SUGARFISH by sushi nozawa — Restaurant in Manhattan Beach

I arrived here with my championship belt over my right shoulder after MOGGING my moms Tuesday night Pickleball group made up of 60+ year old Manhattan Beach Moms. Nah but fr I went 5-1 and that felt pretty good, those ladies can PLAY.

I did a quick google search to see how many Sugarfish locations there are, and stumbled upon an article written in the Infatuation ranking every Sugarfish location in LA. To my suprise, a hand came out of my phone and open palm SLAPPED me across the face when I read "I don’t know anything about this location. I’ve never been here, never heard anything about it, and didn’t even know it existed before today."

THE BLATANT DISRESPECT!

I don't know what it is, and maybe it's my inherent Manhattan Beach bias, but I swear everytime I leave this Sugarfish I always say to myself "this is way better than every other Sugarfish location I have ever been to. They must be sourcing their fish from somewhere else than all the other Sugarfishes..."

Last night, my dear reader, was no different. Just absolute QUALITY in every cut of fish that came in my Nozawa Trust Me. Melt in your mouth quality. My mom, licking her wounds from getting MOGGED by me on the pickleball court only hours prior, felt the exact same. "I swear this is just so much better than the Santa Monica one..." BIG FACTS MOM!

I live in NY now, and the Sugarfish in Soho can't hold a candle to this one. Everyone I say this to balks, but New York sushi can't hold the jockstrap of LA sushi. There are exceptions to every rule, but in general I feel so passionately about that statement. Anyways, I'm getting off track here my b.

After housing my Nozawa Trust me and half of my moms Trust Me because she eats like a rabbit, I grabbed my championship belt and left with a big smile on my face as I was now on a belly full of A1 quality sushi.

Thank you, Sugarfish Manhattan Beach. Thank you.

IG...

I was looking forward to dining here and was a bit disappointed. First off, the good part, the sushi was very fresh and tasty. However, that was the best part of it dining experience. When we arrived I went straight to the restroom to wash up but they told my wife they would not seat us without both of us literally standing right in front of them. She told him I had just gone to the restroom, but they said they won't seat her without me standing right next to her. Next, the tables were so close together we had to move between tables walking sideways. Once seated, we could listen to everyone's conversation at each table next to us. We were not more then 2 feet away and not sure how this was possible with COVID-19 rules. As said, the food we ordered was good. However I ordered tuna sashimi and they gave me a little ball of grated and mushed up tuna. I have been going to sushi restaurants for 25 years, I know what sashimi is, slices of fish without rice. The waiter came over and I told him I ordered sashimi, sliced fish and he proceeded to tell me that sashimi could be any fish without rice and that's what that was. I told him to send it back and just get me sushi. The final issue was with the check at the end. They brought over the check, and just with a party of two they had already included a 16% tip for themselves. I understand for large parties they add tips but to do it for a party of two is unheard of. Also what if I wanted to give them more or less based on my experience that option is removed from the customer. I hope they straighten out some of the issues they have because the food is good but all the rest of the...

Food was pretty good. They were out of a lot of specials. The highest special (don't think just eat...) they were out. They never received the shipment of uni, they were out of a certain sake, sweet shrimp... We had to ask for a menu of what they did have and we were not happy. We went and got the nozawa special (1 downgrade). They had to swap the hirame for the bay scallops. Not that good of a swap either. I probably won't revisit this branch. I wish they warned customers when signing up so we can make a decision on food...

The otoro wasn't consistent. 2 plates had beautiful otoro, and the other 2 plates had what looked like regular toro or chuutoro (which they were out of, so it couldn't have been that)

Their sushi had quite a bit too much rice for a pretty fancy sushi spot. (it was still tasty though, and I assume this is how they chose to serve it) I think they should have had a longer sushi piece for each of their rice (instead of removing rice)

The service was really bad as well. Whenever I said one thing, they seemed to want to get out of there and ran away when I wanted to add something else. They were slightly busy, but they should at least try to listen to the full order. They took plates right as we finished them... Which is okay sometimes but the plates sometimes had some fallen rice we did want to eat and they just took them in front of us. I felt unwelcomed there

The atmosphere I gave a 2* since it was so dark I wasn't really able to see...