Sushi, on the Rock

WHAT’S an Eagle Rocker who’s crazy-mad for sushi to do? He can rev up the car and cruise over to Little Tokyo every other night to feed his habit. Or, like mortgage broker Rudy Martinez, he can take a flying leap into the unknown and, with the urging of interested friends who have the same obsession, turn the empty space next to his office into a restaurant. A sushi restaurant. And in one fell swoop, cut the commute and gain his own commissary, so to speak, right next door, open for lunch and dinner.

Ta-da!

Bet he never counted on how all-consuming owning a restaurant can be. When Mia Sushi, named for his 3-year-old daughter, opened in February, Martinez looked as proud as a first-time parent -- and just as shellshocked. He was at the restaurant every night. He still is, dressed in a suit, seating customers, running interference with the kitchen and, when the staff is short-handed or things are extra crazy, lending a hand serving or clearing dishes.

This is not your typical corner sushi bar, that’s for sure. Martinez and designer Mary O’Grady have turned a plumbing supply store into a contemporary spot that could have come from the pages of Dwell magazine. It’s not a big place, but it’s not small either. Inside is the sushi bar, where a team of young chefs flashes knives under the direction of Kazo Ozawa, a veteran of the Flying Fish in Little Tokyo. Wooden Buddhas holding glass bowls are mounted on shelves above, stately house mascots.

From the bright persimmon walls, bas-relief Buddha faces watch benignly over the goings-on, getting an earful from the two shaggy musicians kvetching at one table or the couple next to them trading relationship histories on a first date. The booth in the corner is crammed with Eagle Rockers scarfing up sushi rolls named for local landmarks.

Outside in front is the patio, and it’s where the genius of the place is centered. Tropical in feeling and fringed with bamboo that seems to be a foot taller every week, it’s an oasis of sleek good looks on a ragged stretch of Eagle Rock Boulevard. Water trickles down glass panels, filtering out sounds of the traffic. A clubby tropical beat pounds from the speakers.

Mia Sushi’s high hip quotient lures the kind of wildly eclectic crowd you find only in Eagle Rock or Echo Park -- girls on a night out and dressed to flaunt it, neatly dressed junior politicos and senior honchos, friends showing off Eagle Rock to Westsiders, quiet couples and, mixed in with everybody, tattooed rockers.

It’s a friendly bunch, and waiters play that card too, waxing enthusiastic, suggesting dishes and interpreting the sushi roll names for the uninitiated.

Golden tempura

THE kitchen crew has tempura frying down. Order fried calamari, and you’ll get beautiful puffs of pale gold, crisp but not at all greasy, like popcorn shrimp but made with squid. All the tempura is first rate, and a great option if you happen to be someone who doesn’t eat fish or raw seafood. The vegetable tempura is excellent. So is the shrimp.

Generous scoops of tuna tartare, perfumed with sesame oil, ride in on thick slices of cucumber. The tuna is diced in cubes, the better to show off the quality of the fish. Portions are generous for the price, and pretty much every dish is large enough for a table of three or four to share.

Even the simplest things are reliably turned out. Edamame come piping hot, and sprinkled with sea salt. And the sunomono, vinegared Japanese cucumber salad, is garnished with cool, crunchy seaweed, a terrific summer salad, especially if you order the version fenced in with sliced octopus. As each dish arrives, our chopsticks get very busy.

Martinez and his sushi chefs aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel here. The menu is a compendium of popular sushi standards updated with fusion creations in the style of Matsuhisa and Sushi Roku, along with their own exuberant sushi rolls, the wilder the better. The basics are high quality, but the pricey items such as bluefin toro show up only as specials.

I can hardly believe it, but I order dynamite here -- in the interest of science -- and it’s certainly better than other versions I’ve tried. It’s lighter on the mayonnaise maybe, with a hefty dose of crabmeat and scallops, and it’s not going to ream out your sinuses with a blast of hot pepper.

Sashimi and nigiri-zushi are straightforward, prepared with high quality seafood. In terms of size, the sushi comes right in between -- not as small as some styles, but not as clumsily big as those served at Sushi Sasabune, say.

When Mia Sushi has bluefin toro, that can be exceptional, like eating fish butter. Order sweet shrimp and you’ll get a separate plate with the fried heads, which is always a treat.

Two of the special sashimi are worth noting. Firefish is yellowtail sashimi with sliced jalapeno and cilantro in ponzu sauce. I appreciate that it’s not swimming in the sauce, but splashed with just enough. The other is satiny albacore topped with crispy fried red onions, also in a ponzu. Salads, though, like Asian chicken salad or salmon skin salad, are just OK.

Special rolls

THE sushi chefs have put their all into the section on the back of Mia Sushi’s menu that lists 15 ornate, special rolls. These are rich and strictly not for purists.

I liked the double shrimp roll, which features spicy shrimp tempura with avocado cantilevered on top. The Ivy roll, in which sweet garlic albacore plays a major role with crispy onion flakes, and more avocado and a cream sauce in supporting roles, is rich and messy, but kind of good. Another is the Eagle Rock roll, with spicy tuna and asparagus tempura in a creamy sauce.

But when cream cheese becomes a player in the Mt. Washington roll (with crab, freshwater eel and, of course, avocado), that’s when they leave me behind. And CD 14, named for Council District 14, which includes Eagle Rock, introduces scribbled sweet sauces and other chefs’ flourishes. There’s just too much going on.

No matter, somebody else at the table won’t be shy about finishing off anything left over. One person’s over the top is another’s dream roll. And it is just so pleasant sitting out on the patio on a balmy night. (I’m not going to say any more. I can see it’s already going to be impossible to get a table out there, except maybe during the week, if you’re lucky.)

Happily, dessert doesn’t involve any complicated ordering. There are just two, but you’ll want just one, the strawberry and banana tempura. It’s that frying thing: The banana is perfect, each segment encased in a crisp, golden jacket. Served on a small lake of chocolate sauce with frills of whipped cream so ethereal and sweet that I’m thinking it’s not just straight cream, it makes a festive end.

Just watch everybody’s eyes light up when the waiter heads toward the table with that baroque banana fantasy.

Somehow, I think this must be Rudy Martinez’s favorite dessert. It’s good to be the restaurant owner.

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Mia Sushi

Rating: **

Location: 4741 Eagle Rock Blvd., Los Angeles; (323) 256-2562.

Ambience: Stylish and contemporary sushi restaurant on an otherwise nondescript stretch of Eagle Rock Boulevard with a bamboo-fringed patio in front and a wildly eclectic Eagle Rock crowd.

Service: Eager to help, on the case.

Price: Sushi, $3 to $16; appetizers, $3 to $11; special dishes, $9 to $12; main dishes, $14 to $18; desserts, $4 to $9.

Best dishes: Fried calamari, sunomono with octopus, tuna tartare, bluefin toro sashimi, firefish, crispy albacore sashimi, double shrimp roll, Ivy roll, banana tempura.

Wine list: Minimal, a handful of bottles and wines by the glass. Corkage, $10.

Best table: One on the patio in front.

Details: Open for dinner daily from 5:30 to 11 p.m; and for lunch Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Beer, and wine and sake. Valet parking.

Rating is based on food, service and ambience, with price taken into account in relation to quality. ****: Outstanding on every level. ***: Excellent. **: Very good. *: Good. No star: Poor to satisfactory.