Japanese Restaurant Iwata

this place is just straight up amazing. anyone who says they didn’t have a good meal here is simply just having a bad day.
I have been to japan, hawaii, all over the west coast, a few different countries, and i have NEVER had more fresh– more delicious amazing sushi, than this little spot Iwata. It has been a long time treasure for me and my family for years, ive been coming here since i was 11. I’m 21 now, and it has since long served us so right.
The miso soup is the best i’ve ever had, the salmon is THE freshest, like so mouthwatering (seriously, order the salmon sashimi). the spicy tuna on rice cracker joints they have, OH MY. HEAVENLY… the tuna is cool & mixed to perfection-​actual flavor, not spice, its practically art, and the rice crackers are crisp and lightly deepfried to perfection. when they sear fish, they actually sear it on a grill, they dont just use a blowtorch like most places.
Honestly everything about this place is very homestyle japanese, and the culture there is real. The waitresses are so tradition japanese women, so polite & giving. They used to have a sign up, about not using your cellphone, and i think they still should!
The main sushi chef gets his fish from a special fish market, so you know he is the MAN. i love this place.
also have seen some of my favorite stars and directors there. anyone who knows sushi, REALLY knows sushi, will agree this is the greatest little spot ever. I love Iwata.

What happened???, the best sushi in the Valley!!! I’ve been going to this sushi bar since it first opened. Only downside was it was a small place with no atmosphere but killer sushi. Parking was a huge problem ever since the valet came in for El Torino and ruined it.

I loved this place and am hoping he opens up somewhere else very soon!!! Fish was always super fresh and tasty and the prices were always less then anywhere else I go but never affected the quality!

CLOSED!
So sad today… Well it appears to be the end of Iwata at this location.
Keep watching Unilocal for future sightings at a new location. We hope!

I eat here as a regular and thought with the consistent service and quality of food, it’s only fair that I write a review. The spicy tuna rice cakes are the best! The food is as good at Katsuya or Katana without the price! Highly recommended.

This place is incredible. My husband and I are regulars here and have been dining at Iwata for a couple of years now. If you want fresh sushi that is local, this place is to be. Prices are a little high, but you pay for the quality which is amazing. They don’t have the fancy shmancy rolls lik other commercialized places do, they have great sashimi and nigori items. The Chef Taka is a character and makes you whatever he pleases. Just agree and eat. You won’t be disappointed.

Best sushi. Fresh and yummy. No place makes the spicy tuna on rice cakes like them. Love this place. Always a good meal!

Large rolls are a plus (spicy tuna on rice cakes can fill you up!) fish is tasty and nothing negative based on initial experience. Though, there wasn’t much to stand out above all the rest. It’s a solid sushi spot.
I noticed Tuesdays are half price sake so you’ll know where to find me!

Excellent. I could eat nothing more than their seared albacore sushi and spicy tuna on a crispy rice cake for the rest of my life and not feel like I missed anything.
The sushi is always fresh and delicious.
This has been one of my favorite sushi restaurants for more than 15 years. Back then no other sushi restaurant even knew what a crispy rice cake was.
Their spicy tuna is a delicate blend of spicy tuna and creamy avocado, perfect. The yellowtail sushi is fresh with a wasabi kicker. And the dynamite is hot and creamy, just how my kids love it.
You will love it.

Iwata is a nice little sushi joint located in a stripmall in Sherman Oaks. For such an unassuming neighborhood restaurant, the sashimi was surprisingly fresh. We ordered several of the rolls, all of which were generously packed with fish. They have the prototypical spicy tuna, dragon roll, spider roll (soft shell crab) as well as more signature rolls such as the Haba Haba. One of the specials was a Maryland blue crab hand roll.
For dishes from the kitchen, I definitely recommend the yellowtail collar if available. The meat was so buttery with a splash of lemon and secondary only to the fish cheeks as my favorite. The fried chicken was also a nice appetizer to try. The agedashi tofu lost its crispy fried texture by the time it was served, but I did enjoy the tentsuyu broth. Our sushi dinner was washed down with cheap cold Sapporo and hot sake. The service was great and our food came out fast.

