Sushi Gen - Los Angeles, CA

Slave girl has been raving about Sushi Gen for as long as I know her. Since we finally got the same day off on Fridays, we got together for me to experience the lunch special rush.

I was warned about the long wait so we figured the earlier the better for our arrival. We made it over at 10:45am and there was a line of 20 people already. The parking was pretty easy around that time in the small Honda plaza parking lot. With restaurant validation, vehicles can park up to 2 hours for only $2. The restaurant didn't open their door until 11:15 so the wait was around 30 minutes total. Unreal! (lol)

Slave girl ordered her favorite, chirashi bowl. I got eel rice and sashimi combo. Before we received our food, we got our miso soup right away and salad, tofu as side dish for my order. It was light and refreshing as starter.

Then we got our main courses within 10 minutes. Chirashi bowl was packed with a lot of stuff to a point we couldn't identify what was what. We actually stopped our waitress to give us a chirashi tutorial. The fish was fresh and tasty, rice was served cold and mixed well with vinegar.  Some fish pieces had tendons but overall the bowl was balanced and enjoyable.

The eel rice was excellent. The fish was fatty with lots of flavor, I asked for a spoon to perfect my eating experience. I also got Japanese pepper with my dish and it definitely enhanced the flavor. It was a shame to see tendons again on my side sashimi. What a disappointment.

You can see the tendons on my side sashimi...

While I was having lunch, I noticed almost everyone around us got the sashimi lunch special. Me being fat and all, I decided to order that as well after my eel rice. I  believe it was pre cut and plated since they came out super fast, but it looked colorful and amazing. Unfortunately, I should have seen this coming with my early dishes... My sashimi was filled with tendons and it was not fun to eat them at all.

Sashimi plate looks good, but those tendons...

Such a shame...

Overall experience, I would say the lunch was a bit overhyped. The quality of the fish was good but the knife work did not meet my expectation. The eel rice was spot on and if I went back for lunch again, that would probably be the only thing I get.