Sota Sushi!

This weekend was an extremely eventful one that involved a lot of going out and about (yay me!), so tonight my friend and I decided to just drive down to PCH and try out a new restaurant.

Little did I know, I was about to have the best Sushi I have ever had, hands down.

Now I am not one to be easily coaxed by restaurants just because they are unique or have nice staff. This restaurant went beyond my expectations and totally captured what I have been yearning for in a sushi restaurant: raw creativity. Now I live in Irvine mind you, so I can't always make trips to LA and Malibu to get some good sushi. Sota is by far better than anything I have tried in LA or anywhere for that matter. I love this place mostly because the Chef and owner, Sota, is extremely creative and knows what goes with what.

So we get to the restaurant and it is pretty empty because we show up about 30 minutes before closing (woops) and the Lakers were just finishing up a game on TV. We ordered green teas because both my friend and I are sick, so we sipped away and indulged in the menu. The selections are not your typical run-of-the-mill sushi, no. They had sushi carpaccio! SUSHI CARPACCIO! That definitely had me at hello, so I was prepared for an exciting meal. We started off with the Yellowtail Carpaccio and Umami Kani.

 This yellowtail was so fresh it was almost like I wasn't eating fish. It is garnished with cilantro, serrano chile, garlic chips and drizzled with yuzu mustard vinaigrette.In one word? Yum. In more than one word? This was indulgent without being too heavy. All of the right flavors were there, especially considering how mild yellowtail normally is. The vinaigrette was not strong at all, it didn't mask the flavor of the fish, only enhanced it. I am not a fan of cilantro unless it is used correctly, and in this case it definitely was. My favorite part of this was the garlic chip because it was just such a fun little twist on such a great dish!

 How on earth can you go wrong with fried crab? Answer: you can't. It was extremely flavorful and surprisingly light considering it was fried. It is a combination of king and snow crab tempura with thinly sliced red onion and serrano chile drizzled with sweet ponzu. I made sure to eat from the bottom up to get the crab that was sitting in that delicious ponzu. That way, none of them got soggy and every one of them got a bit of the dressing.
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After our incredible appetizers, we moved onto what we came for: SUSHI! We ordered from the special house rolls. We asked the chefs for their opinions because we could tell they weren't just trying to sell the most expensive rolls; they are truly passionate about the food they put out. So, they gave us their recommendations and we were extremely pleased with what we ended up with!

 Ma-G-De roll anyone? This roll is made up of shrimp tempura, crab, and avocado topped with spicy tuna and jalepeno. Each piece is dolloped with some spicy aioli and sweet soy sauce. It was a sweet and salty bite with the perfect ratio of sauce-to-roll. My biggest issue with sushi is lack of sauce to bring it all together, and this definitely satisfied me in that department!

 Yellowtail submarine: Shrimp tempura, spicy aioli, cucumber, lemon topped with yellowtail and drizzled with garlic ponzu. Normally, I find garlic ponzu to be too garlicy, but this was very mild and subtle enough to just blend in perfectly. They added Siracha because they noticed our obsession (and I really mean obsession) with it.

 After we ordered our first 2 rolls, we knew we had to take the fatty route and go all out. We ordered the Sota "Pop which is salmon, tuna, shrimp, snow crab, avocado, mango, jicama and cilantro wrapped in cucumber with yuzu wasabi ponzu. Absolutely delicious! None of the flavors were muddled at all; you could really taste every part of it but still have it come together as a unified bite. It was a fun take on a lolipop, and definitely something I will order all the time.

 Now to get to the star of the night: the black cod. Oh my god, I cannot even begin to describe the incredible flavor in this perfectly composed bite! The black cod is lightly seared in sake and topped with a chili paste. We were asked not to dip this in any sauce to make sure we got the right taste, and I am so glad we didn't! This literally melted in my mouth the second I ate it. It was like tasting a snowflake on your tongue as a kid. I was hesitant to give my friend the other one, but I had to let other people acknowledge its incredible flavor. People always ask me, "If there was only one thing you had to pick to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?" This is my answer.

 The Ika Koromo. Although we were close to being stuffed, we had to get one more unique dish to give us something to miss! We ordered the calamari, which is DEFINITELY like no calamari you've tried before. This calamari was so plump I could've sworn this squid was on 'roids. Shichimi soy marinated calamari fried golden with watermelon ponzu and wasabi yuzu aioli. Those little bites of watermelon were perfect because they lightened up the dish and made me forget I was eating something fried.

The chefs insisted on us getting some dessert, so we got their black sesame ice cream! This was really fun because it didn't just taste like ice cream with black sesame seeds sprinkled over it; you could taste the sesame in it. This really brought a sweet ending to the night.

The owner was extremely friendly and the staff were nice and talked to us about everything from Iron Chef America to SPAM (don't ask). I would definitely recommend this place to all of my foodie and non-foodie friends!
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Sotasushi.com | 3344 East Coast Highway Corona del Mar, CA 92625 | 949.675.0771