Shikibu Sushi & Pastry

This place was such a pleasant surprise! I was next door having a dress tailored and needed a quick bite. I popped into this little gem and was scriptable. Once the food arrived I was blown away. The quality of fish was outstanding! You can tell the chef puts pride in his craft. The sushi was outstanding and his truffle chocolate bite was a perfect end to a perfect lunch.

Stopped by here for a quick lunch and SO glad I did. I had the brown rice sushi ‘burger’ and it was delicious. The side salad had a really nice dressing and the burger was perfectly seasoned. The brown rice was definitely a nice touch.

We enjoyed the scallop sushi and chewbaca roll. This place it tiny! Great service and good fish.
Street parking is free after 6pm.

Best!!! Authentic Japanese fair!!! Amazing! All fish high quality. Just had the Luna rainbow roll ! Perfection!

Best sushi in Los Angeles. Thomas has worked with some of the best sushi chefs in the world but what he and his wife Sophia, have created in their little shop is truly exceptional.
It’s a must try.

This place is a special secrete gem of Culver City. Their food is incredible. It makes me feel so energized and healthy whenever I reach there. Probably one of the best sushi places in town.
It is a family run business, it seats about 6 people inside and 6 people outside. Everything is very clean, organized, and fast. You can watch the husband and wife cook in front of you.
My favorite dish is the crispy patties with spicy tuna. Sooooo good! and if you get sushi as well. Everything might as well melt in your tummy.
It is also very cute. No cellphones are allowed to be used inside, and encourages people to talk to one another or relax and admire all the small sticky notes and stories written about how they make the food, and what makes it special.
They have fun names based on Starboards, Pokemon, and movies for their sushi. It’s nice place to enjoy a meal.

i’m writing this as i eat scallop nigiri here. holy shit. everyone come here immediately.
seriously, guys, the staff are super friendly and their quality of fish is unbelievably good. brown rice is delicious. the end.

Authentic!!! The owner/​chef knows what he’s doing. There aren’t any ridiculous, mouth stuffing, 15 ingredient, oversized rolls here… just fresh fish. Fresh fish served on rice at the perfect temperature is hard to come by, but you can get it here. They also encourage/​ask you to use the soy sauce and wasabi the right/​traditional way. Never saturate your fish in a terrible paste of wasabi and soy sauce!!! If you do that, you must not really like fish, so go eat a hamburger. The seaweed salad, individual sushi pieces, Godzilla roll, and yellow tail roll were all awesome!
Highly recommend if you’re down for legit sushi, and not some show boating, sake bombing, wasabi pasting nonsense.

I wanted to have a beer with my sushi, but they don’t serve alcohol, so I was going to try it anyway, but I started to read all the «hand written» signs on the walls and right in front of you as you sit at their little bar. They all instruct you on what to do, what not to do (don’t make noise with your chopsticks, don’t use your phone, etc).
I asked the chef about the signs and he said that «so many people are rude» I can understand that it’s his kitchen and he wants respect, but I needed to use my phone while I ate, I did not want to eat outside, because it’s right on Washington Blvd. and there are thousands of cars going by, so I decided to leave, because I did not want to get in trouble. I was also the only person there and they people seemed very serious. I’m still not sure if I insulted him by asking… if I did, it was not my intention… in my experiences Japanese people are the nicest…
I’ll come back with friends instead, but if you are looking for a fun sushi place, this one is not it, this one is very quiet and perhaps about the food only.
I’ve ordered to go in the past and I thought it was good, but it’s been a while. Perhaps the signs should be typed or make a board with the house rules, because when they are hand written and pasted all over the walls, it’s hard to take them serious, that’s why I asked. But I get it, chefs are artists…
I’ll be back and review the food, but today it was a little uncomfortable…
But if you can’t use your phone, how can you take pictures of their food and post it with reviews…

This is one of my new favorite casual lunch places. Service is fast and perfect. Food was just right. The lunch special came with the perfect proportion of food for the price. $ 11.

The folks at Shikubu are nice, friendly, warm.
I ate here for a late lunch. They close at 3:00pm, but I din’t get any funny looks or turning over the open sign to closed when I walked up at 2:50. I knew they were shutting things down so I ordered the #1 combo quickly.
Salad, Soup, 5 pieces of sushi and CA roll ($ 21).
The soup was a little richer than most miso, deeper flavor. The cute little salad had excellent dressing on spring lettuce mix. It is also available to purchase, $ 5 so good I got one to go. The fish was middle of the road, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Salmon, tuna, albacore, eel and yellowtail. They were not cold, more room temperature and generous portions over hanging the rice. No complaints. Fresh. The California roll had the crab «salad» filling with avocado and cucumber in brown rice. Brown rice right? it is a lighter version than «normal» brown rice with a light brown color and small grain. Different and a nice change. I also ordered a spicy tuna roll and it had a nice spicy kick and chili flavor.
They don’t serve soy sauce in a dish, they have small spray bottles that pump it out. I thought this was a little but of a sloppy option.
The space is small with 8 or so chairs at the bar. The bar is high and not glass so it’s a little bit like sitting in the corner facing it. A few chairs and table outside may be more comfortable and open. 3 person crew couldn’t have been nicer, even when calling last call a few moments after I sat down. I thought the price I paid for what I got was a little steep, but I’d rather complain about the price than the quality when it comes to sushi.

