Asanebo Corp

Ate at Asanebo last night and had a fantastic meal! We sat at the bar and asked the sushi chef to give us the best choices for what was in season and we were not disappointed. Some very unique options including some smoked sweet fish, mackerel and conch that were very good. Also some wonderful marinated cherry tomatoes paired with blue fin tuna that was excellent. Of course everything tastes better with sake and the Asanebo brand was excellent. more

Having been to most of the Japanese restaurants in the area and in SoCal, I was very disappointed with the meal. We were a party of 4 and spent $400 on dinner and were all hungry even after dinner (we are skinny people too!). I have been here before, and the service and the food has definitely dropped in quality and portions. There are much better options in Studio City. We are planning never to return to Asanebo. Pros: good sushi Cons: microscopic portions, poor service more

Luckily it's both art and food. Dishes are presented so beautifully though you stop to wonder if you should... more

Luckily it's both art and food. Dishes are presented so beautifully though you stop to wonder if you should eat it. Believe me, you should. Th... more

My wife and I love Japanese food and frequently passed by this restaurant vowing to try it one day. Sadly, that day was today. Pros: Friendly Staff, Sincere Apologies Cons: Food more

I have heard sooo many good things about this place, so I was really excited to try it. If you are looking... more

I have heard sooo many good things about this place, so I was really excited to try it. If you are looking for your regular americanized sushi, sta... more

Micheline Guide was right about them. Asanebo is a great restaurant. In my mind, they are one of the few restaurants in LA that have class. They are traditional but not pretentious in the way Nozawa is (I'm talking about their attitude, not the decor.) Asanebo chefs use fresh sozai (materials) and yet the prices are not so high as, let's say, old Ginza Sushiko. In terms of innovativeness, they try just about enough to surprise us but won't go into the degree of banality. I like Matsuhisa too, but I think you need to think of their food as totally different category from Japanese cuisine. And nothing wrong with that. But when you are really craving for Japanese food like I do sometimes (because I'm Japanese,) I'd go to Asanebo. Pros: Food Cons: Some dishes are better than the other, but isn't that the case with any restaurant? more

I went on a Tuesday night, so the restaurant was not very busy. After all the reviews I read, I expected an amazing quality of sushi. Well, I was extremely disappointed. The sashimi was sub par at best and for the price, it should have been to die for! I've been to all you can eat places where the quality of sushi was better. The portion sizes were terrible and the fish tasted less than fresh. I don't plan on going back. The valley has a wealth of sushi restaurants, where I can get top quality sushi, generous portions and not think I got ripped off. I don't recommend this place at all. The only positive thing I have to say is that my server was very nice. Pros: Service was ok Cons: Bad quality sushi, too expensive for type of quality and portion size more

This is a place for sushi purists. The decore is very authentic and representative of sushi bars we visited in Tokyo. So is the food - it's delicious, high quality & very expensive, as is the sake selection. There's a higer percentage of Japanese customers than we've seen at other sushi places. No ""novelty"" rolls here - we inquired about shrimp or salmon rolls, and the waitress told us that the owner refuses to serve them! Since people are constantly asking for them, she hoped that the owner would eventually change his mind. Most of the food we ordered (yellowtail roll, tuna tartar, oyster shooters, cali roll) was off the hook, but we weren't impressed by the sashimi. One annoying service issue put a damper on our evening: when making the dinner reserveratin for 6:30 we were told that we'd have to be done by 8pm (I've seen other reviewers comment on this). We were fine with the time limit, but when we tried to place our last order of large sake & cali roll at 7:40, the unfriendly waiter gave us an attitude! He reminded us about the time limit (though we'd already been reminded about it when we first arrived) and he actually had the gall to tell my husband that he wouldn't bring a large sake, only a small one! This despite the fact that we still had 20 minutes and were sure to finish everything while settling the bill. The waiter actually wasted about 5 minutes of ""precious"" time arguing about this with us, but finally brought out the order. As expected, we wolfed it down and still had time to spare while we waited for the bill, etc. This incident will make us think twice before coming back here - when you're dropping serious change at an expensive restaurant (there were 5 of us, by the way), you don't want waiters breathing down your back and copping attitutde! We're adults, and I think we can figure out how long it'll take us to finish up... Pros: Excellent quality sushi Cons: Unusually pricey, poor service, small space more

