Michael Ovitz’s slick WeHo sushi spot, Kumo, is curiously sweet

After months of construction, Michael Ovitz, the former uber-agent and Disney executive, has opened Kumo, a high-end sushi restaurant in the former Citrine (and before that, a number of other restaurants) space. Seems karma, the good kind, doesn’t lie thick on the ground at the Melrose Avenue address. But the neighborhood has certainly changed around, as rug and antique stores have given way to elegant boutiques. And so now, if you’re feeling peckish after picking out some ebony knitting needles at Knit Cafe, Kumo awaits your attention.

The name means “cloud,” and the sushi restaurant is a vision of purest white. Gleaming vertical elements shutter the windows, looking like ribs of a giant radiator. A dropped ceiling outlines the curve of a cartoon cloud. Water shimmies down a wall like rain. The furniture is all white leather and silky chrome. Posh. At the back is the sushi counter, and also a small bar dispensing cocktails and sake.

But the real action is in the open kitchen directed by executive chef Hiro Fujita, who headed the kitchen at Ovitz’s first sushi venture, HamaSaku, for seven years.

I’d bet big money that our server is an actor manque, who professes, quite convincingly, that he loves everything on the menu. We also believe him when he tells us the four of us can share most of the first courses -- a variety of hot and cold dishes, most of which sound complicated and fussy. Edamame, though, are hot and good.

Once the dishes start coming, we’re floored by how elaborate they are. And how small. More attention has been given to how the food looks than to how it tastes, making Kumo the perfect fashionista restaurant. Appetizers include octopus ceviche with cherry tomatoes and Belgian endive drenched in a lime miso sauce or sweet shrimp with black truffle, salmon roe, edamame and crispy ginger among other ingredients. Most dishes have five or more ingredients, and almost everything we try has a sweet sauce. East and West meet over and over again, in a genre started here in L.A. by Nobu Matsuhisa. Japanese mackerel tataki, for example, comes with crispy potato and shallot in a ginger and balsamic vinegar sauce. Smoked salmon cozies up to baked mozzarella with Mediterranean vegetables and a black pepper sauce. Maine lobster is served with mango in a vanilla vinaigrette.

And for those who live on salad, the menu features a Caesar made with baby romaine and radicchio in a virtuous tofu Caesar dressing. Asparagus appears in a brown sushi rice risotto with daikon served in a nondairy mayonnaise. Meanwhile we’ve ordered a slew of dishes and we’re still hungry. My friend asks for some rice, but, sorry to say, it’s overcooked and gummy. We move on to sushi. But before we can put in our order, the waiter highly recommends the Green Dragon roll, a baroque concoction of spicy tuna “with tempura crunch” wrapped in soy paper and avocado with some rich, sweet eel sauce drizzled over the top. Way over the top.

At the bottom of the list of exotic sushi -- Scottish salmon sashimi with mango salsa and black sesame wasabi sauce, say -- are the words: “We also have traditional sushi and sashimi.” And these do prove to be the most satisfying items of the night, despite the lackluster flavor of most of the fish. At least it’s not sweet.

So, at long last, we have Michael Ovitz’s sushi in white, where art direction trumps the cuisine.

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-- virbila@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

KUMO

WHERE: 8360 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood

WHEN: Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, dinner 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 6 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.

PRICE: First courses, both hot and cold, $10 to $40; vegetable dishes and sides, $4 to $14; fish and meat dishes, $10 to $28; special sashimi, $20; special rolls, $12 to $24; desserts, $10 to $16; omakase, $150 per person. Full bar. Valet parking.

INFO: (323) 651-5866.