I’ve now been coming here regularly for 4 months nearly. It is consistently fresh, tasty and significantly better than the majority of sushi I have had in Los Angeles.
The staff are warm, friendly and know their trade expertly.
Also: I can’t help but enjoy the contemporary pop music being piped in.
Try it and love it.

I have been coming to iWata since I was 10 years old, so 18 years now. The quality has always stayed superb and the chefs are brilliant. From their spicy tuna all the way across the board to their uni everything is brought in fresh daily and served perfectly. I hope to one day bring my kids here.

I’m a sushi-​goer just like my fiancé and it was his idea (a rather bad idea) to try this place first. We just moved out to sherman oaks and trying to get a feel of the local food places.
We weren’t entirely pleased with this sushi place, but it also wasn’t horrible.
The servers are actually very nice, however the sushi chefs seem to play favoritism amongst their guests as we spent at least 20 minutes waiting for our food rather than eating it, and people who arrived after us were served first, even tho we happened to order around the same thing.
The servers and bussers were kind and apologized frequently to customers around us as we weren’t the only ones being forced to wait for our food.
When the food finally arrived, at least it wasn’t disgusting.
However, usually when I order a spicy tuna roll, I assume it’s supposed to be spicy.
It wasn’t. It was actually flavorless all together. We had another roll, something like a mexican roll which had spicy tuna and something called «spicy crunchy» on top, none of which were spicy, and there was so much «crunchy» it started to make me feel sick.
The Unagi roll wasn’t awful, surprisingly enough. But It kind of turned me off from eating unagi for a while no matter what sushi place I planned on going to next.
I feel bad for our server as it wasn’t his fault our meal took so long, it seems as tho the chefs make the environment hostile for their workers who genuinely mean well for their quests, and they tried their best to accommodate us with whatever they could do to make our visit even remotely acceptable.
Don’t worry, we gave the server a hefty tip, regardless of the shitty service we got from the chef’s in the long run.
Wouldn’t eat here again.

I have been to Iwata a few times and enjoyed the freshness of their rolls and how large they are. That was an entirely different experience than I had there today. Today, I ended up at the sushi bar with my boss who was kindly treating me to a farewell lunch and we accidentally had omakase and it was awesome! When we sat down, the sushi chef said «You two like sushi?» And we looked at each other and laughed and said, «We hope so!» Thus began our omakase experience.
Nothing too crazy, so if you’re super adventurous and I realize some feel this is the entire point of omakase, you may be disappointed. But if you want fresh, with inventive toppings, I think you would enjoy this.
It felt like the sushi kept coming out, and I was entirely sated by the end of it. The only thing I didn’t LOVE was our dessert: a toro «ice cream» (it was really just very very cold pieces of marinated toro shaped into a «scoop» of «ice cream.») It was a tad too salty and I LOVE salt.
All told, $ 129 for 2. So, not cheap. But, I would say, worth it.

The sushi is fine, nothing spectacular but nothing wrong with it either. The servers are very friendly and always accommodating though I am surprised at the attitude of the two gentleman at the sushi bar. The older one, I presume is the owner and he is entitled to a little surliness in my mind but the other younger guy who works nearest the door has no excuse to be rude.

This is my all time favorite sushi spot! I live in Gardena, a city that has tons of authentic sushi places but I ALWAYS favor Iwata and it’s worth the drive to Sherman Oaks. It is a tiny spot (5 or 6 tables and a good sized sushi bar). The owner is super nice as are the other sushi chefs, the servers are quick and efficient and it is always clean.
Here are some of my favorites to order:
Spicy tuna tower
Spicy tuna wrapped in cucumber (no rice) w/​avocado
Halibut carpaccio sashimi
Seared ahi w/​crispy onion
Citrus salmon sashimi
Haba haba roll
Spicy tuna on a cracker
Spicy scallop hand roll in rice paper
Baked crab hand roll
and…a friend and frequent Iwata diner, invented something (not on the menu) called the Avi roll. It is a shrimp tempura roll (The shrimp tempura roll also has avocado and broccoli in it) with baked scallops and crispy onions on top… it is soooo good.
I will say this though, if you are the type of sushi diner that likes a lot of crazy rolls and cooked rolls this is probably not the place for you. Although they do have some specialty rolls that some more commercial sushi joints have they are few and far between.
If you like more authentic rolls and sashimi dishes that are fresh, with mouth watering yet simple flavor combinations then this is the place for you!

