Ohshima Japanese Cuisine Orange

This is a legit omakase restaurant. When I eat omakase, I prefer to sit at the bar so my pieces come out one by one. The temperature of the fish is right and the rice is still slightly warm or room temperature. For a larger group of 6, we had to sit at a table. Luckily they still have Americanized sushi like avocado hand rolls for the kids. They have options for omakase. We opted for the 13 pieces included uni, amaebi and Toro. The uni was Santa Barbara uni. Very yummy Japanese. The cod was small and not as fresh. I probably would skip the cod. The desserts were additional. We ordered hot red bean with mochi, chocolate brownie ish cake with vanilla smoothie. They were nice to give us extra vanilla smoothie so everyone could try the dessert. I like flan so the green tea flan was dense enough and was enjoyable. And hot dessert is my friend.

I came to this place because I heard it had authentic Japanese chefs. Keep in mind, because of this marketing, as well as the fact that they import their fish from Japan, the prices are going to be sky high. It was like $5 for one piece of nigiri, or $30 for a fish collar. This place is very popular, so make sure to make a reservation or come like 10min before they open, as people will line up outside the restaurant. Getting that out of the way… It was a great restaurant in terms of the Japanese vibe and authenticity. The chefs are indeed Japanese and you can ask them questions about the dishes which they will answer skillfully. We did not go here for sushi, though there were many people ordering omakase here. We ordered a variety of their other dishes, including two fish collars (salmon and young yellowtail), the crab stuffed salmon, tempura, and liver. The highlight for me was the salmon collar. Fatty and moist, it was easily the most delicious dish. It far surpassed the young yellowtail, which wasn’t as fatty and tasted fishier. The tempura came out hot, but it had such thick batter that I was overwhelmed by the oily taste. A thinner batter would’ve been better to let the shrimp shine. The stuffed salmon was okay. The crab inside was yummy, but the salmon on the edge was not. I did not eat the liver so I can’t say whether that was good. I’d like to one day come back for their omakase experience, where I can talk to the chefs at the bar.