Tengu

Hours of Mischief = Heaven.
3 $ for AMAZING sushi — how can you beat that?
Why Tengu was not entirely packed during their well-​named happy hour used to blow my mind. I think the greater UCLA community (which notably loves good deals) was unaware of this gem.
Now it is closed — hopefully temporarily. Yamashito nearby = Yuck! Ok — so the prices are decent… but as far as Westwood goes … there is currently nothing decent in the way of sushi.
Come back Tengu! Come back! You said it would be march … but it looks closed still.

CLOSED!!!
Please note that this restaurant has been closed YET AGAIN and is (contrary to their phone message) NOT OPEN for the month of February. Apparently it was running so badly they have now decided it will be reopened with new management and a new name as well, sometime in March 2011. Do I trust this date? No, I don’t.
This is the second sushi place that the property manager of this block has screwed up and destroyed. (See my review on Ishin.)
When will they learn?

I’ve been here twice and the food is absolutely amazing. The course for $ 35 with appetizer, entrée, and dessert is a good deal. I’ve have their Tuna Tar Tar, so good. The apparatus inside steak was so good, melted in my mouth. The desserts are good as well. I have always been there with friends and it’s a really good place to eat. But somehow we were calculated a 12% tax rate, not sure where that came from.
There is structure parking across and valet in the front. Be forewarn though, the valet person stole one of my friends’ new jacket and a company’s cashier’s check from his car. DON’T TRUST THE VALET GUYS! Other than that, it’s a great place with ambiance lighting and a dj playing music in the background with music that’s not so loud that your food would fall off the table. I am craving to go back again soon.

3.5 They were out of those little deep fried crab, and the shrimp asparagus roll was basically flavorless. How did they manage that? Anyhoo, the other rolls, esp. unagi, caterpillar roll, salmon, hamachi, spicy scallop hand roll, were pretty good. Almost equivalent to Hide Sushi in freshness and texture, but not quite as consistent among the various items we tried.
Would probably go again, although as others said, it is a little dark inside, but the friendly sushi dude, Ali? (The one from Indonesia) Made the mood a bit brighter. He was helpful, but it was hard to hear him due to the loud music.
Also, probably a good idea to park around the corner, they have valet, but would not do it because the street can get dangerous around dinner time. Maybe at lunch it would be okay.

I still love Tengu, but I was disappointed last night. That is why I reduced it down a star. It was 7:00 pm and they ran out of three items we tried ordering– the sea bass, zen crunch roll, and coke. The excuse for missing food had something concerning a new chef they hired. It was so surprising that my boyfriend asked another watier. I go to Tengu for the jalapeño miso chilean sea bass, and its absence was heartbreaking. I’m glad they brought me a sample of the pineapple sake, which did make me feel a tad better.
So my boyfriend and I settled for edamame and rolls for the nights. The rolls we ordered were the mizore, subrashi, and crispy salmon. The rolls were still very delicious. It turned out to still be a very good dinner. Hopefully my next dinner here will have a complete menu.
It was pretty crowded on a Tuesday night. The service was still good even if we were ordering between two different waiters. It looks like they redecorated it. The lighting is not as dim around the sushi bar. There are writings on the wall of the menu items.

Crispy tofu. Pinapple sake. NY strip rolls w– asparagus. ASTONISHING. great DJ. Drew is a brilliant bartender.

Not impressed.
Came here for dineLA menu dinner. I’ve never tried any restaurants for dineLA before, so I was really excited to see what Tengu had in store.
I came with my roommate from freshman year and a friend from high school, and they sat us at this really awkwardly shaped table, where we were essentially watching the couple in front of us eat. Also it was really dark and red in there, which made the whole dinner kind of uncomfortable. I feel like it’s more of a place to take a date, not for a group of friends.
Anyways, for the food I got the carpaccio, the sushi platter, and the tempura banana.
The carpaccio was good, but nothing special. The yellowtail was fresh, and the ponzu sauce was decent.
The sushi platter was disappointing. It came with 8 pieces of nigiri, including yellowtail and salmon which are usually my favorite. However, the yellowtail and salmon both didn’t taste very fresh. The uni was a pleasant surprise, however, since I usually don’t like uni very much.
The tempura banana was pretty gross. I guess it was my own fault because I don’t really like banana’s that much, but at this restaurant I go to at home they have tempura ice cream with bananas. I guess I read the menu wrong…
I feel like if I chose different items from the dineLA menu I would have been more satisfied, but after that mean I was still STARVING. It usually doesn’t take very much to make me full, but I’ve never had such an unsatisfying and EXPENSIVE dinner. At any other sushi restaurant $ 40 (yes I didn’t tip very much, I was upset) would have gotten me a whole buffet of sushi and I would have been happy. However, when I left tengu I was miserable and starving.
Needless to say I will not be returning to tengu.

