Description
In the heart of Studio City's sushi district, Asanebo is a second home for the hairy music-industry guys, the sophisticated expats and the tourists from Osaka that make up the clientele of so many of L.A.'s best Japanese restaurants. But Asanebo is no sushi bar - it specializes in the sashimi, the delicate pub food and the tiny portions of proto-Japanese cooked dishes that go so well with good sake. And while it became famous as the Valley's answer to Matsuhisa, these days it is a much more pleasant destination. Perhaps there will be a flashing, vivid Spanish mackerel, bright as steel, reduced to six incandescent slivers, or Santa Barbara spot prawns served before they quite know what has happened to them, or slabs of kanpachi, a tiny coldwater tuna imported from Japan, laid into a small marine Stonehenge. Because the only displeasure to be found at Asanebo (unless you happen to be a prawn) comes with the check, which will be high.
