DINING REVIEW -- Jennifer K Mahal

The advantage of having a best friend who lives close to where you

work is that eventually you get to go out to lunch together. One of our

favorite places is a hole-in-the-strip-mall Japanese restaurant called

Ooiso.

Small and clean, with rice paper screens and white walls, the 17th

Street restaurant has few tables but always seems to have plenty of

customers. The owners are celebrating Ooiso’s 25th anniversary -- not all

of the years have been spent in the same location.

Ooiso’s box lunches and bowls are worth fighting the parking lot

traffic to find a spot. The lunchtime sushi combination box ($9.75) is

worth the money. You get four pieces of sushi -- tuna yellowtail, salmon

and shrimp -- plus a quartet of California rolls, shrimp and vegetable

tempura and a little salad. They even give you a piece of sweet melon in

a silver wrapper to end the meal.

Miso soup comes with the combination box, a flavorful broth with just

the right amount of green onion to give it a little texture. The sushi

was fresh, but could have used a little more wasabi for kick. It was the

tempura that had me spouting adjectives: light, crisp, non-greasy, mmmmm.

I’m not even sure that last one is a real word, though Homer Simpson

likes to use it a lot.

If you like California rolls, Ooiso offers a California sushi bowl

($7.50). It’s basically sushi fixings: crab meat, avocado and cucumber on

sushi rice. I didn’t take a taste, but my friend looked happy eating it,

so I suppose it was probably good. If it tasted anything like Ooiso’s

California rolls, I can understand her smile.

The chicken bowl ($6) is what I usually order when I go to Ooiso.

Tender boneless chicken and teriyaki sauce cover a deep bowl of steaming

rice. I have never been disappointed by this dish’s sweet, piquant taste.

Next time I go, I want to try the spicy udon ($7.50), seafood, chicken

and vegetables with udon noodles in a spicy broth.

To complement the meal, Ooiso offers sake, plum wine and beer along

with the traditional soft drinks, iced tea and hot green tea. There are

no desserts on the menu, but chances are you’ll be so stuffed from the

generous portions that hunger will not strike for several hours.

* JENNIFER K MAHAL is features editor of the Daily Pilot. She can be

reached at jennifer.mahal@latimes.com. Regular dining columnist Stephen

Santacroce will return next week.

FYI

* What: Ooiso

* Where: 488 E. 17th St., Suite B104, Costa Mesa

* Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 to 10 p.m. Monday through

Friday, 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday * Cost: Medium

* Call: (949) 642-0141