Ichiban Japanese Restaurant

This is my favorite new sushi place. The quality is worth the price you’re paying. The quality is better than all the restaurants in the area and on par with some of the better places in dtla. My favorites are the sweet shrimp, salmon belly and seared salmon. Definitely worth trying this place out.

Food is always fresh and great here! They have friendly and attentive staff!

Good quality of fish. Considering the inflation hovering over the US, a $18 chirashi lunch is considered reasonable. Pretty good portion as well. Will return.

Christine S

Their lunch specials are such a good deal for the amount of sushi you get! I used to frequent this place back when it was named Toro, and it looks like the menu now is quite similar to its predecessor. I ordered the sushi moriawase, which came with miso soup and a shrimp head that they ask if you want fried or turned into soup. The fish tasted very fresh and the spicy tuna rolls were great. Also recommend the chirashi or premium chirashi bowls, which come with a huge amount of sashimi.

tiffany do-lu

Super good chirashi bowls here! They always give fresh and giant cuts of fish. Definitely try to come during lunch if you can because it’s a couple dollars cheaper.

Nicholas Colander

If I could. Id eat here every day. But they are closed on Mondays. Lol This place is extremely kind consistent and delicious.

Brian Lee

This is my favorite new sushi place. The quality is worth the price you’re paying. The quality is better than all the restaurants in the area and on par with some of the better places in dtla. My favorites are the sweet shrimp, salmon belly and seared salmon. Definitely worth trying this place out.

Lily Chung

Food is always fresh and great here! They have friendly and attentive staff!

Ed Fung

Good quality of fish. Considering the inflation hovering over the US, a $18 chirashi lunch is considered reasonable. Pretty good portion as well. Will return.

Louie-Zuta-Chong Family

I’ve been to Shinkai many times for lunch and dinner and they have never disappointed. Their food quality and service especially from Joe, continues to be wonderful. They seriously have one of the best lunch deals around and it’s offered on weekdays & weekends. This time around we ordered the Deluxe Sashimi Lunch and the Combo with a Toro don(very rare to find especially at such a reasonable price!) & grilled Miso Black Cod. I shared these items with my aunt and we were both able enjoy all the delicious food. Excellent food and very fresh, quality sashimi. Toro hands down… if you know, you know!

Lydia Cheng

I came here to celebrate with some friends over an omakase lunch. We opted for the $125 tasting omakase, which came with about 15 courses. We were served a pretty large variety of fish courses for this price. I was impressed that they served oysters, uni, and scallop for this price point. Our favorite courses included a seared salmon/scallop sushi, tuna tartare, monkfish liver, and hamachi (yellowtail) sashimi. Overall, this is one of the better omakase experiences I’ve had in the LA area. There was a large variety and good quality ingredients prepared in a creative way. I would highly recommend coming for a special occasion! I will definitely be back!

CoffeeBird

Came here to celebrate a new job and we were not disappointed. Both of us ordered the premium chirashi bowl. The uni was fresh and sweet. The sweet shrimp was excellent and our server gave us the option to fry the head or have it be used in a miso soup. Both were delicious options. The rest of the fish was fresh and flavorful. Overall, the quality of the fish was well worth the price. Our servers were attentive and we had a wonderful time. 10/10, would return again.

Minh Do

They have the freshest sweet shrimp in town, crunchy and full of freshness, never slimy. Chef Alan and his staff are super professional, friendly welcoming. If you are ready to pour, they are ready to toast. 😄 It's always a great time when you visit Shinkai. Our host Joe is the nicest guy and full of hospitality.

XY Z

Taking my mom to her first American sushi journey, so l picked shinkai as the highest score sushi restaurant in Alhambra area. We've got seated right away when we arrived at a lunch time, and the servers r very nice and fast. We ordered salmon bowl, tuna roll and also the chirashi bowl, very fresh and my mom enjoyed very much. This place is always very busy, so plan ur visit ahead. We will be back!

Chew Loay Chang

Coming from Singapore and traveling frequently Japan and Hong Kong, I must say this is one of the top 5 Japanese restaurant. Very nice sushi, presentable and right amount of rice and wasabi. Sashimi is really really good. Had a grilled ika, claim soup. Sashimi don was big. Very happy family dinner on sat 🎉🥂 definitely a must visit every time we are back LA

Gary Murakami

This place is a short walk from Atherton Baptist Homes where my parents live. Their favorite Japanese restaurant changed owners and is not the same anymore. So I thought we could try Shinkai since it is so close. Sushi/sashimi orders came out super fast with 4 sushi chefs at the counter. The hot foods came out much later but all food is delicious. Service is attentive and responsive. Place is smallish but you can quickly dine and dash.

