Sushi chef turns local, again

STEVE SMITH

In 1987, my wife, Cay, and I started a string of steady visits to a

Japanese restaurant in Corona del Mar. We were drawn by the crowd,

the ambience and, of course, the food.

Our favorite chef there, Taka, seemed to have a sixth sense about

our tastes and appetites, and after a while, we stopped ordering and

just let the food roll in.

It was all good. It was so good and so perfectly prepared that we

often wondered why Taka did not open his own restaurant.

One evening in 1993, we visited the restaurant only to find Taka

gone. Another chef told us that Taka had in fact opened his own

restaurant, Taka Sushi in Tustin.

The next weekend, we went to Tustin, found Taka and planted

ourselves there over many evenings of exceptional Japanese food and

lively company. Some of the people who ate at the Corona del Mar

restaurant did as Cay and I did and traveled to Tustin to see him

once or twice a month.

In 1995, I took a visitor from Sweden to Taka Sushi. When he

tasted Taka’s special way of preparing salmon sushi, he closed his

eyes and said, “It’s like a dream.”

A few weeks later, my brother, Michael, and his wife, Nan, were

our guests at Taka Sushi. After eating the same salmon, my brother,

who lives in New York and has restaurants galore at his doorstep,

said that it was one of the best dishes he’d ever had.

About two years ago, it was deja vu all over again. We got to Taka

Sushi only to find that he had sold the restaurant. But unlike 1993,

no one knew where he’d gone.

Now it’s April 2005. I’m driving home along Baker Street in Costa

Mesa at 6:15 p.m. when I have to stop at a red light at Fairview.

While waiting for the light to change, I notice a sign in a strip

mall that read, “Taka Sushi.”

My heart skipped a beat. No way, I thought, could this be the same

guy. When I got home, I told Cay about the sign before I said “hello”

and we decided that we had to go immediately to check it out.

The visit came with a sacrifice. Our daughter, Bean, was supposed

to see a play at the Orange County High School of the Arts where she

is a student. The play included some of her friends, but when she saw

how excited her mom and dad were to visit the restaurant, she

graciously agreed to skip the play.

I was the first one to open the door to the restaurant. I looked

inside, saw the same Taka we knew, turned around to Cay and said,

“It’s him.”

Everyone in Newport Beach or Costa Mesa who likes Japanese food

has their favorite restaurant. For some reason, the food endears

itself to the diner much more than a steak place or a Mexican

restaurant, I believe, because it’s a more personal experience. After

all, while preparing most dishes, the chef puts his fingers all over

the food we are about to eat. Now that’s trust. Plus, it’s the only

style of restaurant I know where diners converse directly with the

chef.

So getting someone to try a new Japanese restaurant is a lot

harder than checking out a new pizza place.

Taka Sushi is not a big place, and that’s part of the charm. There

are 13 seats at the sushi bar and they will start to fill up quickly

once Taka’s former regulars find out that he is now back in the area.

The decor from the Tustin restaurant has been transplanted to

Costa Mesa and during our meal, if I squinted, I could imagine I was

back in Tustin. But the really good news was that I didn’t have to

imagine -- I got the same delicious food but only a few minutes from

my house.

A couple of weeks ago, it was Anteater baseball. Today, the

arrival of Taka Sushi is another reason to be glad we live in Newport

Beach or Costa Mesa.

If you like Japanese food, I know you have a favorite place. But

one of the best treats you can give yourself this year is a meal at

Taka Sushi.

And you may want to get there soon or I’ll be quoting Yogi Berra,

who said of another restaurant, “Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too

crowded.”

Taka Sushi is located at 2969 Fairview Road, about 100 yards south

of Baker Street and directly across the street from the Stater Bros.

supermarket.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and a freelance writer.

Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at

(714) 966-4664 or send story ideas to onthetown2005@aol.com.