DineLA lunch with coworkers. Tried the tuna tostada and thinly sliced marinated beef appetizers, both were yummy but the rice tostada thing was super oily from being fried, it was practically leaking like the BP well!
Hand rolls were a good size and very tasty, I had a spicy tuna one and an eel and cucumber one, which both came with plenty of filling inside. Quality of fish was also pretty good on the nigiri.
Service was polite but way too slow, especially for a lunch where the restaurant was barely half full, and people are on a schedule to get back to work! Also, dessert was a forgettable standard tempura ice cream, should have ordered the crème brûlée. Ice cream was served with blackberries, which was a mistake — tempura ice cream sweetness makes blackberries taste bitter and awful.
Overall, I’d go back especially for a deal like DineLA, I’d just choose better.

I came here during DineLA for lunch. It is a pretty Japanese restaurant. The decoration is Japanese. Inside is dim light, which is my favorite.
The lunch menu is decent. All the starters are good. I would say each of them is worth of trying. Just a little salty. As to the entrée, the sushi plate is big, which is enough for a girl. The hand roll seems also big in quantity.
One thing that i don’t like the Japanese restaurant in US is that the sashimi is always in thick slice. But it can make you full easily.
The dessert was a little not that decent. The crème brûlée was not that sweet, but rarely any taste. The mochi was not really mochi, not soft.
Overall it’s a good place, just the service is a little bit slow. I would like to come back again for its happy hour for drinking! Definitely!

I came here during LA Dining week or whatever during the time they have a discount. I did not see through the menu too much but there was a lot of sushi and sashimi as expected. Because of LA Dining week, there was a $ 34 for entrée, appetizer, and dessert deal. I tried that going for the filet-​wrapped asparagus, the midnight something (three different types of rolls), and the banana split tempura.
Side note/​rant: The portions I received were small as you can imagine but the people bitching about price don’t understand the economy right now. They’re just dumbasses looking for cheap food. Of course, I’m the same but I went with my mom here so we aimed a little higher (cept that I was wearing flipflops and shorts lol).
Very good service and friendly waitresses/​waiters, very good environment and ambience. There is no better way to set up the dining area than as they have. The portions, again, were somewhat small but the flavor was excellent. In fact, the appetizer was quite sizable and both the appetizer and the entrée was excellently prepared, well-​cooked, nice and soft, and well marinated. I think the way they timed serving out the food was perfect whether intentional or not. It gave me time to talk, gave me time to let the food sink in and I was actually pretty full by the end.
This is one of the few places I don’t have complaints about. My lack of reviews doesn’t show my lack of taste for restaurants but rather, when I review a restaurant, it means something stands out about it.
Go and enjoy if you want to splurge a little. If you’re ABSOLUTELY starved, I wouldn’t go to this place. I was pretty hungry and this place was perfect.

I’ve been here twice now and was very pleased with the food each time. The Miso-​Jalapeño Chilean Sea bass is worth the visit. It can be bit pricey depending on how you order. Specialty rolls, entrees, are expensive compared to standard rolls.(CA, Spicy Tuna, Fresh Water Eel).
The reasons I did not give it more stars:
The service is slow and there is no good parking, just an expensive valet.

