Hokusai

Nothing special, nothing awful about this Korean-​style sashimi place. We ordered the $ 189.99 assorted sashimi platter for 4 – 5 people and it was more than enough for us 5. The smaller dishes were similar to most of the other Korean sashimi places in the area – banchan, tako wasabi, cheese corn, clear broth with clams, tempura, and spicy seafood soup (too watered down).
The sashimi platters were average. The assorted one came with abalone, sea cucumber, oysters, sea squirt, giant clam, rock fish, tuna, salmon, roe, blue crab and a few more. It was a little awkward that the platter served only had 4 slices of each fish but there were 5 of us, so one person didn’t get to try some of the sashimi.
Service wasn’t all that great at Hokusai. We had questions about the menu and one of the waitresses was trying to answer our questions but someone more senior just shooed her away to take our order. Also, we had to keep asking for ginger; for 5 people, they kept bringing us little bowls of it.
I’ve always wondered about this place because I drive by often and always notice that the sign is upside down. Most likely won’t return. Yuki No Hana is still my favorite place to go for Korean-​style sashimi set meals.

Evertime i stopped by K-​Town I would stop here for a dinner!!! Nice place to get fresh sushi. Check their special items for the day.

Ok. My girlfriends and I get together and go out to eat every couple of weeks. I have been going to Hokusai since it opened. It is truly my favorite sushi bar in LA. We went to Hokusai last summer — great food, great atmosphere, great service. Went last fall — great food, great atmosphere, great service. We went there 3 nights ago and it still remains to be the best sushi restaurant!
We tried to omakase and it was phenomenal. I think the location does this restaurant a bit of injustice. I think many people don’t realize that there’s this amazing sushi restaurant hidden in LA. I guess I should be grateful, since we can receive more personal attention.
We are always seated promptly and our food is amazing! We went to Nobu’s on La Cienega, and the food was o.k. At Hokusai, the sushi man that works there is really friendly and I even had him teach me some Japanese words while he prepared the best tuna for me! We’ll be there again in a couple of months! All the chefs and staff are extremely professional and fun. Between them and the excellent food I will continue to support Hokusai year after year. Thank you all at Hokusia for continuing to create the most amazing flavors and freshness around! :)))

i have to say that this place is pretty chill. price is alright. cheaper than the other place is been too. one of the cleanest restaurant i got to say as well. other place around is pretty dirty but this place is clean. sushi and the roll are pretty good. i live eel so i either order the rock n roll or sunset, but i have to clue why the rolls are called the way they are. i go here pretty often. im sure you become a regular service will get better.

the service was great they treated me good im not sure why most of the other reviews had horrible service… i had no problems. sushi was pretty decent not the best i had but it the price was pretty good we paid 80 for 5 of us and to take home ive paid alot more for sushi that tasted worse

This is my go to place for sushi. I love the funky stuff. Raw oysters, sea urchin, fish, etc. This place has a combo special for dinner where they serve a little bit of everything. First start off with salad, soup, 2 giant raw oysters, and other delicious icky looking things, then the main dish of assorted sashimi. Then finish off with Korean bean paste soup. I love love love this place, but my boyfriend hates it. He is more of the California roll sushi lover so he isn’t able to enjoy half the stuff served. So if your faint of heart don’t go.
Free parking
Service is okay.
Clientele can get kind of loud. Every time I go here the are a group of old business men drinking and getting loud. It’s like a sophisticated bar.
Fresh seafood. Yummmm

I don’t know how this place managed anything above 3 stars. My dad and I took my mom here for our family’s Mother’s Day dinner. I suggested sushi because my mom absolutely loves good sushi. They wanted to stay close to home, and came to Hokusai a few times before for their lunch special. «It wasn’t anything great,» they said, «but it was ok.»
That should have been my first clue.
When we got there, no one greeted us. We stood there for many awkward seconds wondering if we should go and sit on our own when one of the sushi men welcomed us. The waitresses (there were 2) were completely swamped serving the TWO WHOLE TABLES where other customers were sitting. They showed us to a table, where there were only two place settings. They pushed one over (presumably to bring another one over) then walked away to not come back for a few more minutes.
No water, nor welcome from the servers yet.
My parents and I looked through the menu and decided on a few things. When the waitress came by our table, she had 4 small side dishes with an individual salad for each of us (the lettuce looked like they were sitting in a fridge with too-​cold settings for a little too long). My mom asked what the difference was between the two bigger sushi plate, and she said, «The price and number of sushi pieces you get.»
NO, REALLY???
We asked if there was a difference in the types of fish included in the more expensive sushi combo plate, and she said yes.
«What kinds are included?»
«The same ones, it’s just that there are more pieces of different kinds.» «Ok. You know what? Can you just tell me if there’s any uni in the more expensive one?»
«Yea, the deluxe has uni with other kinds.»
«Ok, we’ll take the deluxe and the stew along with a cup of green tea.»
The green tea never made it to our table; The water almost didn’t make it either. I had to remind them a few minutes later that we still had nothing to drink at the table. The sushi was mediocre. Nothing about the presentation or freshness of fish made me any happier than I was before I walked in the restaurant. Everything that came out of the kitchen was too salty — like it was sitting and reducing for a while before it was served.
On top of that, the waitresses were running around like crazy even though there were only three tables (including us) and two of them along with two sushi men. Halfway through our meal, another table was seated, and we had to kiss our food service goodbye.
My parents have ALWAYS been generous tippers. My mom’s first job in the US was as a waitress, so she’s always sympathetic to people who serve our food. She always ingrained in me that no matter how bad the service is, you always leave 15−20% because these were hard working people, and they make the bulk of their money in tips. Today, when I was paying, she said that she was going to pay tip and left them 12%. Something I only saw her do YEARS ago when we found a bug in our plate and the waitress made it seem like it was our fault.
Needless to say, I won’t be going back here anymore.

