RESTAURANT REVIEW : Teru Sushi Has No Raw Deals, Just Fine Food

Sushi. Raw fish, right? Not exactly. Strictly speaking, sushi is bite-sized packets of lightly vinegared rice with almost anything on top. Teru Sushi, on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City--a favorite haunt of studio personnel--is an excellent place to sample the other sorts of sushi--as well as the more ordinary raw seafood variety.

An outstanding example of cooked sushi is Teru Sushi’s No-Name Special. It’s a thick roll in which avocado, salmon and rice have been wrapped in a sheet of seaweed and briefly fried in tempura batter. The result is a crunchy exterior surrounding chewy seaweed and a soft, warm interior. California roll, the most popular sushi in America, contains avocado and steamed crab and may be ordered with rice on the outside of the seaweed wrapper. Customarily at Teru, the chef sprinkles sesame seeds on the rice, but if you ask, he will coat it with flying-fish roe, tiny granular orange-red fish eggs that add a new dimension to this justifiably appreciated invention.

Tiger’s Eye consists of avocado, smoky salmon, rice and seaweed in a snow-white octopus wrapper. When sliced, each piece looks like a large stylized eye, with the avocado as its pupil. Served warm, it is one of the most striking sushi offerings.

In addition to sushi, Teru Sushi serves many of the more familiar Japanese cooked foods to those at tables (instead of at the sushi counter). These include various tempura dishes--shrimp, vegetable, and so forth--that are rather pedestrian. They lack the crispness and vitality that can make tempura so enjoyable.

I was also disappointed by a special appetizer, the European-style maguro terrine (those at the counter must order this from a waitress). The thick slices of tuna loaf studded with carrots and asparagus were uncomfortably dense and lacking in flavor. Much to the restaurant’s credit, the sushi chef noticed that I hadn’t eaten much of it and had it taken off the bill.

But another appetizer, kawari-mushi, was a resounding success. Filets of steamed salmon and striped bass were mounded beneath thin strips of daikon radish and complemented with shiso leaf, a remarkable member of the mint-basil family, and ponzu sauce, a soy/citrus/rice vinegar mixture. The texture of the daikon, the tang of the shiso and the savoriness of the ponzu were graceful complements to the fish.

A number of unusually satisfying items can be ordered from the menu. Tempura-fried soft-shelled crab is crunchy and soft at the same time, and delicately tasty.

The complex Rainbow Roll is really a California Roll, with crisp asparagus replacing the avocado, and the outside rice ornamented with a rainbow of maguro, yellow tail and avocado. It was gilding the lily, but enjoyable anyway.

Yellowtail collar is also terrific. This fairly fatty cut of fish is grilled, skin and all, and served with ponzu sauce, the ideal complement.

Tamago, a thick, slightly sweet omelet, is deceptively simple-looking, but making a good version is so difficult that its preparation is considered the test of a sushi chef. Tamago is made of egg and little more, but its considerable pleasure lies in its remarkable lightness. In Japan, some patrons will walk into a sushi bar, order tamago and then decide whether the sushi bar is worth eating in. The tamago at Teru Sushi passes with flying colors.

Shiso maki with ume is another wonderful sushi dish made without fish. It combines the tang of shiso leaf with the tart plum taste of ume; cucumber and rice act as contrasting neutral vehicles for these two high-visibility flavors.

Shiso maki is one of the most refreshing things I’ve put in my mouth, but be sure to specify that the chef not use too much ume; once, at Teru Sushi, there was so much that it was unpleasantly overpowering. Tamago and shiso maki are both refreshingly traditional ways to end a sushi meal.

Teru Sushi’s setting is particularly inviting. A few steps from your car you find yourself in a Japanese mini-garden, and so, even before going inside, you seem to be entering a faraway place. The shouted greetings of the sushi chefs reinforce this feeling. If you sit at the tables, you can watch the action at the sushi bar: the sushi chefs in their theatrical cobalt blue robes imprinted with stylized waves, shouting their greetings, preparing and presenting their well-designed work, and then shouting their goodbys.

But it’s a better show from the handsome sushi bar itself. Watching sushi chefs at work is very much part of the sushi experience.

The prices at Teru Sushi range from $3 to $10 per order of sushi or sashimi, which may contain from two to eight pieces. The bill can mount up quickly, but the quality, execution and service at the sushi bar make Teru Sushi an excellent value.

Teru Sushi, 11940 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. (818) 763-6201. Open for lunch Monday to Friday, noon to 2:30 p.m.; for dinner Monday to Thursday, 5:30 to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5:30 to 11:30 p.m.; Sunday, 5 to 10 p.m. Beer and wine. Valet parking. All major credit cards accepted.