A Sushi Original’s Net Assets

Four years ago, Nobu Matsuhisa had only his namesake restaurant on La Cienega’s Restaurant Row. Since then, he has opened the drop-dead gorgeous and always-packed Nobu in New York with restaurateur Drew Nieporent and actor Robert DeNiro. He’s cooked for royalty at his new Nobu in London. The tall, Japanese-born chef recently opened a second Matsuhisa, in Aspen, and now is talking about launching a restaurant in Las Vegas. After Wolfgang Puck, Matsuhisa just might be the most recognizable L.A. chef in the country.

As for the original Beverly Hills restaurant, it looks like a dumpy, unloved stepchild compared to the sleek good looks of its younger siblings. It’s cramped and uncomfortable. Arrive on time--or even early--for your reservation, and you’ll have to wait in a narrow space that wouldn’t even qualify as a hallway. Still, you might get lucky and end up staring at the back of Clint Eastwood’s neck. At Matsuhisa, there’s always the possibility of spotting a big star or mini-constellation.

What people come for, aside from the sushi, are Matsuhisa’s “special dishes,” which spice up the austere Japanese palette of flavors with garlic, chile, even butter. So many are listed that it’s dizzying to read through the menu. Don’t try. Wait for the waiter to arrive with his board of specials. That way you’ll have to choose from only 15 or so items.

Despite its modest setting, Matsuhisa is very expensive. To get the most of the experience, sit at the sushi bar and either go with the flow or splurge on the omakase, letting the chef string together a series of his brilliantly eccentric creations. You can also get omakase in the cafeteria-like dining room for $65 minimum and, for $85 minimum, at the more tranquil tempura counter, a small, separate space with plywood walls built into the front of the restaurant.

On a recent evening, my companion and I are promptly ushered to the tempura counter. A man is seated alone to my right. At the end of the bar are two women. Three men in their 20s sit down just as I bite into a delicious shrimp spring roll in a gossamer wrapper. It’s served in a martini glass with a spicy, red-tinged Maui onion sauce. “Mmmm,” I murmur. The chef points to a jar of the bottled sauce for sale.

One of the women notices that the three men are ordering what you’d order anywhere--straightforward sushi, vegetable and hand rolls--and takes them under her wing. “Oh, you’ve got to order the new-style sashimi,” she coos. “When you taste it, you’re going to faint!”

I tune out while I enjoy sweet snow crab sashimi garnished with chives and black truffle in a graceful yuzu citrus sauce. But I overhear one of the men. “It’s warm, it’s cooked!” he croaks. Whitefish drizzled with hot olive oil and sesame oil is not at all what he expected. “You won’t find this anywhere else in the world!” the woman assures. Then she indulges in the impressive uni tempura and reveals to anyone listening that she saves all week to eat here on weekends. Matsuhisa’s fans can sometimes seem like cult members.

After a salad of salmon, ahi tuna and yellowtail sashimi with the tiniest fragile greens weighed down by that same spicy Maui onion sauce, I’m not quite ready to join the bandwagon. Then come gloriously fresh Santa Barbara prawns, perfectly grilled outside and half-raw inside, with a skein of roe down the center and a yellow-orange lemon garlic sauce. I begin to feel like a believer.

Next is a rich, darkly glazed unagi (eel) set on thick rounds of daikon and crowned with a beautiful grilled shiitake, a deep-fried shiso leaf decorated with a flake of gold leaf. The eel’s spine has been tied into a knot and deep-fried until it’s deliciously crunchy. This spectacular dish is followed by miso and tofu soup, and sushi--one piece each of toro, red clam, yellowtail and, because we asked, uni.

Another night’s omakase is not as consistently good. I love the spring lobster sashimi with lemon and caviar. But a snowy scallop in the shell with sliced shiitake and diced foie gras in a rich dashi doesn’t quite work because the foie gras is overcooked. The best dish is a simpleand elegant sashimi plate decorated with ribbons of carrot and daikon. It includes dominoes of seared tuna, tender tentacles of octopus, transparent slices of halibut, glistening Spanish mackerel and surf clam. A fine Chilean sea bass in a sweet miso glaze with mixed mushrooms contrasts nicely with feather-light tempura of whitefish and sea eel.

All in all, both visits are improvements from when I last reviewed the restaurant. Maybe it’s because I tell the chef no mayonnaise, which made for a couple of unpleasant dishes last time. But what is it like ordering from the menu? I come back one more time to find out (on a night, unfortunately, that Nobu Matsuhisa is out of town). After waiting a half-hour, crammed into that space near the door, I realize that some of Matsuhisa’s appeal is that eating here is slumming, Beverly Hills style: The place doesn’t look like much, yet you can easily shell out a C-note or two.

Delicate sliced yellowtail, doused in a strong, salty ponzu, is topped with a tiny round of horrifically fiery jalapeno. Fresh scallop sashimi, however, sliced in the shell, is fabulous, drenched in yuzu and dotted with torodito, a milder Peruvian hot sauce. Lobster ceviche, marooned on lettuce leaves, is meant to be rolled up and eaten “like a Japanese taco,” but all the juice runs out. Soft-shell crab spring rolls are greasy and set in a puddle of runny mayonnaise.

Stumped, we ask the waiter to choose something for us. He comes back with thin slices of the raw, well-marbled, butter-tender Kobe beef bathed in warm oil, each slice topped with scallions and ginger and a slice of musty black truffle that reeks of truffle oil. It’s awful, and expensive.

Considering this last experience, I must say the best strategy at Matsuhisa is to stick to the straight sushi or the omakase. It’s too chancy eating (and paying) your way through dishes that range from brilliant to downright bad. Nobu in New York is, I’m convinced, a better restaurant because of the chef’s collaboration with Nieporent, who acts as editor and producer. The thicket of “special dishes” is pruned, and the art-directed presentation is stunning. The original Matsuhisa would be stronger if the chef took the same steps here. Wouldn’t it be sweet for the L.A. restaurant to top the New York one?

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SUSHISA

CUISINE: Japanese eclectic. AMBIENCE: Modest Japanese sushi bar and restaurant with tempura counter. BEST DISHES: sushi, uni tempura, snow crab sashimi, grilled Santa Barbara prawns, glazed unagi. WINE PICK: 1996 Vocoret Chablis “Les Forets,” Burgundy. FACTS: 129 N. La Cienega Blvd., Beverly Hills; (310) 659-9639. Dinner nightly; lunch weekdays. Appetizers, $5 to $25; sushi, $4 to $13 (two pieces per order); special dishes, $5 to $26; omakase, $65 at table, $85 minimum at tempura counter. Corkage $10. Valet parking.