Mediocre might be generous. We came in and ate at the bar around 8pm. No one else in the place. We asked the sushi chef what was good today. He said everything. Not the helpful answer we were looking for. Then we asked, okay well then which of the rolls do you recommend? He said tempura because he likes everything fried. Okay pal, you win.
We ordered a bunch of stuff, most of which was passable. Probably would’ve given it three stars… if not for the scallops and (gulp)…toro. The scallop rolls came and the poor things looked like they’d robbed a bank and taken one of those exploding dye packs of cash, except that when it exploded it wasn’t dye but mayonnaise. They were slathered to kingdom come. Can this ghastly pairing of seafood and mayo please end so we can begin the healing process? Not at Hokusai, not that night. Needless to say, we didn’t touch the damn things.
Then came the Toro sashimi. Market price, mind you. We were served four pieces. My friend and I both ate one and were surprised to find they were semi-​frozen. Not ice-​cold, reader, but frozen. This did nothing for the taste, as you might imagine. We told the (other) chef who had prepared them, but he could not understand our concern. Literally, he did not speak enough English to understand, «these are frozen.»
The chef who loved fried food, when we told him about the Toro, said it was supposed to be like that, but that «I guess you guys don’t like it that way.» Way to humor the finnicky customer who has a problem with frozen sushi!
Anyway, we think they took it off the bill, but aren’t sure because the check wasn’t an itemized list but one of those old fashioned adding-​machine type receipts with the dollar amounts printed in blue in a long undifferentiated column. We didn’t want to try to reverse engineer.
So there you have it. Maybe it was an off night but, well, I wouldn’t bet on it.

I had dinner here last night with a friend and I don’t think I’ll be coming back again.
We ordered 3 beers (6 bucks each)
We ordered 2 rolls, some sushi (the rolls were whatever, sushi was pretty good)
I ordered the Mixed Fish Soup (Sukk Kuh Mae Wong Tang — def. not worth $ 12.95… the fish tasted like rubber)
He ordered some sort of mixed seafood rice bowl (it’s not the Hwe Ddup Bap but something else and def. not worth $ 15)
If you want any type of fish soup, Wando is 10x better (located on north west corner of 4^th and Western, plus they give you tons of free fruit)
If you want a sashimi rice bowl, Arado is way better than this place (located on Wilton and Wilshire)
If you want sushi, you can get it for way cheaper at Fat Fish, but I gotta admit the sushi here is pretty good… and the other sushi stuff that we saw pass our table looked delish.
And service sucks, I asked for some cucumber but our waitress said, «how can I keep eating cucumber which is expensive without ordering sushi?» I was sorta dumbfounded we had just ordered 3 beers with plans on ordering more, 2 main dishes and you’re giving me grief over cucumbers? Anyway we did end up ordering rolls and some sushi but eh whatevers.

hokusai just opened about 2 months ago and so i decided to check this place out. for a sushi restaurant, there were barely any sushi rolls offered on the menu =/​if you’re coming to this place expecting to eat some rolls, STOP RIGHT THERE. instead of specializing in rolls, i believe they’re more of a sashimi restaurant. on my first visit here, i tried their teriyaki bowl, udon, tempura, and this sashimi dish (can’t remember the name right now). and for those who are wondering, the answer is no, i did not order all of this food just for myself –_​–
–hokusai’s teriyaki bowl was the most fanciest teriyaki bowl i’ve seen so far. actually, it’d be wrong to call that dish a teriyaki «bowl» because it didn’t even come in a bowl. the rice and meat were served separately. the reason why i thought this dish was fancy was due to the medium rare, nicely and evenly cut beef O. O i was not expecting that at all. the meat was good but their sauce was blehhh.
–as for the udon, i would never order that again. for a simple dish like udon, how can they mess that up. it was too bland and had no flavor. i was very disappointed :(
–the tempura was good, but it would’ve been better if they didn’t use so much batter.
–now for that one dish with the sashimi, i would definitely order that again. it came with rice, sashimi and veggies all mixed with red chili paste. it was goooooood :) i would definitely recommend this dish. but too bad i can’t remember the name haha.
there’s an upper and lower level for parking. i would suggest parking in the lower level garage because i think the upper level lot is for short term parking. if you park in the underground garage, take the elevator up to the 2^nd floor and the restaurant will be on your right when you exit the elevator.

Food was excellent. Would of gave it t stars but the waitress didn’t tell me about their specialties until after we were almost full. But great taste, service, and vibe

Finely presented and prepared dishes. The food was really good and they added their own special touches that you don’t find at most Japanese restaurants, such as a different kind of sauce that added an unexpected surprise, or the toasted/​fried rice square in one of the sushi style appetizers. Very nice creativity with their dishes.
The servers and staff were very courteous and attentive.
I was there for a wedding rehearsal dinner that was before their grand opening.