Sushi Mon

Last night I took my parents to an incredibly early dinner at 4:30pm before they had to go to the airport. We decided to go somewhere close to my office so that we didn't get stuck in any kind of extra traffic after dinner. We chose Sushi Mon. I like to eat Asian or Indian foods when I am out with friends who like this kind of thing because, otherwise, I would never have it.

Parking around Sushi Mon is easy with plenty of street parking on Burton Way just one block away. There are other neighborhood street parking areas but they might be permit parking. The mall isn't far either so you could park there or, you could just valet.

At 4:30pm there was only one other group in the restaurant. We had the choice of any table in the place. We chose a booth facing the sushi bar. Since it was so early, we go to see just how fresh the fish is--one of the sushi chef's was filleting a fish right there at the counter! He also scraped the skin so that it could be used in other dishes. It was fun to watch him prepare the fish for our meals.

We got a special petite sampler for free that came with salted soy beans and sweet cucumbers. It was a nice treat to have an appetizer even though I wasn't that hungry. I ordered the 10 piece sushi combination, my mom got the eight piece combination and my dad ordered the tempura combination. All the combinations came with the miso soup but only the tempura one came with salad. I was disappointed that I did not get the salad with mine.

When the food came, I was impressed by the huge pieces of fish on the sushi rice. They did not use any wasabi to hold the sushi together. The problem was, that although I had 10 pieces of sushi, they all seemed to be about the same. Salmon, and 4 kinds of tuna. I know there are more kinds of fish out there, so why is it that sushi restaurants insist on serving only tuna? Yes, it was delicious, but where is the variety? After about 5 pieces I was getting bored, I even had some tempura because of it.

So, when you go to Sushi Mon, don't get the combination. Instead, cough up the extra cash to get a variety of rolls and sushi pieces. The portions ended up being quite large but the bill was even larger. My 10 piece combination with spicy tuna roll (yes more tuna!) was $22 and some change. Yes, there was a lot of fish a lot of tempura and a lot of rice--but not a lot of new flavors. The service was good because nobody else was there. The restaurant was clean and modern and the portions were large, but it wasn't a place that stood out to me as particularly different than others.





Sushi Mon
8562 W 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90049
Map