I was invited to dinner at Sashi by the restaurant's PR firm. I was very excited to try executive Chef Makoto Okuwa's sushi, who worked under Chef Morimoto of Iron Chef fame and was executive sushi chef at Morimoto in both D.C. and NYC. Now, I've found that people's standards about sushi vary greatly, so here's my disclaimer: I'm by no means a sushi connoisseur, but I've been to a few great places around our delicious city. I don't mind an occasional venture out to some creative rolls but will largely judge a sushi place by the quality of its traditional nigiri (fish on rice) sushi.

The lounge itself is beautifully designed. The bar is gorgeous and the sushi bar looked spectacular. We sat outside and it was very comfortable. Service is excellent but the food came out at a leisurely pace, so expect to spend a good hour or two to eat. The majority of the dishes were excellent, the sushi definitely passed the "Kevin test." The only drawback is that it's pricey and the amount of food doesn't justify it. It's a great date place if you are prepared to drop a couple bills to impress your date. For your reference, our bill would have come out to $190 including the glass of sake. My advice? Order the seabass, skip the appetizers, concentrate on the excellent sushi, and don't forget the Toban Yaki.

Sashi is called a sushi and sake lounge.  I'm a big fan of sake and I was glad to see a good selection of it, including some unfiltered varieties.

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Sashi
451 Manhattan Beach Blvd
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
(310) 545-0411

Photos by Kevin Cheng for LAist.com