Maeda puts unique spin on all-you-can-eat sushi dinner

  ANDREA KIM What makes Maeda’s all-you-can-eat sushi
dinner special is that patrons have only one hour to choose and eat
their meal.

By Sophia Whang
Daily Bruin Contributor

Sushi seems to be the trend these days, with restaurants lining
the busiest streets of Los Angeles, including the ever-popular
Ventura Boulevard. But among these countless restaurants, Maeda has
a unique appeal that should draw in almost any sushi-lover.

The restaurant offers a nightly all-you-can-eat-sushi dinner for
$19.95. What’s the catch? You have only one hour to eat. This
makes a meal feel more like a game, and provides a fun atmosphere
from a unique idea. Other rules for the game-like meal are that
players must eat all items completely before the next order and
that any leftover items are subject to a 95 cent charge.

Appetizers include a choice of soy beans, dumplings,
potstickers, tempura, chicken teriyaki, miso soup, steamed rice and
green salad. These dishes must be specifically requested (with no
charge) and there is no limit. The soy beans have just the right
crispness, the miso soup comes boiling hot and the calamari tempura
is deliciously oily but light as well. The calamari tempura can
also be made into a salad, with teriyaki sauce as dressing.

Some of the sushi choices are salmon, tuna, Japanese mackerel,
white fish, eel, octopus, scallop, inari, and yellowtail. The hand
or cut rolls include the soft-shell crab roll, spicy shrimp, tuna,
California, cucumber, albacore, and shrimp roll. Some of the
specialty rolls are the Mexican roll (cilantro, tomatoes, and spicy
shrimp), the Alaskan roll (salmon tempura), the rainbow roll
(assorted fish and avocado on top of a California roll), and the
dragon roll (avocado and eel on top of a California roll).

RESTAURANT REVIEW Maeda
Address: 11622 Ventura Blvd. Studio City, 91604
Phone Numbers: (818) 623-7888 Price
Range: $2.95-$12.95 All you can eat: $19.95 Maeda chefs
work with the best ingredients as the fish is delivered fresh every
morning from the Los Angeles Fish Company in downtown. The quality
is outstanding and nervous health advocates can rest easy.

Maeda’s sushi is inventive and delightful in both flavor
and presentation. The fish is embellished with finely shredded
ginger and turnip, green onions, or toasted garlic, which bring out
its flavors. The citrus sauce over the salmon balances between the
richness of the fish and the lightness of lemon juice. The chefs
occasionally serve delicacies such as sea urchins and special parts
of the tuna fish without these garnishes so that the
seafood’s own flavor can be savored.

For the less hardcore sushi lovers that can’t bring
themselves to try eel and sea urchins, there are alternatives like
the California rolls and Mexican rolls.

An appetizing alternative to the “all you can eat
sushi,” if that seems like a little too much, is the sashimi
salad. Beautifully arranged with mixed greens, mussels, tuna,
whitefish, salmon, and squid, the salad is most impressive and well
accompanied by the light dressing comprised of soy sauce and sesame
seed oil, among other ingredients.

The recommended dessert, if one has any room for it, is mochi
ice cream. This is a unique rendition of the classic Japanese mochi
rice cake stuffed with mango, vanilla, or green tea ice cream. It
is light and refreshing with unusual flavors.

Service is quick and the workers are amiable at Maeda. The chefs
behind the bar are also knowledgeable and patient, answering
questions about the different types and parts of the fish that are
served, and occasionally joking around with customers.

Although the restaurant is quite simple, it has an inviting
charm with its yellow orchids, lights outlining the windows, and
glowing white Japanese lanterns. The environment is quiet and
serene. Nothing is overdone or overpowering, with no imitation
ancient Japanese architecture with koi fish and paintings from the
16th century. Without these distractions, customers can concentrate
on eating as much as they can in one hour, enjoying every savory
bite.

RESTAURANT: UCLA students with valid ID receive
a 10 percent discount at Maeda.