Four-Star Review Doesn’t Add Up

I was shocked when I saw S. Irene Virbila’s four-star review of Ginza Sushi-Ko (“Essence of Excellence,” Restaurants, Nov. 11). Early on, she wrote, “Every time I’ve eaten at Ginza Sushi-Ko, [sushi master Masa Takayama] has come up with something new and startling.” Imagine going to a place where there is no menu, you eat what is put before you and pay $300 or more for the privilege. And Virbila apparently has done this frequently. What does the initial “S” stand for? “Snob”?

Norman McCracken

Northridge

*

I respect Virbila’s technical skills as a restaurant critic, but I think there is a thin line between a fine dining experience and being taken as someone’s patsy. Until someone explains otherwise to me, paying $300 to be served cod sperm sac, “raw, sweet shrimp marinated in shrimp innards,” and “a few bites of slippery-looking stuff in an almost fluorescent orange sauce” seems to me to be rather naive.

Cary W. Goldstein

Beverly Hills