Thanks to my new handy checklist I can now evaluate sushi places without emotion. This was rough because I like the folks that work here.
Maguro: Is there more fish than rice? No.
Saba: Is it fishy? No. Is it marinated? Yes.
Unagi: Do they marinate it there? No. Does it melt in your mouth? No.
Uni: Is it bright, yellow and firm? No.
Egg or Tomago: Is it fluffy and juicy? Yes.
Toro: Is it pink and fatty? Does it almost pop in your mouth? No, they don’t have toro.
Style points: Do they make food with rhythm indicating speed and having a lot to prepare from scratch? No.
The ambience is great. The hostess is really friendly, but it is so hard to give this place more stars because of the checklist I used.
I hope they can improve and that I can say more positive things in the future.

Came here Sunday evening, and the place only had one other couple having dinner. The hostess was nowhere to be seen, so the bartender had to take over. We chose a table near the bar and were immediately presented with complimentary pineapple sake. It was good, but too sweet for me. We got a carafe of junmai instead. (And I JUST remembered — they gave us a 50% DISCOUNT on it! For no reason! =DDD)
Started off with edamame — nothing special, the salt were rocks and too trivial.
asian tartare — I love how they name a tartare «asian» because it uses, what, wontons? NOT. Regardless, this dish was really really good. You can opt for three or four layers, but each one comes with a very hefty heap of diced tuna and avocado in soy-​lime dressing.
jalapeño miso-​marinated sea bass — MMm.
unagi and uni sushi — Mmm
sashimi picante — tuna, yellowtail, salmon marinated in this delicious garlic-​ginger ponzu, each topped with more jalapeño. What do expect? It’s a fusion restaurant, and you come here knowing that, and it’s still fresh, and the food is still good for you. :)
also ordered a diablo roll — seared albacore, yama gabo, cucumber, jalapeño, habanero ponzu — finally, this one had some spicy kick. It was deeelicious.
yes, we saved room for dessert and got the strawberry tart. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? Well, it came in quite a large bowl, a thick and buttery pie-​like pastry top-​loaded with glazed strawberries and sided by a very generous scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Think it’s any good now?
There was probably only three other parties when we left. If you’re expecting this kind of japanese fusion, I’d recommend the place. No frills, chill, great for conversation and good service.

food: the tempura deep-​fried ice cream is sooo good here! one of the few places i’ve been to that can actually get that dessert right. the sushi rolls are decent, although very expensive. skip the usual rainbow rolls or crunchy rolls etc and go straight for their unique sushi rolls. they have some pretty creative takes on their sushi. aaaand the sake drinks are delish.
service: the hostess was really gracious and the service was pretty attentive. the sushi chefs were also friendly and it’s always fun to watch them prepare the food.
cost: a meal for two cost $ 100! i don’t mind spending $$$ on sushi when it’s good, but this food quality didn’t really warrant such a huge bill.

Ugh
I came here because I had a $ 40 groupon.
We drove past it at first, and almost got it confused with the japanese restaurant next door.
First impression: looks nice, hostesses are really nice and friendly, there’s some comfy seats and magazines to look at while we waited a few mins for our table to be ready (I had made a reservation).
Service: decent, it seems like they get along with other customers well…
Food:
Eel roll ($ 7.50) — It tasted fine but only came with 6 pieces. I would’ve expected 8 pieces like they usually have a sushi places…
Shrimp & Asparagus roll ($ 6) — bland
Zen Crunch roll ($ 10) — no. Sliced thin and layed flat with some cabbage salad thing. I didn’t like the flavors.
Seared Togarashi Beef ($ 16) — the meat was tender and I liked the mushrooms with the sauce. The portion was small though, and they try to make it look bigger by slicing it super thin and laying out flat on the plate. The salad was the size of a small ice cream scoop. It looked more like an appetizer. Every dish did.

