By Lorraine and Phil Shapiro

While Asian-influenced California cuisine seems as if it has always been around, it’s become the high-profile item that Mediterranean-inspired cooking was seven years ago and nouvelle cuisine was a decade before that.

For years there was only Nobu Matsuhisa’s namesake restaurant on La Cienega. Branching out, stylish outposts have popped up in London and Tokyo as well as bi-coastally. Known for dishes that go beyond typical tempura and sushi, Matsuhisa enhances the limited Japanese range of flavors with garlic, hot chile, olive oil, even butter. All of this comes with a fancy price tag.

Ubon, Nobu spelled backward, is his casual, less-expensive spin-off in Beverly Center, just a few blocks from the original Matsuhisa. Painted mustard yellow and green tea, Herb Ritt’s giant black and white photo of Nobu with his eyes shut is in prominent display in this bento box of a room. In keeping with the contemporary look, tabletops are light wood with a dark grain, chairs and banquettes are black.

Foodies, shoppers and movie-goers who drop in are welcomed enthusiastically by the staff, sushi-bar style. When it first opened, there was no sushi, but now a limited sushi and sashimi menu have been added to the noodle and donburi selections.

Thin buckwheat soba may be served cold plain or with sesame dipping sauce, or stir-fried with vegetables and chicken or pork accented with ginger. Long, slippery udon noodles in a sizzling nabeyaki comes with chicken or seafood, including shrimp tempura for a one-pot meal. Since tempura becomes soggy in the delicate fish broth, eat it first. Donburi, rice with various toppings in a deep bowl, is a luncheon favorite.

You might start with edamame, those hot boiled soybeans you pop from their shells. Sushi rolls feature crab such as California roll, a soft shell crab roll and a lightly fried soft shell crab spring roll with a creamy ponzu sauce. Field green salad dressed with onion soy vinaigrette comes with some entrees, but field greens enhanced with crab, avocado and tofu and attractively presented makes another light beginning. Miso soup also accompanies entrees, but it’s extra special with clams.

Since Japanese-born Matsuhisa worked in Peru before coming to Los Angeles, some dishes show Peruvian inspiration such as the mixed fish ceviche and anticucho, skewers of beef, salmon or chicken in red and yellow lemon chile sauce.

Miso-glazed broiled Chilean seabass or fresh water eel, has a sweet, salty edge. This deeply-flavored dish is one to share, alternating it with bites of something simple such as nabeyaki.

After a big bowl of noodles, you might hanker for something sweet. Dessert is more French than Japanese such as the L.A.- style bento box of warm chocolate cake/chocolate souffle with white chocolate and shiso sauce, green tea pudding (a delicate flan) or creme brulee.

Appetizers range from $3 to $14, noodle dishes are $6.50 to $16, specials $10 to $21, sushi rolls from $4.70, vegetable tempura (two pieces per order) is $2.50, desserts start at $3.

The restaurant is open noon daily to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until 10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, until 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Ubon
8530 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles
(310) 854-1115

On a street lined with Japanese restaurants and sushi bars, Restaurant 2117 tucked in a mini-mall on Sawtelle Boulevard is a find for fusion flavors. It’s become a neighborhood dining destination since it opened a little over five years ago.

Beyond the plastic-enclosed front patio at 2117, lies a small white room with a few colorful modernistic plates on the wall and a stylized floral arrangement. Cane chairs are comfortable and tables, covered with white linen and paper place mats, are well-spaced for dinner conversation.

Owner-chef Hideo Mitsuno, originally from Tokyo, melds light French cooking with a Japanese approach, so flavors are light and bright, the ingredients carefully chosen and beautifully presented. The prices are moderate for this caliber of cooking.

Moving to L.A. in 1984, Mitsuno first worked in traditional Japanese restaurants, then as Executive Chef at the Malibu Country Club, where he learned more about local likes. Says Mitsuno, "My idea for fusion cuisine came about because in a places like L.A., many cultures live together harmoniously."

Sauces and vinaigrettes bring many of the dishes into focus. Look no further than the appetizer of herb-seared albacore tuna slices framing baby greens with diced avocado and a few wispy threads of fried leek, punched up with curry vinaigrette. Wasabi soy laced with green onion shreds distinguishes blue crab spring rolls, while the richness of roasted Chinese duck egg roll is balanced by a Mandarin orange brandy sauce.

Chilean sea bass presented in a large white bowl topped with baby bok choy floats in a delicate sesame soy broth that adds another flavor dimension. But we found the sliced beef filet in a red wine reduction with blue cheese and muscovy duck breast in port wine sauce don’t work as well as the Asian-style dishes.

Most pastas are decidedly different than the offerings at an Italian restaurant. Spaghettini may be topped with spicy cod roe or sour plum pesto, and clams are teamed with shimeji mushrooms in soy broth.

On the changing wine list, we liked the New Zealand Whitecliff Sauvignon Blanc with first courses and fish ($24). To enjoy red wine by the glass to its fullest, each 5.4-ounce serving is poured into a large glass for swirling and sipping.

Salads start at $3.95, soups are $4.50, duck egg roll is $8.95, shrimp spring roll is $9.95, Chilean sea bass is $l6.95, beef filet and muscovy duck are $17.95, pasta starts at $9.95.

The restaurant is open for lunch from 11:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and dinner 5:45 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, on Saturday for lunch from 12 to 2:30 p.m., dinner 6 to 10 p.m., Sunday dinner is 5:30 to 9 p.m.
Restaurant 2117
2117 Sawtelle Boulevard
West Los Angeles
(310) 477-1617