Albert Kusuma

Great authentic Japanese food with reasonable price. Also very nice owner

The lunch special here is a steal! Excellent quality and value. I love their chirashi bowl, the fishes are fresh and they give you a lot. The grilled sea bass and black cod are a little small in term of portion but they are still good value for the price.

Easily th best sashimi in town. We live close to Yama seafood and their sashimi is tops already but still not as good as Shinkai's thick cut, ultra fresh fish and just quality all around! Go during lunch and get the chirash or sashimi lunch and you will be back soon! Oh and great service with super friendly staff and chefs.

The folks there are excellent and are very helpful with selection. Some of the best sushi I have had in a very long time.

Ash Shehata

The folks there are excellent and are very helpful with selection. Some of the best sushi I have had in a very long time.

Eric Tsai

Easily th best sashimi in town. We live close to Yama seafood and their sashimi is tops already but still not as good as Shinkai's thick cut, ultra fresh fish and just quality all around! Go during lunch and get the chirash or sashimi lunch and you will be back soon! Oh and great service with super friendly staff and chefs.

e sungla

The lunch special here is a steal! Excellent quality and value. I love their chirashi bowl, the fishes are fresh and they give you a lot. The grilled sea bass and black cod are a little small in term of portion but they are still good value for the price.

The raw material quality was very high but the techniques are not yet up to the other Omakase standard, soon to be there!

Finally a great tasting Japanese restaurant with amazingly fresh ingredients and doesn't skimp out on the thickness of each cut, 美味しい! Just a quick tip before reviewing, if you like Salmon Collar (Kama), make sure to get here by opening time and order it right when you sit down. Any minute later, they can either run out because other guests already ordered it or simply because they didn't get any shipments in that morning. Now let's get to the good stuff. Shinkai is located in the same plaza as Lunasia so if you drive by a plaza on Main St with tons of people waiting to eat dim sum, that's where Shinkai is located. When you enter the restaurant, it's dimly lit and it's not as big as you'd imagine. I've frequented this restaurant twice already and I'm a huge fan of their food. Just a warning though, your food may come out slow at times but try not to take it out on the workers since I'm certain their kitchen may be understaffed. Your miso soup will be the fastest though, and so will the tea/water =) I visited yesterday with my dad and we're both big fans of their Salmon Skin Salad. The portion is big enough that you'll feel full at the end of it. They don't skip on the avocado either so it's worth it your buck. With his salad, he wanted the udon but by the time we finished almost our entire meal, they informed us they "ran out" of udon. Not sure why they wouldn't have just told us before we ordered or during the middle of our meal. That was the only thing that I was irked about because they should've told us earlier and not towards the end, like 30-40 minutes after we ordered. This goes back to the slow service I mentioned before but I didn't want to make a stink out of it. For my combo, I ordered their Sashimi Combo with my salad. The chefs cut a generous amount for each slice of fish and they all tasted amazing. I wanted to order more but we had Kama on the way so I'll save more sashimi for next time. If it is your first time visiting the restaurant, you'll notice that the prices are on the higher end but I do believe that the price you're paying is for the quality you're getting. The cheaper Japanese restaurants you may be used to paying probably cannot compare in terms of quality and taste; you'll have to weigh your pros and cons. Overall, I highly recommend trying this place if you haven't already because you won't regret it and you'll want to come back for more.

The staff was really nice. The food was good and filling. The only thing I was disappointed in was the seaweed avocado salad was just a salad with avocado on top. I was expecting seaweed and there was no seaweed. Other than that the food was delicious and the service was great.

Tia Lee

The staff was really nice. The food was good and filling. The only thing I was disappointed in was the seaweed avocado salad was just a salad with avocado on top. I was expecting seaweed and there was no seaweed. Other than that the food was delicious and the service was great.

