Ohshima in Orange! Located in some random strip mall in a not so hip area serves up a solid omakase experience along with some hot/cold dishes. In terms of price/food/experience it is probably a step or two behind the West LA Sushi Temples like Mori, Shunji, Kiriko, etc but also way ahead of 99 percent of all sushi places in OC and anything with “Rockin” in its name.
Got the 8 piece omakase that extended to 16 pieces ($80) and a few dishes:
The sushi:
Sea Bream
Blue Fin Tuna
Hokkaido Scallop
Amberjack
Sea Bass
Cherry Salmon
Big Yellowtail
Seared Black Cod
Mackerel (not pictured)
Otoro
Santa Barbara Uni
Crab Handroll
Grouper
Young Amberjack
Halibut Fin
Seared Diced Otoro
Dishes:
Ankimo Salad
Okinawan Pork Ribs
Uni Spaghetti
Santa Barbara Uni. Oh yes briney and sweet. These were an absolute delight, so much that I ordered the uni spaghetti after the omakase. Another favorite!!
100% agree. It is definitely one of the better sushi places in the OC. Getting a seat at the bar on a weekend night after 7pm is like trying to grab a TV on sale on Black Friday morning at Wal-mart.
that’s an unusual looking order of yellowtail. besides the color, i can’t recall seeing it served that way with scallions and grated spiced radish and what looks like ponzu. plus the light color around the edge looks like a very light tataki searing. at first glance i would have thought it an order of bontio or something although it’s not really as dark as most bonito i’ve seen and the flesh texture isn’t quite right either.
I went couple X, and both times meal was maybe from $45 for 9 piece to $75/each person, and meal was not even 1/4 as good as the places in LA, even Wasabe in Tustin is greater.
Noguchi is good for North OC. It’s a notch below Ohshima but it’s our go to local spot bc its 10 mins away and the kids like the udon and chawanmushi. It’s actually expensive if you get their omakaze. The only gripe if that they served us a few varieties of fish we didn’t care for - they were very hard and crunchy like in texture. One of them was parrotfish but don’t recall the others.