Brown rice sushi?! Yessss! After coming to this place, I knew I had to write a review. Shikibu is a hidden gem for sure. Driving by, before finding parking, I was a bit skeptical because of how small the location looked. It is very tiny, high chairs facing the kitchen and small walking space. I walked in and the owners were super nice and welcoming though! My friend had ordered the spicy tuna salad and OH MY GOSH!!! it is perhaps one of the best salads I’ve had In a while. I got the spicy tuna roll and the king crab California roll. Each roll was seriously delectable… OK that sounds too fancy of a word but seriously, by far the best «simple, non msg» sushi I’ve had (I’m sure all the previous sushi I’ve had has been loaded with msg). Something I really liked was the small soy sauce bottles and how chewy and hearty the rice was… man! *mouth is watering*
Also, the fish served here tastes super fresh and with the warm rice wrapped around it… feels like it melts in your mouth. I love this place! I also noticed that after dinner i didnt have that super thirsty, just ate msg feeling in my mouth. There was no heavy sushi after taste at all. Only downer is the prices but considering the product, it makes sense. Prepare to spend about $ 50…next time I’m coming alone (I don’t wanna share) (:

Given the space of a sardine can, Shikubu delivers perhaps the best sushi experience per square foot outside of Tokyo. The nigiri here is great quality so I personally would go simple vs. rolls but that’s how I usually eat sushi. All brown rice and nice looking cuisine touched up with some Japanese herbs. Poke tuna roll was best role but didn’t try the infamous salted truffle. The crispy rice looks fantastic in Unilocal photos but in person found it pretty standard.
Couple owners are fantastic.

Such horrible sushi! Don’t go here, only if you want to eat the worse not fresh fish. 18 dollars for this damn roll, really?! Just save yourself from eating here.

Extremely hesitant to post this review as I feel this place is a hidden gem and I don’t want hordes of people to start coming to this place but I have to be honest and give respect where it’s due. This place offers brown rice sushi, which at first I thought sound horrible but after my first bite I knew this was amazing. Chef Thomas and Sophia run a husband and wife sushi joint that has the best sushi that I have ever had on the east or west coast. It’s always fresh, always well flavored as well. I’ve never really had to wait here as I mentioned it’s a hidden gem. I strongly recommend trying this place, get the godzilla or Darth Vader, they’re amazing!
The one rough thing about this place is the price, 3 rolls and a drink typically cost us $ 50 with tip but it is so worth it. My only regret is that I have to make more money to eat here weekly.

This place is probably ok for takeout, but I would not eat here again. They ration the soy sauce in little spray bottles and charge a lot for very average sushi (that’s generous in my opinion).
The place has a total of six tall chairs that sit against a rail (not a bar). Ridiculous.

I came here on a whim since I was temporarily working a one day gig nearby, & I was hangry!!! there’s not a lot of good food choices around, so I «settled» for this…
PROS:
–literally a 5 min walk from where I worked
–food presentation was nice
CONS:
–waitress had attitude & told me I couldn’t drink my ZICO water that I had w/​me ’cause it was an outdoor drink, even though I ate outside –_​– so I asked for a cup of h20 that I didn’t even drink… what a waste (& we’re in a drought!) I’m just glad this braud didn’t charge me for the h20 otherwise, I would’ve let her have it!
–space inside was super small
–I find their «world première soy spray» a joke! lol… umm, thnx but no thnx; I know how to eat my sushi!
–I decided to play safe & ordered yellowtail & albacore sushi… what a disappointment! it didn’t taste fresh & the brown rice was soggy
–price was pretty expensive for the quality
OVERALL REVIEW:
take your money elsewhere!

Jiro dreams of sushi and I dream of Shikibu. If you want some delectable melt-​in-​your-​mouth quality sushi, this is your spot. Super duper quaint set-​up with very limited seating but their sushi cannot be beat.
The owners are quite health-​conscious and use brown rice only which actually enhanced my taste bud experience. They even create their own yummy organic ice cream and salad dressing. Ms. Kato is a sweet lady who owns/​runs the shop with her chef husband and their service is awesome.
I believe this restaurant is completely underrated as its fresh offerings truly blew me away. I love sushi and I can certainly say that this place tops my list. I can’t wait to return! :-)

Best sushi in Culver City! Also, only place I’ve ever been with brown rice sushi. I really enjoyed the truffle salt albacore roll… It was a wonderful explosion of flavor in my mouth. But I could only do 2 pieces because the truffle taste is very potent. The sashimi was amazingly tender and fresh… Totally melt in your mouth delicious.
They have these crispy rice options that’s basically poke, crab or whichever topping you choose on top of fried, flattened fried brown rice that look like hash browns. It’s interesting and delicious!
This place is super tiny, but it’s perfect because it’s just a husband and wife operation. If you can grab a seat at the 6 top bar, do it! This place is amazing!

This place is bombdotcom! Every time I need to convince one of my beyond the Westside friends there is a reason to visit culver city, this is one of the spots I take them. And afterwards they’re begging me for lunch again at Shikibu!
It isn’t the cheapest place, but you get what you pay for, which is delicious, extraordinary sushi! And I’m talking about the crispy brown rice sushi! I haven’t had this any where else, and I don’t need to go looking.
Highlights of the menu:
Spicy tuna crispy sushi, Baked crab crispy sushi, Pretty much any of the crispy brown rice sushi will knock your socks off!
The kale with ginger miso dressing is so yummy! The B.I.G roll and tempura hand roll are some of my go-to’s as well.
They serve their soy sauce in a spray bottle, but I’ve been coming for awhile the owner/​server knows to just hand me over the regular bottle haha. The owners are the sweetest couple and I’m so glad they decided to open up their establishment in Culver!