Kotobuki Sushi - Laguna Hills

Can you imagine a time when "neighborhood sushi bar" was a phrase as strange as "The Internet" or "smart phone"? It wasn't that long ago when most of the American public considered the eating of sushi downright exotic and uncivilized, akin to stories of tribal cannibalism and that scene from Temple of Doom with the monkey brains. "Only those crazy Asians would eat fish raw!" they'd say.

Now look. Sushi is everywhere: in supermarket deli cases, cruise ships, and yes, practically every corner in America--even in Wichita, Kansas, where I once had sushi despite being in a place where the closest ocean was a three-hour plane ride away.



Kotobuki in Laguna Hills is one of those neighborhood sushi bars that reminds me how far along we've come in embracing sushi into our stomachs and our culture. It was recommended to me by a friend who was not Asian and when I ate there there were no Asian faces anywhere in the restaurant except those of the people who were cutting the fish.

It's been around 25 years, not exactly in this spot, but a few yards away in the same plaza that also has Break of Dawn. The landlord relocated both of them to their present spot a few months ago to make way for apartments. And here Kotobuki will stay for probably another 25 or until its head sushi chef and owner decides it's time to hang up the knives.



Because of the lack of actual Japanese customers present, I wrongly assumed that Kotobuki is the kind of place that one wouldn't expect omakase to be offered. So when I asked if they did it, I half expected them to say no. Except he said "of course", in a way that kind of made me feel a bit silly for even doubting.

What followed was an omakase meal that was balanced between the cooked dishes they offered (such as the butter-sautéed asparagus, mussels broiled with mayo, fried fish scraps, stir-fried mushrooms) with the raw (various cuts of nigiri sushi, sashimi drenched with ponzu, hand rolls stuffed with salmon skin, and a cut roll)--for about $70 for two, a reasonable amount.



Kotobuki may not use too exotic an array of fish, sticking mostly with the tried-and-true tunas and salmon, and they can often rely too heavily on lemon and ponzu for flavoring; but the cuts are precise and generous, the chefs are chummy, and the service obsequious.

And when you toast their "Awesome Sushi" (which is a motto they themselves coined for themselves and made t-shirts for) it will be with Kirin, Asahi, or Sapporo, the trinity of Japanese beers that's as common to America these days as Bud Light--and it's all thanks to neighborhood sushi joints like Kotobuki--purveyors of assimilation as well as sushi.

Kotobuki Sushi
24351 Avenida De La Carlota
Laguna Hills, CA 92653

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