Sushi

Finding new restaurants to review is often an adventure and sometimes a challenge. We get press releases, read industry magazines, get recommendations from enthusiastic readers who have discovered some neighborhood spot and drive around looking for new little treasures. When all else fails, we scour the Internet, and it was there that we discovered Kasen, a sushi bar in Fountain Valley, which customers were raving about on Yelp and Urbanspoon. What caught our eye was the unqualified assertion that Kasen has the best sushi in all of Orange County.

With the seriousness and precision of a surgeon, master chef Takashi Abe carefully slices a Japanese snapper and pidan -- a preserved duck egg with a mahogany-colored shell. This is the start of the special salad-of-the-day creation at Bluefin, a new upscale restaurant at Crystal Cove Promenade in Newport Beach. Abe is able to turn virtually every slice of sushi he touches into an edible work of art. It's a skill that has brought the 48-year-old a string of successes in the restaurant business, including his namesake sushi bar on the Balboa Peninsula that he recently sold.

Friendliness at sushi places is usually routine and the sushi chefs most times add to the congenial atmosphere, but Matsu seems to take that up a notch, especially at lunch. The two chefs that were working the 12-seat sushi bar were Yuki and Yoshi. Yuki has been there much longer than Yoshi and was watching intently as Yoshi worked his magic on dishes like Rainbow rolls and fresh sashimi. This is a place where locals congregate regularly. Many of the people there know one another, and it seems like Yuki knows them all. Evidence of that was when one woman walked in and Yuki said, ?

Chamber to host April mixer The Glendale Chamber of Commerce will hold its April mixer at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Professional Business Bank, 250 N. Orange St., Glendale. The event will feature networking, refreshments, prizes and a chance to meet the city's newest business members. Parking will be available on the street or with validation at the Orange Street garage. For more information, call (818) 240-7870. New Chinese restaurant opens Wok Talk, a new Chinese and sushi roll restaurant, has opened at 932 E. Colorado St. between Adams Street and Glendale Avenue.

DINING OUT Opening the door to Todai, the Japanese restaurant at Beach Boulevard and Warner Avenue, is like lifting the lid of a culinary jewelry box filled with gem-like sushi and tiny petit fours. Todai offers an all you can eat buffet (lunch $12.95 Monday through Friday, dinner $21.95) where the temptation is immediate. There is a raised carousel of more than 200 varieties of vegetables, sushi rolls and desserts, in the center of which Chef Margarito Lara and his assistants work to replenish the fresh foods.

Mary Furr Huntington Beach had no place to go but up -- that is up Main Street from the pier to Olive Avenue. First Inka Grill opened at Walnut Avenue across from the post office, and then a little over a month ago came Spiral, a great new sushi restaurant in the Spanish-style Almeria Plaza building. It's a new concept for Huntington Beach with an East Coast "big city" feel. It's independently owned by a Chinese partnership from New York, according to Anna Lempriere, on of the three managers.

We were flabbergasted. We found ourselves eating possibly the best shrimp we had ever tasted. Caught in the wild, the shrimp were jumbo in size, incredibly tender, moist, juicy and tasting so fresh. We chose the shrimp with honey garlic from a selection of three preparations. The sauce was light and delicately sweet, with a hint of garlic that subtly enhanced the perfectly cooked crustaceans. A sprinkling of sesame seeds completed the dish. The florets of broccoli that came on the side were also as fresh as vegetables can be, with just the right touch of crunch.

Finding new restaurants to review is often an adventure and sometimes a challenge. We get press releases, read industry magazines, get recommendations from enthusiastic readers who have discovered some neighborhood spot and drive around looking for new little treasures. When all else fails, we scour the Internet, and it was there that we discovered Kasen, a sushi bar in Fountain Valley, which customers were raving about on Yelp and Urbanspoon. What caught our eye was the unqualified assertion that Kasen has the best sushi in all of Orange County.

In my constant search for places that serve food past 9 p.m., I may have found my favorite. Not only does Kappo Honda serve until 1 a.m., it has such a wide variety of food that you could spend all night in the place and not even get close to finishing the menu. This place is patterned after a Japanese izakaya, a drinking establishment that also serves pub-type small plate foods to partyers of all ages. The food is perfect with the sake and beer, and the restaurant is laid out with tables and booths around a large table in the center.