Murakami is back in LA!

We had a chance to have a very short trip back to our sunny hometown LA this past Dec.  It was a very hectic 4-day trip on which I had to take care of my personal matters such as my greencard and my car which had been sitting in our garage.  What's more, the consulting work that I had been engaged in followed me all the way to the hotel room in LA, so I was pretty much working and had to squeeze in my personal matters here and there. 

But, since I missed so many restaurants in LA, we made sure that we had enough time to experience them, such as lobster and steak dinner at Palm, local tacos shop where we used to love to eat lunch, etc. 

Sushi and seafood was definitely on our list, but to be honest, we lost our favorite sushi restaurant called Murakami way back in 2006 or so when the chef decided to take some time off.  It was a very popular sushi restaurant in West Hollywood where we used to live.  Since we moved to another part of LA shortly after that, we had forgotten about it, but we happened to discover that Murakami was back(!)  when we were talking to a sushi chef in the sushi restaurant which opened up at same location Murakami used to be. So, I did some searches the next day and found it!! It was now operating mainly as a take-out place in Hollywood as "Murakami Sushi". You wouldn't believe how excited I was! 

We missed the chef but mostly his sushi. It is absolutely different from the random sushi places (sorry) in most part of LA. The ingredients are carefully chosen, the amount of vinegar in the rice is just right, and the tightness of sushi is perfect.

They are mainly open during the day until 8pm, so we decided to go for lunch. We each had a bowl of "chirashi", which Chef Murakami-san put together specially for us (you can also choose your own toppings), and our favorite "real" Murakami Rolls. 

It was great to see Murakami-san again, and his sushi dishes satisfied my cravings for sushi to the max. Now it became one of my must-visit restaurants in LA again.