It’s amazing that I hadn’t tried Sushi Nishi-ya until now, as it is practically walking distance from my former workplace in Glendale. Oh, my coworkers and I talked about heading over to Sushi Nishi-ya all the time. But we hadn’t gotten around to going until now. Better late than never, right?

Sushi Nishi-ya is a prototypical hole-in-the-wall sushi joint. From the outside strip mall (of dubious famous for being the home to the liquor store where McLovin purchases alcohol in Superbad), Sushi Nishi-ya is situated in an unassuming, tired-looking stretch of Glendale. Even when you walk inside, the restaurant is not particularly inviting, with a stale feel and barely any customers on a weekday night. In fact, I’m sure many a customer had been skeptical about Sushi Nishi-ya until they took their first bite of delightfully fresh sushi.

Sushi scale: 4 of 5 stars

Overall, I was impressed with the freshness of every type of fish that I tried. We decided to order sushi a la carte, as we wanted a quick, laidback dinner before going home from work. The a la carte menu was very simple, maybe too simple, with one of the more basic selections of nigiri I have seen at a sushi restaurant. However, I couldn’t complain about the high quality of the fish that was served.

My biggest issue with Sushi Nishi-ya, and also why the restaurant could not receive 5 stars, was that the pacing of the meal was way off. The sushi came out 10 pieces at a time in a whirlwind manner, and we struggled to keep up with how quickly the sushi was served. As you well know, sushi is meant to be eaten as soon as it is served to ensure freshness — sadly, some of the sushi dishes had been lying on the table for a good ten minutes before we were able to eat them. I was actually quite perplexed by how rapidly everything came out. Since there was only one sushi chef, Chef Kenji, I was trying to figure out how he could prepare so much sushi in such a short amount of time. I wasn’t at the sushi bar so I couldn’t see the the sushi-making in action, but I think it’s possible that some of the sushi rice had been pre-prepared. That would be disappointing if it were the case. Fortunately, the fish was still fresh by the time I got around to eating it, but I would have preferred a more typical sushi meal pace, with a couple of pieces coming out at a time.

Below are pictures of my meal:

Yellowtail. Fresh and delightful.

Salmon. The sweet kelp on top added a nice touch to an otherwise standard salmon nigiri piece.

Spanish mackerel. Mackerel is typically prone to fishiness, but luckily I couldn’t taste any unpleasant fishiness here.

Hotate. Refreshing, with a twinge of sweetness.

Red snapper. Probably the most interesting nigiri of the night. That’s saying something.

Albacore. Slightly more ponzu than I would have liked, but tasty nonetheless.

Uni. This uni was served a bit differently than at most sushi restaurants — there was no seaweed at all, just hunks of sweet, melt-in-your-mouth uni over rice.

 Chutoro. Yum. The perfect ending to my sushi meal.

Knowing what I know now, I would say that Sushi Nishi-ya is not really a date night restaurant. The atmosphere is severely lacking, and the service is perfunctory. However, if you simply want a casual, basic sushi meal with fresh fish, then Sushi Nishi-ya is a great choice. You won’t be wowed by its originality, but you will be content with its quality of fish.

Sushi Nishi-ya, 1712 Victory Blvd, Glendale, CA 91201