Osawa

101 Best restaurants of Los Angeles

@latimes

"#78 Most acclaimed Japanese restaurants are specialists, masters of a highly particular food or style of dining. Osawa is the rare high-achieving generalist, a Japanese restaurant where you can find everything from first-rate bento boxes to finely burnished Japanese fried chicken, served in a friendly, casual dining room off the main drag in downtown Pasadena where families are welcome and the dining room is never too loud. Larger parties sit at the counter for the excellent shabu shabu; couples share udon bowls; and every table seems to have at least one order of sashimi or sushi. The secret to Osawa’s greatness lies in its daily-changing specials board, updated frequently by wife-and-husband team Sayuri and Shigefumi Tachibe; offerings include wild-caught fish and inventive small plates like shrimp-stuffed mushrooms and octopus carpaccio in a shiso pesto. Osawa’s popular uni pasta is always a good idea; the dish is creamy and pungent in all the right ways. Beer, wine and sake. Street and valet parking. Credit cards accepted."

Rémi Ferrante Hartman

@blastmagazine

"My new number one place for sushi. Fish is 💣💣💣"

In the Loup - a foodie's world map

@victoire_loup