*** Iwata’s MOP (Meal in One Pic)***
***************************************
3.5 stars. Good sushi joint.
At a Good sushi joint, it is expected to have:
— Old upholstery on chairs
— Shinny but sticky cheap light plywood tables
— Disposable wooden chopsticks that break poorly in the middle once you detached them from one another.
— Large cups for water that will be excessively refilled by waiters to many times.
— Black on the outside, red on the inside plastic miso soup bowl — (is there only one supplier?)
— A confused staff that will make sure that if you are not seating at the sushi bar your order will be taken by multiple waiters multiple times.
— Crazy rolls with fish on top, inside, on the side, with ponzu, mayonnaise, fried onions, green onions and tempura shrimp.
— A young and a old sushi chefs that will cut the sushi differently.
— Consistency is not high. (see above point)
— AN AMAZING PIECE OF FISH THAT WILL TASTE SO DELICIOUS that will make you come back at least one more time.
Iwata is all of the above. Compared to the nearby sushi joints Iwata sushi is more traditional in shape and size. They are perfect bite size, and not the large pieces of nearby restaurants. By being smaller the chef can also remove imperfection from the fish leading to a better looking piece of sushi.
Ask the chef what is the freshest, and tastiest or order a sushi platter try each different sushi available and pick your favorite to order more sushi of it.
We tried:
Dinner Platter sushi
If you are not at the sushi bar asking the chef questions order to the platter and make your own opinion about what is tasting good the day of your visit. On the platter 4 rolls and 5 sushis. The seaweed on the roll was soft and not too crunchy which was great. The rice did not taste the same for each sushi. (A new batch of rice was brought from the kitchen right after our order).
Miso soup
It comes with the dinner platter. It is the classic miso with tofu and floating green seaweed. It was not too salty.
Ginger Dressed salad
Green and purple leafs with a light ginger dressing. Always a mystery why it would be served before the meal.
Salmon Sushi
Unbelievable. It was fatty but with a strong luscious buttery flavor, a delicate softness to the palate and a rich lingering and pleasing after-​taste. The orange color was vibrant, and stripped with clean white lines. The cut was clean. It was Scottish sockeye salmon nicely brought to the right sushi temperature. We ordered it three times. One chef was better at cutting it and left it plain. The other sprinkled sesame seeds on top which were promptly brushed off. As every fish and shipments are different such a nice fish might not be available at all time.
Yellow tail carpaccio
Nicely sliced sashimi yellow tail. It was floating in olive oil and a little soy sauce. The fish first taste was good but the after taste was fishy and the texture a little bit sandy, or grainy. Not a good item. At it was a special it would have been expected to have been tasted by the chef. The fishy flavor would have been masked in a roll.
Itawa might not have the nicest atmosphere but it can surprise you with skillfully selected delicious fish.

It was Valentine’s day, we were craving sushi and it was late. Iwata provided dinner when no other Sushi spot was available. I can easily say the chefs at the bar were friendly and alert, ready to respond case we had any questions.
I was craving sashimi, as I always do, but … I couldn’t do it here. Just looking at the fish for my standards, it wasn’t fresh enough. I opted for the safe stuff… Spider Roll, and Spicy Tuna Roll, Tsukune, and Yellow Tail Collar. Outcome: It was a nice dinner, but I’m glad I played it safe. I’ve had better, but I’ve had worse. I wouldn’t recommend this place but I wouldn’t be against it.
But I still wouldn’t go sashimi here.

I wish I could leave them a big FAT ZERO
They don’t even deserve 1 Star
I got food poisened from their old sushi. I called the manager after my doctor told me I was food poisened and he denied it at first then didn’t seem to care and hung up the phone on me. I had been here once before and thought it was ok.

Have I not written a review for this place?! Que? wha?! huh? Why this place is where the party is at!
Mr. Iwata has blessed my brother recently by breaking his sushi virginity. He said something, then my brother said yes… and he got himself some crazy dishes that he ended up loving! I love this place.