Cochinoman tech, sushi, poker
There’s nothing more satisfying than having a friend tell you about a great sushi place that you’ve overlooked. I’m not a valley area guy so I was very surprised when my friend told me that there was a great sushi restaurant in NoHo. “Are you sure?” I asked twice. This Chiba place is in a strip mall with very little parking but there’s some street parking available.
Inside, it’s a medium sized place but there’s 2 sushi bars. For a relatively small place, that’s a lot of sushi. That was a good sign to me. We sat down and I went straight for their best nigiri sushi set (Jyo Nigiri Sushi, $24 – see picture above). Before the sushi, we got some miso soup which had something in it that was surprising. It had miso in it. Yup. Tons of miso in miso soup. What a new concept. Along with my miso soup, I got some free green tea. So far so good.
When my sushi dish arrived, I could tell that it was going to be good even before I took one bite. To my utter delight, the sushi was absolutely great. Not just good. Great.
That’s the good news. The bad, and weird news is the rice was a slightly dried out. For a place where the fish is fresh and delish, it was very strange that some of the rice was not perfect. Although the waitress was very nice, the busboy (or busgirl in this case) refilled my friend’s ice tea like we were at some outdoor Tijuana taco stand, spilling and overfilling the glass as if that was perfectly normal for her.
So it’s not perfect. But I have to admit, the sushi was great. So if you can look past some minor problems with this place, I think you’ll find that it’s a great discovery. Well, actually, the waitress said they’ve been there for around 30 years, so I guess it’s nothing new to most people in the Valley. Just new to me.
Chiba Sushi
11713 Satacoy St, North Hollywood, CA 91605
(818) 765-9119
Sun: 5pm-9:30pm
Mon-Thr: 11:30am-2:30pm, 5:30pm-9:30pm
Fri-Sat: 11:30am-2:30pm, 5pm-10:30pm
