Dining Reviews

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The restaurant can be plain or fancy, but most likely it’s fairly simple and more than a little intimate. It might even be a bit off the beaten track, or at least conventional radar. Also, the prices are low enough to allow you to dine there frequently, and the attention you get is cheerful and personal. Oh, yeah, and you like the food. 



Dining at such a place is a simple pleasure rather than an event, but when was the last time you were prepared to turn down a simple pleasure? 

With that in mind, you’ll want to consider a visit to Ohshima Japanese Cuisine in Orange. Far from being one of those Japanese gastro-palaces that look like they were once sets for “Shogun,” Ohshima is almost stark in its simplicity. 



Nearly hidden in a fairly large strip mall off Tustin Avenue, it’s a tiny storefront of a place with a handful of tables opposite and adjacent to an attractive sushi bar, which is the focal point of the room. The entire place is done in black, brown and beige, and nearly the only adornments are small, smoked mirrors on the wall facing the sushi bar. 



Still, this sort of minimalism feels right in a Japanese restaurant, and there’s something about the place that relaxes you the minute you’re seated.



I couldn’t decide whether I wanted sushi or something grilled. Fortunately, Ohshima can accommodate both in a single menu item. There are a handful of dishes that offer grills and something from the sushi bar on the same plate. I went for the teriyaki chicken-spicy tuna roll combo. 
And, after a look at the house specialties from the sushi bar, I couldn’t resist ordering the orange dragon roll. 



After a welcome included starter – a fine bowl of hot miso soup – the orange dragon roll appeared and out of my mouth came an involuntary, “Wow.” Relatively simple in composition – it’s a California roll half-wrapped on the outside in bright orange salmon – it was spectacular in execution and presentation. It was also quite generous. The several cut pieces on the plate were arranged in a serpentine pattern atop a zigzag drizzle of a slightly spicy mayonnaise-like sauce and, in the first piece, a pair of tiny cucumber spears were stuck in the top at angles. It looked like a ceremonial parade dragon. And the taste was big, round and substantial – a fine take on the familiar California roll. 



While I was enjoying the orange dragon roll, my combo plate arrived, and it became instantly clear that I was going to get more sushi than I bargained for. There were 8 pieces of the lovely spicy tuna roll – the tuna was finely ground and spiced in such a way that the agreeable burn arrived several seconds after I popped each piece in my mouth. The teriyaki chicken was thinly pounded and firmly grilled, and the teriyaki sauce was lightly and sparingly used to let the flavor of the chicken dominate. 

It was a good bit of food at one sitting but, as an apple fanatic, I had to try the Fuji apple sorbet for dessert.



Beautifully presented inside a hollowed-out Fuji apple, the sorbet was rich and wonderfully tangy, but gossamer light. This is yet another way one becomes an apple fanatic. OCM