High-end sushi is on sale all over Los Angeles as top chefs prep bento boxes and home kits to keep their restaurants open and diners happy. Here’s what to order and how (some of the more exclusive places require ordering a week or more in advance). And don’t forget the sake—since quarantine began, food deliveries can include alcohol as long as the recipient shows proof of legal age.
Where to Get Luxe Sushi Takeout Right Now (At a Fraction of the Price)
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Published May 22, 2020
1. The Brothers Sushi, Woodland Hills
DIY hand roll kits are the fun innovation here (beginning at $10 for a kid size), and the sushi itself is on super-sale: a large sushi platter (30 pieces), that usually costs $230 is now $180, while the 20-piece platter costs $75 (a $100 value). For a minimum $75 order, this expert West Valley sushi restaurant will deliver within 10 miles. But you must call on the same day, up to 11:45 a.m. for lunch and 3 p.m. for dinner.
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Matsuhisa
2. Matsuhisa, Beverly Hills
The original fancy sushi date spot in Beverly Hills is offering customers bento boxes with eight pieces of sushi, a cut roll, two pieces of sashimi taco, sashimi salad and edamame for $80 via Postmates. Let's say another member of your quaranteam doesn't like raw fish—no problem, because you can get a cooked bento box for two people that includes the signature black cod with miso dish, king crab tempura and filet mignon with your choice of sauces like wasabi pepper sauce or yuzu truffle butter. It's $150, but if you really want to be baller, you can upgrade to Wagyu beef for another $80.
3. Shunji Japanese Cuisine, West L.a.
This Michelin-starred Westside spot is known for its expert omakase service, and chef Shunji Nakao is keeping that seasonal sourcing going as best he can, even in these COVID-19 times of supply chain disruptions, by including exotic selections like firefly squid, and seasonal trout and yellowtail in his bento boxes. The takeout menu—including curbside pickup—ranges from a $26 Japanese appetizers course to a king crab box for $75 and a deluxe sushi bento for $70. There are no substitutions, but with the exacting care to sushi prep here, you're not going to want that anyway.
4. N/naka Restaurant, Palms
Chef Niki Nakayama's kaiseki (the multi-course Japanese version of haute cuisine) meals are one of the city's toughest reservations to get. It makes sense that the to-go service of N/naka would be equally rarified. Only a small number of delivery meals are offered, to be picked up in 15 minute increments from Tuesday to Saturday. Oh, and you'll have to be poised by your computer on Saturday at 10 a.m. to grab one of the slots for the following week since they fill up within the hour. For your trouble, you'll feast on miso-marinated seasonal fish with sunchoke purée, sushi, kabocha potato salad and more in the $38 bento box, or Monterey Bay abalone, roast duck and 12 other items in the $85 California kaiseki box.
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5. Sugarfish, Various Locations
While this high-end brand of sushi restaurants that stretches from Santa Monica to Pasadena is known for its hand rolls, the difficulty of transporting that messy and delightful experience to a home diner has proved too challenging. So they have developed smartly packaged “Trust Me” sushi boxes which start at $28 and allow a couple substitutions (take that, finicky eaters!). You can also order sashimi and cut rolls a la carte, as well as endamame. This is the perfect chioce for a high-quality sushi lover who isn't interested in bragging about their meal, but just wants to chow down on dependably quality seafood.
6. Kazu Nori Sushi, Various Locations
With four locations (Wilshire Boulevard, downtown, Santa Monica and Westwood), this hand roll specialty restaurant from the same restaurant group as SugarFish has the muscle and deep pockets to create uniform perfection in everything they do. There's the house-made soy and ponzu sauces, the carefully engineered rice that's prepped with an eye to the relative humidity from one restaurant to another, and of course, deep relationships with some of the best fishmongers on the planet. Prices for the cut-roll boxes start at $15 for a 16-piece selection that includes toro, scallop, cucumber and crab.
7. Sushi Note, Sherman Oaks
Instead of chowing down on the $80 omakase when you are dining in at this tiny Valley spot, now diners opt for the $45 "Half Note" sampler, a box of the greatest hits of Japanese cooking: edamame, shishito peppers, and one piece each of albacore, salmon, yellowtail, halibut, bluefin tuna, gravlax, red snapper, scallop and a spicy tuna cut roll. Old school reigns in the simply prep here, as it does in the reservations—you're meant to call the restaurant to place your order.
8. Sogo Roll Bar, Los Feliz
Brandy-soaked albacore topped with garlic ginger ponzu ($7) as well as 24-piece set of cut rolls including snapper, scallop, tor, crab, lobster and albacore kari kari. That's what's on offer at this delightfully cheerful and hipster hand roll restaurant, and we're placing our order right now—this restaurant's fare must survive.
Skinny Fish
9. Skinny Fish, Mid-city
Chef Ei Hiroyoshi is the former head sushi chef at Sasabune, L.A.’s legendary omakase spot, so when he launched a delivery-only concept called Skinny Fish just in time for a city-wide quarantine, his fans would have been happy with his usual fare. Instead, he's innovated a selection of bowls and rolls made with sustainable fish and locally-sourced vegetable, with a healthy twist—traditional sushi rice has been replaced with a special cauliflower rice that he's been developing for about a year. That means his $18 shrimp, salmon or albacore bowls are all keto diet-friendly, so this is definitely on your health- and figure-conscious diet.
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10. Krispy Rice
The team behind hit sushi restaurant Katsuya was inspired to take that joint’s most popular item, crispy rice with spicy tuna, and build an entire concept around it. Krispy Rice cleverly uses the "ghost kitchen" business model, in which delivery kitchens are build in unused mall space to accommodate the increased demand for delivery food. Popular menu items include the king salmon with yuzu ($7) or plant-based truffle avocado ($5). Krispy Rice also features hand rolls like spicy hamachi ($9) and wasabi in soy paper, alongside maki rolls, nigiri and sashimi. All fish are sustainably sourced and monk fruit sugar is used to replace sugar in sushi rice and sauces. (And, because presentation counts, props to the branding team for the cutest cardboard boxes.)
11. Sushi Onodera, West Hollywood
The two Michelin-star Sushi Ginza Onodera in West Hollywood is now offering takeout service of their world famous sushi and appetizers for the first time. Sushi fans can pick up Edomae Chirashi Sushi, in which 13 kinds of fish and seafood are imported from Japan and scattered over rice. Futomaki is another lesser-known Japanese favorite. This previously secret off-menu item translates as “fat roll” and is an oversized roll made with sea eel, tiger prawn, egg omelet, pickled burdock root, kanpyo (a gourd common in Edo cuisine), cucumber, shitake mushrooms, sansho pepper and sesame seeds. Ingredients are separately cooked, cooled and then rolled together, allowing the juices to commingle. Get yours by calling 323-433-4817 from Tuesday through Saturday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
