Supamu Okinawa Onigiri — Restaurant in Los Angeles

The corner spot on Catalina and 6th has a somewhat sordid history here in k-town. For many years it housed Michin-Dak, a Korean chicken sando stall which never seemed to get the message that they were neither the tastiest sandwich nor the cheapest in town and as far as I knew they never saw the need to improve either of these qualities. When I saw their telltale signage had been replaced, I was a little skeptical, since especially if the ownership remained the same, one wondered if this new restaurant would carry on their overpriced, undercooked legacy. I am happy to report that this is not the case. Supamu is a one-of-a-kind, easygoing and delicious experience that truly can corner the local market of spam musubi.

Spam musubi, a kind of sushi wrap where a slab of spam is tied with seaweed to a bundle of rice, is a mainstay at many Japanese groceries. Onigiri restaurants have been popping up around LA, specializing in the closely related rice balls, which can easily be dressed up with fancier ingredients and upcharged. But spam musubi in particular has a somewhat lower reputation, being associated with its namesake cheap salty meat. Naming a restaurant after it, to say nothing of specializing in it, is quite the statement. What, after all, can you do to center an entire menu around a single dish without getting tiring, when the dish itself doesn't appear to have a lot of creative leeway besides the occasional slab of egg?

The first thing to note is that supamu serves a Okinawan style musubi - this means that rather than have a slab on top of rice with a seaweed band holding it together, in this case a square of seaweed wraps around a block of rice, with the spam in the center like a sandwich. This makes it far easier to hold, far harder to fall apart, and is generally unique - I've never seen another restaurant in America prepare spam in this way.

And the preparation really is key here. Subamu has found ways to take its humble inspiration and dress it up for a big city debut. Not only is the spam itself well marinated, salty sweet and savory, but almost all of its offerings include a thin slice of tamagoyaki, fried scrambled egg, itself a hint sweet and savory. And that's just the basics - supamu adds a whole family of toppings each of which boggles the mind and teases the tongue.

The first I tried was their curry croquette spam - The flavor of curry, already a great match for rice, blended in lovely with the spam, but it was the texture of the croquette which really blew my mind. Soft light and creamy, it was like biting into a cloud, wrapped in a brisk Golden blanket of crunch. If this was the only thing on their menu, it would still be a worthwhile visit.

But supamu goes beyond that. Their beef sukiyaki consisted of incredibly juicy thin cuts of beef - I would order a whole bowl if it was on the menu. The only drawback I could see is that certain items, like the tantalizing unagi, have at time of writing never been in stock to my knowledge. But even that is only a reason to keep returning in hopes of finding new prospects in this wild new land of spam.

The service makes returning a no-brainer as well - when business is slow, Young, the owner, comes out to make small talk with everyone there. He's clearly a discerning fellow, with developed thoughts on the local cuisine of K-Town, and a keen interest in everyone's reception to his incredible creations. But everyone behind the counter maintains the kind of friendly demeanor which makes you want to ask their name and chat. It's the kind of place that you could see being a regular at - something all too rare in the big city these days.

When I first went to supamu, I noticed the Google listing hadn't yet updated, and went out of my way to report to Google that Michin Dak was gone. So enchanted have I been with my experiences at this humble abode that I push the map process forward so I could leave this review. I hope that should tell you everything you need to know about this lovely new treasure about town. The only spam I want in my inbox comes...

I was there on Thursday 6/20 at around 11:40a and the taller Asian worker with the long hair was verbally harassing the tattooed Hispanic worker. He was extremely rude and condescending towards him and showed no shame in what he was doing. He was repeatedly saying that he makes more than him for a reason and that the Hispanic guy doesn't make tips because he can't do anything right?... I was standing there waiting for my order and can see that on top of not being able to get along with his coworkers, he also seems to just be getting paid more to just waste time. He was just standing around in the parking lot doing nothing!!! The owner needs to be made aware of this unprofessional and disgusting behavior from his worker. On top of his degrading behavior, the Asian guy was also wearing Crocs? I understand that Crocs makes work style shoes but he was wearing the ones with holes in them. That's extremely unsanitary and hazardous because they work with hot oil to fry things. Like I said, the owner needs to address this and fire the Asian guy or school him on proper work etiquette before he has a harassment case on his hands. I know that's what I'd do smh. Food is good but just know people are getting verbally degraded on the inside. Never coming again. I'll let my...

My buddy and I ordered damn near half the menu and it was ALL good. We definitely had our own personal favorite.... But nothing was disappointing. Soft shell crab was my personal fave but only because i love soft shell and they didn't mess it up. It was nice and crunchy, and it was a whole crab. Fricken delicious. The Kakiage was something i didnt think i would enjoy so much, but boy was i COMPLETELY WRONG. Ordered the classic so I can taste the base (rice, spam, and tomago) and yeah... simplicity at its finest. My buddy's personal favorite was the Spicy Mentaiko and Spicy Tuna as a close second. Hawaiian definitely makes you think of Hawaii lol. Yeah... I could go on. They come individually wrapped, but we took a "pretty" photo for the Gram by putting them face up in the box. Atmosphere was great too. They had some chill hip-hop playing on the speakers and the staff was super friendly. Shout out to Michael!!! Ill be heading back to try the rest of...