Tengu would be a great restaurant if their prices were cut in half… I went in expecting some really delicious sushi and some good drinks on a date with my wifey, but that wasn’t quite the experience we got…
The vibe of the place was pretty cool. Very westwood, so a lot of young people with money, but very stylish and modern. When we first sat down they brought out hot towels and a complimentary shot sized amount of pineapple saki, which was delicious. When the waiter finally came, he asked if we wanted edamame or miso soup while we were deciding what to eat, I said «sure we’ll have some edamame!» not realizing that it wasn’t free. Waste of money #1.
The waiter came back 20 minutes later and we put in orders, the waiter was super nice, but veeery slow. We ordered two sushi rolls and one sea appetizer.
The food eventually came, and it was really just decent. We had the spicy scallop roll which was pretty tasteless and not spicy, the rainbow roll that was decent, and the rock salt shrimp which was pretty good but a little too creamy. The portions were kinda small too. Any sushi restaurant could have made something that tasted as good, and most restaurants would have been½ or ¹⁄₃ the price.
We ended up paying $ 70 total for 2 beers, 2 rolls, and one dish. We could have had better sushi and more alcohol for $ 30 somewhere else. If you get a coupon, go to this place, but if not, it is overpriced for the quality.

Don’t come here for their mediocre sushi rolls, overpriced drinks, or average DJ. Come here for their jalapeño miso chilean sea bass. It’s cooked to perfection. The lightly seared exterior contrasts nicely with the buttery, melt-​in-​your-​mouth texture of the rest of the fish. It kind of reminded me of a giant scallop. It was perfectly seasoned and served with a to die for chili-​lime sauce. Surprisingly enough, the portions were huge too! Like the size of your fist huge! I would totally go back just to order this a la carte.
Since my friends and I ordered from their Dine LA menu we also tried the kanpachi carpaccio and Asian tartare appetizers. The yellowtail in the carpaccio was fresh, but overwhelmed by the excessively salty sauce. The flavors of the sauce was good, but it seemed like they added extra sodium soy sauce to it by accident when they really supposed to use low sodium. The Asian tartare consisted of 3 layers of crispy wontons and generous amounts of tuna tartare. I really liked the texture of the tuna (chopped into tiny cubes rather than pureed). My only complaint about this dish is the avocado sauce that was used very sparingly. It was just used to decorate the bottom of the plate! It could have been better incorporated in the rest of the dish.
For dessert, we had the strawberry tart and banana tempura. The strawberry tart was pretty good, but the banana tempura was overly battered. I could hardly taste any banana. In fact, it tasted more like a banana flavored churro! The ginger ice cream it came with was good. It actually tasted like ginger instead of essence of ginger.
Do yourself a favor and just get the sea bass. Just do it!

This place gets one stars for the décor and ambiance. It’s very dark and feels small and cozy. It gets the second star for being edible since the taste does not justify the crazy prices. Two people — $ 114 with tip.
I ate here two years ago so I don’t entirely recall what I got. I remember the sushi was pretty good, but it was not worth 25 bucks. I’d say it tasted as good as places that charged 13 bucks. Not only that, but I couldn’t understand how they could get away with charging 20ish (dont remember exactly) for the salmon. The salmon literally tasted like it was steamed and put on a plate. There was no taste, no rice, and a small garnish of veggies and mashed potatoes.

the service here is spectacular.
on to the food:
everything we ordered tasted delicious. nothing to complain about.
what i CAN complain about, is the price.
Seriously, I understand it’s a small plates type of place but Japanese food already tends to lean towards smaller portions. Do you have to make it smaller just to call it «tapas style»? it almost seems like a cop out stategy.
For forty something dollars (no alcohol) between two people, we got three dishes and yet… we left hungry (see my in-​n-​out burger pics in my in-​n-​out review), and hoping to eat something again soon. we didn’t want to order any more food there since it seemed like it wouldn’t take that long to spend a fortune.
After this dinner, I decided I’m going to forego Japanese fusion type places for a while. hey, the economy sucks right now. i’m going to go where my money give me a week’s worth of leftovers.

Went here for lunch on a weekday because my friend was craving uni (yuck). We ordered the spicy tuna roll, uni sushi, and a beet and goat cheese salad, which came out to $ 34 (including tip). The food was really good, service was great, but the price was a lil’ high for me (for lunch especially!)
Pros:
— Tasty!
— Great service. My water cup was never empty…(but there was only one other table, so maybe that’s why)
— My friend said the hostess looked like a model. I guess having pretty people to look at while eating could always be a plus.
Cons:
— $ 34 for lunch?! DANG… =)
* I wouldn’t hesitate going back if I’m in the mood to splurge a lil’…