RESTAURANTS : Some Eccentric--and Satisfying--Japanese Offerings From a Master Chef

Kotobuki is perhaps the most fortuitous word in modern Japanese; it rolls long life , happiness and good luck all into one. It’s the word Hiro Watanabe chose for the name of the Japanese restaurant and sushi bar he opened five months ago, and thanks to him, it lives up to its name.

This sushi master may not be a particularly modest fellow, but his restaurant is. The walls are decorated with simple Japanese prints, and there is a spare eating area separated from the sushi bar for those wishing to order off a menu sanitized for Western palates. Most of the customers seem to be regulars--people who are on a first-name basis with the chef. They seat themselves at the bar, where Hiro-san keeps them guessing about what they will be served next. Depending on how the chef feels, that could be just about anything.

Take the Philadelphia roll. It’s sort of like a California roll (crab, avocado, rice), but with an unexpected dollop of cream cheese (Philadelphia brand, of course) that gives it a richer, more challenging texture. Or how about the chicken gizzard shioyaki ? The salt-baked chunks of gizzard on skewers are actually Japanese grill food--hardly ever served alongside sushi. Watanabe is eccentric.

Protocol at a sushi bar is generally quite rigid. Not here. Kotobuki must be the most informal sushi bar I’ve ever been to. There are waitresses, but they show up at the most unexpected times. When the chef decides you are ready, he just hands a clump of rice or a hand roll wrapped in seaweed over the counter, rather than reaching down and placing it on your plate. Watanabe most recently worked in Oklahoma, and he has developed a slow, cowpoke manner to go with a voice you could hear clear across the range. Plan on a long meal.

Tuna tataki --a wonderful salad of shredded daikon, green onion in spicy ponzu sauce and tuna belly sliced wafer thin--makes a perfect starter--if you can get the chef to give it to you first thing.

You will also want to try any of the giant hand rolls-- nori -wrapped cones filled with just about any delicacy of the Japanese kitchen you can name. I had several, beginning with ikura (salmon roe), daikon sprouts and spicy tuna. Then I moved on to spicy shrimp and finally to something called a “dynamite hand roll,” which was shredded hamachi (yellowtail) in a chili sauce with salty yellow miso. It was, as Watanabe himself would tell you, awesome.

Most of the classics are in good form. Uni (sea urchin), the creamy, briny delight that makes most sushi lovers swoon, is really wonderful here. You get a fresh-tasting generous scoop of it atop a nori -wrapped rice clump. Toro (fatty tuna) is delicious too--Watanabe doesn’t need to doctor it one bit.

There are also several non-sushi Japanese items on a small handout menu; I suggest you attempt to have the chef prepare a few for you. Shishiamo (smelts) come salt-broiled, three to an order. They are delicious--and devastatingly thirst-provoking. Karei kara-age --deep-fried filet of sole frizzled to a crisp and eaten bones and all--has a delicate crunch and a light, sweet flavor. Sauteed calamari , which I noticed all the really favored customers got, was a wonder--but I had to ask a neighboring diner to get a taste of it. The calamari is cut into bits, then sauteed with oyster mushrooms in lots of butter.

As for that sanitized Japanese food served at those few lonesome tables (Watanabe doesn’t allow those items at the sushi bar), it brings few surprises. Most of the listings on that menu are for chicken teriyaki (there’s no such thing in Japan), tempura , the more authentic salmon teriyaki , sukiyaki , and tonkatsu , a breaded pork cutlet served atop a bowl of steaming rice. Two pages on the menu list various combinations of these, with an occasional offering of sashimi to preserve some national pride. Don’t bother.

At the sushi bar, though, your evening may end as ours did. The chef had given us plump, moist spears of asparagus and a creamy soy mayonnaise to dip them in. He said, “Dip, dip” and motioned emphatically every time we picked up a spear. When we finished the asparagus, we were given some sliced oranges drenched with a sweet sauce that left our mouths feeling clean and fresh.

Then came the biggest surprise of all: I don’t know how the bill was figured, but it seemed unreasonably low. The bill was less than $25 for at least eight different dishes. That is awesome.

Kotobuki is inexpensive. Sushi is 80 cents to $4.50 per item, with most around $2.50. Specialties from the Japanese menu are $2.50 to $5.50. Items on the regular menu are slightly higher. At lunch, a la carte specialties are $5.50, and combinations are $5.95 to $6.95. At dinner, a la carte items are $8.25 to $8.50, and combinations are $9.50 to $10.95.

KOTOBUKI

24351 Avenida de la Carlotta (in Oakbrook Village Mall), Laguna Hills

(714) 587-0290

Open for lunch Monday through Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; for dinner Monday through Saturday 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

American Express, MasterCard, Visa accepted.