Toku Unagi and Sushi (West Hollywood): A Pictorial Essay

Americas - USA West Los Angeles
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About a year ago I went to an unagi specialist restaurant in Ebisu Tokyo that used Kyosui eel from Shizuoka, deemed “unicorn eel”, well the term is more illusive/illusionary (Maboroshi no unagi) and I believe the varietal is farmed but properly bred, so there is no muddy taste, a lot of fat, and virtually melts in your mouth. They didn’t do hitsumabushi though. Very tasty morsel! If they are using Kyosui that would be super amazing.

It would be really awesome if their eels are large enough, that they can do skewers based on different cuts/body parts. And perhaps an appetizer of lightly blanched eel “sashimi”, all as part of some unagi kushiyaki tasting “omakase”.

Yeah, grilled, steamed, then finish off one more time on the grill with sauce is the proper way to do it. I assume they are using Japanese rice?

Let me research some killer sake pairings (if they allow corkage) for this if and when I come down again. I’m sure the latest Den would also work nicely here.

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@J_L having not tried both do you think the hitsumabushi style would be the way to go when ordering at Toku or would original style served in a lacquered box be worth a try?

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Hitsumabushi allows for three different variations on a theme, and would be a really nice intro to eating eel. The staff is eager to to teach any customers who may have questions on etiquette. The are well-trained. No attitude or condescension at all.

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There’s an hitsumabushi specialist in Palo Alto (of all places).

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To clarify Yayoi is not a specialist place for hitsumabushi, it’s a restaurant with locations in Japan and overseas that focuses on teishoku / set course meals, and hitsumabushi is just one offering of many. They use a strong soy sauce seasoned or katsuo forward dashi instead of sencha or some other green tea.

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Yayoi has other things on the menu, but hitsumabushi is the heavily-promoted house specialty.

https://www.foodtalkcentral.com/t/yayoi-palo-alto-nagoya-style-unagi-hitsumabushi

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I hate to judge on pictures alone, but this one looks a lot better!

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@J_L it would be friggin awesome if Toku are also willing to do u-maki aka unagi stuffed tamagoyaki (extra added value into the course or a side order).

Example of one I had in Taipei years ago

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woah

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Quite common in many unagi specialist restaurants in Japan (not all I’m guessing) and some jack of all trade washoku restaurants that offer quality unagi set meals as a side dish. Some attention to detail in the execution can really elevate the customer experience. And quite perfect with the right sake too.

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:star_struck:

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had that at mori! delish!

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Good news! Eel omelette, available on the Toku menu, $38.

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Yike$$$! But glad to know!

Ok I’m going to dub this one Y-Maki or YUmaki

aka YOLO-Umaki. Gotta do it next time I visit!

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My meal here tonight was exceptionally good, thank you for introducing me to this place @J_L. Staff was professional and very courteous. Without a doubt the best eel dish I’ve had in L.A. I got the same set as you (this was a pic of my buddies lacquer box set). The “eel sauce” was subtle but also delicious and complex. Hojicha Ice cream was Incredible, I need a whole buckets worth of that stuff in my freezer.

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Belated thanks to @J_L for spotlighting this new place.

I went Sunday night for an early dinner. Excellent unagi and servers were warm and attentive. One hiccup I realized later was that they forgot to give me pickles with my Hitsubabushi unagi rice with tea set. Oh well, it’s in soft opening mode so that’s ok.

Since the unagi was going to take 30 minutes, I ordered a bunch of appetizers and small plates.

The roast duck breast was very tender, but true to traditional Japanese diner preferences, it was medium (I prefer it a bit rarer).

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Out of curiosity, I also ordered Toku’s chawanmushi seafood steamed egg custard and it was full of a melange of the ocean’s bounty both raw and cooked. One of the counter chefs started beating eggs right after I placed my order. While it didn’t have the traditional ginkgo nut or Mitsuba leaf, it did have some sea bream within along with shrimp and was topped with uni and ikura. Very unique combo of bling bling ingredients befitting WeHo.

