Sushi Enya Little Tokyo

I visited Sushi Enya Little Tokyo over the weekend. Sushi Enya is a Japanese sushi restaurant that originally opened in Little Tokyo, and currently has more than three restaurants over California. I ordered their signature Enya Omakase.

They started off the course with Dobin Mushi and Zensai. Dobin Mushi is a traditional Japanese soup with steamed ingredients cooked in broth and served in a teapot. This dish included white fish, shrimp, shiitake, and matsutake mushrooms. It had a very strong mushroom and bonito flake flavor, which was delicious.

Dobin Mushi

Zensai is an appetizer of the course. Sushi Enya provided steamed beka squid, red snapper sashimi, lightly grilled toro sashimi, and pickled cucumber with jellies for zensai. I loved pickled cucumber; the tanginess of jellies worked up my appetite.

Zensai

The first four sushi were red snapper, black cod, golden eye snapper, and striped jack. The red snapper was very soft, and the lemon zest on top of the red snapper went well together. Black cod was served with miso, which is a classic combination, as a little sweetness on miso paste goes well with black cod’s buttery and tender flesh. Shredded green onion and a pinch of salt helped bring out the golden eye snapper's umami flavor. Finally, striped jack, which is one of my favorite fish for sushi, had a good chewy texture with a little umami flavor created by green chili pepper paste on top of the sushi.

The next three sushi were salmon roe, Japanese barracuda, and flank part of a snapper. Salmon roe had its unique oceany or briny flavor, releasing a burst of salty liquid full of umami flavor when bitten. Barracuda is also known for its unique dense flesh with large flakes and very unique taste. Barracuda served with a touch of soy sauce and wasabi went well with the meaty flavor of the fish. The next sushi was a flank part of the snapper. Usually, the flank part of the fish is top-rated, as fats are concentrated in the flank part of the fish.

In between serving sushi, food prepared in the kitchen is also served. Chawanmushi with the skin of a white fish and salmon roe was served. Chawanmushi is a Japanese steamed egg, and it is unique because chawanmushi is very tender, like a custard pudding. It was slightly sweet and salty, with a nice umami flavor from the kelp and fish broth and salmon roe.

The third plate of sushi was akami, chu-toro, otoro, and uni. Akami is the most common sushi cut, and akami is a flesh that is lean and deep red. In most lower-quality restaurants, akami is often very fishy, but Enya’s akami was full of umami flavor, with no fishy flavors at all. The next two were chutoro and otoro, which is also known as fatty and extra-fatty tuna. Toro means “to melt”, and the fattier the toro is, the better it is. Toro literally melted in my mouth, with a deep buttery flavor. Uni was very soft yet very nutty and buttery.

The last sushi for the omakase course was a seared A-5 grade Japanese wagyu. A5 grade means the wagyu has 40 - 60% marbled fat. After searing, with wasabi and a squeeze of lime on the top, all fats were melted enough to give a buttery flavor instead of a greasy flavor.

The dessert for the course was a yuzu sorbet. Yuzu sorbet has an aromatic scent that mixes citrusy and slightly herbal flavors, which I believe is the optimal dessert after a course that serves toro and wagyu. The sorbet had a subtle sweetness without overpowering it.

Overall flavor and selection of sushi were over satisfactory. However, even though the omakase was $200, Enya did not use a real wasabi. This was the first high-end restaurant that did not provide real wasabi. Many people underestimate the difference between freshly ground wasabi and powdered wasabi. Powdered wasabi barely has sweetness and the spiciness disappears in your mouth in a split second.  Freshly ground wasabi is sweeter and the spiciness remains in your mouth for longer, which makes a perfect pairing with Wagyu or ōtoro. Also, Sushi Enya only allows a party of two people or less to sit at the sushi bar even if you order the omakase menu because I went as a party of four, and we had to sit at the table. Some may say that this is not a big deal, but one of the main reasons why people choose omakase is because you get one sushi at a time directly from the chef, while the chef explains the flavorwise characteristics of the fish and the reason for the selection. Still, the freshness of sushi was above average, even akami (the lean part of tuna) was very fresh. They provided a total of 14 pieces of sushi and other zensai (appetizers). I recommend this place for a romantic date night or a formal family dinner. If you don’t want to order omakase, they still have sushi cut roll for just over $20.