ok . This is an Onigiri spot so just come here for that . If you're really hungry you could probably eat 4 but 3 should be enough for most people. Also the rice is warm as these are made fresh to order and this place does get really busy so be prepared to wait a bit for your food . A tasty healthy choice . Also look at the map because this is kind of in a little side street alley on 2nd Street near San Pedro , but there's lots of people there . Recommended. My friend said the Chicken Teriyaki...