I've been to about 100 top notch sushi restaurants in NYC and LA.. Don't be jealous of my playa status....Asanebo had the best and most inventive omakase out of all of them. I think the THC in my brain maybe intensified the flavors a little bit but jesus christ on a crazy stick this sushi was so fresh and amazing. Squirming live shrimp? Sure. Homemade sesame tofu? Of course! Everyone likes toro, try it here and give your tastebuds multiple tastegasms for a millenia. Pros: everything Cons: nada more

Our sushi chef commented on the wonderful saki we ordered, so we shared some... and he took not a modest cupful, but filled up a huge glass to the rim. The chef's special was abstract at best, leaving us to order (and handsomely pay for) normal pieces of fish. This place is not worth the $350 bill we paid for 2 people. Stick to Nozowa for the real deal and get what you pay for. Cons: over-priced, weird service more

This sushi is amazing. Best sushi I have ever had. I highly recommend going here at least once. Small restaurant, so make sure you make reservations. Enjoy! Pros: Sashimi more

We read about Asanebo in Zagats 2006 edition and just HAD to try it. Having gone to some of the best sushi restaurants all over L.A., we wanted to see if this place lived up to the review written in there. It did just that and MORE!! We always sit at the sushi bar, and Chef Koji is the greatest chef out there. The waitstaff and hosts/hostesses are friendly and completely on the ball at all times. Your drink is refilled before asking & if you drop a chopstick new ones are brought to you in seconds. We especially love their Spanish Mackerel sushi, unagi, and spicy tuna rolls (I actually DISLIKE spicy tuna rolls at most other places). Oh, and the soft shell crab roll is to die for! Their wasabi is fresh & seems better than most. It doesn't leave your soy sauce murky. Oh, and if you happen to be from out of town or have guests in town, they will love the celebrity sightings! You MUST try this place, don't believe the other reviews. We go weekly, despite the prices. It is well worth every penny. Pros: fresh sushi, friendly knowledgable chefs Cons: valet parking only more

No prices on the menu board. Pros: food Cons: parking more

We looked for sushi place on the internet, and this place got good ratings, upon arrival the hostess asked if we had reservations, we said no, than he said ""u can leave"", after a few seconds he said yes a table opened up, (we saw there were many open tables), anyway upon sitting they bring u the specialty menu with no prices, we ordered the Toro and california roll, salmon etc... The food portions were SMALL, dry, not tastefull at all, even the toro was like chewing on rubber (ligament of the fish), then we get the bill which was high, toro was 30 and very small portions, I would think the food we ordered was maybe worth 5 bucks but we paid much much much more. BEWARE!!! Pros: we left after we ate, i'm still alive Cons: food, price, service more

Upon arrival we were greeted by an rude host. 5 min. later she arrived at our table to remind us that we needed to be finished by 8:00 because she had the table reserved for another party,it was 6:30. We ordered from their highly recommended special menu(no prices listed) and a bottle of sparkling water with lemmon. The bottle arrived shortly after with no lemmon. Keeping this short, I will tell you that the 3 specials and the 2 sushi rolls that we had were extremely disappointing. The sushi was not only mediocre in quality and taste but after spending $140(w/o tip) I was still hungry. As I looked around I thought to myself that the owner of this restaurant must own an island in the tropics, because he certainly doesn't spend it on grade one sushi or elaborate decor. Do yourself and your finances a favor, venture somewhere else. Cons: food, price, staff more

This was by far the best sushi we have had since we moved to LA from New York! The sashimi was the freshest we have ever had...just melts in your mouth! The service was fabulous! Extremely friendly wait staff and very attentive!! Just a wonderful dining experience...loved it!!! We are recommending it to everyone...and we can't wait to go back! Definitely make reservations...the place gets packed! more

I would rather have gone across the street to katsu-ya. more

read an article in l.a. mag recently that was talking about the ""best"" sushi places in the city and this was in it. while a few places on that list shouldn't have been and a few that should've weren't, they were definitively right about this restaurant. the service was very nice, from the owner who was serving us to the waitstaff. the sushi was extremely fresh and soft, especially the yellowtail. many unique food combinations were served, from halibut sashimi with truffles to the albacore with ponzu gelee. the pear geleto at the end was a very refreshing touch. prices aren't low, but well worth the quality and presentation. Pros: good quality fish, unique dishes, hospitable service more