Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Thank the waves

Surfer turned sushi chef shreds at his secret spot

Gindara: seared black cod nigiri, topped by a blend of daikon radish and ponzu.
Gindara: seared black cod nigiri, topped by a blend of daikon radish and ponzu.

“Would love awesome anything but esp sushi,” read the text. L.A. friends had come to see Carlsbad’s Flower Fields and wanted to meet for dinner in La Jolla.

Place

Himitsu

1030 Torrey Pines Road #G, La Jolla, CA

I can rattle off a list of awesome restaurants in La Jolla, but their request forced me to realize: a dedicated sushi spot wasn’t among them. Except there’s this new one we could try, credited to a protégé of San Diego’s favorite sushi chef, Yukito Ota.

A small sushi spot at the former site of Porklyand in La Jolla

Himitsu, it’s called. Google tells me that translates to “secret,” but it’s also a play on the name of chef Mitsu Aihara, who indeed learned from the best over 16 years at Sushi Ota. Originally from a town outside of Tokyo, Aihara never learned sushi in Japan, and he didn’t move to San Diego to learn it either. He came for the same reason as many 18-year-olds. To surf.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Miso marinated black cod

He told us this as we neared the end of our meal. We weren’t seated at his sushi bar, rather at the back of an enclosed dining patio, at the opposite end of the restaurant. Nevertheless, Chef Mitsu stopped at ours and fellow tables, ensuring everyone was having fun. Yes we were. And as I will for the next couple paragraphs, I took the opportunity to gush my appreciation.

Let’s start with the nigiri menu, where sushi standbys such as hamachi (yellowtail) and sake (salmon) go $3 apiece. However, the more prized and tender cuts, hamachi belly and sake belly, go for $3.50. I don’t know that a 50-cent upgrade has ever tasted so good as those long, delicate morsels of fish.

Uni cost $7.50 per piece, but that melt-on-contact sea urchin tasted better than La Jolla Cove looks. We eyed the bluefin tuna ($4), and its fattier belly cut, chu toro ($5.50), but bypassed both for the fattier still o toro ($7.50). Was the upgrade worth it? I suppose it’s subjective, but good luck finding a better mouthful of fish at any price.

It’s not all sushi at Himitsu, and we split a grilled hamachi collar so succulent and clean, I barely touched the side of sauce meant to dress the moist fish. But I couldn’t take my eyes off the miso black cod. I’ve never tried Nobu’s famous take on this dish, but if it’s remotely like this, I understand every bit of that chef’s global success. Mildly sweet with almost no discernable salt, it relies on the beautiful umami of a much better quality miso than I’m accustomed to, and flesh so butterlike, flakes of it slid right off the filet onto my plate.

I’ve noticed an increase of black cod on local menus of late, and this is why. It’s not cod like you’d get at a fish’n’chips joint, but like you’d find smoked in a Jewish deli, under its other name: sablefish. As I momentarily learned, the Japanese name for it is gindara (with a hard G), and it was listed on the sushi specials menu this night ($5).

I tried it, and let’s just say I’m out of words to fawn any longer. There aren’t many seats at this valuable little sushi addition to La Jolla, so reserve one soon. It won’t remain a himitsu much longer.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Jayson Napolitano’s Scarlet Moon releases third Halloween album

Latest effort has the most local vibe
Next Article

At 4pm, this Farmer's Table restaurant in Chula Vista becomes Acqua e Farina

Brunch restaurant by day, Roman style trattoria by night
Gindara: seared black cod nigiri, topped by a blend of daikon radish and ponzu.
Gindara: seared black cod nigiri, topped by a blend of daikon radish and ponzu.

“Would love awesome anything but esp sushi,” read the text. L.A. friends had come to see Carlsbad’s Flower Fields and wanted to meet for dinner in La Jolla.

Place

Himitsu

1030 Torrey Pines Road #G, La Jolla, CA

I can rattle off a list of awesome restaurants in La Jolla, but their request forced me to realize: a dedicated sushi spot wasn’t among them. Except there’s this new one we could try, credited to a protégé of San Diego’s favorite sushi chef, Yukito Ota.

A small sushi spot at the former site of Porklyand in La Jolla

Himitsu, it’s called. Google tells me that translates to “secret,” but it’s also a play on the name of chef Mitsu Aihara, who indeed learned from the best over 16 years at Sushi Ota. Originally from a town outside of Tokyo, Aihara never learned sushi in Japan, and he didn’t move to San Diego to learn it either. He came for the same reason as many 18-year-olds. To surf.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Miso marinated black cod

He told us this as we neared the end of our meal. We weren’t seated at his sushi bar, rather at the back of an enclosed dining patio, at the opposite end of the restaurant. Nevertheless, Chef Mitsu stopped at ours and fellow tables, ensuring everyone was having fun. Yes we were. And as I will for the next couple paragraphs, I took the opportunity to gush my appreciation.

Let’s start with the nigiri menu, where sushi standbys such as hamachi (yellowtail) and sake (salmon) go $3 apiece. However, the more prized and tender cuts, hamachi belly and sake belly, go for $3.50. I don’t know that a 50-cent upgrade has ever tasted so good as those long, delicate morsels of fish.

Uni cost $7.50 per piece, but that melt-on-contact sea urchin tasted better than La Jolla Cove looks. We eyed the bluefin tuna ($4), and its fattier belly cut, chu toro ($5.50), but bypassed both for the fattier still o toro ($7.50). Was the upgrade worth it? I suppose it’s subjective, but good luck finding a better mouthful of fish at any price.

It’s not all sushi at Himitsu, and we split a grilled hamachi collar so succulent and clean, I barely touched the side of sauce meant to dress the moist fish. But I couldn’t take my eyes off the miso black cod. I’ve never tried Nobu’s famous take on this dish, but if it’s remotely like this, I understand every bit of that chef’s global success. Mildly sweet with almost no discernable salt, it relies on the beautiful umami of a much better quality miso than I’m accustomed to, and flesh so butterlike, flakes of it slid right off the filet onto my plate.

I’ve noticed an increase of black cod on local menus of late, and this is why. It’s not cod like you’d get at a fish’n’chips joint, but like you’d find smoked in a Jewish deli, under its other name: sablefish. As I momentarily learned, the Japanese name for it is gindara (with a hard G), and it was listed on the sushi specials menu this night ($5).

I tried it, and let’s just say I’m out of words to fawn any longer. There aren’t many seats at this valuable little sushi addition to La Jolla, so reserve one soon. It won’t remain a himitsu much longer.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Jayson Napolitano’s Scarlet Moon releases third Halloween album

Latest effort has the most local vibe
Next Article

The vicious cycle of Escondido's abandoned buildings

City staff blames owners for raising rents
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader