Restaurant reminiscences: Hapi Sushi, Laguna Beach, CA 25 July 2007 11:17 pm
Posted by Tracy in : eating, restaurants, reviews, travel , trackbackI had the idea for this post before I decided to make this restaurant stories week, but it’s better than ever now that it fits that theme. Woo-hoo! Anyway… Google Reader has been eating my brain ever since I started using it, but it’s been especially awesome ever since I got back from our stupendous summer bike adventure and found it full of literally hundreds of articles clamoring for my attention. Most recently, while catching up on the New York Times Op-Ed page, Trevor Corson’s July 15 piece, “Sushi for Two” made me all kinds of nostalgic for the best sushi I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating, the offerings at Hapi Sushi in Laguna Beach. (Note to self: plan big bad West Coast bike trip and schedule several days for eating our way through Orange County.)
Hapi Sushi is a teeny little sushi restaurant located at 250 Beach Avenue in Laguna Beach, California. There’s room for two chefs behind the counter, two waiter types wandering around to tables and refilling drinks for the counter folk, and as many customers as can squeeze in (maybe twelve at the counter and another dozen or so at tables, but the counter’s where you want to be). There are no menus, much to the bewilderment of the couple from Washington, D.C. who sat next to us the last time we ate there. Our chef grinned at the woman who’d inquired for a menu, tapped his forehead with two fingers and said, “It’s all in here. We have everything you like.”
Now, that last is not quite true. They usually don’t have toro (fatty tuna belly, which rules my world, even if Trevor Corson would have me broaden my sushi horizons to include other, less overfished species) but our chef told us he’d happily make sushi with it for us if we brought some in. But I digress. Here’s what we ate one particularly memorable time we went there (Friday 10 August 2001, to be exact).
A quick and all-important note, and one which once again relates this little memory back to the New York Times piece linked above: The key at Hapi Sushi is to let the chef make you specials. If he’s in a mood to show off, you’ll both win. We got tuna sashimi to make up for the lack of toro (it did), a crab and asparagus and avocado roll dusted with roe, some salmon sushi, some unagi sushi, a deep-fried roll filled with crabmeat (deep fried sushi? I hear you protest, but I promise, it’s excellent. Give it a try.) and finally a creation I will henceforth refer to as “the girlfriend roll”.
Peter and I were winding up our feast, and our chef suggested (offered to make us, in a tone that was more of a statement than a question) one more special before we called it a night. “Okay,” I said, and began to describe what I wanted. “The last time we were here, we saw you make a roll in cucumber sliced paper-thin instead of seaweed. It was very beautiful, and looked delicious. Can you make us that?”
“Oh,” he replied smoothly, “my girlfriend was in. I only make that for her. You have to be my girlfriend.” I must have looked crestfallen, because he added, “…or you could find me a girlfriend. Do you have a sister?” at which point the playful banter began again.
“I have a brother,” I said. “but you don’t want him.”
“No,” he agreed, and set to making our final roll.
The roll in question consists of tuna, salmon, and crab, all rolled up in thinly sliced cucumber instead of nori, and garnished with thin slices of lemon and strawberry on each piece. The taste is delicate and fresh and wonderful; I recommend it even more highly than the “79 roll”, a Hapi Sushi special involving strawberries, avocado, and spicy tuna (though that too rocks my world.) “Wow”, said Peter ruefully after his first bite, “maybe you should be his girfriend.”
On our way out, our chef said to me, with a nod in Peter’s direction, “So I will see you when he is at work? I know in America, if you have a boyfriend, it means you are available.”
We all had a good laugh, and it was an excellent dinner. “I just do my job”, the chef said modestly as we thanked him profusely for the nth time. Our meal (tea, miso soup, and sushi) ran us less than $40, but we rounded it up to $50 with tip, and counted it well worth every cent.
So that’s Hapi Sushi for you. In case it wasn’t obvious, I highly recommend it.
Comments»
Your description makes me want to go to Laguna just for the sushi!
In that case, Ellie, keep an eye out for entries about some of my other favorite Laguna Beach eateries!