I spoke with the staff in Japanese during my meal and when they offered dessert, they told me they had matcha and hoji cha ice creams and a pannacotta. After mentioning to my server I had a hard time choosing, they told me the pannacotta was made in house and was a chef’s recommendation.

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One of the counter chefs by the name of Makoto-san explained that since they’re an Unagi-ya, they use sansho pepper in the pannacotta’s sweet savory topping which is similar to the sauce used for the broiled unagi - it’s their signature dessert (it doesn’t appear on the menus in Japan and appears to be a U.S. only dessert). The cooked sansho peppercorns were soft and juicy with a bit of a kick, but not as intense as it’s Chinese cousin, the Szechuan peppercorn.

Like the entire meal, the dessert was very balanced in flavors taking care to not have the sweet savory soy based sauce overwhelm the sweet, light and creamy pannacotta cream (some other Japanese restos in SoCal serving unagi don or Hitsumabushi smother the eel with a cloyingly sweet and overly salty sauce). I think my server highly recommended this to me assuming I was familiar with Japanese sensibilities, but for the less adventurous I’d suggest ordering one of the ice creams and splitting a pannacotta between 2 people just to be safe. As for me, I’d definitely order the pannacotta again.

Can’t wait to go back to Toku Unagi again for ultra fresh broiled eel and other delicious dishes!

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Hi @foodshutterbug,

Thanks for the report and pics! :slight_smile: This sounds wonderful.How did you like the Unagi overall?

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That sansho unagi tare panna cotta looks so good and out of the box creative, love it!
Haven’t really seen much in the way of sansho berries up here in Northern California and it’s really creative to see this with unagi tare to use in place of kuromitsu. What a fun way to present it also, French Pot de Crème!

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@Chowseeker1999 I’m more of an unajyu person, but decided to go with the Matsu $71 unagi over rice with tea set instead because I confirmed with the server it was the same amount of unagi as the Matsu unajyu (unagi over rice in lacquer box). For $3 more, the set comes with fresh wasabi, sliced green onions and a pot of kombu seaweed tea to pour over the rice (as shown in @J_L ‘s pix above). I was a bit skeptical, but when enjoying my 3rd and 4th bowls ochazuke/broth style, I was able to enjoy the textures and pure taste of the unagi even more.

That being said, I’m still eager to try the unagi over rice lacquer box style ‘cuz that’s what I grew up with as the offspring of a Tokyoite/Edokko. I would be looking for a bit more char resulting in stronger aromatics for the lacquer box version, but we shall see.

I checked out Toku’s online menus for its branches in Japan and they all offer osuimono clear soup with “kimo,” the unagi’s liver. I don’t know why it wasn’t offered when I went to the WeHo/Los Angeles branch, but I’ll probably inquire about it when I make my reservations in the future.

Up to this point, I’ve always been disappointed with all of the unagi donburi (eel over rice) I’ve had in SoCal restos - the premium stuff imported from Japan sold at Nijiya and Mitsuwa when they have it is better and I use it to make unagi rice bowls at home. However, Toku Unagi & Sushi in WeHo has certainly been a game changer for unagi, but given the $$-$$$ prices I’ll maybe go back to them 1-2x a year.

I’ve been told some of the high end fine dining restaurants in DTLA are kept afloat by the wealthy Asian families in San Marino and beyond and hopefully Toku can tap into that market as well as other groups.

@Chowseeker1999
PS: They offer 2 types of unagi, one from Aichi prefecture (“Take” level) and the other from Hamamatsu in Shizuoka prefecture with the latter being a higher grade and used for the levels of “Matsu” and “Tokujou” (“extra special” for larger portion of Hamamatsu eel).

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@beefnoguy Toku WeHo’s pannacotta would give some of the French and Italian dessert chefs in this city a run for their money, it was so silky and smooth.

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