Hand rolls, small plates at Korean-tinged Japanese restaurant
A block from the Wiltern Theatre in the heart of Koreatown, Norikaya restaurant is quietly making a splash in the popular open-faced hand roll specialty market. The small, stunning restaurant, which is not much bigger than the U-shaped sushi bar that dominates the space, offers a tight menu of pristine temaki (the Japanese word for hand roll) and elegant small plates of raw and cooked fish, vegetables, and the occasional slice of high-quality meat.
STUNNING SUSHI BAR at Norikaya restaurant.
A lot of attention went into the design of Norikaya, whose name is a portmanteau of “nori,” the seaweed wrapper around the temaki, and “izakaya,” a succession of small plates. The walls are dramatically painted black with glowing gold paint swishes adding interest and a touch of Japanese design. Diaphanous swirls of white translucent fabric hang above the crisp white counter, and the well where the chefs wield their knifes. But it takes more than cool décor to make a restaurant hot. Norikaya’s executive chef is Michelin-starred Akira Back, who helms dozens of restaurants from Canada to Dubai, to AK Steak with Norikaya restauranteur Robert Kim, in the Beverly Center.
Born in South Korea, Back moved to Aspen, Colorado, where he spent seven years as a professional snowboarder until an injury drove him to try something new. He took a job in a Japanese restaurant and realized that was his calling. In a nod to both his roots and his culinary heritage, Back often fuses a bit of Korea into his Japanese dishes. At Norikaya, kimchee often joins the flavor-mix and soju is served alongside sake on the drinks menu.
For this chilly night out with girlfriends, we pounced on carafes of hot sake and started ordering. There’s a well-priced five-course tasting menu, but we went rogue, discussing the relative merits of each dish before settling on five to share, and we each selected two hand rolls to try ourselves.
YELLOWTAIL serrano
sashimi with kimchi tuna.
We shared excellent yellowtail sashimi. The thin slices of super fresh fish were doused in lemony yuzu soy sauce, topped with serrano pepper rounds and pickled jalapeño, and sprinkled with just the right amount of truffle oil. A perfect way to begin our meal.
Crispy rice with spicy tuna is on nearly every sushi menu, but many places either turn the rice into tooth-cracking hockey pucks, or fail to season the chopped tuna properly. This version hit the Goldilocks spot—just right. The rice was crunchy, but pliable and light, and spicy kimchi was added to the tuna for a bright, briny hit of heat.
Adorable little baby corn, commonly thrown into a Chinese stir fry, are grilled on their own at Norikaya, and tossed with grated parmesan cheese and snow cheese powder, a Korean product usually used to season fried chicken. Delicious! Our biggest disappointment was a plate of lackluster rock shrimp. The dish should have been bursting with taste from sriracha aioli, wasabi sesame seeds, and sliced serrano peppers, but the small fried shrimp did not absorb much of the flavor.
The hand rolls were delectable. The salmon temaki presented pieces of seasoned soy sauce-marinated fish mixed with minced white onion, and Japanese scallions moistened with aioli, then piled onto a white-rice lined square of nori. I usually appreciate simpler preparations of salmon, but the ingredient additions enhanced the flavor.
BLUE CRAB TAMAKI with salmon temaki and soy sauce.
I order blue crab rolls whenever I see them on a sushi menu, and this one was fantastic. Very good blue crab was tossed with a judicious amount of dynamite aioli (sriracha and mayonnaise) and sprinkled with furikake, a Japanese dry seasoning mix of nori, sesame seeds, and bonito (dried fish flakes). The meaty roll was one of my favorite bites of the night. Next time I might try the blue crab roll variation crowned with pop rocks!
Norikaya, 554 S. Western Ave., 213-816-8720, norikaya.com.
Category: Entertainment
