So long ago, when I first started Yelping, I added this place to my bookmarks of restaurants to try. It seemed like a more realistic option at that time when I was living in Monterey Hills and Dumpling Man was in West Hollywood. But somehow we never found ourselves in that neighborhood. Since moving to Beverly Hills this place became sort of a hike, and from all the reviews of the crazy wait, I certainly wasn’t going to make the drive only to wait for an hour.

We were out by the Ikea Burbank and since this place is soooorrrrta in that direction we decided to take a chance. It was relatively early, like 6ish?

How would you feel if you were served pickled ginger that looked like this??

Doesn’t it look not so fresh? It has this unusual browness that makes it look old. It tasted just fine, but I like my ginger to look pale yellow. I’d even accept pink!

The spicy tuna on crispy rice was the dish that EVERYONE on yelp RAVED about. Hype usually does not bode well for anything, be it movies or food. The dish came out less than 2 minutes after our order was taken. There is no way the kitchen could have churned this out in that amount of time unless it were pre-made. Anything that has the word “crispy” should not be pre-made.

The rice tasted oily and soggy. There was not a bit of crispiness. I was totally UNDERWHELMED. I love spicey tuna, but there wasn’t anything particularly special about this version.

The Baked Crab Roll was another underwhelming dish. The crab was yummy, but again nothing special. The prices are outrageous. I don’t mind paying $12-$14 for a roll if that roll is big and plentiful. I do mind paying $12-$14 and getting rolls that really should be $6. All the rolls were like that.

Salmon sushi, yellowtail sushi. Not amazingly fresh. Just whateves.

You may be wondering “is there any fish in this dish or is it just a plate of crispy onions??” Yes, I was wondering the same thing! Another dish done at every sushi fusion place, albacore with crispy onions. Nothing spectacular. More albacore swimming in an ocean of ponzu and crushed under the weight of too many crispy onions. Man, I just read on yelp that one yelper called it a “heroine sauce.” Jesus, man, its ponzu! and you can buy it at Ralphs!!

Albacore. Good.

I don’t remember what roll this was, but it was on par with everything else.

The place was OK from a taste perspective. Nothing was particularly horrible, except that soggy “crispy rice.” But all those raving reviews did not make up for the outrageous prices, the meager quantity, and the lack of anything special or amazing served. The place is just you’re run of the mill sushi place that has hundreds of yelpers brainwashed into thinking this place is something special, something worth taking the hike out to Studio City. Please people, save yourself the trouble and stick to your neighborhood sushi joints.

Katsu-Ya

11680 Ventura Blvd

Studio City, CA 91604