Sushi Enya Little Tokyo — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Sushi Enya is quite small, but there is street parking (if you're lucky) or a parking structure a few blocks down where you're only required to pay a flat fee after a certain time. We thought there would be a long wait despite it being a weeknight, but surprisingly there wasn't a wait at all. Since we were a party of six, we were given our own room with those old fashioned screen doors where we were required to sit on the floor and have a pretty authentic Japanese meal. It was pretty neat to dine in that room, but after a few minutes, my feet were hurting from sitting on the floor. I think we all needed to occasionally stretch our legs because we weren't used to eating like that.

Ambiance of the restaurant is pretty typical of a Japanese restaurant. Lights are quite dim, lots of Japanese artwork and posters, pictures of the sushi, etc. I feel like this would probably be a good place to take a close friend to eat. They're known for their super long rolls, but even though we ordered a lot of food, we didn't feel "full" by the time our meal was over.

Lemon Roll: Salmon, spicy salmon, avocado, cucumber, and lemon. Each roll had a tiny sliver of lemon on top, allowing us to distinguish this from the other rolls. It was pretty good! I enjoy salmon, especially with lemon squirted on top, so having the tanginess of the lemon mixed in with the roll was refreshing.

Yuzu Roll: Yellowtail, spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, and smelt egg. This was listed as their best selling roll along with the lemon roll. It was pretty tasty, and I especially liked the smelt egg on top with the yellowtail.

Tiger Crunch Roll: Inside has spicy tuna and shrimp tempura, and outside has albacore, avocado, crunch bits, and sesame. This was really similar to the Yuzu Roll. I thought it was okay. It's a standard roll I usually order in Japanese restaurants, and this didn't disappoint, but wasn't outstanding either. I'd pass on this roll next time.

Albacore Fried Onion Roll: Inside has crab salad and shrimp tempura and outside has tuna, salmon, yellowtail, sesame, avocado, and green onion. This was different due to all the fried onion bits. We all thought this was pretty tasty, with the yellowtail, salmon, and crab salad. I'd order it again.

AC Milan Roll: Baked lobster and mayo inside, avocado, sesame, green onion, and Cajun powder on the outside. This roll was okay. The lobster was tasty, but nothing stood out about the roll. Probably skip this roll next time.

Sweet Shrimp: Really good, but not the best I've had. The shrimp was soft and tender, but had a slight fishiness to it that made it seem as if it wasn't too fresh. We had the heads fried. I mean, everything fried is usually tasty and this wasn't different. The fried heads were good!

Yellowtail Belly Nigiri: Tasty and fresh! This was a really good dish. Succulent and smooth.

Spanish Mackerel Nigiri: I've had this before and it tasted really good. Here, not so much. The fish had that same not fresh taste to it. This fish actually was a miss for me.

tl;dr: The rolls here aren't cheap, but they are long with about 10-12 pieces in each. I would recommend coming with a bigger group so that you can eat a little more and split the bill amongst everybody. Each roll is about $13-$14, a bit pricier than most places; however, each one came with a unique sauce/topping that really made the roll its own! Our bill was around $150, which wasn't too bad after splitting it although we weren't exactly full. I think the fish here is good, but it wasn't oh my goodness, I need to go again tomorrow amazing. I don't know if I would specifically make a trip out to LA for Sushi Enya, but I'd gladly go again if I was in the area. Service was really good and they were able to split our bill into six ways which was...

My fiancé took me here as a surprise for my birthday. I've never tried omakase before so this is my first experience and it was absolutely wonderful. My fiancé has made reservations for 5:30 for the sushi bar. We arrived and checked in with the host and was immediately sat down at the corner spot at the bar. The waitress confirmed our order for omakase and a cold Suijin sake. We were greeted/served by Chef Sunny. He was funny and very helpful in explaining each course and the ingredients he used. Loved watching him make the sushi and the amount detail that went into it. This is what we were served:

Seafood soup - Served in a cute teapot w/Japanese lime (had shrimp, scallops and mushrooms) - a bit on the light flavor side so the lime helped Forgot to get the fish type - but it was a white fish w/ lime zest Forgot to get the fish type - Another white fish (maybe red snapper) w/ yuzu and some leaf Halibut w/ Sea salt & lime zest Black snapper w/ lemon zest & leaf - "kurodai" Seared red snapper with yuzu Seared rosy sea bass w/ radish- "nodoguro" - only the skin was seared - My favorite piece of the night Seared Black snapper w/ lime slice & yuzu - "kurodai" Chawan mushi w/ shrimp scallop snow crab mushroom and salmon eggs Tuna uni Roll Chutoro w/ shaved black truffle Otoro, diced otoro with caviar & gold - melt in your mouth Jellyfish sashimi w/ ponzu based sauce and lemon zest - Very crunchy, another favorite Mini Chirashi w/ snow crab, ikura, sweet shrimp & rice w/ fried shrimp head on the side - another favorite Smoked A5 wagyu w/ uni and yuzu - Didn't get a photo of it but we watched Chef Sunny cover the sushi with a cover and insert smoke - it was so smoky and fatty Seared scallop w/ Toro and uni roll Creme brulee complimentary to share w/ Fiancé Matcha pudding red bean and sponge cake (sweet shrimp and yam) Sparkling Hakkaisan - They gave us a free bottle at the end to take home WOW

Absolutely amazing meal. Everything was so fresh and tasty. Some of the courses were pretty unique especially the jellyfish, the mini chirashi, Smoked A5 wagyu. Chef sunny did a great job at adding just the right ingredients and sauces and kept us entertained as we watched him prepare our food. It was a plus with the free dessert and sake at the end. Will definitely be back again.

Service was great. They kept on removing used plates and refilling water. They even replaced our waters when our ice melted. And they came to refill my fiancé's sake every now and then. Also, did a great job at explaining each course. The meal is on the pricey but I think it was worth every penny. For parking, there is street parking and nearby public lots. Can't wait to come again. Thanks for a great...

This was an extremely disappointing experience, the rating of this restaurant simply doesn't make sense. We sat at the bar and ordered sushi, went down the menu to get some variety and tried some of the "specials." The first thing that really tripped me up was that all of their fish is pre-sliced, as-in none of the chefs were using a knife. They just grab a slice of fish off the stack and slap it on a drive ball. I've never seen this before, and knowing that they're a chain, I can only imagine that this is to control costs which is not what the sushi experience is about. Secondly, everything is smothered in sauce and/or toppings. Not a light sauce to compliment the fish, but overpowering so you can't taste the fish. We asked for sauce on the side for our entire order and can see why they go that route... Thirdly, most of the fish doesn't have any flavor (hence the heavy sauce). Pieces of fish where you can imagine what it should taste like, but when you put it in your mouth, you just get texture and no flavor. There's absolutely no quality to justify the step price (or really any price). Part of it is that the fish is sliced so extremely thin that the normal-sized rice ball is dominating in flavor and texture and... Fourthly, boy do they freeze their fish, to the point that some pieces were still frozen as we ate them. We asked for a few pieces to be remade because the fish was icy so we couldn't taste it. After the chef took new pieces of the stack and let them thaw a little, they of course lacked any discernable flavor. Rating this at 2 stars isn't an easy choice; the service was good, we didn't have to wait for a table, and we're pretty sure we didn't get did poisoning (there was an incident the next day but we don't think this was the cause). But the sushi, the thing we came here for, was so terrible in every respect that I can't rate it any higher. It feels harsh, but it's deserved. Oh, the rolls are really expensive but they're the size of two rolls. If you're into saucey rolls, the bland fish shouldn't...