Chris Yu

Finally a great tasting Japanese restaurant with amazingly fresh ingredients and doesn't skimp out on the thickness of each cut, 美味しい! Just a quick tip before reviewing, if you like Salmon Collar (Kama), make sure to get here by opening time and order it right when you sit down. Any minute later, they can either run out because other guests already ordered it or simply because they didn't get any shipments in that morning. Now let's get to the good stuff. Shinkai is located in the same plaza as Lunasia so if you drive by a plaza on Main St with tons of people waiting to eat dim sum, that's where Shinkai is located. When you enter the restaurant, it's dimly lit and it's not as big as you'd imagine. I've frequented this restaurant twice already and I'm a huge fan of their food. Just a warning though, your food may come out slow at times but try not to take it out on the workers since I'm certain their kitchen may be understaffed. Your miso soup will be the fastest though, and so will the tea/water =) I visited yesterday with my dad and we're both big fans of their Salmon Skin Salad. The portion is big enough that you'll feel full at the end of it. They don't skip on the avocado either so it's worth it your buck. With his salad, he wanted the udon but by the time we finished almost our entire meal, they informed us they "ran out" of udon. Not sure why they wouldn't have just told us before we ordered or during the middle of our meal. That was the only thing that I was irked about because they should've told us earlier and not towards the end, like 30-40 minutes after we ordered. This goes back to the slow service I mentioned before but I didn't want to make a stink out of it. For my combo, I ordered their Sashimi Combo with my salad. The chefs cut a generous amount for each slice of fish and they all tasted amazing. I wanted to order more but we had Kama on the way so I'll save more sashimi for next time. If it is your first time visiting the restaurant, you'll notice that the prices are on the higher end but I do believe that the price you're paying is for the quality you're getting. The cheaper Japanese restaurants you may be used to paying probably cannot compare in terms of quality and taste; you'll have to weigh your pros and cons. Overall, I highly recommend trying this place if you haven't already because you won't regret it and you'll want to come back for more.

I'd only come in to Shinkai Sushi one time in 2021 before my visit yesterday. Prior to their 2019 opening, it was also a high end Japanese restaurant called Toro's which I went to twice. For my lunch on Tuesday, I enjoyed my sashimi salad and blue crab handroll. I am not sure why people rate this place poorly. They are a bit expensive, but aiming to be a high end Japanese restaurant. For one, I would never go to a sushi place and order pasta expecting it to be their specialty. Also, I believe this place is owned and staffed by Chinese people, so if you don't like it, don't come in. So, I got the salmon skin salad, and the portion was huge. It literally came in this giant bowl I could wash a baby in. Additionally, their salmon and tuna sashimi cuts are so fresh, smooth, and buttery. They added some other stuff to my raw fish platter I don't know the name of, lobster head soup, and additional seaweed with ginger and wasabi to make up for paying more, whereas at other Japanese restaurants they only serve me sashimi on a platter for that same dish. Also got the scallop sushi; that was good too, and pieces of meat huge and fresh. Furthermore, I like that their seaweed salad also uses cucumbers and seaweed knots, not just the grassy stuff that I find at other Japanese restaurants. Abalone sashimi was pretty tasty too; I hadn't seen this dish anywhere outside of Japan. With that being said, it is very easy to pay more than $100 for a meal here, probably even one person if you order different things to try. I did. Also, they had a lot of people for Tuesday lunch waitlisted since they don't seat people at the bar for the "regular" lunch special menu, just appetizers. Besides that, there's not much seating available. Will come back when I need to spoil myself.

Esther Leng

I'd only come in to Shinkai Sushi one time in 2021 before my visit yesterday. Prior to their 2019 opening, it was also a high end Japanese restaurant called Toro's which I went to twice. For my lunch on Tuesday, I enjoyed my sashimi salad and blue crab handroll. I am not sure why people rate this place poorly. They are a bit expensive, but aiming to be a high end Japanese restaurant. For one, I would never go to a sushi place and order pasta expecting it to be their specialty. Also, I believe this place is owned and staffed by Chinese people, so if you don't like it, don't come in. So, I got the salmon skin salad, and the portion was huge. It literally came in this giant bowl I could wash a baby in. Additionally, their salmon and tuna sashimi cuts are so fresh, smooth, and buttery. They added some other stuff to my raw fish platter I don't know the name of, lobster head soup, and additional seaweed with ginger and wasabi to make up for paying more, whereas at other Japanese restaurants they only serve me sashimi on a platter for that same dish. Also got the scallop sushi; that was good too, and pieces of meat huge and fresh. Furthermore, I like that their seaweed salad also uses cucumbers and seaweed knots, not just the grassy stuff that I find at other Japanese restaurants. Abalone sashimi was pretty tasty too; I hadn't seen this dish anywhere outside of Japan. With that being said, it is very easy to pay more than $100 for a meal here, probably even one person if you order different things to try. I did. Also, they had a lot of people for Tuesday lunch waitlisted since they don't seat people at the bar for the "regular" lunch special menu, just appetizers. Besides that, there's not much seating available. Will come back when I need to spoil myself.