I must warn you, lovely peeps, this is gonna be a nasty rant....and tho i am not known for these rants, i can certainly rant with the best of 'em on rare occasion.
This is one of those occasions.
This rant is the rant of all rants, and once you read on, you'll see why. By now you're thinking:
A. Ok, this dood must be known for negative reviews (which i'm not)
B. This guy's an uptight aggro freak (wrong again)
C. Yeah, whatever, he's a white guy, what the fugg does he know about sushi? (right on the white thang, wrong for underestimating me ;)
so why the angst & utter exasperation? b/c this time, it's REAL personal....
'Echigo' is the ancient name for Niigata Prefecture, a 'state' in northwestern japan known for some of the top rice, fresh fish, sake, skiing, snow-country (see the book 'Yuki-Guni'), & outdoor onsens (hot springs)...it's countryside, and beautiful countryside at that---AND a place I lived for over 3 yrs....
So i came here with a sense of Niigata 'Echigo' pride & really high expectations, especially after reading the overwhelming majority of gushing 4 & 5 star reviews. I have eaten some amazing sushi in Niigata, and at least, i expect the high end standard of quality when compared with other sushi joints in LA.
Let me just say, this place gets a FAIL in virtually ALL categories. It is so un-japanese in its methods, if any true sushi master was a fly on the wall here, overseeing the operations, this place would be flagged by the International Sushi Police and closed immediately in disgrace...
Believe me, my 1 star review is kind. it deserves a rating in the 0.5 range.
Completely abysmal food served by completely joyless staff.
To ELABORATE:
1. SO, my sushi partner and I sit down at the bar, and immediately i see a horrible harbinger of things to come---HUGE PILES OF THIN, PRE-CUT SLICES OF FISH. Not only is this NOT practiced in japan, it's an extreme faux-pas that is completely intolerable and offensive to both a sushi master and his/her customer, b/c it signifies that the fish is not fresh at all, it is not prepared individually with care sliced right off the existing slabs of fish. and I don't care if the place is really packed or not (tonite is wasn't packed at all), it's better to eat slowly and chat with the chef than to be subjected to this impersonal assembly line of un-freshness...
2. IS THIS FUCKING SUSHI CARPACCIO??? FISH IS WAAAAAY TOO THINLY SLICED, so much so that each piece has absolutely no texture resembling the original fish/shellfish, & virtually every piece tastes like the other with that razor thin, mushy bland texturelessness (thus i am not even bothering to mention most of the fish by name that you get in the inadequate Omakase that is required for counter eaters)...
Yet a few were soooo horrible I need to sound the alarms:
a. Subpar Toro (fatty tuna belly), sliced razor thin,with no distinguishing flavor/texture, though my sushi partner managed to pull a nasty long tendon from the cut...blech.
b. Pompano Sushi--who cares if it's one of those chef's special rare sushi when it smelled and tasted like spoiled goo
c. Amaebi (sweet shrimp)-- first of all, it had a dark pinkish color so uncharacteristic of amaebi, and upon first bite, felt partially cooked (which amaebi never is), and stank to high hell with a completely spoiled aftertaste.
It's a wonder we weren't food poisoned.
And my sushi partner did something neither of us has EVER done--spit out the pompano & amaebi (incognito) into a napkin (because we are NOT drama queens, & as to not tip off the other seemingly content patrons--though we were tempted)...
3. STINGY TINY CUTS & CRUMBLY OVERHEATED RICE---
So not just thin, but TINY!
Traditionally, sushi is eaten with semi-warm rice, but this shit was practically hot, & the overly sour rice was so formless that it was impossible to dip it properly in the shoyu soy sauce (normally u turn sushi upside down and dip the fish/shellfish side into the shoyu) without the rice tumbling into the soy sauce. By this point, i really didn't give a shit, so i just turned it rice side down and plunked it into the soy sauce regardless of the mess that was to follow...
meanwhile, the guy next to me is gushing... 'Soooooo goood.'...
HUH? have i landed in the Twilight Zone?
The tiny Omakase portion left our stomachs growling, surely with rabid discontent, as well as continued hunger pangs--we grabbed the check and got the fuggg outta there asap. so the bill comes and for 16 miniscule pieces of crap & two thin crab rolls--$120 with tip...
as i rolled out & down the creaky 2nd floor stairs, i felt like punching the stuccoed walls--whoa, and peeps who know me know i'm one of the most un-aggro peeps you'll ever meet.
what happened next, i've surely NEVER done, but as a few other unsatisfied Echigo reviewers have noted, food reinforcements were needed--Von's Market $5.79 12 Piece California Roll--most fucking oishii store bought pseudo-sushi goodness i've ever had... read more