Thanks for your questions “What is the best sushi restaurant in Los Angeles, aside from Urasawa which is impractical for regular visits?”
I think this questions sushi restaurant is very important for all like yours. Here I’m trying to give your answers in details.

I was working at a sushi restaurant in Hollywood and my coworker, Ken told me about this sushi bar. Ken was younger than I was and had more experience being a sushi chef. He was working only two nights a week and the rest of the time, he was a guitarist in the band. Ken started his training in Japan, working at a sushi restaurant in Tokyo as an apprentice, so he knew more about the traditional sushi techniques.

One day, Ken told me about Go’s Mart. All the sushi chefs at the bar were talking about a newly opened restaurant in Hollywood. Quite often, we gossiped about other restaurants and other sushi chefs to find out what others were doing, keeping up with the trends, special menus, type of fish other people were getting and so on. After all, it was the time before the social media, back in 2002.

“Go-san is great. It’s a tiny place – only four seats at the sushi bar and a couple of tables. It’s my favorite place in the whole of LA. I think it’s the best Sushi bar in town and the best-kept secret. Not very many people know about it. Only those who love sushi go there. In fact, it’s not really a sushi restaurant. It’s more like a fish market that serves sushi. Nothing fancy there. If you see it from outside, you will not think it’s a great sushi restaurant. Everything Go-san makes is fantastic. Oh, I want to go there again. Go-san is very nice, too. He is gentle and friendly. You should make a reservation. He will treat you good.

I immediately called Go’s Mart and made a reservation. I decided to go there on Sunday with my friend Sen, who was also a sushi chef. We knew Sunday was not exactly the best day to go sushi restaurant because fish suppliers were closed on Sundays. Knowing this, we decided to go to Go’s Mart because for one, we believed in Ken and secondary, if Go-san could serve us great sushi even on Sunday evening, it meant that his sushi would be even better on regular nights.

I looked at the address of Go’s Mart: 22330 Sherman Way C12, Canoga Park, CA 91303. Canoga Park? I needed to check on my Thomas Guide – a map of greater Los Angeles area owned by virtually every resident of the city. Everyone kept at least one copy in their car.

We drove about an hour from Hollywood to Canoga Park. I was living in Santa Monica at that time and unless I had some business to do, (which I did not), Canoga Park was not a place for me to go. As a matter of fact, for the past ten years, I’ve never been there. It’s hot, a suburb of Los Angeles and lots of corner shopping malls and suburban houses, which is exactly where Go’s Mart sits” at the end of corner shopping mall with a big plastic sign. Nothing stylish. Nothing extraordinary. Just does its job of telling the name of the place. If we did not know about it, we would never put our foot inside. How could we have known? After all, in Canoga Park? Not in Beverly Hills like Urasawa is?

We parked right in front of the Mart and walked in through the door. The inside of the store had a small refrigerator with some fish and the sushi counter with bar stools: only four of them. And there were two tables with two chairs each. It was like walking into a mom and pop ice cream parlor in a small town, somewhere in Iowa. Then, behind the sushi bar was tall skinny Japanese man with short hair and rigid looking face. We figured it was Go-san. He did not like friendly, I thought, at least, at first sight.
“Umm, we made a reservation, for two people, under Kaz, ” I said to the man.
“Oh, yes, are you Kaz-san? We were expecting you. Here, please have a seat.”
“Thank you.”

We sat at the bar. Even though we knew the place was nothing fancy, we were bit anxious because we never been to a place like this before, and have great sushi. I think we were anxious because we knew it was going to be a great surprise.
“Omakase, please.”
“OK,” Go-san said.
“Anything you cannot eat?”
“We can eat everything,” I said.
“I understand. Thank you,” Go-san said.
“I work with Ken, the sushi chef. He told us about you, and that’s why we came here today.”
“Ken?” Go-san thought it for a second. “Oh, yes, the sushi chef. He’s been here a couple of times. You work with him, huh? Well, today’s Sunday, so we are a bit short of some fish, you know. The fish supplier is closed today. If you came on Tuesday, it would have been better, but, oh well.”
“We’ll come on Tuesday the next time. Today was the only day we could come. When Ken told me about you, we wanted to come here as soon as possible,” I said to Go-san.
“I see. It’s not a problem,” Go-san smiled.

I think that was the first time I saw Go-san smile since we walked into the restaurant. I felt relieved to him smile. I suppose I was nervous because Go-san had an intense look.

We ordered a bottle of Sapporo and started drinking.
“Here is an appetizer – Nasu Dengaku, baked Japanese eggplant with some sweet miso. It should go well with your beer.”
“Thank you.”

The eggplant was sweet and moist, just off the oven. It was matching perfectly with the sweet miso paste.
“This is delicious,” I said. “What kind of Eggplant is this?”

It was round like a small ball.
“It’s Kamo Nasu, or Kyoto Eggplant,” Go-san explained.

A good sushi chef can make a good sashimi or nigiri. One of the signs of a great sushi chef is a cooked dish he/she makes. We immediately knew, judging from the taste of the eggplant, Go-san’s sushi would be superb.
Using his Yanagi-ba, Go-san made two slices of white fish from the fish case. He picked up one piece of the fish in his right hand, then grabbed a small amount of sushi rice with his left hand. He moved slowly and squeezed the fish and rice together, gently and firmly.
“Here is Hirame.”

We noticed it looked slightly different from the hirame we make. We were used to serving it with momiji•oroshi, grated daikon radish, and ponzu sauce.
“What’s this red topping?”
“Oh, it’s Goji berry.”
“Goji berry?”
“Yes, try it. It goes well with white fish.”

I never thought of using Goji berry for nigiri. Sure, Go-san was right. It was brilliant.
“Here is Toro.”

Again, Go-san’s Toro looked different from the ones we used to see.
“This Toro is fantastic. Where is this from?”
“It’s from Spain. These are farm raised.”
“I did not know they can farm raise bluefin tuna?”
“Well, it’s kind of farm raised. They catch the adult bluefins and surround them in an inside of a large fishing net in the ocean. Then, they feed the tuna and let them grow until they are nice and fatty. So, it’s half farm raised, not 100% farm raised yet.”

(Note: In 2015, Kinki University in Japan announced that they have succeeded in farm raising bluefin tuna until then, it was considered impossible to farm raise bluefin.)
“Everything is fantastic,” I said.
“Thank you.”

We had some Kohada, Saba, Uni. It was nothing like we’ve tasted before.
In fact, it was by far the best sushi I’ve ever tasted.

One of the most striking differences about Go-san’s sushi was a wide variety of toppings he used: Goji Berry, Gold Leaf, and Yuzu Peel. HIs finishing touches, as small as they may seem, were what distinguished his sushi from others and made our dining experience more than just fish on top of vinegared rice.

It was mesmerizing to watch Go-san made his nigiri – very calmly, yet energetically, as if he was putting all the effort into one tiny piece of nigiri. He made sure he took enough time, which was the opposite of what we were used to. All the sushi chefs I worked with considered being “fast handed” as one of the skills of being a great sushi chef.

Apparently, Go-san had his own philosophy of being a sushi chef.
One squeeze at a time, Go-san looked as if he was making a perfect Origami Paper Crane. He was very meticulous.

After the very satisfying sushi dinner, we could not wonder why an exceptional Sushi chef like Go-san would have a restaurant in a remote place like Canoga Park. We thought he could have much bigger, a nicer restaurant in LA and it he would certainly do well, not to say he is doing badly in Canoga Park or anything.

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