Welcome to his hit parade

JUST as I slip the piece of sashimi into my mouth, the entire dining room at K-Zo, a new sushi restaurant in downtown Culver City, bursts into applause. I take an inner bow, congratulating myself on a brilliant ordering decision as I savor the dark, deliciously oily fish ribboned with silver.

Then I ask our server why everybody is clapping. He shrugs wryly and hazards a guess: The couple at the other end of the sushi bar have just gotten married. Uh-huh. I’m picturing a justice of the peace, followed by sushi at K-Zo, and I’m thinking it’s not a bad idea at all. Kampai! Whoever you are.

Although the restaurant has been open barely two months, the sushi enthusiasts have already sniffed out this smart, contemporary place next to Trader Joe’s on Culver Boulevard.

The location and the two hours of free parking in the adjoining city parking structure make it tempting to fit some grocery shopping into the evening. Just be sure that as you step up to K-Zo’s entrance, you straighten your shoulders, tuck in your shirt and gather the stragglers in your party.

Because when you walk in that door, the entire staff is going to turn and shout out a greeting in Japanese. With zero possibility of a stealth entry, all you can do is relax and enjoy the attention.

It can’t be worse than the first time I ducked my head under a door curtain in Tokyo and, completely unsuspecting, was blown backward by a tsunami of sound.

Once past that ferocious greeting, the young, hip staffers become pussycats, polite and deferential. Someone is always at your elbow to pour water or sake -- or beer, if you so choose. Empty plates never languish on the table, and orders -- or additions to orders -- are taken promptly.

Meanwhile, the trio of chefs behind the sushi bar, including chef-owner Keizo Ishiba, works at a furious pace, slender knives flashing. One weekday night, they’re slammed with orders, yet after a brief wait our food starts coming, almost too quickly.

A plate of kanpachi carpaccio, one of that night’s specials, is arranged like a flower with slices of raw yellowtail as the petals, each topped with a wedding-size ring of green or red chile. The composition floats like a waterlily in a slick of ponzu that’s tart with yuzu citrus juice.

A pair of small, delicate Kumamoto oysters on the half shell make a lovely couple of bites. One is topped with grated radish and a squeeze of yuzu, the other with uni and a tiny scoop of osetra caviar.

But $12 for the two of them seems a bit steep.

On the other hand, tako-su is a landscape in a bowl -- crisp, sweet-tart cucumber slices against wakame seaweed with a briny bite and tender scallops of violet-edged, tender and mild octopus -- and it’s just $9. A rather tame seafood ceviche with octopus, shrimp, whitefish and salmon decorated with avocado and cilantro is another refreshing “small bite.”

Stylish plates

ISHIBA, late of Sushi Roku in Hollywood, exhibits an effortless grace in his plating. Whitefish carpaccio features supple slices of the pearly translucent fish lined up on a skinny white porcelain dish like pale butterflies. Each morsel looks so pristine and fresh, your chopsticks seem to reach out on their own to take a slice.

Hamachi verde is a fabulous dish, the slices of fish presented with the ends tucked under and garnished with slivered ginger and radish, lying in a pretty green sauce with such a haunting flavor, you end up hoping for bread to soak up every drop. So complex, it’s hard to unravel the tastes other than to identify something hot, something grassy and herbal.

Our server says it’s the chef’s secret, and he hasn’t revealed it to anybody on the staff.

Salads tend to be served in those asymmetrical high-sided bowls that are the current darlings of the dishware-forward set. Although I enjoyed the crunchy funk of salmon skin salad embellished with pickled burdock and radish sprouts, another salad, spicy shrimp, is such a snore that no one at the table finishes it.

And the special toro salad -- thick slices of tuna belly on greens -- served one night may not be the best way to spend your toro dollars. Order the premium tuna as sushi or sashimi, the better to appreciate every nuance.

Ishiba’s menu of small bites and salads is so extensive, straight-ahead sushi seems almost an afterthought. For me, his composed and cooked dishes are generally more compelling than the sushi.

The best strategy here is to check the page of daily specials and order sushi or sashimi from that list. That’s where you’ll find things like matsutake mushroom sushi or live scallop sashimi served in two courses: first the sashimi and then the scallop mussel cooked with mushrooms. Red snapper, halibut and shima aji (mackerel) are top choices. Uni, not so much. I’ve had better elsewhere.

I do find, though, that the fish is served so cold it chills the flavor into hiding. The rice seems awfully cold too. And although some of the seafood is top-notch, not all of it is.

K-Zo’s strength is that it offers much more than the standard sushi restaurant menu. You can go back again and again for lunch and for dinner and still not have exhausted the choices. Ishiba keeps his devotees’ interest with an ever-changing array of specials such as matsutake soup with shrimp served in a teapot with little cups from which to sip the fragrant clear broth.

At the end, take off the lid and ferret out the morsels of shrimp and mushroom with your chopsticks.

Please, sir, some more

EXECUTING the ambitious menu is quite a feat. Yet I hear the group of fans seated at the far end of the sushi counter telling the chef he should open more K-Zos. Are they kidding? Look at the poor guy. At the end of the night he looks as if he’s run a marathon, and yet he’s unfailingly cheerful, his white cap pushed forward jauntily. After years of working for others, he’s working for himself.

K-Zo is a bona fide neighborhood hit, and you can feel the energy and the pride in the entire staff. And that’s a big part of what makes eating here such a pleasure.

That and the hamachi verde. What is in that sauce?

virbila@latimes.com

*

K-Zo

Rating: **

Location: 9240 Culver Blvd., Culver City, (310) 202-8890; www.k-zo.com.

Ambience: Smart contemporary sushi restaurant in a palette of cream and brown. Sit at the sushi bar or at tables across from it; there’s also a semiprivate room screened by a bead curtain. The crowd is mostly young, mostly local.

Service: Very present and pleasant.

Price: Small bites, $3.50 to $15; salads, $5 to $15; sushi, $5 to $9, sashimi, $8 to $18 (toro is market price); desserts, $3 to $10; omakase (chef’s choice), $48 and up.

Best dishes: Oyster on the half shell with uni and caviar, tako-su, whitefish yuzu, hamachi verde, kanpachi carpaccio with jalapeno, nigiri-zushi of toro or Japanese mackerel.

Wine list: Only Chardonnay and Cabernet by the glass, but about 30 kinds of sake from different parts of Japan, including boutique or jizake varieties as well as premium brands. Sake samplers offer three shot-size tastes; there’s a changing monthly sake available by the glass. Corkage fee $15.

Best table: A seat at the sushi bar or the one private booth screened off with a beaded curtain.

Details: Open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and for dinner Monday through Thursday from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 5:30 to 11 p.m. Beer, wine, sake, soju. Lot next door offers two free hours of 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.