The Cutting Edge

Sushi Ryo is yet another neighborhood sushi restaurant patronized by a young crowd whose dress code runs to T-shirts, baseball caps and bead bracelets. It’s a small, peaceful place at the corner of Highland Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, with only six tables and eight seats at the sushi counter.

Chef-owner Junichi Shiode can produce far more than the basic sushi items illustrated on the place mats. I was particularly taken with ika somen--squid cut before your eyes as thin as somen noodles. It’s served in a bowl of cool dashi broth sprinkled with shreds of nori seaweed and does give much the effect of noodles.

Halibut engawa employs flesh cut from the edge of the fish near the fin (“engawa” means edge), which has a firmer texture. The Japanese friend who joined me at the sushi bar said that “engawa” is also the name of the corridor that runs along the edge of a Japanese house, between the rooms and the garden. I could almost feel cool breezes and see exquisitely arranged greenery as I ate this sushi.

Kohada is a sort of sardine (to be technical, it’s gizzard shad) with shiny, silvery skin. The traditional method of preparation is to salt it, wash it in lightly vinegared water and then soak it in vinegar. Obviously, you eat this delicate sushi without dipping it into soy sauce.

Then there is luscious monkfish liver (ankimo), as tender and velvety as foie gras. You season it with ponzu sauce, green onion and grated daikon.

Sushi Ryo offers a small list of vegetarian sushi rolls. One combines mountain yam, radish sprouts and cucumber. It’s lovely and delicate. The crisp, juicy raw vegetables are almost sweet. Another mixes fine strands of avocado, burdock, asparagus and dried gourd strips (kanpyo), punched up with shiso.

Of course there are sushi staples like yellowtail (hamachi), the biggest seller here, and tuna (maguro). If tuna belly (toro) is available, Sushi Ryo will have it. If it’s not, content yourself with abalone (awabi) or with sea eel (anago), served warm and sweet.

Eating at Sushi Ryo is inexpensive. A $9.50 lunch combination brings plate after plate of food. One dish holds tuna, halibut and salmon sashimi--and not just a slice or two of each. Another contains mixed tempura and more sesame chicken than I could eat. The deep-fried chicken tasted rather of ginger than sesame. You could substitute chicken teriyaki.

Lunch starts with an appetizer of seaweed, cucumber and fine rice noodles in sweet and sour dressing. Almost immediately bowls of sticky white rice and miso soup appear, also a tiny dish of pickles and a mug of green tea that is constantly replenished. Sushi Ryo also serves Japanese beer and sake. The sake is divided into categories--medium dry, dry, super dry and rich--for convenience in ordering.

One night the sushi counter exhibited a terrarium of squirming baby crabs, waiting to be deep-fried, but I ordered squid leg tempura. Only a wisp of batter coats the chewy squid in this airy Japanese variation on fried calamari. The smelt tempura is pleasantly light, too.

The waitress, who is Shiode’s wife, Emiko, tactfully suggested that I choose something other than taranome tempura, which involves bitter wild plants, and so I asked for eggplant with shrimp sauce. The sauce is, literally, crushed small shrimp combined with green peas, very delicately seasoned.

Seared albacore salad combines the fish with seaweed, shredded carrot, asparagus and lettuce in a dressing that tastes of soy and sesame. The tuna is seared until white at the edges, but still rosy inside. I can also recommend the baked oysters on the half shell, topped with caramelized miso.

The dinner menu offers additional options that are not so challenging, such as chicken teriyaki, squid teriyaki, tempura and steamed clams with white wine and butter. And you can go totally Western for dessert. The restaurant brings in fruit tarts that are quite nice, if a bit chilly from refrigeration. When I finished off a sushi lunch with a big slice of apple tart, my sushi expert friend was horrified. “Not proper,” he muttered, as I enjoyed this rich and, from his point of view, shamefully sinful treat.

BE THERE

Sushi Ryo, 6775 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 462-7200. Lunch, noon-2 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; dinner, 6-11 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays. Beer and wine. Parking lot. Major credit cards. Dinner for two, food only, $15-$35.

What to Get: ika somen, halibut engawa sushi, kohada sushi, vegetarian sushi rolls, squid leg tempura, eggplant with shrimp sauce, oysters baked with miso, combination lunches.