Nina and I went out for a late-ish dinner while mommy napped. We could have walked, but Nina got a blister yesterday while trying to master her bike sans training wheels, so we drove over to the corner of University and MLK to Sushi California. SC has all the charm you would expect from a seeeekrit neighborhood joint, although it isn't exactly hidden, nor secret. They have been there at least 20 years, judging from some of my conversations with the owner/head sushi chef (whose name, tragically, I either cannot remember or have never known). They recognize and greet you when you come in for the second time; they ask questions if I am there without the rest of the family. It is smallish, half-underground, with a 6 person bar and about 8 tables. For a Monday night at around 7, it was almost empty; two people at the bar, 3 tables filled. We took a table so Nina could play with her dolls while waiting for the food to arrive.
The sushi is fabulous in many ways. It is fresh, exceedingly well cut, with generous portions in both maki and nigiri forms. They have a Dragon roll that is absolutely perfect: avocado scales, a shrimp tail, ikura eyeballs, onion nostrils, and sprout-flames spewing from the mouth. The Dr. Choi roll, with red and white tuna, garlic, and cream cheese, is a stunner, eye-watering without wasabi (the cheese holds the garlic on the tongue, you see). Nina will happily down three orders of tamago without blinking; it is thick but light, clearly folded into spirals during the cooking process, thrice the length of the rice bed, very well executed overall. They always have toro of one kind or another, usually salmon and yellowtail, and they cut it in fat tricorner slabs that cannot be consumed in under three bites without guilt over wasted opportunities. We have had their teriyaki, soups, and salads in the past and they are also quite good. They often start you with edamame on the house, and finish the meal with grapes and orange slices with the bill. Nice touches, always fresh and well prepared. They have a nice sake menu, both hot and cold, but gravity and I no longer agree on the purposes of sake, so I can't point you at the correct bottle.
It is my favorite Sushi restaurant in the East Bay by far, more than Kirala, more than Isobune (although Nina prefers the novelty of plucking her food from a moving boat, not to mention her indefatigable fondness for their mango jello deserts). I prefer it to several places in Japantown in SF. It may be a notch under Ebisu, however, SC has never kept me waiting in line for a table, as is standard practice at Ebisu and Kirala. Not that I am against waiting on principle; I still have a fondness for NoName Sushi on Church Street, but that is because it is by far the cheapest good sushi I have ever had the pleasure of eating.
Still, Sushi California has one thing that all these other places lack: on Monday nights Hideo Date plays guitar. He sets up in a corner with a thick archtop, played through a tiny cube of an amplifier with a very sweet spring reverb, next to a few of his CDs for sale and a tip jar. He is wholly unobtrusive, and some people carry on conversing without seeming to notice him, but these people are fools. The man can play. His repertoire is all instrumentals, mostly blues, pop, and jazz classics arranged for solo guitar: "Sleepwalk", "Take Five", the oldies chestnut "Mr. Sandman" (hysterical), "Sweet Georgia Brown", "Green Onions" and the like.
Tonight was TV theme music night. We heard the Batman theme, as a blues tune, the Mission Impossible and James Bond themes played jazzy, and a fairly straight rendition of "Suicide is Painless" which is just one of the greatest melodies ever. We also got a bluesy Freight Train, a Little Wing that was cruelly interrupted by a couple who wanted to buy a CD as they left, and lastly a version of the Marine's hymn done up Ennio Morricone style, exceedingly spaghetti westernish. I suspect him of playing in an alternate tuning, but I was paying attention tonight and now I am not so sure. He plays other restaurants in the Bay Area, but there is something to be said for sitting 5 feet from an exceedingly competent musician while eating great sushi. Plus he cracks me up at least once every time I see him; tonight it was the Batman theme.
So, Go Eat There. On a Monday.
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