Eat This Blog

Yet another reason why Midori Sushi isn’t like the rest: It’s got a freakin’ mouthwash dispenser in the bathroom!

For those of you who aren’t from Cali or Los Angeles for that matter Ventura Blvd. from end to end (And that is a REALLY vast end to end) boasts countless restaurants, boutiques and Starbucks. If you miss a restaurant, there’s one within 2 ft. of another, but ever since last year when Renee’s sister Ivy told us about a really good sushi restaurant with a bomb ass all-you-can-eat sushi meal, we’ve been going there ever since at least one every other month.

Restaurant: Midori Sushi

Location: 11622 Ventura Blvd. Studio City, CA (818) 623-7888 In the daytime you can park on the street and pay a toll and at night there is Valet for $2. Ventura is always busy at night so it’s best to valet at dinnertime. However, a walk after you eat is also a good idea.

Type of food: Japanese, Sushi, All-You-Can-Eat

Essential Orders: Far too many to list. Pretty much everything that they make is great. You don’t have to get All-You-Can-Eat, but it’s best to since most to all of the time that’s what you spend anyway. My addiction is their Calamari Tempura. Tiny crisy, light ringlets of calamari on top of slawed cabbage with a soy vinagrette. You don’t have to eat the cabbage. I usually use that to hide the discarded pieces of sushi that I can’t eat.

Renee and others can witness and atest, it’s the first thing I order, hell–I order it 2 times at once and certainly it’s not the last thing. I also always get the baked mussels–Broiled mussels with a spicy mayonaise, and my favorite sushi there is their ono (Hawaiian mackerel).

Things to Know: When going to Midori, it’s more than just a meal–it’s a game. And with a game there are rules:

• You only have an hour.
• You can only order after you’ve finished everything on your plate.
• Anything you don’t finish, you will be charged full price for the cost of the roll.

Renee is out for the count

Usually when Renee are going there we’re already going in with a game plan of what we want and what we can eat and if we can’t eat it, it has to be something that the other person will eat so that he/she can pick up the slack for the other. Also, keep an eye out–you never know who’s dining there. Last time Renee and I saw the El Pollo Loco Guy.

Renee’s Take: My favorite sushi place on this planet is Midori. The mere mention of going to Midori lights up my eyes and puts any crappy feeling I have about the day go away. While Jamie starts the meal off with calamari tempura ringlets, my usual first round order has to be a negi-hama handroll:  This handroll filled with yellowtail and scallions never fails me. I feel like you get more “meat” out of a handroll than ordering a roll or nigiri. They also have a really tasty salmon skin handroll here too. My roll of the moment has been any roll with deep-fried soft shell crab- so I usually order a Spider Roll anywhere I go. My second round consisted of a Spider Roll (right) and a roll with spicy and deep fried crawfish (left): The crawfish roll was a bit too heavy for me, and there was too much rice in there. But the spider roll was proper with big cuts of the crab in between each bite.  This next round had some of my order and my brother’s: The roll on the left with avocado and eel on the top is the dragon roll- if you’re a fan of unagi that’s a great roll to get because the sauce that’s drizzeled over the whole roll is sweet and complements the eel. I believe the pieces of sushi that surround the plate are salmon, yellowtail, ono, and albacore. It’s not pictured here- but I highly, HIGHLY, suggest that you order the albacore belly and yellowtail belly as soon as you start your orders. You can only order them once each, and if you’re there at night they can run out fast.  By the end of the night, as you can see my picture above, I was stuffed up to **here** (I’m gesturing my right hand directly above my head). As Jamie said above, if you don’t eat everything you order- you pay extra. I didn’t want to risk that even though I had the hardest time trying to scarf down these two last pieces: These two pieces from the crawfish roll were my Everest! With enough water and breathing, I was able to eventually eat them.   The price of dinner is very reasonable, considering all the food you can order here. The all-you-can-eat lunch is $19.95, and dinner varies from $23.95 on weeknight and *I think* $26.95 on weekends.